INTERMITTENT FASTING...any success stories out there??

purple_k
purple_k Posts: 16
in Food and Nutrition
I'm still making my mind up as to whether IF worth a shot - if any of you are currently intermittent fasting or past IFers could share your success/unsuccesful experiences with IFing that would be great.

Things like if you'd simply been restricting calorie intake and losing small amounts, then switching to IF and suddenly noticing quicker results (or not!) cause I've read alot of people talk about the benefits in terms of being able to eat big meals at dinner time with your 'saved calories' but not much about the actual results people have had with this.

I'm pretty clueless about IF at present and want to find out as much as I can about it before seeing if it's worth trying! Thanks

Replies

  • budgetqueen79
    budgetqueen79 Posts: 310 Member
    I'm returning back to it when I was younger I had severe digestive problems where I was always bloated and never was "empty" so my dr told me about this. It worked wonders and now I'm back doing it my acid reflux is relieved and things are moving along smoothly along with my appetite being cut. I tweak mine where I do 16 hours 2x's a week and one 24 hour session
  • sophiathedss
    sophiathedss Posts: 97 Member
    I do it...for 24 - 36 hours maybe once or twice a month. Water only..no juice. It helped me out of a stall/plateau and when I had some intestinal issues. I tried a 3 day fast but it didn't affect weight loss positively or negatively. Just my experience. I will try it once a week next time and see how that goes.

    I read about it....tried it and I am happy that I did.

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  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
    Lost 1% body fat a week starting at 12%. Have had a dozen friends family see similar results (0.5-1% bf/week seems typical) on LeanGains. Haven't found anything that compares that isn't obscenely hard (e. g. UD2.0).
  • ThinUpGirl
    ThinUpGirl Posts: 397
    Bump for later, I'm curious to know as well.
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
    I just finished my first week of leangains. Hard as it is to slow progress further, I'm eating at tdee on training days (3x per week) and tdee minus 500 on cardio/rest days. So far I like the style a lot, I feel fuller and eat better. I'm totally willing to put together 2-3 healthy meals a day, but for some reason when I do more meals I fall back on prepackahed stuff for grazing. No real results yet, but I'm Hoping I just need a week or two to get acclimated. I find it curious that another poster said it cleans her out, I find myself backed up all morning and cant go until afternoon or evening, which isn't my preference
  • rsmithy89
    rsmithy89 Posts: 174 Member
    I lost 80 pounds doing IF. Strength was not reduced much and I didnt notice much loss in muscle mass.

    The way I did it was two large meals twice a day. Breakfast and dinner. I found that it kept hunger at bay because instead of eating 6 tiny meals a day I ate two meals that didnt even make me think I was on a diet.

    I recommend doing it. Its fantastic.
  • rawhidenadz
    rawhidenadz Posts: 254 Member
    Did it for a year and lost 60 pounds. I didn't notice a faster rate of loss or anything like that. In the end the main thing is going to be that calorie deficit. IF is just a tool that helps some people achieve that deficit. It's not for everyone. I started doing it because I've never been a breakfast person, I rarely if ever get hungry during the day, and I prefer to eat most of my calories at night so IF is perfect for me because it allows me to do that and still lose weight. Hope that helps a little :)
  • AntWrig
    AntWrig Posts: 2,273 Member
    It didn't work for me.

    The key to any diet is diet adherence. That means that person should feel comfortable being on a set plan. The whole "selling point" with IF is that it suppose to free you from waiting for the next meal etc. In my case, it was the exact opposite. I was so concerned with getting in my 16 hours, that is all I thought about.

    One day i got up and said, I will eat when ever I want to. Do I eat multiple a day? I sure do. However, I may eat every 3,4 or even 5 hours a part. I just depends on my day. Oh, and I am at my one of my leanest points EVER.

