Thoughts or experience with Intermittent fasting?
sabrinalynn777
Posts: 14 Member
I'd really like to hear from people that have tried this....
Negative or positive results.. ?
Negative or positive results.. ?
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Replies
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It helps me stay in my calorie goals0
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I've been doing alternate day fasting for 2mths. It's the only way I've managed to lose weight and keep it off!
I've lost 9kgs, 4 more to go
When I get down to my goal weight I'll be doing 6:1 to maintain.0 -
it helps, it i like it. i'll do it again if i have the chance0
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I used to do it but it did not really fit into my lifestyle…I did like it.
I will just say that it is not going to make fat come off easier, or anything like that. It is just another strategy to create a calorie deficit…
There is an IF group on here that you can join, or you can check out www.leangains.com0 -
What are your routines? Like an average day when it comes to eating?0
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Or how many days do you fast... things like that. Do you fast or just have a very low calorie intake some days? ... Just wondering about stuff like that.0
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I used to do it but it did not really fit into my lifestyle…I did like it.
I will just say that it is not going to make fat come off easier, or anything like that. It is just another strategy to create a calorie deficit…
There is an IF group on here that you can join, or you can check out www.leangains.com
Helpful info, thanks
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sabrinalynn777 wrote: »Or how many days do you fast... things like that. Do you fast or just have a very low calorie intake some days? ... Just wondering about stuff like that.
there are sooo many different ways to do it: http://dailyburn.com/life/health/intermittent-fasting-methods/
i personally do the 5:2 - two days out of the week i only eat 500 calories (as a woman; for men, it's 600 calories a day) and then up to your TDEE on the other days. yes, it doesn't necessarily expedite the weight-losing process, however i feel like it has shrunk my stomach; so ultimately on my normal eating days, i don't feel the need to eat as much.0 -
sabrinalynn777 wrote: »Or how many days do you fast... things like that. Do you fast or just have a very low calorie intake some days? ... Just wondering about stuff like that.
I'm not sure who your question was directed to, but this is what I do.
I fast every second day. On up days I have 1550 calories or a little bit under. On fast days it's up to 500 calories.
I'm not perfect, some days I go over the 500 calories, but I'm still consistently losing weight every week.
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Today was my 4th day doing a 23 hour fast, personally I like it. Having the 1 hour cut off really helps me curb eating again outside of the ~1500 kcal meal I have for the day. I find that I am not hungry 95% of the time and if I do get hungry I drink water. It's really put my eating habits(I have found that I eat out of habit 9.99/10 times) into perspective so that I can hopefully correct them.0
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Wait a minute...How is consuming 500 calories FASTING?? In my definition IF means not eating anything for a specified period of time. NOT cutting calories for a specified period of time. If you are scheduled to have a medical test FASTING that means NOTHING but water for the stated time.0
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Works here. Need to track on non-fast days. It got me down from 103kg to under 88 now. Helped me break the 90kg barrier where I had been stuck for a year. It's just another way of CICO. It does two important things. It helps you understand and get better at accepting genuine hunger. It also means that you can eat at maintenance level 4-6 days per week. And @cindytw - it's just terminonlogy. You're right, technically it should be called Intermittent VLCD - but doesn't have the same ring :-)0
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Works here. Need to track on non-fast days. It got me down from 103kg to under 88 now. Helped me break the 90kg barrier where I had been stuck for a year. It's just another way of CICO. It does two important things. It helps you understand and get better at accepting genuine hunger. It also means that you can eat at maintenance level 4-6 days per week. And @cindytw - it's just terminonlogy. You're right, technically it should be called Intermittent VLCD - but doesn't have the same ring :-)
So what the folks here with the 500 calories REALLY mean is calorie cycling, NOT IF. IF means NOTHING but water. Calorie cycling is a whole different thing with other reasoning for it.0 -
At the moment I am doing 14 hour fasts which I found has helped me a lot. I hadn't lost any weight in a month despite eating well and exercising. My first week of fasting I dropped half a kilo. I find it a great way to keep me from eating too much (although some days like today I struggle to hit my Calorie goal)0
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At the moment I am doing 14 hour fasts which I found has helped me a lot. I hadn't lost any weight in a month despite eating well and exercising. My first week of fasting I dropped half a kilo. I find it a great way to keep me from eating too much (although some days like today I struggle to hit my Calorie goal)
YES, THIS is IF!!
