Intermittent fasting.
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To answer your question, yes! I am an intermittent faster and believe strongly in it as a method to actually tap into your fat stores, not just stored glycogen in your liver. What many people don't understand, is that fasting isn't about maintaining a caloric deficit; I average the same amount of weekly calories as I did prior to fasting. It's the understanding that obesity is a hormonal disease, and the culprit you need to control most is insulin. While insulin is spiked in your system after eating (and it's not just carbs, but excess protein), it signals the body to store fat and not burn it. Plainly, insulin makes you fat - ask someone who is a Type 2 diabetic and goes on insulin about their weight gain. Or ask Type 1 diabetics who dangerously cut back their insulin in order to lose weight. Whichever fasting program works best for you, will assure that during those hours your insulin will remain low, allowing your body to tap into your fat stores after your stored carbohydrates (in the form of glycogen in the liver) are exhausted in about 8 to 10 hours. If you do what I do, which is team intermittent fasting with a ketogenic diet, you will multiply your effect with no hunger during fasting. The other benefit of fasting and eating a larger calorie meal on your feast days is that you will avoid the dreaded metabolism slow down from consistent daily low caloric intake. I fast every other day, and the scale shows about a half pound loss per fasting day. Search up Dr. Jason Fung on YouTube, and check out his book on Intermittent Fasting. He lays the science out clearly and understandably. Good luck!
if this were true how do you explain people who use IF to GAIN weight??5 -
Every once in a while, I fast for a day to prove to myself that I can. I drink tea/milk/honey, fiber supplement, vitamin, and juice to keep up the old blood sugar. Typically, I drop 1-3lbs. So long as I stay on plan for the next few days, some of the loss sticks.1
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Didn't work for me. I was ravenous by lunch and overate. I prefer 3 meals and 2 small snacks spread throughout the day.3
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I've been doing IF 16/8 for the last 3 weeks. I think the success of it also depends on your current stats. Do you have a lot of weight to lose for your height?
I'm 5"3 and was 161.9 lbs on Jan 2nd 2017. I'm now 144.8 lbs as of this morning. I stop eating by 4 pm, do cardio/weights in the morning and breakfast at 8:15-8:30 am. I found that IF helped me lose 1-3 lbs per day initially (water weight), now I hardly move the scale and consider myself lucky if I'm able to lose 0.5 lbs in a day. I still continue IF since it keeps me at my calorie goal (2 big meals instead of spacing it out in 3 meals). The good thing I'm noticing is even though the weight fluctuates between 0.2-0.8 lbs, my BF % is decreasing weekly.4 -
Elysium618 wrote: »I've been doing IF 16/8 for the last 3 weeks. I think the success of it also depends on your current stats. Do you have a lot of weight to lose for your height?
I'm 5"3 and was 161.9 lbs on Jan 2nd 2017. I'm now 144.8 lbs as of this morning. I stop eating by 4 pm, do cardio/weights in the morning and breakfast at 8:15-8:30 am. I found that IF helped me lose 1-3 lbs per day initially (water weight), now I hardly move the scale and consider myself lucky if I'm able to lose 0.5 lbs in a day. I still continue IF since it keeps me at my calorie goal (2 big meals instead of spacing it out in 3 meals). The good thing I'm noticing is even though the weight fluctuates between 0.2-0.8 lbs, my BF % is decreasing weekly.
you arent supposed to be losing everyday(weight loss is not linear) if so you are eating too little calories.if you are losing body fat a fast pace then you are losing lean mass as well.5 -
I liked IF because my body and brain register satiety by a feeling of "fullness" and since I have a low calorie allowance it was easier to achieve that feeling with two larger meals rather than several small ones. However I now have insulin/blood sugar problems which prevent fasting and I'll confess to really struggling with not being able to 'fill up' at any given meal. So if you do better with bigger meals, then IF might be for you. If you're good with nibbling throughout the day, then it might not be.2
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Elysium618 wrote: »I've been doing IF 16/8 for the last 3 weeks. I think the success of it also depends on your current stats. Do you have a lot of weight to lose for your height?