    Does it work? Sure does. Will it work for everyone?? Nope.
  • solarpower03
    solarpower03 Posts: 12,161 Member
    My experience has been like Fitness social. I had better results with carb cycling and traditional 6 times meal. I have been eating like IF in the past but never ate clean. So my body was conditioned to IF, possibly.
  • nsimportant
    nsimportant Posts: 170 Member
    Here are some stories.
    http://rippedbody.jp/english/results-english/
  • SMDangel
    SMDangel Posts: 2 Member
    Did you try it, I just started about 3 weeks ago. Doing only 16 to 22 hour fasts on Monday and Friday, it's easier than I thought and the first 2 weeks I had great success, last weekend was a big overeating thing and I slipped, backward so that whole it's not a magic bullet thing people talk about is probably true. I will say that the first 2 weeks the most impressive part was the body fat loss it was close to 1/2 a percent of my BF percentage according to my scales which is as of today 35.8%. I plan on being a good girl eating wise this weekend and see where it gets me.
  • Keiras_Mom
    Keiras_Mom Posts: 844 Member
    I do alternate day fasting (JUDDD) and have lost over 80 pounds in 9 1/2 months. I love it!
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
    I may try fasting on the one day a week I don't workout. My system needs a change.
  • paijing
    paijing Posts: 184 Member
    I first tried the Eat Stop Eat method (24hr fasts 2x/week) and found it difficult to follow. I switched to Leangains and found it much easier. The most helpful part of Leangains was that I stopped eating after 8pm, which meant cutting out late-night snacks for me. Even though I'd get hungry at night, in the morning I would feel fine. I broke my fast at noon each day.

    Now that I'm counting calories, I don't adhere to the 16/8 fasting split as closely. I typically eat food in an 8 hour window, but it's more important to me to stay within my allotted calories for the day, regardless of when I'm eating them.

    The most helpful thing that IF taught me was that it's totally fine to feel hungry. The hunger will pass, and you don't need snacks non-stop. If you do a 24 hr fast, you'll probably start to get cranky around hour 18, but some caffeine will help with that.

    Here's a blog on one girl's IF experience: http://19hours-freedom.blogspot.com/
  • RickMckc
    RickMckc Posts: 38
    My experience is similar to Pajing's ... I've done the Leangains version several times now (16hrs fast / 8hrs eat, typically in a window from noon to 8pm or 1pm to 9pm). I don't find that I lose more than at other times (other than a quick drop the first couple of days), but I do I feel MUCH more in control of my eating and it is very easy to hit or be under my calorie goal for the day. That's the real benefit for me. I've been surprised at how easy it is, too. I feel a bit of hunger at about 14 hours, but it's easy to say "just two more hours."

    On the negative side, however, I've also noticed that if I stay on the 16/8 for more than a couple of weeks, my body (or mind) rebels and I just want to eat everything in sight! Going foward, I think I will use it only for a week or so when I need to regain control.

    Like maybe next week. :)
  • Anaconda62
    Anaconda62 Posts: 181
    I've been doing 18/6 for about 2 weeks. I eat two big meals, one between 12:30-1:30 and the other between 6:30 and 7:30. I have gotten over a small plateau but I don't know if it's because of IF. What I like is that I just have those 6 hours to think about food, I eat enough to satisfy me instead of having all these stupid little meals the whole, dang day, and I don't feel nearly as hungry as I thought I would. Depending on what I eat, I might have a small snack around 5:00-5:15 before I go to the gym after work.
  • Melasonde
    Melasonde Posts: 4
    I've been following a 20/4 fasting/eating window. During my fasting time I drink water, green tea, or hot tea (all with no additives so all drinks are 0 calories). By doing this for about 4 months I've lost 20 pounds and have seen improvements in my mood, skin, and hair. I love it. I will definitely be doing this for the rest of my life.
  • shonabuchanan9
    shonabuchanan9 Posts: 2
    Just started week past monday, and well pleased with results so far! I have 70 llb to loose so hope to get there after a long time of being overweight , I find it easy as I dont eat till evening meal anyway and feel as though im not loosing out as I can eat and drink anything on other days :)
  • hazelovesfood
    hazelovesfood Posts: 454 Member
    I was doing it every day for about 2 months last year, and although i didnt really drop much weight with it, i looked slimmer round my middle, But im back to eating breakfast now though and just doing it once a week, today as it happens. I stopped eating last night at 8pm, and didnt eat again till 11,45 today. I could have went longer but chose not too.
    I did a 22 hour fast a few months ago as well, and was fine till the last hour, where i started to feel dizzy so had to eat something.
  • HealthyWarrior
    HealthyWarrior Posts: 394 Member
    I've never tried intermittent fasting but I'm curious. Is there a site to read up on this on how to try it out?
  • HealthyWarrior
    HealthyWarrior Posts: 394 Member
    So do you choose a two days during a week to fast then eat normal the other 5 days? Sorry I'm just trying to see what this is all about. Like say I chose Monday and Friday to fast. I would eat my last meal around 5-530pm on a Sunday then fast till Monday and eat my first meal at around 6pm then eat normal till Thursday night where I would have my last meal around 5-530pm and then fast until 6pm on Friday and continue like that? During the fast I'm assuming you are allowed water? How about coffee or tea? During the two fasting days I assume you use those two days as a rest day from exercise as well.

