Intermittent Fasting

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palanceh
palanceh Posts: 7 Member
in Food and Nutrition
... seems to be a lot of books of late about unlocking obesity and other clever topics. Likewise for solving Diabetes Type 2. Most of the conversations center about intermittent fasting (IF). Does anyone have experience with this topic? Successes? Failures?

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  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
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    I tend to think a lot of what's said now about intermittent fasting is utter nonsense.

    For some people, (I'm one of them), it's a good way to control their appetite.

    I was raised in the "breakfast is the best meal of the day" generation, and always thought you needed to eat breakfast.

    Some time back in the 90's, I realized that eating early in the day turned on what I call my "appetite switch" for the day, and when I ate an early breakfast, I ate more throughout the day.

    The interesting thing about this was that I was low carbing at the time, so this had nothing to do with macronutrients or any supposed effects of blood sugar crashes or anything of the like. It was just a pattern I noticed on days when I only had time in the morning for coffee. I ate less those days.

    So I started skipping breakfast.

    Mind you, at this point in my life, I was still eating too much food for what my body needed. And therein lies the rub. IF'ing isn't a magic bullet. I ate less overall food, but I still ate too many calories.

    And this is the case with whatever method you employ. It all comes down to caloric balance.

    I prefer delaying my first meal until around 2:00 in the afternoon as a means of appetite regulation and meal spacing. I don't think it offers any special benefits beyond that.
  • Mslmesq
    Mslmesq Posts: 1,001 Member
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    My husband swears by it. He’s always been thin, but now he’s actually too thin. So I wish he would stop. He tells me to do it, but I prefer to just lose slowly by eating at a deficit.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Here's a group:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/49-intermittent-fasting
  • palanceh
    palanceh Posts: 7 Member
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    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    I tend to think a lot of what's said now about intermittent fasting is utter nonsense.

    For some people, (I'm one of them), it's a good way to control their appetite.

    I was raised in the "breakfast is the best meal of the day" generation, and always thought you needed to eat breakfast.

    Some time back in the 90's, I realized that eating early in the day turned on what I call my "appetite switch" for the day, and when I ate an early breakfast, I ate more throughout the day.

    The interesting thing about this was that I was low carbing at the time, so this had nothing to do with macronutrients or any supposed effects of blood sugar crashes or anything of the like. It was just a pattern I noticed on days when I only had time in the morning for coffee. I ate less those days.

    So I started skipping breakfast.

    Mind you, at this point in my life, I was still eating too much food for what my body needed. And therein lies the rub. IF'ing isn't a magic bullet. I ate less overall food, but I still ate too many calories.

    And this is the case with whatever method you employ. It all comes down to caloric balance.

    I prefer delaying my first meal until around 2:00 in the afternoon as a means of appetite regulation and meal spacing. I don't think it offers any special benefits beyond that.
    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    I tend to think a lot of what's said now about intermittent fasting is utter nonsense.

    For some people, (I'm one of them), it's a good way to control their appetite.

    I was raised in the "breakfast is the best meal of the day" generation, and always thought you needed to eat breakfast.

    Some time back in the 90's, I realized that eating early in the day turned on what I call my "appetite switch" for the day, and when I ate an early breakfast, I ate more throughout the day.

    The interesting thing about this was that I was low carbing at the time, so this had nothing to do with macronutrients or any supposed effects of blood sugar crashes or anything of the like. It was just a pattern I noticed on days when I only had time in the morning for coffee. I ate less those days.

    So I started skipping breakfast.

    Mind you, at this point in my life, I was still eating too much food for what my body needed. And therein lies the rub. IF'ing isn't a magic bullet. I ate less overall food, but I still ate too many calories.

    And this is the case with whatever method you employ. It all comes down to caloric balance.

    I prefer delaying my first meal until around 2:00 in the afternoon as a means of appetite regulation and meal spacing. I don't think it offers any special benefits beyond that.

