IF - how do you choose your eating window?
jelleigh
Posts: 743 Member
I see people do 16:8, 20:4 (that sounds hard) 14:10. How do you choose what window to do? Do you start with a larger window and 'ease I to it'? Does having a smaller window impact how effective it is?
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IF is simply a means of achieving a calorie deficit, because some people find it easier to control their calorie intake if they have a set window to eat within. Beyond that, it has no magical weight loss properties. So, find what works for you
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You can choose whatever fits your lifestyle, appetite, schedule. Effective as in "how much weight is lost" is down to calorie deficit, effective as in "how easy to stick to calorie deficit" is down to how well your meal plan fits your lifestyle, appetite, schedule.
I ate 6-7 meals when I lost weight, then I settled for 4, then I just couldn't fit in the fourth meal, and eating 3 meals 3-4 hours apart just felt right, natural, easy, to me. This is how we ate when we were effortlessly normal weight. I'm effortlessly normal weight. "Intermittent fasting" is a silly name for not eating all the time, but if that is what it takes to make kids not eat all the time, I'm very much for.6 -
It doesn't make any difference... just eat how it works for you. I don't eat breakfast so I guess I eat between noon and 8 or so. Sometimes I will have a night time snack later than that. Sometimes I don't eat past 6.1
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As others have said... it doesn't matter all that much, so start with whatever best lines up with your normal habits/preferences.0
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I started out 14:10 going from 12-10 or 1-11 the first couple of weeks.
Then 16:8 going from 1-9 or 2-10 or 3-11 sometimes even up to 5-1 (mostly weekends).
I have attempted doing 20:4 a couple of times and really want to start doing 5:2 where I fast for 24 hours twice a week but I am not there yet.
I notice the longer I go without eating, the more my appetite decreases so I think to a certain extent, the shorter frame is better (in my case), but any of the frames are fine in my opinion.
What is the most beneficial thing to me about IF is that it brings a great awareness to how much we eat and how dysfunctional eating can become if we allow it to. IF kind of takes that away because you don't have to focus so much on food. I prefer eating later in the day because I can really focus on my job throughout the day and not on food until lunch or right before its time to go home and I am more snackish at night so having dinner later keeps me from wanting to snack at night.
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What do you mean by "effective?" That is the word to which everyone is replying. "Effective" is eating the correct number of calories for your weight-loss. I do IF, but only because that's how I normally eat anyway. Late breakfast, early dinner, a midday small snack. I like to be full when I eat and that means 500-700 calories per meal. Little meals frustrate me, so I do best with two larger meals and either a snack or a dessert.0
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I went from a "natural" 16:8, to a 18:6, to a 20:4, and now a 24 hours fast once a week with a 20:4 split most other days. I chose the hours for my window (afternoon/evening) based on my workout schedule and enjoying a large dinner.0
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Thanks for the responses everyone! By effective I guess I was wondering if people felt that one time frame was easier, more sustainable, that they had more energy or whatever. I guess it's a silly phrase. I had read on one of the threads that when people plateaued , IF helped them break through it. It didn't sound like it was a change in calorie intake - just a change in habits enough to help the body break through? I don't know - just wanted to see if that was a thing. Has anyone noticed IF helping during plateaus?0
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I haven't eaten more "extreme" than 18:6, so I can only compare with what I did before: spreading out my meals for 12 hours, and I'm in maintenance, so it's difficult to compare with doing something else while losing - I think it's easy to stick to my planned meals when I have a cutoff, but it was also easy when eating all through the day. The difference for me lies in having planned meals, and sticking to them, I think, not the exact timing. Spacing of meals just happen to coincide with a couple of common IF protocols (lol to "protocol", too).Thanks for the responses everyone! By effective I guess I was wondering if people felt that one time frame was easier, more sustainable, that they had more energy or whatever. I guess it's a silly phrase.
IF does nothing directly for energy, just indirectly, through the confidence I build from experiencing that I can wait for a meal, and the flexibility I get from not having to make sure I eat at certain times or intervals, and I'm less preoccupied with food, so I have more mental energy for other things.
I think this above all shows how adaptable we humans are, and how easily and seductively - paradoxically both random and specific, and often contradictory - "sciency"-sounding advice and myths can catch on, like "don't skip breakfast or you'll binge later" and "eat every three hours or your metabolism will become sluggish", and "give your digestive system a break by fasting for 24 hours".
