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Why intermittent fasting is so popular now?

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Replies

  • shrcpr
    shrcpr Posts: 885 Member
    Because the thought of eating 6-8 small meals a per day for the rest of your life is absurd. :) IF on the other hand is simple and sustainable.

    Bless anyone who can do IF, but it would be neither simple nor sustainable for me. On a typical day, I need breakfast when I wake up, I am hungry at 11 (snack), hungry for lunch, hungry at 3 (snack), and hungry for dinner. I am a hangry, hangry person if I don't quell the ghrelin in my stomach. I could never make it to 2:00 pm without eating and NOT bite someone's head off, and I am fairly certain that once I did eat, I would have no problem eating twice my allotted calories for the day. Binge city.

    It's why I'm a fan of CICO - you can eat whatever you want, whatever time of day you want, however many times per day, as long as you burn more calories than you consume in said day. A highly customizable, sustainable, and simple plan that works for everyone.

    +1 for me. That's why we're allowed to eat however we want - because each person needs to find what works for them. IF seems like torture to me because I hate feeling full or feeling hungry. But I can see how it works for a lot of people.
  • 100df
    100df Posts: 668 Member
    I have been eating on an IF schedule for about 25 years. I have maintained, gained and lost weight eating this way.

    I eat too much if I try to eat 3 meals a day on what is considered the normal schedule.
  • DorkothyParker
    DorkothyParker Posts: 618 Member
    The PM eating thing is *huuuge* for me. It's nice having wiggle room in my calories when I need it most.
    I have been experimenting with IF (depending on your view of butter in coffee and whether that officially "breaks" the fast.) I like it. I like it a lot. Of course, I liked eating three eggs scrambled in cheese for breakfast as well.

    The cool thing is that one can experiment what fits their diet and lifestyle. I exercise on the 16th hour and that seems to be going just fine (HIIT, 25 minutes).
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    It seems IF is just a mini way of doing full time nutritional ketosis or can be done on top of nutritional ketosis perhaps to lower insulin even more since fat cannot readily be lost if insulin levels are elevated. Any way of eating that triggers Chaperone Mediated Autophagy (CMA) is thought to be life extending.

    nature.com/cr/journal/v24/n1/full/cr2013153a.html
  • AlphaCajun
    AlphaCajun Posts: 290 Member
    edited April 2016
    I don't like eating breakfast either.. but now I have a fancy term to tell people what diet I'm on instead of having them glaze over when the words "eat less than you burn" fly out of my mouth... now I'll dazzle em with *kitten*!
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    edited April 2016
    I have never eaten breakfast. I found that some days I was skipping lunch because of my work situation, and I could wait until supper when I got home around 6:00 pm to eat and have a snack around 9 or 10 pm before bed. Now I plan my daily calories to miss lunch and breakfast.
  • jesseyboo
    jesseyboo Posts: 11 Member
    Blame The Hodgetwins :p
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    edited April 2016
    kimny72 wrote: »
    I don't remember where, but I have read some articles about IF that said it might not work as well for women, that most of the studies done on IF only involved men and that there may be a hormonal issue with women that wasn't taken into consideration. Wish I could remember where I saw that!

    ADF study would be my guess, let's try Varady... https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-12-146 has women in it but didn't comment on adverse effects with women. - Has plenty of links to the (few) other ADF studies.

    http://jdmdonline.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2251-6581-12-4 is in women and references Heilbronn http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2005.61/full who observed that "Alternate day fasting may adversely affect glucose tolerance in nonobese women but not in nonobese men" :-

    oby_574_f1.gif?v=1&t=inil2iih&s=1573880bc90dd8af6ca125432dab9afcfbdafd78
  • Dr1nkbleachndye
    Dr1nkbleachndye Posts: 441 Member
    edited May 2016
    Intermittent fasting isn't a fad or a gimmick or whatever.

    IMost of you have probably overlooked why it is called breakfast.

    I/F isn't rocket science, it works. I also am able to eat like I normally would for dinner, except while eating only once a day. Works great for me
  • kimdawnhayden
    kimdawnhayden Posts: 298 Member
    Because skinny jeans just won't seem to go away. :)
  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    Because the thought of eating 6-8 small meals a per day for the rest of your life is absurd. :) IF on the other hand is simple and sustainable.

    By why the rules to begin with? I don't eat breakfast. I'm usually not hungry until lunch. I save most of my calories for dinner. I don't need some arbitrary rules or plan to let me eat when I'm hungry and not eat when I'm not hungry. Depending on the source you read, there is a lot, and I mean A LOT of unfounded woo theory and rule making in IF.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,958 Member
    edited May 2016
    I did IF for a number of years and it worked great. At that time for whatever reason I was not not much for breakfast so doing a daily 16/8 was perfect.

    Now, again for whatever reason, want to eat within a few hours of getting up. At first I fought it, was miserable and it sucked. Finally gave in by respecting the changes and did not allow myself to get caught up in the dogma (that goes for all diets).

    Would I do it again? Sure! If at some point my hunger patters and lifestyle allow it.
  • DKG28
    DKG28 Posts: 299 Member
    it releases people from the culturally conditioned 3 meals a day at assigned times eating plan. I am almost never ready to eat at "normal" times. I naturally gravitate towards a late lunch and early dinner and skipping breakfast. I just have a name for it now.
  • terrishields330
    terrishields330 Posts: 1 Member
    I recently started IF-ing with a Paleo diet spread. Wow!
  • getitamb
    getitamb Posts: 2,019 Member
    I love it. I do if in a 5:2. And I've been dropping fat like crazy
  • sbw23
    sbw23 Posts: 11 Member
    There was an interesting article though about the rebound impact of IF where your metabolic rate can be suppressed and gain more weight when you stop etc.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    sbw23 wrote: »
    There was an interesting article though about the rebound impact of IF where your metabolic rate can be suppressed and gain more weight when you stop etc.

    Where?