Has anybody had success with Intermittent Fasting?

uberpsycho

I've recently hit a serious and prolonged plateau and I'm looking to jump start my weight loss again. I was losing about 1 to 2 lbs a week regularly but for the last four weeks the scale has not budged and I think I gained weight in spite of exercising everyday. It's possible that I've undereating during the diet and I'm working on correcting that but I'm going to give intermittent fasts 2 days during the week a try as well.

Since I've been dieting (8 months now) I go 7-8 hours between meals, and I've done 24 hour fasts before so it won't be a huge life change...it might actually be a little fun, it's worth a shot, I've lost 100 plus lbs already so I need to push for that 40 more before Summer hits.

_Lori_Lynn_

It is the ONLY thing that has EVER worked on me for weight loss. I have never lost doing anything else other than intermittent fasting or long term fasting.

People will argue of "how bad" fasting is on this board. You are about to get bogged by it. You'll soon find this out. But most all of them have never tried fasting.

I have had the best results from it. I have tried many different kinds and for different lengths. The one that worked best for me was one or two days every week and then normal eating (but healthy) the rest of the week. I drop 2 or 3 lbs a week doing that on average. Twice I lost 5 lbs doing that. I don't gain it back as long as i am healthy the rest of the week. I only gain it back when I stop fasting and start slowly pigging out more and more until I am back to eating like a sow and have stopped my exercising.

darwinwoodka

From what I'm reading 18 hrs a day is sufficient and eating within a six hour window gives your body enough time to think it is fasting. Or perhaps just pay attention to your body and only eat if you're actually hungry. My trainer does IF and drinks a chia seed mixture during the day. He looks great right now.

jehavin

My health/weight loss thrived on a 16/8 or 14/10 schedule. Super easy if you plan your fast to be from right after dinner (6/7pm) until 10/11am for a big lunch.

Like anything else that is a "change" for your body's metabolism, you will see a big drop in weight within the first week, (water weight,) and side effects such as crankiness, sleeplessness, cravings) but after a week or so, you will see steady weight loss (about .5-1lb a week,) and get used to more food, (I love my 800-900cal meals!) less often.

Check out Leangains and there is a women's board on facebook for that diet, too. (Fierce Fit Fearless)

jehavin

P.S. You can still have liquids (actually, I think the limit is 50 cals or under will not break your fast so I added a dollop of skim milk and sweetener to my coffee,) when you are fasting so that is how I kept myself distracted and satiated before my big lunch. After awhile, though, my body just waited until right before I would break the fast, (it's amazing how our bodies "readjust" to new habits,) to send me hunger cues. I wouldn't be hungry until that time, which was great

ThisGirl2013

Helps for me whether I am fasting from a meal or for a day..
I also try to up my calories off and on - trick my body or just let it know that no worries, I am not starving it!

ndj1979

I do lean gains 18/6 and has helped me lean out.

I usually have fist meal around 12:30-1:00; then work out; then have largest meal post work out about 7:00 and then have last meal of day around 8:30 t0 9am...


the one thing I do not like is that in the evening it feels like I am always cooking/eating...

other than that I like it ...

KBSwinger

Only way I can manage my appetite a lot better. I basically eat after getting home from work. Routine is usually like the below.

M-F: wake up at 6am go to work, come home around 5pm workout with BCAA then eat from 6pm to 10pm.

Weekends arent too much different I may just not fast longer.

Spartan_Maker

Yes: I suspect it's because of the uninterrupted upregulation of hormone sensitive lipase.

SeekingOne54

P.S. You can still have liquids (actually, I think the limit is 50 cals or under will not break your fast so I added a dollop of skim milk and sweetener to my coffee,) when you are fasting so that is how I kept myself distracted and satiated before my big lunch. After awhile, though, my body just waited until right before I would break the fast, (it's amazing how our bodies "readjust" to new habits,) to send me hunger cues. I wouldn't be hungry until that time, which was great

That's exactly what I do!

I.F. rocks

ixa73

Just listened to the news on the radio (Australia) and scientists have completed a study that shows intermittent fasting (2 non-consecutive days a week) reduces your chances of getting chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. This was allowing up to 500 cals (???) on the fasting day, don't know if the radio journo meant 50 cals as 500 is the equivalent to 2 small meals... From what others have posted, I am assuming 50 cals. Could this include green juices without fruit? celery, cucumber, kale, silverbeet??

spamantha57

I'm actually going to give it a try starting tomorrow, & see how I do/ if I can do a couple weeks Tuesdays & Thursdays being my fasting days. Some people on here seem to have some good success with it/ 5:2 & under 500 cals on fasting days. I eat more at night so I'm thinking of fasting through the day until like 6pm. I don't get to sleep til 2am+ anyway.