    @GottaBurnEmAll - Thank you for the thorough response!
  • palanceh
    palanceh Posts: 7 Member
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    Mslmesq wrote: »
    My husband swears by it. He’s always been thin, but now he’s actually too thin. So I wish he would stop. He tells me to do it, but I prefer to just lose slowly by eating at a deficit.

    @Mslmesq - understood. I have an 80 year old uncle who eats 1 meal per day, essentially a 24 hours fast dinner to dinner each day ... NEVER had a problem with his weight. My wife is more like you, lose weight slow and steady. For now, I’m just eating when I’m hungry each day, no more time based eating. So far I’m down from 327 to 307. We’ll see how this goes.

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Unlocking obesity has to involve eating less, consistently, for real and forever. If not eating all the time makes you do that, it's your personal solution. Muddying the waters is not good for anyone.
  • bronaghCPM
    bronaghCPM Posts: 26 Member
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    Even calling it intermittent fasting is over-complicating it. I get more pleasure out of food later in the day and dislike shoveling porridge into my mouth like a zombie in the morning just for the sake of it. So I have my last meal around 6pm and don't break my fast until after midday the next day, it's just what works for me.
    I don't see the point in eating when I don't feel like it, but equally I wouldn't go denying myself food when I'm hungry. If you have to force yourself to fast then I would say it's probably not for you.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I've done a couple of IF protocols with mixed results and would advise reading articles and research with a really critical if not cynical eye.
    There's some dreadful cherry picking of results and leaps to conclusions not actually supported by credible and relevant research - "oh look this mouse did really when only being fed every other day so therefore skipping breakfast is awesome for humans". ;)

    However, it clearly is a powerful and convenient way for some people to manage their diet (noun) and calorie intake better or easier.
    There's not much to lose by trying it and even if you don't like it you may learn something to your advantage. Hunger signals and how food choices and timing can affect that for example.
  • Calichusetts
    Calichusetts Posts: 100 Member
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    Worked for me...dropped 60 pounds. Mainly because my fast started in late afternoon and...well...who eats healthy at night? I called it the "gremlin" rule of not eating after 7 but was basically IF before I even knew it was a thing.

    Also, I started working out and just in general eating healthy, which combined with any "diet" of "fad" will probably work.
  • xhunter561
    xhunter561 Posts: 77 Member
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    palanceh wrote: »
    ... seems to be a lot of books of late about unlocking obesity and other clever topics. Likewise for solving Diabetes Type 2. Most of the conversations center about intermittent fasting (IF). Does anyone have experience with this topic? Successes? Failures?

    most fasting is safe up till the 75 hour mark where the benefits taper off. IF is rather good in the sense you can reduce the amount of times insulin is spiked making your body insulin sensitive again. personally I love IF and alternate day fasting but that is what works best for me. For most people Do really well on a IF fasting schedule eating in 8 hour windows or 4 hours eating windows. IF is the lest likely to be harmful to your health in the sense your still getting nutrition you need if your at the maintaining weight but if your looking to drop a few pounds you can mix IF with low insulin spiking foods to get a really big boost to the weight loss. The only major hurdles is getting the blood sugar and Ghrelin (hunger hormone, this is normally triggered around your normal eating times basically if you say eat at 7 am 12 pm and 6 pm this is the hormone that will trigger about those given times expecting foods. on a IF eating schedule after this hormone is readjusted you will only be hungry around the eating window if its the same each and every day till you change it up. this is given your diet isn't high in simple carbs/net carbs which will spike blood sugar which can also make you feel hungrier than you actually are. If you do have this problem try a little apple cider vinegar.) But for the most part IF is pretty amazing and I normally fast and eat keto for other health reasons. If your doing it for weight loss your likely going to see results and have a few extra perks but that differs between person to person depending on your food tolerances and genetics.

    In short yes it's effective and can be very effective for people with very busy lives and very active lives who don't have more than a little time to eat, it can make you insulin sensitive and bring blood sugars under control if done right but it's not the only way to get the results if your the type of person that likes more than one meal a day threw out the day.

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