Intermittent fasting success?

mhlew
mhlew Posts: 377 Member
edited November 27 in Food and Nutrition
I have found it’s working for me. Here has been my routine and I have lost about 10lbs this month

630-11am will consist of fasted cardio, coffee for breakfast (the coffee curbs my appetite)

11am-7pm will consist of lunch (veggies, chicken, acacado roll,etc). Then I will get in a second work out which will involve lifting as well then a light dinner.

No food past 7pm

Has anyone had success with intermittent fasting? Would
Love to hear your stories or challenges with it. And any progress pics!

Replies

  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    I had success doing IF when I wanted to lose weight. I also had success maintaining my weight doing IF. When I wanted to purposefully gain weight, I still had success doing IF...... Because meal timing is not really important and its the overall calorie intake that matters.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    Success or failure with intermittent fasting will come from whether or not you control your calorie intake and stick to your goal. What time of the day you eat those foods is irrelevant. If it works for you and is helping you stick to your calorie goals, go with it - other than that, there's no magic to intermittent fasting.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited August 2018
    I have had success with many different meal schedules. They all worked because I was eating an appropriate amount of calories and nutrients, not because of the timing, that sometimes was within the scope of an "IF protocol".

    We love mysteries and magic, we yearn to be scared and entertained and work hard. We are also dying to explain to others how things work. We also need to figure it out for ourselves.
  • swimmchick87
    swimmchick87 Posts: 458 Member
    edited August 2018
    Like the others said, IF is just a way that helps some people stick to their calorie goals. I'd been doing it for awhile before I realized there was an official name for it, just because it helps me stick to my calorie goals. Most mornings I'm not hungry anyway and am satisfied with just coffee, so I never eat breakfast.

    I end up eating from around noon-8 pm most work days. At one point I tried little meals/snacks all throughout the day, and that did NOT work for me. Even though I was eating every 1-2 hours, I was never satisfied and always starving. Having two bigger meals works a lot better for me.

    If IF is doable for you and helping you stick to your calorie goals, by all means continue. If you are white knuckling it and doing it because you think it will somehow lead to more weight loss than eating the same amount of calories at other times during the day, don't do it.
  • CathyVee
    CathyVee Posts: 117 Member
    IF has been a big part of helping with weight loss. I love being able to have two fairly large meals, especially since my calories for weight loss are 1200-1350 calories. I used to be one of those people who ate 6 small meals a day believing it had some sort of magical effect on my metabolism. I don’t believe IF is magical. What matters most is keeping to your calorie limits.

    My eating window varies depending on my work schedule. Sometimes I can’t eat lunch until 1:30-2:00 and I may stop eating at 8:00. I often have a 18/6 instead of 16/8 window. There have been some days where I’ve started eating earlier (work meeting with breakfast served). I don’t sweat it—just get back to regular eating pattern the next day.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    An established meal pattern helps me a lot. As far as IF being the magic bullet... No... a meal pattern that can help control appetite and calories.... yes... We can actually teach our self when to be hungry, to a point. I have observed people at my work all tend to go to lunch at the same time. Now this might be just a strange correlation, but i think it has to do with hormones and Pavlovian response. As much as we hate to admit it, we are not far off from dogs. Especially is men! Jk
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    RickInHouston wrote: »
    57 years old / 5'8" / started May 1 at 165 lbs.

    I counted calories sticking with 1400 and under (but I would eat / add my exercise calories). I got to 162 lbs and hit a wall for 3 weeks without any movement.

    I quit routinely eating my exercise calories and got down to 159 lbs and hit a wall for 3 weeks.

    I will say my middle section was looking better. Clothes fit differently even though the scale seemed stuck.

    I started IF a week ago. Today the scale says 156.5!

    I'm swearing by IF even though it has only been a week (I'm also hoping it's not that my wife and kid have been out of town during that time). I'm a biology major and putting your body in a fasting state and keeping it there without a single calorie cheat for 16 to 18 hours makes sense to me.

    Also, the published studies of it back the science.

    This weight amount is completely new territory for me in the past 15 years. My goal is below 150 and seeing what that is like. Then, I'm immediately driving to the DMV and getting a new driver's license photo!

    Why does it make sense compared to eating at, say, 7 AM/1 PM/7 PM? IF only works if it helps people stick to their calories (deficit/maintenance/surplus). And from what I've seen the science has not been fully proven. @AnvilHead can you confirm?
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    Why does it make sense compared to eating at, say, 7 AM/1 PM/7 PM? IF only works if it helps people stick to their calories (deficit/maintenance/surplus). And from what I've seen the science has not been fully proven. @AnvilHead can you confirm?

    All the research I've seen shows that there is no advantage to intermittent fasting (IF) over any other form of caloric restriction when it comes to weight loss. Any "advantage" depends upon whether IF results in increased adherence to one's calorie goal (which it may or may not, varying on an individual basis) - which goes right back to CICO being the driving factor behind weight loss.

    A few links to published research:

    A balanced take on IF from the International Society of Sports Nutrition's Position Stand on Diets and Body Composition (scroll down to "Intermittent Fasting" heading):
    https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0174-y#Sec3


    Meta-analysis linked from above paper:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26384657?dopt=Abstract


    Dr. Brad Schoenfeld on IF:
    https://www.dymatize-athletic-nutrition.com/en_GB/why-dymatize/blog/intermittent-fasting-fat-loss-and-better-health


    Year-long study on IF vs. traditional calorie restriction:
    https://www.myoleanfitness.com/intermittent-fasting-vs-traditional-dieting/


    12-week study on IF:
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561417301255


    Research review on IF (multiple studies referenced/linked):
    https://www.iifym.com/intermittent-fasting-myths-debunked/
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