fasting??

I don't get the point. Why bother?

I agree, why bother? I think all it does it reinforce the diet mentality of stuffing and starving and using food or the lack of it as a punishment. Is it something you can sustain long term? Are you going to 'reward' yourself with a 'cheat day' so you can punish yourself with fasting?
Why not just eat properly? Have some treats now and then, or try calorie cycling, over a week?
Each to their own but I think its a miserable way to live, and not sustainable.

I must be alone here (and hypoglycemic), but there is no way I could fast. I would pass out I think. Sometimes I literally can not make it to lunch from breakfast without a small snack. It seems like a lot of people (women, especially) are in my shoes that I know IRL, wouldn't this be a concern for many? I can't see it being a good thing for anyone's blood sugar. If you kept up with fasting, sure you'd probably lose weight from the lack of calories consumed (if you didn't overdo it on the times where you did let yourself eat), but isn't the main goal to be healthy while losing weight? I took a webinar on nutrition with the awesome Dr. Odiatu, and he said the one way to guarantee you'll GAIN weight in a year from now is to diet. I don't 100% agree with that but I get his point. Eat healthy, changed habits, but don't crash diet. Fasting would not be something that would be sustainable for years and years, I don't think.

I agree, why bother? I think all it does it reinforce the diet mentality of stuffing and starving and using food or the lack of it as a punishment. Is it something you can sustain long term? Are you going to 'reward' yourself with a 'cheat day' so you can punish yourself with fasting?
Why not just eat properly? Have some treats now and then, or try calorie cycling, over a week?
Each to their own but I think its a miserable way to live, and not sustainable.

I think that if you look at fasting as punishment, then it's probably not a good idea. A lot of people do it (intermittent fasting) and are not remotely miserable doing it, and can easily sustain it long-term, so it works for them. There are a lot of benefits to it, though granted, it's not for everyone.

Ok - well if you're talking about short-term fasting then you WILL get people (as evidenced in this thread) opining that:

* It encourages 'binging' on non-fasting days
* It's not sustainable
* It's not healthy
* ....and why not just 'eat properly'?

Well that's one perspective, HOWEVER it's not a perspective backed up by science - it's just personal perspectives, normally driven by an in-built prejudice that's born of a modern Western society where what we see as 'normal' is eating 3 meals a day, often with snacks in-between. Yes, that's normal for our society but it's certainly not normal for our species. What's normal for our species is pretty much what's normal for all mammals - we've evolved to cope with periods of high food availability and low food availability. If modern society ended tomorrow, we would not have food on tap.

Anyway; what are scientific studies of various fasting techniques showing? Well on humans so far they're showing that fasting can decrease insulin sensitivity and improve glucose tolerance; both are diabetes risk factors. Good HDL cholesterol levels have increased in the human studies. The studies have shown that fasting has made no different on RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) but has increased fat oxidization. As research on fasting is relatively new there's been more studies on animals than humans - the animals studies are showing that fasting appears to decrease the risk of chronic disease such as CVD, cancer and diabetes because it lowers levels of the hormone IGF-1.

There is a review of human and animals trials of alternate day fast below - scroll down to Conclusions for the potted findings:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/86/1/7.full.pdf+html

Some more reader-friendly stuff:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19112549 - 'The Power of Intermittent Fasting'



So - I do 5:2 fasting myself and as I'm actually doing it, after having read everything I could find on fasting, let me state what my experience is....as based on actually doing rather than just giving my opinion based on 'feelings' about it:

1. You do not 'binge' or 'stuff yourself' on non-fasting days. On non-fasting days you eat your maintenance level of calories. In clinical trials where people were allowed to eat as much as they wanted to with NO restrictions, the results were that - at most- people consumed 110% of their needs for that day. So studies have shown that this worry about people binging and stuffing themselves is not what happens.

2. You do eat 'normally'. You are not cutting out any food groups, you are simply restricting calories on two days a week to 500 for a woman and 600 for a man.

3. You are not 'starving yourself'. That's one piece of nonsense that seems to rear up on these boards again and again when people who obviously haven't either read round the subject, nor looked up the definition of 'starving', decide to opinine on fasting. In fact, when I add up my weekly calories and divide by 7 days, it transpires that I am operating on a deficit of 3,500 calories a week (or 1lb weight loss a week) so far from 'starving'...I'm eating a damn sight more than some people on these boards who are eating to 1,200.

4. Yes, it is easily sustainable because for what I'm doing, it doesn't matter which 2 days a week I restrict to 500 calories - I can swap and change around to fit my lifestyle and unlike people who are going low calorie every single day, I don't have a 'social life malfunction' and start stressing about what I can eat or drink the moment someone invites me to a party because for me, 5 days of the week I'm eating just like regular people.

I'd also like to add that fasting is NOT primarily for weight-loss - that just happens to be a nice side effect. The main reason for doing so is that seems to be mounting evidence that intermittent fasting lowers the risk of chronic illnesses.


