Back on trying to lose weight. Intermittent fasting?

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iGemi
iGemi Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,
I have gained back the 15 pounds that I've lost this summer unfortunately. I struggle so much with sticking to losing weight. I'm 5'2 and I'm 180 right now so I very much need to lose a lot.
I struggle with binge eating often. I'm always eating out of boredom or to help with my anxiety, but I'm really sick and tired of feeling horrible about how I look and feel and really want to finally stick to a lifestyle change.
I've recently read up on intermittent fasting and was wondering for any of you who have done or do it if it's something I should consider doing? I'm a bit skeptical about it and not sure if it's right for me because I feel like I wouldn't be able to take so many hours of not eating, but apparently it's great for weight loss and has many other benefits. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Replies

  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    edited December 2017
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    its not great for weight loss. Can easily still overeat in 8 hours or 16. Its just another tool some of us find helpful if say we dont get hungry in the morning until we eat, Or we prefer to eat at night, or simply feel sick eating in mornings if we eat. I am a night eater who mentally prefers to see i still have most my calories left vs being left hungry and with a choice to starve or go over my calories. I find it easy to just not eat in mornings and my appetite gets revved second i eat i wont stop for the rest of the day. Its just easier for some people, Would complicate it for others. Only you can know if it would be a useful tool for you
  • sdolan91
    sdolan91 Posts: 250 Member
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    Ive tried IF and I didn't like it. Try it out, it may help for you, but it's nothing magical - all it is it gives you a time frame to eat your calories. You still need to eat in a deficit to lose weight.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
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    There's nothing special about it, you still need to control your intake to maintain a calorie deficit. If it lines up with your natural preferences/tendencies, then it's probably worth trying. If it doesn't, then it probably isn't.

    Based on personal experience, if you tend to binge... I would be careful with IF. I'm not saying to not do it or that it will necessarily result in problems down the road, but I do think it's worth being a little extra vigilant if you have binge tendencies BEFORE starting IF.
  • iGemi
    iGemi Posts: 2 Member
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    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    its not great for weight loss. Can easily still overeat in 8 hours or 16. Its just another tool some of us find helpful if say we dont get hungry in the morning until we eat, Or we prefer to eat at night, or simply feel sick eating in mornings if we eat. I am a night eater who mentally prefers to see i still have most my calories left vs being left hungry and with a choice to starve or go over my calories. I find it easy to just not eat in mornings and my appetite gets revved second i eat i wont stop for the rest of the day. Its just easier for some people, Would complicate it for others. Only you can know if it would be a useful tool for you

    I was thinking about how easily I could just overeat in the 8 hours honestly. Thank you for this!
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
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    iGemi wrote: »
    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    its not great for weight loss. Can easily still overeat in 8 hours or 16. Its just another tool some of us find helpful if say we dont get hungry in the morning until we eat, Or we prefer to eat at night, or simply feel sick eating in mornings if we eat. I am a night eater who mentally prefers to see i still have most my calories left vs being left hungry and with a choice to starve or go over my calories. I find it easy to just not eat in mornings and my appetite gets revved second i eat i wont stop for the rest of the day. Its just easier for some people, Would complicate it for others. Only you can know if it would be a useful tool for you

    I was thinking about how easily I could just overeat in the 8 hours honestly. Thank you for this!

    Its not a diet, You wont lose any more or less eating in the 8 hours or whatever vs 16. Its just timing. Nothing about timing effects actual losses just like i said some people find it easier to help stick to their deficits this way. Its not a magic "diet", Just timing. Can help some people be more satisfied on less food. Some people prefer to graze all day they wouldnt like IF, And some people prefer big meals and would do great on it. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. Why we cant tell you what youd do good with. Just try it, If you can see yourself doing it forever go for it. If not, Not likely worth wasting time on as it has no benefit for you
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    edited December 2017
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    I have a history of binges and I tried IF before I started MFP. It wasn't a disaster for me, but it didn't "work" (in the weight loss sense). It was just too easy for me to eat enough to maintain even in a smaller window of eating. It also did trigger some episodes where I ate way more than I wanted to . . . not quite binges, but on the uncomfortable edge of binge-like eating. For me, going into my eating window hungry was more of a trigger than I felt comfortable with.

