Question for fasters...

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beca74
beca74 Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,
I have been playing a bit with the idea of intermittent fasting but have a question. On the fasting days on the 5:2 diet, when I enter my calories (500 or less on a fasting day) myfitnesspal tells me how I will have trouble with weight loss with so few calories and will go into starvation mode. All the research I have done regarding fasting says this is absolutely not the case. So I'm confused. Can you lose weight easily staying under your target calories or is starvation mode a real concern.
Thanks for any help!

Replies

  • AbsoluteNG
    AbsoluteNG Posts: 1,079 Member
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    It's fine. MFP is ran by a software developer. They don't have a single medical professionals on staff. The warning is more of a liability issue.
  • beca74
    beca74 Posts: 14 Member
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    Cool. Thanks.
    So, next stupid question - is there any problem with being a LOT under your calorie goal on a regular basis? Or is that just a good way to lose weight faster?
  • TrishaTripps
    TrishaTripps Posts: 17 Member
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    I have been doing a ton of research on intermittent fasting for the past month, and have been following a 16/8 IF for over two Weeks now. This is what i've found out so far:
    IF for longer periods of time works great for men, while IF of shorter times works better for women. So men can lose crazy weight doing a once or twice weekly 24 hour fast or even a daily 19 hour fast, but for women it doesn't seem to work the same way. they actually suggest women do a 14 hour fast with a 10 hour eating window anywhere from 2-7 days per week for results. I happen to be able to, and like doing 16/8 daily. Us women and our stupid female bits ;)
    Anyway... Once the fasting becomes a habit it is really easy. I eat my last meal at 8pm... Then I get up and work out in the fasting state and break my fast around noon. Sometimes I do 7 to 11 depending on the day.
    Be careful eating too few calories... It can really mess you up later :(
    The best advice I ever got was this:
    Take the weight you want to be, then use a bmr calculator on the internet and put in all your info except use that weight instead of your own. Whatever the bmr is, eat that amount daily and don't go under it.
    I'm 5'9" 33 years old and I want to weigh 135, so I put all that info in and the bmr was right under 1600. So I eat about 1600 cals per day till I get there.
    If you have questions on IF lemme know! So far I really like it and it's totally doable!
  • ritchiedrama
    ritchiedrama Posts: 1,304 Member
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    I wrote a lot about fastiing in this thread, will be useful to you...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1062086-intermittent-fasting-how-to

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