I'm 5"3 and was 161.9 lbs on Jan 2nd 2017. I'm now 144.8 lbs as of this morning. I stop eating by 4 pm, do cardio/weights in the morning and breakfast at 8:15-8:30 am. I found that IF helped me lose 1-3 lbs per day initially (water weight), now I hardly move the scale and consider myself lucky if I'm able to lose 0.5 lbs in a day. I still continue IF since it keeps me at my calorie goal (2 big meals instead of spacing it out in 3 meals). The good thing I'm noticing is even though the weight fluctuates between 0.2-0.8 lbs, my BF % is decreasing weekly.
if you are losing .5 lbs on a daily basis at this point of the game and at your weight you are definitely eating too little !!!3 -
I am 5'3" and my body weight as of today is 178lbs. It should be in the range of 130's. When I eat less/very early at night, I wake up feeling fresh and with no stomach issues. My plan was to start doing it from yesterday, so I tried but I got hungry in the evening so I had some watermelon juice. I faster for 13 hours still. I will try increasing it daily by an hour and will see if it helps me. I am having little-no junk food in my diet.0
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optimisticShark wrote: »I am 5'3" and my body weight as of today is 178lbs. It should be in the range of 130's. When I eat less/very early at night, I wake up feeling fresh and with no stomach issues. My plan was to start doing it from yesterday, so I tried but I got hungry in the evening so I had some watermelon juice. I faster for 13 hours still. I will try increasing it daily by an hour and will see if it helps me. I am having little-no junk food in my diet.
If those are your true stats, you only have about 50 pounds to lose, and the .5-1lbs you are losing now is perfectly healthy. If you're trying to lose 2 pounds or more per week, it's just not necessary. IF is no better than any other fad diet out there. As a scientist (biochemistry and physics) who is part of this community, it pains me greatly when people start quoting woo doctors or websites as fact. The only sure fire way of losing weight is to burn more calories than you consume. However you manage that is up to you, but know that IF is probably not how you want to live the rest of your life, so I suggest you build better habits that you can maintain rather than try this particular diet until you lose the weight you want, and then go back to your normal eating habits.3 -
Muscleflex79 wrote: »To answer your question, yes! I am an intermittent faster and believe strongly in it as a method to actually tap into your fat stores, not just stored glycogen in your liver. What many people don't understand, is that fasting isn't about maintaining a caloric deficit; I average the same amount of weekly calories as I did prior to fasting. It's the understanding that obesity is a hormonal disease, and the culprit you need to control most is insulin. While insulin is spiked in your system after eating (and it's not just carbs, but excess protein), it signals the body to store fat and not burn it. Plainly, insulin makes you fat - ask someone who is a Type 2 diabetic and goes on insulin about their weight gain. Or ask Type 1 diabetics who dangerously cut back their insulin in order to lose weight.
Please do not spread this *kitten* around. Obesity is VERY RARELY cause by hormonal imbalances. Generally hypothyroidism and Cushing's Syndrome are the culprits for this, but again, that is RARE.1 -
justsmile535 wrote: »I've stared IF, this is my 3rd day. I'm following a OMAD method and only drinking coffee in the morning, followed by about 2-3 cups of tea (I switch between green, black, and herbal depending on the amount of caffeine I want to intake) and drink lots of water until the evening when I eat dinner with my boyfriend. So far it hasn't been that hard. The only problem I've had is a few stomach cramps due to taking some of my meds on an empty stomach but it's not terrible and goes away after rehydrating. My goal is to lose a decent amount for a wedding I'm going to in June and visiting some family and friends over the summer. I know there's a lot of controversy about IF but I feel like it works for me so that I can prevent overeating. I'm also attempting to go vegan. But for now I'm at least vegetarian and working on getting rid of dairy products because I believe I'm slightly lactose intolerant and dairy products are very fattening. I wish everyone else luck on their IF journey. (:
That's the thing there isn't a lot of controversy about IF, it's literally just a meal timing thing, and still requires a calorie deficit to lose weight. It takes the same calorie deficit doing a specific IF (I mean aren't we all really doing IF, since we don't eat 24 hours a day) to lose weight as it does to eat 15 meals a day.
The so called controversy lies in the people, trying to tell other people that there is some sort of fat burning power by doing IF compared to eating the same food not doing IF. IE the guy talking about Fung. It all comes back to people wanting to give credit to somebody or something else for their hard work. Doesn't make sense to me, I lost weight because I worked my butt off, and ate less than I burned, I'm not giving a specific diet credit for my hard work. Somebody else above said proof is in the pudding giving her weight loss credit to IF, instead of her own hard work.
