alternate day fasting

stefjc

I tried lunch only and then split it into 2 meals, one at noon the other at 6pm. This works well for me as I then don't go to bed feeling hungry - and I sleep.

It took a while of playing with timings of eating to find my best. I have found that if I have a couple of pieces of fruit at noonish I don't feel hungry and can then eat my JUDDD 20% (345kcals) for tea very comfortably - though not every time You might find an even better kcal spread with a bit of playing round with meal times too!

I also found a new flavour of redbush tea, chai, all cinammony and lightly spicy. It is a great bedtime drink, and mfp rated at 0kcals!

My weigh in day is Tuesday but I am down about 1.5lbs weighed at the end of an Up Day! So hopefully this week is going to be a goodyun!

HappyHag

I'm following the ESE plan because that's what works best for me. After one week (two fast days from dinner one night to dinner the next), I've lost three pounds. I had been charting my calorie intake with my KiFit and found that over the entire week, my caloric intake averaged out to 1422 calories per day.

I made MOSTLY healthy choices when I was eating, but I won't lie and not say I didn't have that KFC Krush'em or a personal size pizza from Domino's, because i did! I also did some moderate exercise (walking, short Zumba DVD) but nothing outrageous.

The biggest benefit (other than those three glorious pounds gone) is that I actually feel full when eating now which hasn't happened in years. I've actually left food on my plate a few times this week which is absolutely unheard of for me!

katysmelly

I've noticed that I sort of eat less than I thought I might on my "feast" days. I won't deny that I eat crap (lot of Oreos and Reese's cups, today) but I am actually at a calorie deficit for the day. I went on a long hike, today, and climbed a mountain. When I got back to my car, I figured I might as well eat the lunch I'd packed. But, I wasn't really all that hungry. Tonight, I made myself have a serving of the lasagna my husband made for dinner, because I know I won't be eating much, tomorrow.

It's a good idea to experiment with spreading my calories around. I think I'll try splitting it up a bit. I am OK until noon - no need to have a breakfast for me. Perhaps I'll wait a bit longer to have my lunch, and maybe I'll save 100 calories or so to have some fruit before bed.

wfearn

There are lots of people talking about eating protein, etc, etc.

The fasting was to reduce the protein and hence the IGF-1 allowing for repair of cells and not generating new cells.

Would it be wrong to suggest that you can stop with the protein during your fast? Unless of course it is part of a complete food i.e. a baked potato.

Seems to be lots of Chinese whispers changing the actual ideas and evidence portrayed through the program.

wfearn

oh and before people worry about macro nutrients and carbs; i just did a 2 week food experiment whereby i ate just rice or potato for 2 weeks solid.


I LOST 1 STONE so stick that in your low carb high protein bubble. And dont worry about muscle loss my mother doesnt she just wants to shift her excess from anywhere!!

wfearn

Its about mimicking how our ancestors ate.

I am sure they couldn't go to tesco and fill up once a week so sometimes food was scare. In fact are we supposed to eat everyday? Perhaps our hormone responses to fasting would lend evidence to suggest that we eat heavy once a week and then light for the rest?

Dont be so dogmatic in light of evidence to the contrary.

3laine75

I watched the programme on iplayer after reading this thread last week and it was really interesting, didn't think I could manage a two or three day fast though, so I did a bit of googlin and thought I try the leangains one. Didn't like it - I put on 2 pounds - I'm not slating it, its just not for me.

Finally trying the one on the programme this week (2on/5off version). This is my second day (I'm using rest days) surviving on just coffee, miso and lemon water (ok, chocolate digestive last night but still under 500 cals) and I feel none the worse for it. Guess I will see tomorrow morning if I go to the gym and can't lift a thing .

If this thread's still around next week, I'll post if I've lost anything for anyone that's interested. Won't be able to tell what my Insulin like growth hormone thingys will be like tho

3laine75

I watched the programme on iplayer after reading this thread last week and it was really interesting, didn't think I could manage a two or three day fast though, so I did a bit of googlin and thought I try the leangains one. Didn't like it - I put on 2 pounds - I'm not slating it, its just not for me.

Finally trying the one on the programme this week (2on/5off version). This is my second day (I'm using rest days) surviving on just coffee, miso and lemon water (ok, chocolate digestive last night but still under 500 cals) and I feel none the worse for it. Guess I will see tomorrow morning if I go to the gym and can't lift a thing .

If this thread's still around next week, I'll post if I've lost anything for anyone that's interested. Won't be able to tell what my Insulin like growth hormone thingys will be like tho

shelbyfrootcake

I lost 2lb last week on the 2:5 method. I'm going 3:5 this week (Mon, Wed and Fri). Today's fast is proving tougher than either of last week's but that's just because I ache like hell after going bouldering yesterday.

red_road

Hey everybody

A couple weeks ago i saw a program on BBC called Eat,fast, and live longer, the very next day i started trying one of the diets featured on the show ( intermittent fasting, every other day eat no more than 500 calories and in between eat whatever i want).
I was just wondering if anyone else is doing this and what their results have been? So far I am happy with my results from this form of eating. The first week was really hard, i would basically just binge on my "feast" days but now my eating is alot more controlled and i am no longer starving on my "fast" days.

wfearn

Hey everybody

A couple weeks ago i saw a program on BBC called Eat,fast, and live longer, the very next day i started trying one of the diets featured on the show ( intermittent fasting, every other day eat no more than 500 calories and in between eat whatever i want).
I was just wondering if anyone else is doing this and what their results have been? So far I am happy with my results from this form of eating. The first week was really hard, i would basically just binge on my "feast" days but now my eating is alot more controlled and i am no longer starving on my "fast" days.

