fasting??

FeebRyan

You want to fast? Go ahead. Want to drink meal replacement shakes? Have at it. Want to juice? Juice it. Want to take pills? Take them. Want to do some fad diet or do the raspberry ketone thing, or whatever it is? Just do it. But if weight loss is what you are after, it's as simple as eating at a deficit. Really. If it takes one of these things to get you to a deficit, great! I just try to eat a little smarter than yesterday and move a little more, but I'm new, what do I know.

you can't possibly be new if you already know to truth :-)

eat less than you burn = weight loss. Doesn't really matter how you get it done.

Not one person on this thread has said anything different to that though.

Perhaps I should have just said I concur. I was simply agreeing in what I intended to be a friendly manner.

Yes but you're concurring with a post that puts regular fasting in a group with popping pills and drinking diet shakes.

I think its pretty obvious from the science behind it and the knowledge of the people doing it that it is NOT a faddy diet or akin to popping diet pills.

Sure. I understand that, Ive been eating lean gains style for a good 18 months now. But I don't think that simply fasting is the reason for my weightloss. I think even you would agree that weightloss just requires a change in energy balance and it doesn't really make a difference in how you do that.
Also, why so defensive? Im not bashing fasting at all, but I also am choosing not to be judgmental about a person that feels the need to take other supplements in order to help them achieve their goal. If It works for a person, great, if it doesn't then find something that does.

I suppose I wasn't defensive over your comments per say, but certainly over the 'oh i'm such a beginner and even i know this' comment which came across as if us 'fasters' didn't know what we are talking about which i really dont think is the case. x

crisanderson27

There is no shortage of people who say it's bad and just as many who say it's good. There are also probably as many ways to do it as there are people who have opinions on it, so finding one answer is not going to happen!

I suggest you check out some of the more popular fasting protocols; Leangains, 5:2, Warrior Diet, etc. and come to your own conclusions. Read read read, look at peer reviewed medical studies, check out some info on youtube and just soak up as much info as you can.

At the end of the day it's going to be an individual choice and something you'll have to decide to try or to skip. Good luck!



*And on a personal note, I did the 6 small meals a day thing for YEARS and am now doing Intermittent Fasting and prefer it to the former. Will I do it for the rest of my life? I don't know... I'll take it a day at a time. What I do know is that my sleep, mood, hunger, meal satisfaction, social life, energy and skin have all improved doing Leangains. I used to think fasting was silly but the more I read on it the more interested I became. I have had zero issues adjusting from day one, and this feels very natural for me. I don't believe that would be the case for everyone but I do believe an open mind and some experimentation might be good for some people.

Excellent post. And now I shall go read the rest of the absolute silliness that's bound to follow...lol.

crisanderson27

And this silliness did indeed follow.

To those of you that can't seem to comprehend IF...it isn't about 'starving' (in fact, most people that IF naturally consume higher calories than those that just calorie count), nor is it just about losing weight.

Many people feel ravenous all day when they eat a morning meal. I am one. This makes it difficult at best to stay within your daily calories.

Many people find that if they snack all day, they end up over calories rather often.

Many people find that they will have snacked all day, and then get invited to a dinner or some other function, and their calories are blown...or they have to feel deprived for not enjoying themselves.

Many people find that eating six small meals a day (or four and snacks), is incredibly unsatisfying. To me...THIS is masochism. With IF, I can eat higher calorie, more enjoyable foods of an evening with my family. I can go out to lunch with my coworkers or boss (my window usually starts around 11am, and goes until roughly 7pm...this fluctuates daily...with an hour to three hour slide, meaning some days I might break my fast at 1-2pm, and have a bowl of cereal or ice cream at 9-10pm if I want it). If I'm unexpectedly invited to a social function (how many of these happen at 10am?), guess what? I've got roughly 3000-3500cal to enjoy that function with.

Many people find that IF is 100% sustainable in their daily life. I've been practicing it for years now. Happily.

And last (for now), modern 1st world society hasn't a clue what real hunger is. What you feel in the morning when you haven't had breakfast, isn't hunger. It's habit. YOU STILL HAVE FOOD IN YOUR STOMACH DIGESTING FROM DINNER. How the hell is your body going to tell you it needs more when what it already has hasn't been utilized yet?? Ignore that sensation for an hour or so...see what happens. Drink some water...see what happens. Play a board game, get busy at work, do something productive...see what happens.

Yep...it goes away. If you were truly hungry...it would NOT go away.

So...lets stop with the 'starving yourself', 'eat when you're hungry', 'IF isn't sustainable', and 'IF leads to under eating and binging' misinformation. Shall we?

RhineDHP

I just noticed something. Aren't some people on this thread splitting hairs? You're ok with fasting if its for religious reasons, but not if its just a personal choice?