I already eat pretty well, but I like trying new things & I'm curious to see how my body responds to it.

rlv2680

i am thinking about this as well

jehavin

Just for the record: some of these methods, (i.e. where you limit your calories EXTREMELY for a whole day or two a week,) are not the same as Intermittent Fasting and will produce different results/side-effects than the method that many of the previous posters practice, (those who mentioned 16 or 18 hours of fasting followed by 8 or 6 hours of feeding,). To clarify, OP, the intermittent fasting that involves those numbers/ratios still requires the faster to consume all of his/her daily calories in that time period. (actually, when I IF'ed---8 months pregnant right now so I'm on a break, obviously---I would eat MORE than normal b/c I was also weight training) That would be about 1600-2400 calories in 6-8 hours for the average IF'er.

I think that's important to clarify when we have people talking about eating less than 500 calories a day a couple days a week on a regular basis. I personally WOULD NOT recommend/practice that, although I know that some tenents of that approach are included in the Eat, Stop, Eat method where the practitioner fasts one day a week but makes up the calories during the other days.

CristinaL1983

I've been practicing IF since before I joined MFP (I think around 5 months now but I lose track of time when school is in session). I do a 16-20 hour fast daily and shoot for at least one 24 hour fast per week (dinner to dinner, dinner when I break fast is 600 calories). I have maybe one day a week where I only fast for 14 hours (because inevitably, one morning I wake up ravenous).

Losing weight is all about calories (of course) but I find the health benefits of IF awesome (as reported in research). I have been losing on average 2 lbs/wk. I feel great. IF fits into my lifestyle perfectly (which is probably why I keep doing it ).

_Lori_Lynn_

I'm actually going to give it a try starting tomorrow, & see how I do/ if I can do a couple weeks Tuesdays & Thursdays being my fasting days. Some people on here seem to have some good success with it/ 5:2 & under 500 cals on fasting days. I eat more at night so I'm thinking of fasting through the day until like 6pm. I don't get to sleep til 2am+ anyway.

I already eat pretty well, but I like trying new things & I'm curious to see how my body responds to it.

I'm on it tomorrow too.

nas061

Just listened to the news on the radio (Australia) and scientists have completed a study that shows intermittent fasting (2 non-consecutive days a week) reduces your chances of getting chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. This was allowing up to 500 cals (???) on the fasting day, don't know if the radio journo meant 50 cals as 500 is the equivalent to 2 small meals... From what others have posted, I am assuming 50 cals. Could this include green juices without fruit? celery, cucumber, kale, silverbeet??

With the 5:2 fasting method, on your fasting days you can indeed have 500 kcals (women) or 600 (men).

coke_bottle

Honestly, that's how I do everyday all day!! lol

ikudbne12

I have done it as well and like the idea of throwing my body a 'curve' so to speak to shake up the monotony of my routines. Once i realized it wasn't as hard as i expected (did a few 24s) i started to throw in an 18 hour fast perhaps 1-2x a week. Dinner to dinner. I eat a normal meal after... i do not try to binge in the whole of my cals in that one meal. I will lighten the workout these days though.

SarahxApple

A fasting plan I heard was to allow yourself 500 calories for breakfast then not eat again until the following day, since they on average recommend you have 400 calories for breakfast normally anyway - obviously most people here are on a lower calorie diet anyway but the average person shall we say - I see that working I'm on 1500 a day so that would be 1000 calories gone if I did it. I'm only here to lose a small amount of weight so I've personally never tried it, but I assume that's what they are referring to here:

"Just listened to the news on the radio (Australia) and scientists have completed a study that shows intermittent fasting (2 non-consecutive days a week) reduces your chances of getting chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. This was allowing up to 500 cals (???) on the fasting day, don't know if the radio journo meant 50 cals as 500 is the equivalent to 2 small meals... From what others have posted, I am assuming 50 cals. Could this include green juices without fruit? celery, cucumber, kale, silverbeet?? "

tricksee

I've lost over 30 lbs using 19/5 approach. Total life changer!