    Sorry for all the questions. :flowerforyou:
  • Keiras_Mom
    Keiras_Mom Posts: 844 Member
    So do you choose a two days during a week to fast then eat normal the other 5 days? Sorry I'm just trying to see what this is all about. Like say I chose Monday and Friday to fast. I would eat my last meal around 5-530pm on a Sunday then fast till Monday and eat my first meal at around 6pm then eat normal till Thursday night where I would have my last meal around 5-530pm and then fast until 6pm on Friday and continue like that? During the fast I'm assuming you are allowed water? How about coffee or tea? During the two fasting days I assume you use those two days as a rest day from exercise as well.

    Sorry for all the questions. :flowerforyou:

    This looks like you're interested in 5:2. There are many IF plans out there. 5:2 is just two fasting days per week. The fasting day would be 500 calories for a female, or 600 calories for a male (I do more like 250 on my fasting days, and some fast completely) but that's however you want to split it up for the entire day from waking until going to bed. You would eat normally (not bingeing) on your non-fasting days.

    Among some other IF plans, if you're interested and want to google, are ESE, LeanGains, JUDDD (my personal favorite, and how I lost over 100 of my pounds!), 5:2, and others.

    Good luck!

    ETA: If you go with 5:2, there are no restrictions as to which days you choose, but they are not to be consecutive days. I'm doing Tuesdays and Fridays in maintenance.
  • HealthyWarrior
    HealthyWarrior Posts: 394 Member
    So do you choose a two days during a week to fast then eat normal the other 5 days? Sorry I'm just trying to see what this is all about. Like say I chose Monday and Friday to fast. I would eat my last meal around 5-530pm on a Sunday then fast till Monday and eat my first meal at around 6pm then eat normal till Thursday night where I would have my last meal around 5-530pm and then fast until 6pm on Friday and continue like that? During the fast I'm assuming you are allowed water? How about coffee or tea? During the two fasting days I assume you use those two days as a rest day from exercise as well.

    Sorry for all the questions. :flowerforyou:

    This looks like you're interested in 5:2. There are many IF plans out there. 5:2 is just two fasting days per week. The fasting day would be 500 calories for a female, or 600 calories for a male (I do more like 250 on my fasting days, and some fast completely) but that's however you want to split it up for the entire day from waking until going to bed. You would eat normally (not bingeing) on your non-fasting days.

    Among some other IF plans, if you're interested and want to google, are ESE, LeanGains, JUDDD (my personal favorite, and how I lost over 100 of my pounds!), 5:2, and others.

    Good luck!

    ETA: If you go with 5:2, there are no restrictions as to which days you choose, but they are not to be consecutive days. I'm doing Tuesdays and Fridays in maintenance.

    Thank you so much for the reply. oh so on the fasting days you can still have 500 calories? I'm definitely going to do some googling and reading more up on it later this afternoon. Thanks again!
  • Keiras_Mom
    Keiras_Mom Posts: 844 Member
    Yes, some people fast completely, while some do just liquids, but 500 calories or less is perfectly acceptable. Enjoy!
  • shadowsaround
    shadowsaround Posts: 76
    bump
  • justjenny
    justjenny Posts: 529 Member
    Bumping for more info...
  • solarpower03
    solarpower03 Posts: 12,161 Member
    helps to reduce the calorie intake but didn't have anything significant benefit in cutting fat or building muscles.
  • momzeeee
    momzeeee Posts: 475 Member
    I lost 40lbs doing alternate day IF and now I'm maintaining with the 8/16 IF window. For me, IF works great :)

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