Just noting an observation.

oliviabog

Thanks everyone for your insights! This has turned into a very interesting discussion. It's given me a lot to think about. I wonder if the 5:2 would work well with running 7 km every other day and walking about 30 km a week. Maybe it's not necessary with that level of exercise. My goal is just to be fit and healthy.

Thanks again, you guys are awesome and smart

JossFit

The Leangains approach to intermittent fasting helped me break through a rather lengthy, unyielding plateau, and has helped me rather significantly improve my body composition.

I, too, was a six meals-a-day practitioner for years. And it worked well for a time. But eventually, progress stalled. Last June, after considerable research, I decided to give intermittent fasting a test to see if it would get things moving again. Since following the protocol, I have seen the following changes:

Body fat (as measured by BIA and Jackson Pollock four site skin fold): Dropped from 14.9% to 10.8%
Lean body mass: Increased from 162.2 pounds to 167.4 pounds
Waist: Fell from 35.5 to 33.

While these may not seem earth shattering, they are significant for a 59 year-old who has been weight training consistently for the last 10 years. The muscle gain has been particularly surprising.

What's more, I find IF to be much easier to manage. Planning and tracking six feeds a day is cumbersome. Restricting my eating to a daily eight hour window is much easier for me.

I don't have uncontrollable cravings that lead me to overeat. In fact, I find IF really helps me manage my caloric intake. Indeed, it's not unusual to find myself having to eat some higher calorie foods to hit my goals. And I really enjoy the fact that if I want to eat big in the evening, I usually have plenty of caloric overhead to do so without blowing out my daily calorie ceiling. I have also discovered that eating breakfast now actually intensifies my hunger during the day rather than diminishing it.

I should also note that I'm not perfectly dogmatic about following the protocols. Occasionally, I eat breakfast if I wake up hungry. And I at times eat too many carbs and too little protein, but in no case do I obsess about it. I can see the steady progress and so long as I'm progressing, I won't worry about perfect adherence.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the results of IF. I find it a very easy, sustainable, and effective approach to weight management.

This post reflects my experience since I started the Leangains protocol last April. I've never felt stronger nor recovered faster. Even nagging injuries (left shoulder, lower back) have been completely eliminated. Yet I still eat the same amount of calories I consumed before IF, just within an 8 hour window.

Ditto to both, and a very nice post by crisanderson2 and some others.

prattiger65

Just to be clear. I was speaking specifically to weight loss. My personal opinion is that fasting is on the same level as fad diets and pills. I have seen lots of anecdotal evidence presented but I don't buy it. I am sure there are studies that will laud the benefits of the various methods of fasting. There are studies that laud the benefits of green coffee beans and raspberry ketones too. I don't buy them either. With all that said, if that's what it takes to get someone to a deficit so they become less fat, then I am all for it. As far as other benefits of fasting, I'll leave that argument to others. Again, I am speaking strictly to weight loss.

FeebRyan

Just to be clear. I was speaking specifically to weight loss. My personal opinion is that fasting is on the same level as fad diets and pills. I have seen lots of anecdotal evidence presented but I don't buy it. I am sure there are studies that will laud the benefits of the various methods of fasting. There are studies that laud the benefits of green coffee beans and raspberry ketones too. I don't buy them either. With all that said, if that's what it takes to get someone to a deficit so they become less fat, then I am all for it. As far as other benefits of fasting, I'll leave that argument to others. Again, I am speaking strictly to weight loss.

you can't 'speak' to weight loss, because weight loss is not a person.

Faddy diets all have one thing in common, they are unhealthy, fasting is not unhealthy therefore it cannot be put in the same league as it. People who fast are under no illusion that the reason they lose weight, while fasting, is because of a calorie deficit created in the body, it is simply created in a way that also stops you getting a variety of age related diseases.

You can talk solely about weight loss all you want (I assume that is what you mean, rather than speaking to something that doesn't exist as an entity) but that is not what fasting is or ever has been about. So your comments are pretty much moot.

prattiger65

Just to be clear. I was speaking specifically to weight loss. My personal opinion is that fasting is on the same level as fad diets and pills. I have seen lots of anecdotal evidence presented but I don't buy it. I am sure there are studies that will laud the benefits of the various methods of fasting. There are studies that laud the benefits of green coffee beans and raspberry ketones too. I don't buy them either. With all that said, if that's what it takes to get someone to a deficit so they become less fat, then I am all for it. As far as other benefits of fasting, I'll leave that argument to others. Again, I am speaking strictly to weight loss.

you can't 'speak' to weight loss, because weight loss is not a person.

Faddy diets all have one thing in common, they are unhealthy, fasting is not unhealthy therefore it cannot be put in the same league as it. People who fast are under no illusion that the reason they lose weight, while fasting, is because of a calorie deficit created in the body, it is simply created in a way that also stops you getting a variety of age related diseases.

