Intermittent Fasting? - Sorry if this isn't new

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Some like it and seem to find it useful. I lost plenty of weight w/o starving myself. Different strokes for different folks.

Some like it and seem to find it useful. I lost plenty of weight w/o starving myself. Different strokes for different folks.

Most people who practice IF are likely eating more than people using MFP's defaults, just sayin.

Okay... So, I'm not really sure what intermittent fasting is all about. Could someone please explain it to me? Or, at least, direct to somewhere where I can learn about it. If you do it, would you recommend it for others? What have your own results been? Do you ever feel weak/tired doing it? How long do you fast for?

Sorry... I'm sure these questions have been asked a million times. But I'm having troubles finding resources to turn to.

Thanks so much for your help!

Please start with www.leangains.com and look up 16/8 intermittent fasting.

It's not for everyone but it's certainly not starvation.

Someone who practices a 16/8 IF will typically skip breakfast, eat something around lunch time/afternoon, and eat a buttload of food before bed. The first few days can be tricky but eventually you'll get some adaptation with hunger signaling (ghrelin) and it will become very easy to get through the fasted portion.

Anyways, it's not magic, it's just a different meal frequency/timing that has you generally eating larger meals but less snacking/etc.

^^^^^ this - study up on leangains if you are interested in following IF.

Personally I eat "breakfast" at 11am - lunch around 3pm and dinner after my training at7pm - and then "fast" 16 hrs till " breakfast"

Wow. So that's what it's called. I hate breakfast. Trying to lose weight I begrudgingly eat breakfast, but it sucks. Back in high school, I wouldn't eat at all until after school, and I lost around 40 pounds around that time. But everybody thought my eating was unhealthy, and even now, I force myself to eat something when I'm not really hungry and it kind of makes me nauseous and then 20 minutes later I'm ravenous.

I'm definitely going to look in to this intermittent fasting thing.

Even if you don't look into it, if you really feel that way about breakfast I would stop eating it immediately. See how you feel.

NOTE: I am not suggesting you eat less food. I am suggesting you skip breakfast, and eat those calories later in the day or at night. Keep your totals the same, just move that breakfast meal to evening or afternoon or wherever the heck you WANT to eat it, rather than eating a meal you truly don't want to eat.

Personally I eat "breakfast" at 11am - lunch around 3pm and dinner after my training at7pm - and then "fast" 16 hrs till " breakfast"

This is how I do it too, sometimes if throw in a few 24 hour fasts depending on how I'm feeling

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html <<<< that's the link to the guide to Leangains protocol for intermittent fasting. I find that it suits my lifestyle the best.

The first month on MFP I dropped 1% body fat in 4 weeks (went from 29% to 28%) with body fat to lean mass loss ratio 6:1.
Last month i started following leangains and after 4 weeks I dropped 2% of body fat and retained all my lean body mass, even gained a little bit (70g) which I'm really stoked about. It's hard for me to lose body fat (I'm already in the lower part of the healthy BMI range).

I love IF, I do 16.8 and 5:2. I find I eat much more nutritiously as you plan and eat healthy larger meals rather than snacks. I have dropped a fair bit of bf% eating the same cals as before. I find it easier to not eat at some times then eat more at others, rather than having the whole day like a buffet. I am at my goal weight but I still do IF, I just eat maintenance cals. There is no starving, you get used to it and I feel little hunger until right before I eat.

There may be a bit of confusion here as there is another approach to dieting which is sometimes lumped in with IF. This is Alternate Day Fasting. There are variations such as the Johnson Up Day Down Day Diet (http://www.johnsonupdaydowndaydiet.com/html/how-to-do-the-diet.html) where you eat very low calories on one day (down day) followed by a feed day (up day) where you eat considerably more. Believe it or not, this pattern of eating is good for your metabolism if it suits you.

I do the 5:2 diet where you eat 500 calories if you are a woman (600 if you are a man) on 2 separated days (not consecutive) and eat enough healthy food not to feel hungry on the other 5. It's an easier version of the JUDDDD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfna7nV7WaM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9480451/The-52-diet-can-it-help-you-lose-weight-and-live-longer.html

I think that's where the reference above to "Starving yourself" comes from. If you look at the week's calorie intake it probably averages out the same, but it's split up differently, a bit like calorie cycling or zigzagging.