Pure coincidence, and we are better at paying attention to the unusual than to the ordinary, and we tend to see what we expect to see - or as above, better adherence, so in reality, decrease in calorie intake. I really dislike the whole idea of plateaus - it's just a misunderstanding about how weight loss works - you may be losing weight without realizing it, because of water weight fluctuations; but if you're really not losing weight, you're eating at maintenance; and if you think you are eating at a deficit, your logging is off.I had read on one of the threads that when people plateaued , IF helped them break through it. It didn't sound like it was a change in calorie intake - just a change in habits enough to help the body break through? I don't know - just wanted to see if that was a thing. Has anyone noticed IF helping during plateaus?5 -
All depends on your schedule of the day. If I have to wake up at 5:30am and drive to work, I have no apetite for breakfast at all, and actually no time for food prep. When I am at work I'm so busy that I have no time to think about food and have also no breaks. All this preocuppation going till 3-4pm and then, when I'm back in the car to go home, here I am geting hungry. For that I have all my veggies cut and berries prepped in my lunch bag. Then I have time to make dinner by 6pm and this is last meal of the day. This becomse a 20/4 or 22/2 IF. It's going very naturally and no hunger feeling at all.
Just choose what works for you2 -
When I did IF I chose mine based on my natural hunger and eating patterns. I tend to be most hungry after 2pm until bedtime and rarely have an appetite earlier unless I've worked out. 16:8 with an eating window of 2-10pm was easy for me.
I still eat that way sometimes but I'm training harder now and at different times during the day so I've had to become more flexible0 -
So when I decided to try IF, the first thing I did was to see how long after I wake up I could comfortably wait to eat. I found over a couple of weeks that I couldn't push it later than noon. So I figured I'd start with 16-8 and make my window 12PM - 8PM. Ultimately I discovered that skipping my late night snack was making me feel deprived, so I stopped trying to IF, but I did decide to continue skipping breakfast, as it doesn't make me hungrier during the day and it makes it easier for me to fit that late night snack into my calories. But if 16-8 had worked, I probably wouldn't have gone shorter than that, as most of my family and friends who I often have dinner with like to eat later, so stopping earlier than 8PM wouldn't have been practical. So you just have to play around with it and find what works for you 1
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what the hell are you guys talking about..lol. Obvously i missed the newest diet trend.
it sounds interesting though. How does it work?0 -
I would think one would start the window at whatever time they usually eat breakfast and end it at the the end of supper. Essentially, it is just a way to make not snacking at night seem special.2
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Thanks for the responses everyone! By effective I guess I was wondering if people felt that one time frame was easier, more sustainable, that they had more energy or whatever. I guess it's a silly phrase. I had read on one of the threads that when people plateaued , IF helped them break through it. It didn't sound like it was a change in calorie intake - just a change in habits enough to help the body break through? I don't know - just wanted to see if that was a thing. Has anyone noticed IF helping during plateaus?
I did IF for a couple of weeks when I stalled losing weight. I did the 8 hour window from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The benefit was IF reduced my appetite by making me wait until 11 a.m. to eat and then not snack after 7 p.m. My weight loss stall ended and I began losing again. I was not in a real plateau -- I had simply been eating too much before.
I forgot to answer the OP's question, which was how did I choose my window. I get up about 5 a.m. When I started doing IF, I felt 11 a.m. was as long as I could go without eating anything, so I chose 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.1 -
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Schedule & convenience. How else would you choose it? Any other way would make adherence difficult to impossible.1
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karintalley wrote: »what the hell are you guys talking about..lol. Obvously i missed the newest diet trend.
it sounds interesting though. How does it work?
Pssst... google.2 -
Ya I've seen on here that most choose based on what is convenient and from just a straight calorie restriction perspective that makes total sense. But from my research of Intermittent Fasting , the point of extended fasting times had other health implications including positive effects to insulin levels, hormone balances, cell repair, brain function etc. I think those things don't kick in unless the fasting window is fairly long though? But I suppose in my instance it doesn't matter since I AM more interested in having a way to break a plateau.5
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I eat when i am hungry and often but i am burning out an average of 3000 to 4000 calories a day.
I mostly eat at 0600 Train - 0930 Train 1230 -1500 and 1700 nothing after dinner. But everybody is different i feel good with a 30% carb/30% fat/40% proteins diet. No processed food at all.1 -
It makes sense because it's fact.Ya I've seen on here that most choose based on what is convenient and from just a straight calorie restriction perspective that makes total sense.
You got wooed because this is woo.But from my research of Intermittent Fasting , the point of extended fasting times had other health implications including positive effects to insulin levels, hormone balances, cell repair, brain function etc. I think those things don't kick in unless the fasting window is fairly long though?
