Intermittent Fasting + MFP?

If what you're doing is working, there's not a lot of point in mixing it up.

Also, it's exactly the same to the app. You track the food you eat.

The longer you fast, the more benefit there can be. Ultimately, it's all about the deficit of calories. For most people IF helps them schedule their eating in less meals with more calories.

Hey, Andre.

I have been an Intermittent Fasting user for over a year now, maybe.

I wrote an article at my Facebook page, i'll paste it here..

Note: IF does not make you lose fat any faster, but it DOES have other benefits.


"Hey guys, I thought i'd get onto doing a little few paragraphs about something that was staple in my fat loss, some of you may have heard of it! You may find this extremely useful for you, whether it be now or in the future.

Intermittent Fasting. I discovered Intermittent Fasting a long while ago, actually but I never really read into it too much as it seemed too complicated.. how wrong was I.. It is one of the most simple methods I've ever introduced into my life, and created so many benefits for me and removed so many negatives. For the most part credit goes to Martin Berkhan at leangains.com - all information about Intermittent Fasting is there, he is the go-to guy for this stuff.

For so long I was obsessed with the idea that I had to eat 5-6 meals per day, at certain times to boost my metabolism, and as you may have seen earlier the picture I uploaded.. that is not true, It is so far from the truth that it angers me when I still see people following that protocol as if it is the 'only' way. Of course it works, there is no doubt about that (when I say it works, I mean in terms of fat loss, providing you're eating the correct quantity of food). Along side the eating 5-6 meals a day, people are obsesssed with the fact you NEED breakfast, or obsessed that if you don't eat your body goes into starvation mode, THIS IS NOT TRUE.

After following the 5-6 meals a day way of life, I noticed I was constantly hungry, I was kinda depressed too because all I was doing was preparing the same boring meals, because along with the 5-6 meals a day, comes the "clean" eating crowd for the most part. Now, despite what you've been told clean eating for 'fat loss' is a myth, you can lose fat eating any food on the planet, whether it be Oreo's, McDonalds, KFC or the healthiest salad with no dresssing and just plain chicken.

Now, I'm not saying Intermittent Fasting is the answer, or that you have to do it by any means, but its an option, and it cured a lot of things for me.

Firstly, Intermittent Fasting is where you pick an eating window of around 8 hours.

Within this 8 hours you eat all the food you are supposed to consume in that day... here is an example of an eating window

First Meal ~ 1:00 pm
Second Meal ~ 9:00 pm

So you eat nothing upon waking, until 1pm in the afternoon, you then eat your next meal at 9pm and don't eat again until the next day, at 1pm. This is just a sample set up, there is many other ways to achieve 'Intermittent Fasting' to suit your needs.

There has been lots of research done with Intermittent Fasting, there has been some noteable evidence scientifically such as..

It has shown to prevent high blood pressure.
It has been shown to prevent cancer.
It has been shown to increase life span.
It has been shown to keep you more alert throughough the day and make you feel less lethargic.
It has shown that it decreases the amount your body has to work, to digest food because you are eating less.

There are some things I know for sure;

It removes my hunger pangs, where as eating 5-6 meals I was ALWAYS hungry.

It helped me with MY weight loss, others have reported this too but there is no actual scientific hard evidence to support that.

It helps me sleep in the evening, especially if I eat before I go to sleep.

It keeps me OUT of the kitchen and gives me much more time to do things I actually want to do.

There is plenty of other benefits which you can find from personal experiences, I've never really heard anyone speak down about Intermittent Fasting other than the "old school" bodybuilders who refuse to believe anything else can work, than what they do. But just remember there is always more than one way to skin a cat.

I suggest if this topic interests you, head over to Martin Berkhans site, Leangains (web address earlier in this post). He is the guru of this stuff, and whilst he is very strong with his opinions, there is endless information there and his information changed my life. There is also links to endless studies which show the hard evidence for some of the things I linked above.

If you managed to get this far, and you have any questions.. ask away and I'll do my best to answer them!"

Hey, Andre.

I have been an Intermittent Fasting user for over a year now, maybe.

I wrote an article at my Facebook page, i'll paste it here..

Note: IF does not make you lose fat any faster, but it DOES have other benefits.


"Hey guys, I thought i'd get onto doing a little few paragraphs about something that was staple in my fat loss, some of you may have heard of it! You may find this extremely useful for you, whether it be now or in the future.

Intermittent Fasting. I discovered Intermittent Fasting a long while ago, actually but I never really read into it too much as it seemed too complicated.. how wrong was I.. It is one of the most simple methods I've ever introduced into my life, and created so many benefits for me and removed so many negatives. For the most part credit goes to Martin Berkhan at leangains.com - all information about Intermittent Fasting is there, he is the go-to guy for this stuff.

