Big breakfast, small dinner or Intermittent Fasting?
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morganhkeeling
Posts: 6
A few months ago I decided to start with intermittent fasting. I read up on it for weeks and decided that it would be worth a shot. I normally didn't gain an appetite until the evening anyway, so it was really easy to slide into that sort of dieting and allowed me to feel more free with going out and eating out at night.
Since then, (and due mostly to having a horrific caloric deficit over the past 2 months or so) I have dropped a few pounds. Unfortunately I have tendencies to under eat and become obsessive with my calorie counts.
Anyway, I asked my coach why I hadn't dropped any further weight over the last couple of weeks, and aside from the usual responses about water weight and under-eating, she suggested that it may be because I need to make a shift toward eating larger meals in the morning, and not having a big meal at night instead. (So basically the opposite of what I've been doing.)
My question is: What have you guys experienced in regards to the timing of your eating and workouts? Do you find it easier to lose weight if you have a big breakfast and a smaller meal at night? Or do you balance out all of your meals? Has anyone experienced success/failure with IF (intermittent fasting) feeding?
1. If you look at my journal since November, you will see that, yes, I have under-eaten. I am aware of that. No one has to give me a lecture on "starvation mode" because I am working on that factor.
2. While I completely understand the suggestion "just workout more," (I don't log my workouts as strictly as my food intake) I am working out twice/day M-F and at least once on Saturday. My workouts effectiveness is for a different board.
3. Like most, I work 8-5 M-F, so IF really is the most convenient.
Thank you all for your valuable input!
Since then, (and due mostly to having a horrific caloric deficit over the past 2 months or so) I have dropped a few pounds. Unfortunately I have tendencies to under eat and become obsessive with my calorie counts.
Anyway, I asked my coach why I hadn't dropped any further weight over the last couple of weeks, and aside from the usual responses about water weight and under-eating, she suggested that it may be because I need to make a shift toward eating larger meals in the morning, and not having a big meal at night instead. (So basically the opposite of what I've been doing.)
My question is: What have you guys experienced in regards to the timing of your eating and workouts? Do you find it easier to lose weight if you have a big breakfast and a smaller meal at night? Or do you balance out all of your meals? Has anyone experienced success/failure with IF (intermittent fasting) feeding?
1. If you look at my journal since November, you will see that, yes, I have under-eaten. I am aware of that. No one has to give me a lecture on "starvation mode" because I am working on that factor.
2. While I completely understand the suggestion "just workout more," (I don't log my workouts as strictly as my food intake) I am working out twice/day M-F and at least once on Saturday. My workouts effectiveness is for a different board.
3. Like most, I work 8-5 M-F, so IF really is the most convenient.
Thank you all for your valuable input!
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Replies
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intermittent fasting was something I thought about once, but is definitely not for me. I balance out all my meals to meet my macros. On weekends, I wake up late, so I have bigger meals to meet the same criteria I meet during the week with smaller meals.
I think that Intermittent fasting makes it to easy to undereat
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Most of the responses will be that it doesn't matter at all what time of day you eat the majority of calories. And I'll bet the IF'ers out there will tell you about their improved weight loss with IF. I'm in the camp where everyone is different. Try eating earlier in the day and see what happens.
I like eating later in the evening because then I'm not reaching for a calorie-dense snack before I go to bed. That being said, I find that if I eat some protein before I go to bed I do pretty well, as long as it fits into my daily calorie goal.
Keep plugging away - experiment and see what works for you. And remember that weight loss isn't linear (but you already knew that!).0 -
My question is: What have you guys experienced in regards to the timing of your eating and workouts? Do you find it easier to lose weight if you have a big breakfast and a smaller meal at night? Or do you balance out all of your meals? Has anyone experienced success/failure with IF (intermittent fasting) feeding?
I find it very hard to lose weight when I eat breakfast. Not only does it not make me eat less for the rest of the day, it makes me want to eat more. I rarely eat anything for breakfast, though I do take my vitamins in the morning with a cup of soy milk because I need the calcium in my diet. It's about 100 calories.