    I did like the structure of it and it did help me figure out more about what works for me and what doesn't. But in the end, given that I didn't lose weight, I didn't feel like the rigidity of having times of day that I didn't eat was something I needed or wanted to continue long-term.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    IF is an eating style, not a diet
  • brittyn3
    brittyn3 Posts: 481 Member
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    I've done IF - but not because it's a thing. I just prefer to eat majority of my calories at night. As many said, is it harder for you to limit calorie intake during the day or at night? I used to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner - but I really hated how small my dinner needed to be to maintain my deficit. I also love alcohol - this allows me for after work drinks as well.

    Try to think of the big picture - what can you maintain doing forever? Can you maintain only eating in a small window, for likely a long time - or do you need to eat throughout the day. I have lost, gained, lost - I didn't use a method I could maintain, hence gained weight back.

    It's a process. Just have to find the right process that works for you.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
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    You're grasping at straws and looking for solutions that don't relate to your problem. The problem is that you eat more calories than you burn, eating those calories in a smaller window will do nothing for you.

    From your description I don't get that you're really binging. That's a specific eating disorder that almost always requires professional help.

    It sounds like you overeat for various reasons and at various times: boredom, anxiety (which I'm guessing is more stress or worry than actual anxiety), etc.

    You need to address those issues if you want to see long term results. It's helpful to identify the real reasons for our struggles as opposed to overblown trendy terms to make it sound like it's out of our control. Work on identifying the real reasons you put the weight on and deal with those. Then you can implement a reasonable weight loss strategy you can successful follow long term.

    (Caveat: If you truly do have an ED, then get the professional help you need.)
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
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    ooh yeah thats another benefit for me, Saving calories until later in my day allows me to change plans. I tend to be pretty rigid and eat the same stuff just because iv been at this for 110 lbs down i know what works for me, But i enjoy feeling like i have options. Half my calories arent gone by like 3pm, So if i want to go out with friends i can still change my day around to fit it. Been helpful with dating hah. I like having set plans but i also like to feel in control and like i have options. IF helped me there
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited December 2017
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    Hey there! I'm also 5'2" and was 180 at the beginning of September, 169 now. You can totally do this! If you have a history of binging, IF might not be for you, but as others have said, IF is just another tool to help you get your calorie intake lower than your calorie output. People get very hung up on reports showing small benefits of one style of eating or another, and ignore the fact that the number one reason diets fail is because of lack of compliance. You absolutely, positively must find something that works for you, something you can stick with, and something that helps put you in a position to keep the weight off once you get to your goal.

    My tips (which absolutely might not work for you, but who knows!):

    1) Log everything without changing your diet for long enough to see what your eating habits are like.

    2) Chip away at the low hanging fruit - that is, where can you cut calories without compromising your quality of life? For me, I cut out sodas except for when I go to see a movie - it wasn't a huge change as I wasn't much of a soda drinker, but I was still having one or two a week, and switching those to water or ice tea knocked off a few hundred calories. Obviously, this part is going to be very individual.

    3) Don't let setbacks get you down. It takes 3500 calories OVER your maintenance calories to gain a pound of fat. It is very difficult for most people to eat that much in a day, so don't let yourself think you've ruined everything and might as well give up. Giving up is the number one thing that will almost certainly lead to weight gain. You've got to think long term. Which leads to...

    4) Think long term! When you reach your goal weight, you will have to eat less than you are eating now in order to stay at that weight. I am personally a big proponent of the slow and steady approach - start off slow, build up speed, then start slowing down again as you get closer to your goal. The way I'm eating now is the way I expect to eat for the rest of my life. I know some people find the idea of being in a deficit for months or years to be really overwhelming, but if you're patient, smaller deficits are also a lot easier to maintain because you get to eat more!

    Anyhow, good luck, and once again, you can do this!
  • brittyn3
    brittyn3 Posts: 481 Member
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    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    ooh yeah thats another benefit for me, Saving calories until later in my day allows me to change plans. I tend to be pretty rigid and eat the same stuff just because iv been at this for 110 lbs down i know what works for me, But i enjoy feeling like i have options. Half my calories arent gone by like 3pm, So if i want to go out with friends i can still change my day around to fit it. Been helpful with dating hah. I like having set plans but i also like to feel in control and like i have options. IF helped me there

    Same - I eat the same lunch everyday, and the same 5-7 dinners on rotation. The less you have to think about what you're going to eat, the easier it is to not miss things you had to cut back on.

