Fasting

I am thinking about starting to fast occasionally. Do any of you fast? If so, do you have a schedule of some sort or just pick a random day?

Replies

  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    Fasting for spiritual reasons or for weight loss?
  • endlessfall16
    endlessfall16 Posts: 932 Member
    Yes, pick boring time, days to fast. Don't fast on special occasions.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,110 Member
    I do intermittent fasting but never a whole day. I'm on the 16:8 schedule. It has been good for me.
  • DaintyWhisper
    DaintyWhisper Posts: 221 Member
    edited March 2017
    I usually do a partial day fast. I started this routine on accident, due to my work schedule. I'd get up at 8am and get off at 2pm, never really making the time to eat. On most weekdays, my eating hours fall between 2pm-8pm or so. This has worked for me. It makes you feel like you have more calories to eat since you're eating them all in a shorter period of time. Make sure to drink lots of water! I usually eat normally on the weekends, though.
  • i6Shot
    i6Shot Posts: 51 Member
    edited March 2017
    I IF every working day. I started with 16:8 (Leangains method) and have progressed to a somewhat 20:4 (Warrior Diet method) IF mainly because I can't be bothered prepping lunch. My schedule is last meal around 8pm and don't eat again until around 4pm (ish) the next day.

    I have fasted a whole weekend once but it becomes hard when you have a partner and child wondering why you aren't joining them for dinner etc.... Basically ate my last meal at dinner on Friday and broke fast at dinner on Sunday. IF is usually put on hold if the family want to go out for breakfast etc...

    Google Jason Fung for fasting info.
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    I've been doing various IF protocols for around 5 years now. OP, are you talking about IF or fasting for spiritual reasons?
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
    I just started fasting by not eating breakfast, it's the Lean Gains thing. Eat all your calories in an 8 hour period. It's working pretty well.

    There are two things going on with fasting. One is that it's easier to stay within your calorie goal. The other is that after about 8-10 or so hours, your body starts to use fat stores in addition to the carbs. So you get a bit more fat loss faster. That's the theory anyhow.

    Women sometimes don't respond as well, Hormonal differences. Just a little caution there for the ladies, but I'm sure it works for some.
  • buglesalmoncatgirl
    buglesalmoncatgirl Posts: 43 Member
    I almost intermittently fast. I drink a few coffees with splashes of almond milk (30 calories per cup of milk) through the morning. By noon or so, I have a small lunch. Come home from work and have food/dinner till 8:00-9:00pm. It's been fine so far, not awesome but fine, and leaves more calories for later in the day. (I like that part.)
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,189 Member
    I'd love to be able to do IF, it would suit my preferences on eating and my day-to-day, but I have to take meds 12 hours apart and get horrid side effects if I don't take them with food.
  • Izzy62
    Izzy62 Posts: 62 Member
    I do IF - works out about 18:6 usually, I never really liked eating breakfast so it works for me in that regard. I also do random 24 hour fasts, maybe 2 in 3 weeks, but just whenever I feel like it.
    I've done one 48 hour fast just to see what it was like - I found it really beneficial to decide when I actually felt hunger. As it happened I didn't "feel" hungry until I started think about what to eat when I was finished!
    I am not particularly spiritual, but I did make it a time to meditate in a fashion and have a bit of a pamper time for myself. Resetting myself is how I described it to friends.
    Not sure it helps massively for weight loss, and you still have to consider what you eat in your non- fasting windows - but it has certainly helped me gain a better relationship with food.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Nothing magical about fasting. Fasting is just "not eating". Most people don't eat while they sleep. That's 8 hours of fasting. If you eat three meals 3 hours apart, you're doing "18:6"; 3 meals 4 hours apart qualifies as "16:8". It's not hard. You can eat breakfast. It's nothing special. You don't burn more or less calories on this or that eating schedule. Three meals a day is a normal way of eating that people used to follow before we began to belive we had to eat all the time. For many people, this is an eating schedule that creates a structure that makes sticking to appropriate amounts of food easier.
  • I tried to eat three meals a day but I found that having three meals that were too small to be satisfying just meant that I was thinking about food all day and wanting to snack. I'm now just eating one large satisfying meal every 24 hours. It's early days, but it seems to be working for me. I'm eating the same number of calories but having them all in one sitting means that I can enjoy a big satisfying meal and then forget about food for the rest of the day.
  • TreesOfYavanna
    TreesOfYavanna Posts: 20 Member
    SCoil123 wrote: »
    I do intermittent fasting but never a whole day. I'm on the 16:8 schedule. It has been good for me.

    Same. It's actually pretty easy if you just quit eating at 8pm and then skip breakfast the next morning. By the time you get to lunch at noon, it's been 16 hours.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Like others have said, for spiritual reasons or weight loss? I do a full fast for spiritual reasons on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and those days for religious reasons, of course. If I were going to do it regularly for weight or health, I wouldn't do a full fast, but an IF protocol. 5:2 or 4:3 are options, but on the low cal days (the 3 or 2), you don't fast entirely. Other IF protocols are about limiting the eating window. I think they work for plenty of people, but you need to experiment with what appeals to/works for your personality. (It's about keeping weekly calories down in a way easier for some people, nothing magical about it. I have a friend who did 5:2 for weight loss (vanity weight) and now maintenance and loves it, though.)
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    I've experimented with it. It works, in that your weight responds quickly. I find reductions in productivity, however, so I wonder if it's worth it.
  • Mini_Medic
    Mini_Medic Posts: 343 Member
    I used to do IF, I would eat breakfast (500 calories or less) and start my fast typically 0900am then skip lunch and dinner and only eat again the next day for breakfast after 0900 so I had a full 24 hours of fast. I did this twice a week, every third day since that worked for my 24/48 work schedule. I saw massive benefits in controlling hunger and not getting off the proverbial wagon. Even if I went crazy for my two normal eating days in between, I always got back on the wagon for my regular fast and then I never wanted to go back to my poor choices after I successfully finished fasting. I found that food tasted way better and was more satisfying to me after a fast. I lost weight easily because I ate maintenance or only slightly under on normal days and only 500 calories on fast days, so my 3,000 calorie weekly deficit was met by the two fasts. I actually lost 1lb a week like clockwork on the IF regimen, more if I restricted furtheron normal eat days. It also helped me to understand hunger and to eat healthier since I didn't want to "go crazy and eat a cheeseburger" after I felt clean and renewed after a fast. As a woman, it never messed with my cycle and I felt fine doing the whole 24 fast. My blood work was great, hair and skin were clear and my undiagnosed IBS went away.

    Now saying that I do not do that any more. I'm not against it, I have just found that eating more frequently works better for me now since I am less on the weight loss bandwagon and more into nourishing myself for my training which includes lots of running and now lifting. I like to eat before and after training because I get hungry and hungry burning so much off during higher intensity work outs than I was capable of before when I weighed more and wasn't in shape.

    Try IF! You may love it. It it doesn't work or you don't like it, move on to the next thing and see if that fits your life and goals better.