I eat a light lunch, somewhere between 250 and 400 calories usually, and eat the rest of my calories in the evening. This works for me because I'm typically hungrier in the evening and I like a big evening meal. I like a full plate and a glass of wine with it. I like to have a small dessert most days.
I'm an older lady and I learned many years ago that weight control for me was easier if I worked with my body instead of against it. Just find an eating plan that will keep you on track and go with it. It doesn't matter if it works for anyone else or not.0 -
A few months ago I decided to start with intermittent fasting. I read up on it for weeks and decided that it would be worth a shot. I normally didn't gain an appetite until the evening anyway, so it was really easy to slide into that sort of dieting and allowed me to feel more free with going out and eating out at night.
Since then, (and due mostly to having a horrific caloric deficit over the past 2 months or so) I have dropped a few pounds. Unfortunately I have tendencies to under eat and become obsessive with my calorie counts.
Anyway, I asked my coach why I hadn't dropped any further weight over the last couple of weeks, and aside from the usual responses about water weight and under-eating, she suggested that it may be because I need to make a shift toward eating larger meals in the morning, and not having a big meal at night instead. (So basically the opposite of what I've been doing.)
My question is: What have you guys experienced in regards to the timing of your eating and workouts? Do you find it easier to lose weight if you have a big breakfast and a smaller meal at night? Or do you balance out all of your meals? Has anyone experienced success/failure with IF (intermittent fasting) feeding?
1. If you look at my journal since November, you will see that, yes, I have under-eaten. I am aware of that. No one has to give me a lecture on "starvation mode" because I am working on that factor.
2. While I completely understand the suggestion "just workout more," (I don't log my workouts as strictly as my food intake) I am working out twice/day M-F and at least once on Saturday. My workouts effectiveness is for a different board.
3. Like most, I work 8-5 M-F, so IF really is the most convenient.
Thank you all for your valuable input!
I've tried IF and I've tried several feedings spread out through the day. I've found that the optimal one for fat loss is the one that maximizes both gym performance and dietary adherence. Anecdotal evidence would suggest (as would intuition) that this is going to vary from person to person.0 -
A few months ago I decided to start with intermittent fasting. I read up on it for weeks and decided that it would be worth a shot. I normally didn't gain an appetite until the evening anyway, so it was really easy to slide into that sort of dieting and allowed me to feel more free with going out and eating out at night.
Since then, (and due mostly to having a horrific caloric deficit over the past 2 months or so) I have dropped a few pounds. Unfortunately I have tendencies to under eat and become obsessive with my calorie counts.
Anyway, I asked my coach why I hadn't dropped any further weight over the last couple of weeks, and aside from the usual responses about water weight and under-eating, she suggested that it may be because I need to make a shift toward eating larger meals in the morning, and not having a big meal at night instead. (So basically the opposite of what I've been doing.)
My question is: What have you guys experienced in regards to the timing of your eating and workouts? Do you find it easier to lose weight if you have a big breakfast and a smaller meal at night? Or do you balance out all of your meals? Has anyone experienced success/failure with IF (intermittent fasting) feeding?
1. If you look at my journal since November, you will see that, yes, I have under-eaten. I am aware of that. No one has to give me a lecture on "starvation mode" because I am working on that factor.
2. While I completely understand the suggestion "just workout more," (I don't log my workouts as strictly as my food intake) I am working out twice/day M-F and at least once on Saturday. My workouts effectiveness is for a different board.
3. Like most, I work 8-5 M-F, so IF really is the most convenient.
Thank you all for your valuable input!
I've tried IF and I've tried several feedings spread out through the day. I've found that the optimal one for fat loss is the one that maximizes both gym performance and dietary adherence. Anecdotal evidence would suggest (as would intuition) that this is going to vary from person to person.
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He definitely does, but there is science and there is long term adherence and compliance.0
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Bro, do you even MFP?0 -
Thanks for the thoughtful responses. I do understand very well that it is going to be different for everyone.. I just was wanting to gauge if anyone else had experimented with feeding times and found substantial results from it. 0
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I have a coworker I used to work with a lot (I have since moved to a different area)
He does IF, and its scary. He has gone from a normal looking guy, to someone who looks like a survivor from a concentration camp.