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I'm doing EOD, love it, will do some form of it for the rest of my (hopefully extended) life.
I alternate between TDEE*25% days and TDEE*125% days. This creates a 25% deficit overall. I used to log every day but recently I've stopped logging on the 125% days. I've lost 24.5lbs in 18 weeks. Exercise is incidental but I walk a lot at work (large university campus).
The graph is in kg, not lbs.
@cindytw thanks for the useful clarification.
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love it, easiest way to stay in a deficit for me0
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I had my most success, mentally and physically doing EOD. I am strongly considering going back to it.
I did not count calories on eating day and had 300-400 cal the second day, 300 of which was burned off thru exercise. I went down 20 lbs rather quickly (didn't track back then so maybe 2-2.5 months)
Once you get past the first week it becomes your normal. This thread has re-perked my interest in it. I do ok on structured diet plans and have no issue restricting as needed most times..but I feel I start to get to obsessed when I count calories. I liked the freedom of not worrying about what I ate on eat days. I liked not stressing about intake. I am kind of in a weird state right now. Not wanting to let go of calorie counting, yet wanting my freedom back to eat without much planning.0 -
I am currently doing EOD- I love it so far. I just completed the first week, which they say is the hardest. The "down days" (500 cals, give or take) are getting easier and easier. I was worried that I would want to binge on my "up days" but if anything, I've been less hungry.
Good luck with whatever you end up doing!
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Check out the group and in particular the FAQ.
To those doing EOD fasting, please make sure you eat enough on your eating days which means AT LEAST maintenance, if not more. And be aware of any possible GI issues that can arise.0 -
I am doing daily 20 hour fasts, which means I eat all my daily cals in a four hr period. I still log everything to make sure I stay in deficit.0
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IF doesn't mean nothing but water. Though many IF protocols use 'modified fasts' when referring to the fast days. The books on IF don't call it calorie cycling though you can call it whatever you want.Works here. Need to track on non-fast days. It got me down from 103kg to under 88 now. Helped me break the 90kg barrier where I had been stuck for a year. It's just another way of CICO. It does two important things. It helps you understand and get better at accepting genuine hunger. It also means that you can eat at maintenance level 4-6 days per week. And @cindytw - it's just terminonlogy. You're right, technically it should be called Intermittent VLCD - but doesn't have the same ring :-)
So what the folks here with the 500 calories REALLY mean is calorie cycling, NOT IF. IF means NOTHING but water. Calorie cycling is a whole different thing with other reasoning for it.0 -
I fast for 16 hours a day and only eat during an 8 hour window. During the fast (8 hours of which I'm sleeping, I take only unsweetened beverages.
I'm still relatively new to it, but I have had an unexpected benefit. I no longer have the urge to snack (or binge eat) because during my eating window I'm full and outside of that window I don't want to break the fast and ruin the benefits of it.0 -
@C4rtr4t and Christine, so for you guys the under 500 calorie days have been helping. I have been fasting some days and other days eating under 500. The rest of the days I eat anywhere for 1000 to maybe 1500 calories. I exercise most days. I have been getting criticism from the few people I've talked to about it in my life. The "you need to eat every day" stuff. I have lost weight since I started, and it has really jump started my weight loss because I was stuck for a while.