You can talk solely about weight loss all you want (I assume that is what you mean, rather than speaking to something that doesn't exist as an entity) but that is not what fasting is or ever has been about. So your comments are pretty much moot.

You can tell someone has a weak argument when they resort to this. If your goal is weight loss, and fasting gets you to a deficit, awesome. I heard fasting cures acne and bad manners too.

jenay90497

I think it depends on the fast you're doing. At the beginning of the year, my church did a Daniel Fast for 21 days where it was vegan, no sugar or added sweeteners, no artificial ingredients, no caffeine, no yeast. It was a hard 3 weeks, but I felt totally awesome just eating whole foods and only drinking water. Lost 8 pounds in those 3 weeks that I didn't put back on.

I learned about food in those 3 weeks, especially about added sugars. Everything seems to have added sugar in it. I think just fasting from this alone would bring good results.

LavenderBouquet

I fast if I'm just not hungry for an extended period or if I happen to be on the go I don't worry if I skip a meal and also when I know I'm going to be having a particularly large meal later in the day. I don't typically do it as a planned event, it just kind of works out that way sometimes. I also almost always still meet my caloric/nutritional intakes for those days. I don't think it's particularly harmful as long as you don't do it for extended lengths of time and are still meeting your body's nutritional needs. People have been doing it for various reasons stretching far into our past. If you're doing it purely to lose weight, I'm not sure you'll find any benefit there.

molina76853

I agree, fasting is not stupid but biblical.

FeebRyan

Just to be clear. I was speaking specifically to weight loss. My personal opinion is that fasting is on the same level as fad diets and pills. I have seen lots of anecdotal evidence presented but I don't buy it. I am sure there are studies that will laud the benefits of the various methods of fasting. There are studies that laud the benefits of green coffee beans and raspberry ketones too. I don't buy them either. With all that said, if that's what it takes to get someone to a deficit so they become less fat, then I am all for it. As far as other benefits of fasting, I'll leave that argument to others. Again, I am speaking strictly to weight loss.

you can't 'speak' to weight loss, because weight loss is not a person.

Faddy diets all have one thing in common, they are unhealthy, fasting is not unhealthy therefore it cannot be put in the same league as it. People who fast are under no illusion that the reason they lose weight, while fasting, is because of a calorie deficit created in the body, it is simply created in a way that also stops you getting a variety of age related diseases.

You can talk solely about weight loss all you want (I assume that is what you mean, rather than speaking to something that doesn't exist as an entity) but that is not what fasting is or ever has been about. So your comments are pretty much moot.

You can tell someone has a weak argument when they resort to this. If your goal is weight loss, and fasting gets you to a deficit, awesome. I heard fasting cures acne and bad manners too.

Its nothing to do with bad manners, its a basic grasp of the English language.

I think its a pretty weak argument when you are unable to acknowledge the entire issue, instead picking one bit of it and suggesting thats the only thing you are willing to take into account. Regardless of whether you agree with it or not, that is the very definition of a weak argument.

FeebRyan

I think it depends on the fast you're doing. At the beginning of the year, my church did a Daniel Fast for 21 days where it was vegan, no sugar or added sweeteners, no artificial ingredients, no caffeine, no yeast. It was a hard 3 weeks, but I felt totally awesome just eating whole foods and only drinking water. Lost 8 pounds in those 3 weeks that I didn't put back on.

I learned about food in those 3 weeks, especially about added sugars. Everything seems to have added sugar in it. I think just fasting from this alone would bring good results.

This is a good point. Fasting teaches you about yourself, your relationship with food and (as you've mentioned) which would probably explain why so many religions advocate fasts.

kusterer

If anyone still wants to talk about this, I think I should mention my son. Twelve years ago at age 30, like every other male in his family, he started to grow a lower "waist" and a bigger, lower "chest." So he started eating only one meal a day, lunch out with his buddies at work, and he has been a thin person ever since. Twelve years ago, the one meal a day thing was weird! Now, there is a lot of science saying he has probably been right and his fat relatives wrong.

frazzlecg

I fail to understand the point of fasting when you can lose all the weight you want by eating properly at a caloric deficit and exercising frequently. Why starve yourself unnecessarily?

Because being able to be at a healthy body weight, AND regulary eat 1500+ calories in single meals makes this whole life style much easier and more sustainable for me. Also, I never feel starved ?


:noway: So you fast so you can enjoy a 1500 calorie meal? Lmao. I don't understand fasting when is not a religious reason, even after the explanations. Despite you saying you're not starving, if you don't eat the whole day that's called starving. What do you do when someone is eating a favorite craving of yours? I get it, you've got willpower.

I like calorie counting. It encourages mindful eating and i've learned more about food. I've been preparing my own meals more than ever upon realizing how much fat and calories are snuck into your food. Cheese cake factory is a grand example. A bunch of masochists we have here...