Skin and bones.
It has also affected his work. The people who still work with him are worried. He is mentally not all there all the time (he fades in and out) and in our work you need to be and before he started doing IF he was on the ball.
The truly scary part about it is that he says he feels great, has more energy, doesn't crash, etc.
How and when you eat is individual but I would never recommend IF0 -
Thanks for the thoughtful responses. I do understand very well that it is going to be different for everyone.. I just was wanting to gauge if anyone else had experimented with feeding times and found substantial results from it.
The point I was attempting to make, just for clarification, was that the individual differences in total fat loss when you compare these two eating habits, are likely to come from differences in performance and long term compliance.
So for example, one person may lose more fat on a specific meal frequency or timing because of how that meal pattern effects long term compliance, gym performance, etc.0 -
Bro, do you even MFP?
No. Never.0 -
I have a coworker I used to work with a lot (I have since moved to a different area)
He does IF, and its scary. He has gone from a normal looking guy, to someone who looks like a survivor from a concentration camp.
Skin and bones.
It has also affected his work. The people who still work with him are worried. He is mentally not all there all the time (he fades in and out) and in our work you need to be and before he started doing IF he was on the ball.
The truly scary part about it is that he says he feels great, has more energy, doesn't crash, etc.
How and when you eat is individual but I would never recommend IF
Obviously your coworker is starving himself, which he can do eating too little calories all day long or eating too little calories all at once. IF does not make you starve, starving makes you starve.
Love,
A proud eater of 1700 calories after 6 PM.0 -
No, I understand. It makes sense: eating for optimum performance. I don't guess I've ever thought of it in that way.0
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Obviously your coworker is starving himself, which he can do eating too little calories all day long or eating too little calories all at once. IF does not make you starve, starving makes you starve.
Love,
A proud eater of 1700 calories after 6 PM.
Agree he is most likely starving himself. However IF is not something I would recommend to someone who is first trying to figure themselves out. I don't like the idea of IF because it introduces the idea of starving your self for a day or two at a time in order to lose weight.
For clarification my definition of IF is when you don't eat for 2 days, then eat 5 days (5:2) or something similar.
Not not eating for hours during the day.0 -
Obviously your coworker is starving himself, which he can do eating too little calories all day long or eating too little calories all at once. IF does not make you starve, starving makes you starve.
Love,
A proud eater of 1700 calories after 6 PM.
Agree he is most likely starving himself. However IF is not something I would recommend to someone who is first trying to figure themselves out. I don't like the idea of IF because it introduces the idea of starving your self for a day or two at a time in order to lose weight.
For clarification my definition of IF is when you don't eat for 2 days, then eat 5 days (5:2) or something similar.
Not not eating for hours during the day.
Ah, that clears things up. Yes, I had issues with eating disorder behavior while trying 5:2 so I always warn people about that when they want to try it. Definitely not for everyone, but some people have great success and no problems.0 -
The IF I have been doing is not 5:2. It is skipping breakfast and lunch, basically, for a big dinner. A bit more than that, but that's it in a nutshell.0
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I think you are over thinking this.
My view point:
You need a bit of energy to fuel your workout. If that comes hours before or the nigh before, doesn't really matter as long as it is there.
You need certain macros to assist in recovery and building after your workout. make sure they are there when your body is trying to actively recover from the workout.
Past that, if you are looking lose just keep your cal average at a -
and looking to gain or maintain then..well...you get it.0 -
Maybe small breakfast, some light eating and then big dinner still since that is what works for you. That may also help you get your calories up.
Personally I need to eat, and I eat constantly, not always a lot but just something to fill my stomach.
Current research shows that is doesn't matter when you eat during the day or how much at different times as long as your get your daily calorie goal.
@Kate, glad we ended up being on the same page0 -
Eat like this= Queen, princess, peasant!!0
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I don't usually eat before 12pm because I just don't get hungry before then so I like it that way. I like being able to have more food in the afternoon. I don't think when you eat matters but what you eat.
I also like to workout fasted for some reason also.0
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