Intermittent fasting (IF)?

I do 5:2 fasting (sometimes 4:3 if the mood takes me) and go roughly a 22hr period with no food on the fasts i.e. having dinner around 7-8pm on a feed day and then not eating again until 6-7pm the next day. On the fast days I do 500 calories in the one evening meal.

I'm on my 4th week now, having had 3 weekly weigh-ins and losing 11lbs in total.

Personally I find it easy to do - on the fast days I simply drink lots of herbal teas all day. But it does suit me to have the flexibility of more calories on the feed days to 'spend' how I want and I find it fits my social life better to have days with more calories available rather than a little bit of deprivation on every single day...if that makes sense.

It's horses for courses I guess. It doesn't suit everyone, but it suits me.

I do 20/4

How is it fasting if you eat 500 calories? Isn't the idea of fasting to not eat? Doesn't this really only work because you're limiting calories just doing it by eating one day and not the next instead of taking an average and eating that every day?

The state of 'fasting' occurs 10-12 hours after your previous meal, when the body has used up glucose in the blood, starts using up glycogen stored in the liver and then turns to breaking down stored body fat. There's a reason 'breakfast' is so named - it is literally breaking a fast for most people. In my case on my fast days I'm going without food for 22-24hrs.

Anyway, the following piece reproduced from the New Scientist gives a synopsis of IF:
http://timesenterprise.com/news/x2056572230/Hunger-games-The-new-science-of-fasting

BTW - the main reason for fasting is NOT to lose weight, it's for the other benefits that human and animal trials are showing up. Losing weight is a nice side benefit.

Hi MsPudding: Interesting schedule you have worked out. I plan to experiment with different durations, too. Also good to hear that you're drinking herbal tea. I don't know that I could do water exclusively for four+ days straight, so I supplement it with black coffee and the occasional diet soda. Tea is a good idea, and I'll try it.

I find drinking tons of water on fast days simply makes me hungry. If you're not eating it's not a good idea to put cold liquid into you IMO...it just makes you feel emptier. I start off my fast mornings with a big glass of hot water poured over a slice of lemon and a slice of root ginger. From there on in I have a ton of different teas from Twinnings and Tea Pigs to mix things up. My current favourite is Tea Pigs Rooibos Creme Caramel which is quite like a mocha coffee.

I may be emerging as an extremist regarding food...I’d rather be deprived on fast days and almost completely free to eat whatever I want and plenty of it on non-fast days. One other thing I've done is omit alcohol almost completely from my diet, aside from occasional social drinks. My wife wanted to stop drinking entirely, and I did this initially to support her. It also avoids a lot of empty calories, and I haven’t found it hard to avoid booze. I’m not nearly as addicted to it as I am to eating too much of the wrong things!

I'm totally an 'all or nothing' type of person. I've done very calorie restricted diets before eating nothing but lean meats and buckets of salad all day long and frankly I get as grumpy as hell, manage to keep it up for a month and then give it all up....generally by doing a spectacular dive into a plate of pork belly or ripe brie. I don't like feeling deprived...but oddly I find it bloody easy to just not eat at all for a long period.

The other thing I'd say is that spending 500 calories works best (in my experience) if it's spent on soup! You get lots of bang for your buck with a good soup and it's very filling. I do a huge pot of homemade chicken and veg soup for instance (tons of veggies in it - carrot, turnip, swede, onion, celery, green beans) and can have 2 big bowls and a slice of home-made bread and butter for the 500.

I'd definitely do some research into the various types of fasting - there are so many and it's not a case of one size fits all by any stretch.

IF is great...once you get use to it, it helps you understand when your body really needs food....instead of eating all day and not understanding the true feeling of hunger..look up the fasting twins on youtube....they could be annoying but they swear by it

thats' not intermittent fasting.

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


http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

thats' not intermittent fasting.

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


http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

Are you addressing me?

I just started ADF/IF.... I am doing 500cals Mon/Weds/Fri and between 1200-1800 the rest of the days, and eating between 8am-4pm daily, so eating 8hrs and fasting 16hrs every 24hrs.... This was day 1, should have been an up day but I just learned about this yesterday lol so started with a down day... Tomorrow will be up, Sat down, Sun up and then start with what will be my regular rotation Monday I'm pretty excited!

Captain Apoll: Most of what I've come across indicates that some who do IF extend their fasts to one or two days, or, more often, have sophisticated weekly ratios of fasting to eating (creating "eating windows").

Your posts are rather coy/cryptic. Is your point that fasting for longer periods is somehow not IF? If so, would you explain yourself clearly rather than relying on links to such sites as "Nerdfitness"…that material is inconclusive and cartoonish.

If a fast lasts for, say, two or three days, and one repeats this fasting pattern after eating, are you claiming that this is somehow not intermittent? Eager to hear your explanation. --Tom

No.

And there are two O's in Apollo.

I sometimes dont eat for up to 24hour periods due to swapping from night to day shifts over a day off.
What are the up/down sides of this as I do it by accident mainly

Apparently there are lots of benefits. I know its good for your organs (esp digestive) because it gives them a break. Also from what I have read it can lower cholesterol and improve heart health.

Lol. Thanks for the laughs.

Our pleasure, Appalling!

this is what i wrote in another thread about the 5:2 diet. in my opinion, fasting like that is not healthy on a regular basis.

i think you should do more research on how to get started with a diet like this. i feel that a lot of people do it as an excuse to binge eat a few days a week, and then they starve themselves to counter it.

people that do it successfully ease into it. i think you should take a look at intermittent fasting first.

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

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

intermittent fasting does not mean to not eat for 24 hours straight, or for two days straight. it is not an excuse to go over your daily calories because the next day you starve yourself.

simply put, intermittent fasting is skipping breakfast.

at night you eat a large dinner. the next morning you wake up and you go about your day. the first time you eat should be about sixteen hours after you ate dinner. you have your lunch to break the fast. you eat all your daily calories in the next eight hours.

you start off slow by first just putting off breakfast once a week, then twice. little by little you get used to not eating so early. (coffee and water are allowed).

I find that my energy level is still high, and that i can work out in the morning very comfortably. I also like intermittent fasting because i can have larger meals, which i enjoy as opposed to small single servings.