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I feel most of the benefits are behavioral- I fast 3 nonconsecutive days per week, eating nothing until dinner. I do find I'm more energetic and clear-headed in general, and (surprisingly) even more so in fasting days. Mainly I do it so I can have big meals the rest of the time and still lose weight - being short and eating at a deficit is hard! This way I feel great, eat satisfying (even decadent) meals, and I'm having a much easier time keeping my weekly calories within my goal range.1
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To answer your question, yes! I am an intermittent faster and believe strongly in it as a method to actually tap into your fat stores, not just stored glycogen in your liver. What many people don't understand, is that fasting isn't about maintaining a caloric deficit; I average the same amount of weekly calories as I did prior to fasting. It's the understanding that obesity is a hormonal disease, and the culprit you need to control most is insulin.While insulin is spiked in your system after eating (and it's not just carbs, but excess protein), it signals the body to store fat and not burn it. Plainly, insulin makes you fat - ask someone who is a Type 2 diabetic and goes on insulin about their weight gain. Or ask Type 1 diabetics who dangerously cut back their insulin in order to lose weight. Whichever fasting program works best for you, will assure that during those hours your insulin will remain low, allowing your body to tap into your fat stores after your stored carbohydrates (in the form of glycogen in the liver) are exhausted in about 8 to 10 hours. If you do what I do, which is team intermittent fasting with a ketogenic diet, you will multiply your effect with no hunger during fasting. The other benefit of fasting and eating a larger calorie meal on your feast days is that you will avoid the dreaded metabolism slow down from consistent daily low caloric intake. I fast every other day, and the scale shows about a half pound loss per fasting day. Search up Dr. Jason Fung on YouTube, and check out his book on Intermittent Fasting. He lays the science out clearly and understandably. Good luck!
What you fail to see is that obesity is caused by eating too much. If you eat the same as you burn you won't put on weight. Anyone who takes what Jason Fung says as gospel follows woo instead of science.4 -
I love IF. I have my eating window and then I'm done. I don't crave salty snacks, normally my biggest downfall, nor sweets, nor do I ever feel starved. My husband and daughter can be munching on chips, popcorn, or whatever else kind of junk foods we have on hand and it doesn't phase me. I credit this to IF, axing coffee creamer (I just drink straight black now), as well as me filling up on mostly whole foods and/or minimally processed ones, rather than overly processed foods with added sugars and other junk. My carb intake averages about 120/day, so not low carb or high carb although sometimes I will have low carb meals. I haven't had heartburn in weeks, and I was a Zantac and/or TUMS everyday type for several years. I can't explain it aside from making healthier choices, but on 3 or more meal a day plans, though I ate healthier on those too, I still had heartburn, daily. So, I dunno. All I know is that heartburn sucks and I don't have it anymore. :-)
Regardless of how well it's working for me, it still boils down to calories in and calories out. I eat from 1200-1400 calories (actually working to keep eating more so when I plateau, I can then lower calories without falling below 1200), daily, and am working on eating calories earned by exercise. I feel like IF is something I can do for life and that's something I've never felt like I could do with "only eat this or that" type diets. I don't feel like I'm on a diet even though I'm counting calories, whereas smaller meals throughout the day, even ones meant to keep you full until the next meal, had me always feeling hungry, or they were too restrictive and I would end up stuffing my face with all kinds of crap before the next meal. I had no control whatsoever, whereas now I do--it's the number one reason I love the IF way of life.