    Totally agree on flexible for change of plans - in the past, when I didn't allow that, I was derailed.

    OP - great points from JaydedMiss, try planning out your menu for the week. If you can stomach it - eat relatively the same things until you get a grasp for what your deficit needs to be etc.
  • PokeyBug
    PokeyBug Posts: 482 Member
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    I use intermittent fasting to control my eating, because I honestly find it easier to control my calories that way. It's just easier for me to keep my intake down if I wait until 4:00 pm to start eating. Because I just can't stop myself from munching on things once I start. It takes a great deal of discipline at first. I've found that it helps to IF Monday through Friday and eat maintenance calories on Saturday and Sunday. I don't undo my week's work on the weekends, but I get to relax about my eating a bit. I'm hopeful that this technique will give me lots of practice at eating maintenance, because I apparently didn't learn to eat at maintenance the first time I lost my weight. *crossing fingers*
  • AbbyPort89
    AbbyPort89 Posts: 28 Member
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    I started IF about two weeks ago and have enjoyed it well. I started because I noticed when I eat breakfast at 8am by 10am I'm starving. Like not sure how I'm going to go on starving (ok, just a tad dramatic...). I have also noticed that when I skip breakfast, pre-counting calories, I could easily go until 3 or 4 in the afternoon without feeling hungry or having cravings.

    I decided instead of eating breakfast when I would normally eat breakfast, eat it with lunch. Not any more or less food, I just eat those two meals together at 1pm. Then I have enough gas in the tank to get me through my 7:00pm work-out and have dinner at 8pm-ish.

    I have not lost weight at a faster or slower rate. That all comes from CICO. "IF" simply helps me control hunger during the early part of the day.

    I saw a video by James Smith on facebook about why people can eat first thing in the morning and then all of a sudden they are starving just a few hours later. This was his explanation and it made a lot of sense to me. Take it for what you will.

    Most people's breakfasts containing a lot of carbs (mine typically do, cereal, granola bar, surgarey oatmeal, fruit, ect.). When you break the fast you enter from sleeping, with a carb rich meal, your blood sugar goes up and your pancreas will try to get your blood sugar back to baseline as quickly as it can. For some people their pancreas can give you too much insulin, bringing your blood sugar wayyy below baseline. This can often be when people feel their "sweet tooth" be the strongest. The hunger hormone, known as Grehlin, is typically in full effect when this is happening, giving you "false hunger" until your blood sugar gets back up to baseline.

    So for me, I've found IF to help a lot with that whole process.

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Weight gain has nothing to do with bad luck, and everything to do with consistent overeating. WHY you overeat, doesn't matter for your weight gain. But you should definitely get help for your anxiety, and do something so you're not bored (or learn to accept some boredom; anxiety treatment often includes tolerating anxiety as well).

    Being really sick and tired of feeling horrible about how you look and feel, isn't enough to be able to stick to a lifestyle change, you have to be really sick and tired of your current lifestyle, and find a lifestyle you want to stick to, not because it makes you lose (and maintain) weight (if you stick to it), but because you like it better than your old lifestyle.

    You will be perfectly able to not eat for a few hours. What not eating for a few hours doesn't do, however, is magically make you lose weight. You still have to eat less, for real, consistently, and for a long time, and then not starting overeating again.

    The "many other benefits" of "intermittent fasting" are most likely woo. But it sounds great because it disguises the fact that you have to eat less, and just difficult enough to justify not doing it. Losing weight is simple. Eat whenever you want, just don't eat too much.
  • blambo61
    blambo61 Posts: 4,372 Member
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    I've lost 55-lbs doing IF and have kept it off for more than 2-years. It helps me a lot from overeating. Once I start eating, it is hard for me to not keep eating. I don't get that hungry if I don't start eating so it helps me a lot. If a person can overeat in a short eating window, they probably can also easily overeat in a longer time window. See Intermittent fasting and OMAD threads for people who are doing this. I get to eat tell full each day and that has helped me to stay with the diet for a long time. I do a 20:4 when trying to lose weight (eating ad libitum in the eating window) and a 16:8 for maintenance and that woe have resulted in my calories being such that I do lose on the 20:4 and maintain on the 16:8. On those threads I mentioned, there are people who have been able to control binge eating while doing this.

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