You haven't read any of the other posts????

bikescribe

Hi, just saying hello as a new observer of this thread. I've never dieted and I'm not especially overweight, but I was very interested in alternate day fasting for the other health benefits, such as much reduced risk of heart disease, cancer and particularly diabetes as my father died of this. Without blood testing for levels of sugar, cholesterol and so on it's hard to judge how well it's working, but as someone with a science background myself I found the Horizon programme thoroughly convincing, and I've been on ADF for two weeks now. I'm especially curious about other peoples' experiences, but I've found it surprisingly easy, though my coffee intake's up a lot on the fast days! I'm phasing in green tea to replace some of it so I don't overdose on caffeine...

My body didn't like it much at first, my stomach used to feel uncomfortable after the first post-fast meal but now I'm feeling very few negative effects aside from some inevitable hunger pangs. The odd thing is, they don't really get any worse, they just come and go. I'm sure I've lost weight though I've not weighed myself, but I'll dig out some scales and check that to see if it's significant. A little less will do me good I'm sure...

Personally I think I'd find the 2/5 version more difficult, missing out for two consecutive days sounds like it could be tough, but I'll maybe try that later on.

Anyway, I hope people keep posting their experiences over a longer period, and include other perceived health benefits as well as weight loss.

beattie1

Hi, just saying hello as a new observer of this thread. I've never dieted and I'm not especially overweight, but I was very interested in alternate day fasting for the other health benefits, such as much reduced risk of heart disease, cancer and particularly diabetes as my father died of this. Without blood testing for levels of sugar, cholesterol and so on it's hard to judge how well it's working, but as someone with a science background myself I found the Horizon programme thoroughly convincing, and I've been on ADF for two weeks now. I'm especially curious about other peoples' experiences, but I've found it surprisingly easy, though my coffee intake's up a lot on the fast days! I'm phasing in green tea to replace some of it so I don't overdose on caffeine...

My body didn't like it much at first, my stomach used to feel uncomfortable after the first post-fast meal but now I'm feeling very few negative effects aside from some inevitable hunger pangs. The odd thing is, they don't really get any worse, they just come and go. I'm sure I've lost weight though I've not weighed myself, but I'll dig out some scales and check that to see if it's significant. A little less will do me good I'm sure...

Personally I think I'd find the 2/5 version more difficult, missing out for two consecutive days sounds like it could be tough, but I'll maybe try that later on.

Anyway, I hope people keep posting their experiences over a longer period, and include other perceived health benefits as well as weight loss.

You're not supposed to fast for 2 consecutive days, you're supposed to refeed between fasts on the 5:2 diet. I don't think I could do ADF diet as I seem to take 2 days recovery to get my eating and appetite back to normal after a day on 500 calories.

kel7298

Here are the two groups here on MFP

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/322-juddd

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/6760-alternate-day-diet

I originally used this WOE to get my weight loss started. I loved it as I always knew if I was craving something, I could eat it tomorrow. When tomorrow came, I usually didn't want it anymore.

Graelwyn75

Unfortunately, although this interests me, I think I would find the stomach pain and nausea from eating that little too much to bear these days. Even eating down at 1200 leaves me with stomach pain from the hunger and nausea, so I cannot see a way I could follow this plan successfully.

beattie1

Unfortunately, although this interests me, I think I would find the stomach pain and nausea from eating that little too much to bear these days. Even eating down at 1200 leaves me with stomach pain from the hunger and nausea, so I cannot see a way I could follow this plan successfully.

Never mind, it's not for everyone. If you're experiencing nausea and stomach pain when you eat 1200 calories per day you should eat more than that. Maybe you do, normally? Not everyone who starts on MFP realises that you are supposed to eat more calories if you exercise to keep the calorie deficit for the day at the level set by the website. (Often called "Eating Back Calories")

Before I started the 5:2 diet, if I found if I was hungry I'd go for a walk or take some other exercise & earn more calories to use for food. On the 5:2 diet I'm less strict about keeping calories low on non-fast days, so often eat a bit more then - 1500 or so seems to suit me OK. It's the overall calorie consumption during the week that counts. As long as that's less than you burn you'll lose weight.

bikescribe

You're not supposed to fast for 2 consecutive days, you're supposed to refeed between fasts on the 5:2 diet. I don't think I could do ADF diet as I seem to take 2 days recovery to get my eating and appetite back to normal after a day on 500 calories.

Ah okay, I thought it was 2 consecutive days with nothing at all. But if I remember right (and ADF is even supposed to improve memory according to Horizon!) the 5:2 schedule was a compromise that's supposed to be easier than true alternate day fasting, and therefore not quite as effective. I guess it wouldn't be as you're missing only two days in a week rather than three and a half, so any weight loss would happen more slowly. But I wonder if the other effects are diluted too, or if the body's switch to cell repair is sufficient in two days to do the same damage repair as it could in three? It would be good to know if the number of days you miss is proportional to the benefit, or if there are minimums and maximums you can do after which the effects don't change much. I don't think the research had advanced that far yet, but I'm sure it's something they'll be working on.

stefjc

The research shows that the other health gains are not significantly diluted by the 2:5 regime.

You are right, there isn't much ou there. But all of the human studies show that early indicators are very similar.

I am looking at the most up to date studies in humans - I am a college lecturer and have access to lots of them - and there are a couple of small studies that have compared a variety of indicators in a range of IF diets and found them to have little significant difference.

We have quite a wait before the first longitudinal study in humans is published, though their early stats are good

fastforlife1

I did 1 week of adf and lost 3#s, but I found it too difficult with my physically active schedule. So I am back to eat stop eat (5/2) - although this last week, I only managed to fast 1 day. I might just try moderate calorie for awhile and only skip meals when I run out of calories for the day. As long as the scales keep going down, I'm happy.

MoreBean13

Bump for info on the studies.