Plateaus don't exist so you can't break them. You have to reduce calorie intake and/or be more patient.But I suppose in my instance it doesn't matter since I AM more interested in having a way to break a plateau.1 -
Ya I've seen on here that most choose based on what is convenient and from just a straight calorie restriction perspective that makes total sense. But from my research of Intermittent Fasting , the point of extended fasting times had other health implications including positive effects to insulin levels, hormone balances, cell repair, brain function etc. I think those things don't kick in unless the fasting window is fairly long though? But I suppose in my instance it doesn't matter since I AM more interested in having a way to break a plateau.
I've read similar things, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, the advantages to extended fasting as it relates to those things is exceptionally small and need an exceptionally specific set of circumstances to be valid. I don't think it's something the average MFPer should worry about or benefit from.2 -
Ya I've seen on here that most choose based on what is convenient and from just a straight calorie restriction perspective that makes total sense. But from my research of Intermittent Fasting , the point of extended fasting times had other health implications including positive effects to insulin levels, hormone balances, cell repair, brain function etc. I think those things don't kick in unless the fasting window is fairly long though? But I suppose in my instance it doesn't matter since I AM more interested in having a way to break a plateau.
Most of the benefits of IF are the same benefits one gets from a calorie deficit regardless of the style of eating. There haven't been a great deal of human studies, but those that have been done show no advantage to IF vs all day eating when caloric deficit and protein intake are similar.1 -
Thanks for the responses everyone! By effective I guess I was wondering if people felt that one time frame was easier, more sustainable, that they had more energy or whatever. I guess it's a silly phrase. I had read on one of the threads that when people plateaued , IF helped them break through it. It didn't sound like it was a change in calorie intake - just a change in habits enough to help the body break through? I don't know - just wanted to see if that was a thing. Has anyone noticed IF helping during plateaus?
It's very individual. I am in a group of over 50, 000 IFers and everyone will answer something different. Experiment with a few and see which one allows you to best adhere to your goals. For me that's 4:3. I eat maintenance 4 days a week and up to 600 calories 3 days a week. I just do very lean protein and green steamed veggies on my lower days. It makes it easier to lose because I travel for work a ton. So while I can estimate when eating out, I'm never 100% sure that I didn't go over my maintenance calories on my up days. So those low days ensure a deficit week over a week.0 -
I see people do 16:8, 20:4 (that sounds hard) 14:10. How do you choose what window to do? Do you start with a larger window and 'ease I to it'? Does having a smaller window impact how effective it is?
Hey Jelleigh, this is an amazing podcast on learning more about IF: http://theshawnstevensonmodel.com/health-benefits-of-fasting/
i am not affiliated with this website at all.. just trying to give you the best advice!1 -
karintalley wrote: »what the hell are you guys talking about..lol. Obvously i missed the newest diet trend.
it sounds interesting though. How does it work?
Pssst... google.
Well thanks for that. Nothing like a diet and weight loss forum where your fellow members tells you to go and look for answers somewhere else.3 -
I see people do 16:8, 20:4 (that sounds hard) 14:10. How do you choose what window to do? Do you start with a larger window and 'ease I to it'? Does having a smaller window impact how effective it is?
I don't understand this. I understand IF means intermittent fasting, but what do the numbers mean?0 -
MaddMaestro wrote: »I see people do 16:8, 20:4 (that sounds hard) 14:10. How do you choose what window to do? Do you start with a larger window and 'ease I to it'? Does having a smaller window impact how effective it is?
I don't understand this. I understand IF means intermittent fasting, but what do the numbers mean?
I guess it means in a 24 hour period, if the numbers are 16:8...that means you can eat for 8 hours and 16 hours you don't eat. You have an 8 hour window to eat.
But I'm not sure...I was told to google the answer. 0 -
Well, for me there's two variables: how long I can comfortably fast without compromising weight loss (ravenous hunger is a recipe for disaster) and how much food I can eat in a fixed amount of time. Fasting is little issue for me but it is for some. I could do more than 16 hours if it wasn't for the second variable. I'm a slow eater who gets full quickly, so if I did less than 8 hours I would need to like dump butter on everything to hit my calorie goal which is less than ideal.
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karintalley wrote: »karintalley wrote: »what the hell are you guys talking about..lol. Obvously i missed the newest diet trend.
it sounds interesting though. How does it work?
Pssst... google.
Well thanks for that. Nothing like a diet and weight loss forum where your fellow members tells you to go and look for answers somewhere else.
I think the idea was there is no need to hijack OPs thread, they already know what IF is. You could either Google it or start your own thread.
Short answer - IF is intermittent fasting - Eating during a short window of time or in a specific eat/fast cycle to control hunger.1
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