So there you go. It's not something that suits everyone; it just happens to suit me. There is nothing 'unsafe' or 'unhealthy' about it - that is absolute bunkum and proven to be so. It's not a 'fad diet'; it's something that mimics our ancestral dietry habits.

Before I ask my question about fasting im going to give my story.

I am not in the habit of counting 'calories' rather ive identified the foods that are causing me to be so overweight (I am currently 357 lbs so by overweight i mean the weight of 2 normal people). The foods ive found I should avoid are bread, rice, chips (fries for you americans) and pasta. Now before anyone mentions it ive not 'cut out carbs' I have merely replaced the carbs I get from these things to carbs from baked/mashed/boiled potato which gives plenty carbs and I find makes me feel less hungry anyway. After 17 days of this im no longer suffering from cravings though the food diary often tells me im below 1200 calories despite eating plenty and not being hungry. Calorie counting alone is I think a very shallow way of looking at healthy eating since previously I know for a fact i was eating 3000 or more calories a day and getting far less nutrients since most of those calories were from bread which brings very little else to the party.

Having read similar research journal articles to those MsPudding cited I was thinking about incorporating a day of fasting (no food, plenty water) either once every week or every 2 weeks and think I have the will to keep this up, once I start exercising I will make sure im not doing so on a fasting day. Any constructive feedback or guidance on this is welcomed.

If you're currently consistently getting less than 1200 calories, adding a complete day of no food to that, without compensating for that day's calories... you're going to run into trouble. Healthy eating in terms of eating nutritious foods is important, but healthy eating also means giving your body enough energy. Not eating enough means, apart from anything else, that you risk losing more lean mass than is necessary as you lose weight. Being 357 lbs, you will be able to "get away with" a larger calorie deficit for the time being, because you have larger fat stores. Long-term though, it's not a great idea, and not likely very sustainable. Weight-loss isn't a race; fast isn't necessarily best even if you do have the "will".

If it was me, I would look at increasing the amount of calories you're eating on a daily basis, get closer to the goal MFP has set for you, and then look into incorporating a day of fasting if you want to, but making sure you eat enough on other days that again, you're not creating a massive deficit.

Fasting is stupid and you'll just ruin your metabolism. You will lose weight even faster if you have a healthy calorie goal and excercise a lot

There is a lot of science that says intermittent fasting is healthy for you. Intermittent fasting is way different from an uncontrolled and random fasting schedule.

I get nauseas and weak from just 10 hours of not eating. I can't image 24 hours or longer.

5:2 fasting is not particularly harmful, but it seems like a silly way to go about getting your calories. Either way, you are still averaging out at your daily goal. I would rather eat that daily than risk feeling sick by purposefully avoiding food twice a week.

i never fell sick when i fast

I think that there are lots of benefits to fasting, not just calorie deficit but also healing properties.

i never fell sick when i fast

I think that there are lots of benefits to fasting, not just calorie deficit but also healing properties.

That seems to be the case for many fasters. It's just not something I think I would be able to do with any success. There is also the possibly unhealthy habit of learning to avoid hunger pangs (while you may not feel hungry, your body most certainly requires daily fuel, and lots of it) for the sake of losing weight.

Attempting to reteach yourself how to eat means learning how to balance it out daily, as it's generally not expected that one will 5:2 for the rest of your life.

I could certainly see myself 5:2ing for the rest of my life. Calorie counting is similar is it not? You are expected t watch your calories every day? People on here are often around to 'maintain' because its something that i feel can get obsessive. Its just not for me. With my lifestyle, calorie counting may work if i was to eat ready meals or packaged products 90% of the time but nearly every meal i eat is prepared completely from scratch. It is too painstaking to input all that data into a machine every day.

No fasting feels good for me, i have definitely got an emotional eating disorder where i eat and eat and dont know when i am full, sometimes i have even eaten until being unable to eat, waited 10 minutes and carried on eating, i have an emotional attachment to food and 5:2 seems to be helping me see what hunger really is as well as freeing me from being a slave to it.

Fasting is stupid and you'll just ruin your metabolism.

I fast every week for religious reasons and no, it's not stupid

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.

Being 357 lbs, you will be able to "get away with" a larger calorie deficit for the time being, because you have larger fat stores. Long-term though, it's not a great idea, and not likely very sustainable.

Once my dissertation is handed in ill have more time to exercise and when I start that I figure i'll get hungry and eat a bit more since my body will require more. The issue is that i'm changing what I eat and cutting out the things that cause me problems (bread, chips, rice, pasta) im not sure where i'll get these extra calories to make up to this magic number of 1200.

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.

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?

Would be cool if you read the thread you're replying on and the reasons that myself and others have already given which answer this question sufficiently.

In my opinion, there's only a few occasions that I can think of when fasting is worth it:

- religious occasions
- preparing for a blood test at the doctor's office
- preparing to go in for a planned surgery