Intermittent Fasting
barrpc
Posts: 96 Member
Anyone ever heard of intemittent fasting? I received an email on this yesterday. It sounds like it may work, but it also sounds like I would be miserably hungry all day. The idea is to not eat until basically 4 hours after you wake up, then 4 hours after that. Both these meals are protein shakes. Then a lite dinner of a lean protein and a slow digesting carb like sweet potato. This was sounding an aweful lot like the Slim Fast diet of old. I did that back in the day...i think it lasted about 5 days then I had to eat some real solid foods.
What was funny to me was the guy was saying diets dont work because you feel hungry are crappy or unsatisfied, and then he presented this idea. Doing something similar in the past that I KNOW did not work for me, because I felt crappy and hungry all day, I thought it was kind of funny.
What was funny to me was the guy was saying diets dont work because you feel hungry are crappy or unsatisfied, and then he presented this idea. Doing something similar in the past that I KNOW did not work for me, because I felt crappy and hungry all day, I thought it was kind of funny.
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There are a lot of different kinds of intermittent fasting (IF). I'm currently attempting a 16:8 (fast for 16 hours (in my case 8pm to noon the next day) and then eat your calories in an 8-hour window (so noon to 8 pm)). I have a lot of friends who do different kinds of IF. Skipping meals is a form of IF too. As long as you're getting all of your calories, it doesn't matter WHEN you're getting them.
Here's a good resource on IF: http://www.leangains.com/0 -
I've done it off and on for the past 3 years. It helps me keep my hunger in check, I am naturally a very hungry person. I can out do most guys at the buffet, lol, not something to be proud of mind you, because now I have to refuse buffets and try to control my gluttony.
The first 3 days were the worst, once I got through that feeling of skipping meals until later in the day and it became a new habit, it got really easy, almost too easy... If IF does anything for you, it'll teach you how to learn your true "hunger cues" which is something I found really helpful. It also helped me with digestive upsets, sometimes I just need to give my digestive system a small break, it's nice to not always feel "full" and have food bloat. This is especially helpful close to training, as I love feeling lighter digestively, any bulk in my stomach is blargh.
Sometimes I'll extend my fasts to 20 hours, most times I eat around 14 hours. I've found I'm generally not a morning eater, I naturally get hungry around 1 PM. I do most of my training fasted or with only a small amount of almond milk, BCAA'S or low cal whey (depending on the day, but anything under 11 miles I do fasted, hasn't hampered anything as of yet).
One thing to note, being a female, I cannot fast past 12 hours the 7-10 days prior to my period, I really have to pay attention to keeping steady energy levels through this time, as fasting increases hormonal anxiety and hunger for me. If you do try it and you feel at all anxious, enraged, irritable, etc during your fast, take that as a cue to just eat, no way of eating should make you feel like you're suffering or like you've became a monster.... LOL. At the end of a day/week, deficits are what matter, not when you ate.
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that sounds more like a crash diet than IF... the leangains website that PrimalRunner posted is a great resource as well as Brad Pilon's website: http://bradpilon.com0
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Thanks for the input. I think i will save this fir when i want to punish myself and the people around me...JK. But seriously, i am pretty hapoy with my results right now, so no need to change. I just findcsome of the stuff out there interesting.0
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has anybody done this while doing endurance running training?
I would like to give the 5:2 a try but I really don't want to compromise my training..0 -
I'm doing 16:8 and training for a marathon. I run in the morning (around 4 am) and prefer to be fasted anyway.0
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is that 5 days and then 2 days fasting? I would think that as long as you time your fast days to your shorter run days you would be alright. Give it a try and see how you feel.0
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yeah the 5:2 is the five days off and 2 days fasting.
Have to psych myself up to give this a try!0 -
Primalrunner's mentioning of the 16:8 is something that I have tried previously to add some variety as I was finding that I wasn't getting hungry at all. This was a good change of pace and as she mentions, I did eat all the calories during the 8 the only difference is setting that 8 hour time to eat and work around the rest. Lots of water no the off time. I have not done this training for a marathon. I also run early in the morning and only start with a coffee with unsalted butter in it. Love the way it triggers my body to burn more stored fat. Good luck. Now training for a marathon, the night before my long runs, I will typically snack on a bagel with peanut butter and do the same in the morning after the coffee.0
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. Never heard of this...I also run early in the morning and only start with a coffee with unsalted butter in it. Love the way it triggers my body to burn more stored fat.0