Thats great, its great that you have found something that works for you, humans are different people, they have different things that work for them, I would never say that the thing that works for you is 'wrong' because it isn't, it works for you.

It doesnt work for me though, i often put 7 different vegetables into a meal along with a homemade reduced sauce, beans, pulses, seeds and nuts. To input it all into a caculator is a ball ache, for me. I enjoy fasting, i enjoy being able to refrain from eating food when there is a huge part of my emotional self that only wants to eat food. Its healthy for me and its incredibly therapeutic. I dont fast to punish myself, quite the opposite, i eat to punish myself, to keep myself in a permanent state of un-comfort. I have done it since i was a child.

Fasting is, for me a very clear way to take absolute responsibility for the person that i am and the food that i eat and the control it has over me. I am not scared of being hungry anymore, because of fasting. I am losing weight but i was anyway, it is the emotional benefits that help me.

That sounds horrible, it really, really does. You use eating to punish yourself?? And you've done so since childhood? And you no longer fear being hungry? You're digging a deeper hole here, it screams eating disorder and deeper psychological issues.

Yes I get it. I do what works for me, you do what works for you. Though its a public forum and I'm gladly expressing my freedom of speech. And I conclude fasting sounds utterly ridiculous.

leighann881

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/08/intermittent-fasting/

leighann881

If anyone still wants to talk about this, I think I should mention my son. Twelve years ago at age 30, like every other male in his family, he started to grow a lower "waist" and a bigger, lower "chest." So he started eating only one meal a day, lunch out with his buddies at work, and he has been a thin person ever since. Twelve years ago, the one meal a day thing was weird! Now, there is a lot of science saying he has probably been right and his fat relatives wrong.

This is how I lose weight the fastest and easiest. Except I would eat a bagel for breakfast and then whatever I wanted for lunch and not eat the rest of the day. I still took in all my calories but I did it all before 2p. I think I might try it again but with healthier food choices.

FeebRyan

I fail to understand the point of fasting when you can lose all the weight you want by eating properly at a caloric deficit and exercising frequently. Why starve yourself unnecessarily?

Because being able to be at a healthy body weight, AND regulary eat 1500+ calories in single meals makes this whole life style much easier and more sustainable for me. Also, I never feel starved ?


:noway: So you fast so you can enjoy a 1500 calorie meal? Lmao. I don't understand fasting when is not a religious reason, even after the explanations. Despite you saying you're not starving, if you don't eat the whole day that's called starving. What do you do when someone is eating a favorite craving of yours? I get it, you've got willpower.

I like calorie counting. It encourages mindful eating and i've learned more about food. I've been preparing my own meals more than ever upon realizing how much fat and calories are snuck into your food. Cheese cake factory is a grand example. A bunch of masochists we have here...

Thats great, its great that you have found something that works for you, humans are different people, they have different things that work for them, I would never say that the thing that works for you is 'wrong' because it isn't, it works for you.

It doesnt work for me though, i often put 7 different vegetables into a meal along with a homemade reduced sauce, beans, pulses, seeds and nuts. To input it all into a caculator is a ball ache, for me. I enjoy fasting, i enjoy being able to refrain from eating food when there is a huge part of my emotional self that only wants to eat food. Its healthy for me and its incredibly therapeutic. I dont fast to punish myself, quite the opposite, i eat to punish myself, to keep myself in a permanent state of un-comfort. I have done it since i was a child.

Fasting is, for me a very clear way to take absolute responsibility for the person that i am and the food that i eat and the control it has over me. I am not scared of being hungry anymore, because of fasting. I am losing weight but i was anyway, it is the emotional benefits that help me.

That sounds horrible, it really, really does. You use eating to punish yourself?? And you've done so since childhood? And you no longer fear being hungry? You're digging a deeper hole here, it screams eating disorder and deeper psychological issues.

Yes I get it. I do what works for me, you do what works for you. Though its a public forum and I'm gladly expressing my freedom of speech. And I conclude fasting sounds utterly ridiculous.

I definitely use eating to punish myself, its part of my eating disorder, any obese person, if being honest with themselves would probably say the same.

As I said, its great that you find something that works for you, I have no need to call it or you 'ridiculous' because everyone is different and there is no part of me that wishes to force you to do it my way, if you are unable to see why people fast, given the reasons offered then really that is your blindness, not an inability to share on part of the fasters.

Yes it is horrible that i have used eating to punish myself, its also horrible that from a young age i believed with all my heart i was a worthless, unlovable piece of crap. Life is about working with what we've been given and moving on from it. For me, that includes weekly fasts. It is a shame you are unable to open your mind up a tiny bit and see why it is beneficial to a person like me (despite not perhaps, being beneficial to a person like you)

chrisdavey

Plenty of info here.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/599982-intermittent-fasting-faq