The reason I'm asking is because I go back to worrying that I am messing up my metabolism or something like that. And sometimes after I've fasted or had under 500 calorie days, I'm afraid to eat because I worry I will just gain the weight back, I've been getting more anxiety about that lately. So sometimes maybe I fast 2 or 3 days in a row. And that makes me worry more. I've really been wanting people to talk to about this. Wondering if other people have the same feelings. And also some reassurance that it isn't the case. It is easy to find information about fasting online, but personal testimonies mean a lot more.
And I do want to be healthy about it, from the sounds of what everyone is saying, it has been working for a lot of you. Some days I feel tired and other days I don't. I'm also wondering how many days a week it is best to do this. Is every other day too extreme to do regularly? I'm looking to change my lifestyle, not just diet.
...@Cindytw... I don't really understand why terminology matters all that much.. I just want to know what is working for people.
@kcd1961, do you do the under 500 calories days? Is that what you are saying? How much weight have you lost because of it?
@Medilia, do you fast 14 hours every day? Like do you just have 1 meal a day?
@fluffyasacat, That's awesome! I don't know some of the things you are saying... but that's okay. I'm new to all this stuff. I've gone from about 230 to 205. I was stuck around 215 for a long time, since I started fasting I've lost another 10lbs. But like I said up there, I want to make sure I do it right before I get too deep into it because I want this to be a long term life style change not just a diet.
@ everyone else, pretty much all the stuff I've said. I'm glad to hear that you've all had good results with whatever fasting you've tried. I am def going to stick with it. Only water days are harder for me than the less than 500 calorie days. But I could end up doing either. Maybe doing both isn't such a bad thing? I dunno. But I really appreciate everyone's input, thank you.0 -
I use the 8/16 rule. I eat from 10am until 6pm. It works for me.0
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I believe author Dr. Michael Mosley was the first to use the phrase "intermittent fasting" and he used the adjective intermittent because he was still ingesting 500 calories or less. Otherwise it'd just be fasting. To the OP, I got his book at the library after hearing him on NPR, it gives some interesting info.
I love IF but find it hard to do, mainly because I have 3 other people in my house that I cook for, and it's a bumer to cook and then not eat any of it. I try to IF on days I'm really busy, and then serve a dinner I wouldn't eat anyway, and then have my husband clean the kitchen so I'm not tempted to snack on leftovers. For my own dinner I'll make a huge pot of vegetable soup, when it was warmer I'd make an enormous salad.
It's an easy way to create a calorie deficit because it's such a no-brainer: you eat less than 500 one day. But IME you have to plan to do it--I pick a busy day, stay away from the couch/tv, etc. Good luck!0 -
Sabrina it takes alot longer than a few days of eating low calories here and there to mess up your metabolism. It takes many many months of constantly under eating.
Just make sure to stick close to your tdee on up days and you'll be good.
I haven't told anyone other than my hubby that I'm doing this. He was sceptical at first, but has shut up now that he sees I've lost weight
I have tried just about every diet under the sun over the last 3 years. Some don't work, others are too restrictive and I fail.
This is the only way of eating that I have lost weight on, and in a relatively easy way! I plan on fasting in one way or another for the rest of my life 0 -
You can also do a zero calorie fast. But the studies suggest a negligible weight loss difference between 0 and those following the 500 calories0
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Sabrina- To ease your mind I recommend you read the books on it by Krista Varady, Michael Mosley and James Johnson. Also, lowcarbfriends has a JUDDD subforum that is very supportive and active, with many success stories.
I did alternate 500 calorie days with ad libitum days for 12 weeks recently. I don't think it messed up my metabolism. I think it was a good experience. I get bored and want to try new things, plus it was time for a diet break, so I'm maintaining (hopefully) for the rest of the month. I'll go back to it sometime.
The first time I heard of IF was from Brad Pilon, maybe 8 years ago? I think his plan pre-dated Mosley's by quite a while.0 -
Highly recommend the books. These are the ones I have. Dr johnsons book goes more into the science behind fasting.
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