For so long I was obsessed with the idea that I had to eat 5-6 meals per day, at certain times to boost my metabolism, and as you may have seen earlier the picture I uploaded.. that is not true, It is so far from the truth that it angers me when I still see people following that protocol as if it is the 'only' way. Of course it works, there is no doubt about that (when I say it works, I mean in terms of fat loss, providing you're eating the correct quantity of food). Along side the eating 5-6 meals a day, people are obsesssed with the fact you NEED breakfast, or obsessed that if you don't eat your body goes into starvation mode, THIS IS NOT TRUE.

After following the 5-6 meals a day way of life, I noticed I was constantly hungry, I was kinda depressed too because all I was doing was preparing the same boring meals, because along with the 5-6 meals a day, comes the "clean" eating crowd for the most part. Now, despite what you've been told clean eating for 'fat loss' is a myth, you can lose fat eating any food on the planet, whether it be Oreo's, McDonalds, KFC or the healthiest salad with no dresssing and just plain chicken.

Now, I'm not saying Intermittent Fasting is the answer, or that you have to do it by any means, but its an option, and it cured a lot of things for me.

Firstly, Intermittent Fasting is where you pick an eating window of around 8 hours.

Within this 8 hours you eat all the food you are supposed to consume in that day... here is an example of an eating window

First Meal ~ 1:00 pm
Second Meal ~ 9:00 pm

So you eat nothing upon waking, until 1pm in the afternoon, you then eat your next meal at 9pm and don't eat again until the next day, at 1pm. This is just a sample set up, there is many other ways to achieve 'Intermittent Fasting' to suit your needs.

There has been lots of research done with Intermittent Fasting, there has been some noteable evidence scientifically such as..

It has shown to prevent high blood pressure.
It has been shown to prevent cancer.
It has been shown to increase life span.
It has been shown to keep you more alert throughough the day and make you feel less lethargic.
It has shown that it decreases the amount your body has to work, to digest food because you are eating less.

There are some things I know for sure;

It removes my hunger pangs, where as eating 5-6 meals I was ALWAYS hungry.

It helped me with MY weight loss, others have reported this too but there is no actual scientific hard evidence to support that.

It helps me sleep in the evening, especially if I eat before I go to sleep.

It keeps me OUT of the kitchen and gives me much more time to do things I actually want to do.

There is plenty of other benefits which you can find from personal experiences, I've never really heard anyone speak down about Intermittent Fasting other than the "old school" bodybuilders who refuse to believe anything else can work, than what they do. But just remember there is always more than one way to skin a cat.

I suggest if this topic interests you, head over to Martin Berkhans site, Leangains (web address earlier in this post). He is the guru of this stuff, and whilst he is very strong with his opinions, there is endless information there and his information changed my life. There is also links to endless studies which show the hard evidence for some of the things I linked above.

If you managed to get this far, and you have any questions.. ask away and I'll do my best to answer them!"

Martin Berkhan's site is awesome, but it may confuse someone new to I.F. It is well worth the visit though. VERY informative

Can anyone comment as to how many calories I should be consuming if doing IF?

Hi, I do 16:8 fasting so I eat from 11.30am till 7pm approx. You eat the same amount of calories as you would be on now so if say you are on 1800 calories now and eating 5 meals all through the day you just spend your 1800 calories in your 8 hour feeding window instead.

I'm IFing! I usually do 16/8 between 8pm-12pm sometimes 19/5 5pm-12pm. I do it because I feel its easier for me to stay within my calories. When I eat "breakfast" I will eat nonstop throughout the day and by time dinner comes I am out of calories. So I break my fast @ 12 with a protein coffee and some almonds then I eat lunch around 2 staying around 200-500 calories, then I have a few snacks (yogurt or fiber bar) and when dinner rolls around I have about 800 cals too play with. I'm also watching my carbs. But since I started around 20 of the pounds I lost I believe is from IFing.

Check the intermittent fasting group

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting

Good luck to you

Also, just wanna ask what exercises you are doing and if you changed your level of calories since you started IF.

Thanks

I Zumba, sometimes I will through in JurboJam and I do Zumba Toning with 5 pound weights. I workout at home with my dvds! I just found Fitness Blender on youtube and love some of their workouts now I signed up on their website and trying a few workouts with Zumba. Will never give that up!

I'm IFing! I usually do 16/8 between 8pm-12pm sometimes 19/5 5pm-12pm. I do it because I feel its easier for me to stay within my calories. When I eat "breakfast" I will eat nonstop throughout the day and by time dinner comes I am out of calories. So I break my fast @ 12 with a protein coffee and some almonds then I eat lunch around 2 staying around 200-500 calories, then I have a few snacks (yogurt or fiber bar) and when dinner rolls around I have about 800 cals too play with. I'm also watching my carbs. But since I started around 20 of the pounds I lost I believe is from IFing.

Check the intermittent fasting group

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting

Good luck to you

Also, just wanna ask what exercises you are doing and if you changed your level of calories since you started IF.

Thanks

Through mfp I set myself up to lose a lb a week so I'm allotted 1990 a day when I exercise I'm up around 2600 calories. I eat when I hungry sometimes I eat all my cals, I might go over depending on the quality foods I eat (fast food:ohwell: ) or have calories left over but I don't force myself to eat any calories.