5'5", 47 yo
Start Weight 3/5/2017: 224.8
Current Weight 5/10/17: 203.8
Average loss per week: 2.1 pounds0 -
To answer your question, yes! I am an intermittent faster and believe strongly in it as a method to actually tap into your fat stores, not just stored glycogen in your liver. What many people don't understand, is that fasting isn't about maintaining a caloric deficit; I average the same amount of weekly calories as I did prior to fasting. It's the understanding that obesity is a hormonal disease, and the culprit you need to control most is insulin. While insulin is spiked in your system after eating (and it's not just carbs, but excess protein), it signals the body to store fat and not burn it. Plainly, insulin makes you fat - ask someone who is a Type 2 diabetic and goes on insulin about their weight gain. Or ask Type 1 diabetics who dangerously cut back their insulin in order to lose weight. Whichever fasting program works best for you, will assure that during those hours your insulin will remain low, allowing your body to tap into your fat stores after your stored carbohydrates (in the form of glycogen in the liver) are exhausted in about 8 to 10 hours. If you do what I do, which is team intermittent fasting with a ketogenic diet, you will multiply your effect with no hunger during fasting. The other benefit of fasting and eating a larger calorie meal on your feast days is that you will avoid the dreaded metabolism slow down from consistent daily low caloric intake. I fast every other day, and the scale shows about a half pound loss per fasting day. Search up Dr. Jason Fung on YouTube, and check out his book on Intermittent Fasting. He lays the science out clearly and understandably. Good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I guess I wasn't around for the vote deciding that "FUNG is a 4 letter word around here." LOL0 -
justsmile535 wrote: »I've stared IF, this is my 3rd day. I'm following a OMAD method and only drinking coffee in the morning, followed by about 2-3 cups of tea (I switch between green, black, and herbal depending on the amount of caffeine I want to intake) and drink lots of water until the evening when I eat dinner with my boyfriend. So far it hasn't been that hard. The only problem I've had is a few stomach cramps due to taking some of my meds on an empty stomach but it's not terrible and goes away after rehydrating. My goal is to lose a decent amount for a wedding I'm going to in June and visiting some family and friends over the summer. I know there's a lot of controversy about IF but I feel like it works for me so that I can prevent overeating. I'm also attempting to go vegan. But for now I'm at least vegetarian and working on getting rid of dairy products because I believe I'm slightly lactose intolerant and dairy products are very fattening. I wish everyone else luck on their IF journey. (:
That's the thing there isn't a lot of controversy about IF, it's literally just a meal timing thing, and still requires a calorie deficit to lose weight. It takes the same calorie deficit doing a specific IF (I mean aren't we all really doing IF, since we don't eat 24 hours a day) to lose weight as it does to eat 15 meals a day.
The so called controversy lies in the people, trying to tell other people that there is some sort of fat burning power by doing IF compared to eating the same food not doing IF. IE the guy talking about Fung. It all comes back to people wanting to give credit to somebody or something else for their hard work. Doesn't make sense to me, I lost weight because I worked my butt off, and ate less than I burned, I'm not giving a specific diet credit for my hard work. Somebody else above said proof is in the pudding giving her weight loss credit to IF, instead of her own hard work.
That's oversimplification to the point of being wrong!
It's not just a meal timing thing. In fact timing is rather inconsequential, not the main factor. People can have completely different timing, timing of their choice. To me the biggest factor is the training and conditioning of the body to stop asking for food all the time or reduce the window.
The effect is not the same as if you eat 15 meals a day. For example if you fast 23 hours and eat only in one hour (there's a group that eat one meal a day), it's quite difficult that you overeat in one meal without knowing. The satiety factor is likely higher too if a meal is more substantial.
I think your oversimplification is not helping you in that you readily dismiss those who have tried things, gotten good results and might want to share. You're doing calorie deficit in a blunt way and no surprise that you feel like you "worked your butt off"
Something to think about.
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Im doing 16:8 fasting and have so far lost 6.3kg in just under 4 weeks. However ive also cut right back on my eating to about 1000 calories a day and dont feel hungry, heaps of eggs, apples, mandarins and lots of water, dont feel hungry0
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I did IF for 6 months and noticed great benefits including weight loss and a general lowering of my blood sugar and cholesterol levels. However I also noticed a lot of hair loss to the point where I thought i would go bald so I stopped IF. I have always been hypothyroid (20+ years) and my tsh is normal by being on synthroid. IF also made me lower my dossage of synthroid (which is good i guess) even after I stopped IF.
Has anyone had hair loss issues with IF. I would like to resume it but my endocrinologist and hair specialist are both recommending not to do this anymore. My body doesnt respond well overall to IF.1 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Fancy name for not eating the whole freaking time. Add some sciencey-sounding woo, and it all becomes legit. Gah.
Alternate Day Fasting is legit, but folks with short-term memory problems probably ought to avoid it. That is, if they can remember what we were talking about.0 -
reddwarf63 wrote: »Im doing 16:8 fasting and have so far lost 6.3kg in just under 4 weeks. However ive also cut right back on my eating to about 1000 calories a day and dont feel hungry, heaps of eggs, apples, mandarins and lots of water, dont feel hungry
if you arent under a drs care,extremely short,elderly or a combo of all those things 1000 calories is too little.thats almost 3.5 lbs a week,safe weight loss is 2lbs a week1
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