Intermittent fasting: sounds bad

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Replies

  • walking2running
    walking2running Posts: 140 Member
    Intermittent fasting can be 'bad' or 'good' depending on what you make of it! I use some of the Intermittent fasting strategies on weekends. 1200 calories can only go that far, and on the weekends, I like to indulge a bit more, have some bread and cheese and pizza. IF allows me to enjoy slightly bigger meals by skipping breakfast. Skipping breakfast has always been a "no-no" in my head until IF opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking. I wasn't ruining my metabolism by skipping breakfast? Wow, how liberating.

    Yeah, I don't do the full 5:2 or 18:6, but you can learn the good and throw away the bad from all kinds of fad diets and crazes. I tried 5:2 and it wasn't for me. I have small kids and there's no way I can have the energy to run after them on those fasting days. Didn't work for me and I was hangry and miserable.
  • maggiejo717
    maggiejo717 Posts: 3 Member
    Fasting helped me lose weight and took my mind off of food actually- I only have to plan 2 meals...I don’t eat after 8pm and I wait to eat till after noon, I do drink a lot of water and have a cup of coffee in the morning also. The first couple days I was hungry in the morning so I ate at 10, but after I wasn’t hungry until noon! Try it out :)
  • WholeFoods4Lyfe
    WholeFoods4Lyfe Posts: 1,518 Member
    kds10 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    I'm confused by it too. If you are eating breakfast and having a light lunch and then a substantial dinner and consume the same number of calories in a shorter period of time, why does it work? I'm sure it is more involved involved than that. Does it matter what foods you consume and is there a calorie target. I know a lot of people seem to believe it broke though a weight plateau for them.
    Because calories are what matter, not what time you eat them.

    It helped me lose (and now maintain) because I'm not that hungry in the morning - I can easily get by with a cup of coffee until around noon - 1:00 pm most days. I'd prefer to have more calories in the evening, when I'm at my hungriest, for a nice big dinner and some ice cream for dessert. The only difference between losing weight and maintaining is that I eat a few hundred more calories in those same meals.

    If I eat breakfast early in the morning, it turns on my hunger and I'm starving by lunch time, then after a big lunch I have less calories left for dinner and I'm hungry all night afterward. It doesn't work that way for everybody, but that's how it works for me. I do best when I eat "breakfast" around lunch time, have a small mid-afternoon snack, and a big dinner.

    There's really nothing confusing about it - it's all about satiety and adherence. Some people are grazers, they do better with multiple small meals throughout the day; others do better with 3, 2, or even 1 big meal per day. Whatever works best to help one stick to their calorie goals is what offers the best chance of success. Trying to white knuckle your way through something that's a bad fit for you is rarely going to last.

    I skip breakfast but unlike others, I do get hungry thru the morning however I just push thru it. It is worse during the week when I am at work because I am just sitting at a desk but on the weekends way more easier because I am usually working out in the a.m.

    IF has taught me that it is okay to feel hunger, I am not going to die from it. It has controlled my eating and even in the past 4.5 months the very odd day that I have blown it, I get right back on track. I honestly think I would not have lost 25 lbs in four months had I not implemented it. I tried everything before: eat small meals thru the day, eat less (which sounds great but you need a strategy for it), don't eat this or that, nothing sustained for me until IF.

    I can adjust it as I see fit according to what the day will bring.

    What you are experiencing is likely not true hunger if on the weekends when your mind and body is otherwise occupied you are fine fasting. More than likely it's boredom or maybe even habit. Just offering a different perspective. I find that for myself getting up and walking around for a few minutes usually works.
  • kds10
    kds10 Posts: 452 Member
    kds10 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    I'm confused by it too. If you are eating breakfast and having a light lunch and then a substantial dinner and consume the same number of calories in a shorter period of time, why does it work? I'm sure it is more involved involved than that. Does it matter what foods you consume and is there a calorie target. I know a lot of people seem to believe it broke though a weight plateau for them.
    Because calories are what matter, not what time you eat them.

    It helped me lose (and now maintain) because I'm not that hungry in the morning - I can easily get by with a cup of coffee until around noon - 1:00 pm most days. I'd prefer to have more calories in the evening, when I'm at my hungriest, for a nice big dinner and some ice cream for dessert. The only difference between losing weight and maintaining is that I eat a few hundred more calories in those same meals.

    If I eat breakfast early in the morning, it turns on my hunger and I'm starving by lunch time, then after a big lunch I have less calories left for dinner and I'm hungry all night afterward. It doesn't work that way for everybody, but that's how it works for me. I do best when I eat "breakfast" around lunch time, have a small mid-afternoon snack, and a big dinner.

    There's really nothing confusing about it - it's all about satiety and adherence. Some people are grazers, they do better with multiple small meals throughout the day; others do better with 3, 2, or even 1 big meal per day. Whatever works best to help one stick to their calorie goals is what offers the best chance of success. Trying to white knuckle your way through something that's a bad fit for you is rarely going to last.

    I skip breakfast but unlike others, I do get hungry thru the morning however I just push thru it. It is worse during the week when I am at work because I am just sitting at a desk but on the weekends way more easier because I am usually working out in the a.m.

    IF has taught me that it is okay to feel hunger, I am not going to die from it. It has controlled my eating and even in the past 4.5 months the very odd day that I have blown it, I get right back on track. I honestly think I would not have lost 25 lbs in four months had I not implemented it. I tried everything before: eat small meals thru the day, eat less (which sounds great but you need a strategy for it), don't eat this or that, nothing sustained for me until IF.

    I can adjust it as I see fit according to what the day will bring.

    What you are experiencing is likely not true hunger if on the weekends when your mind and body is otherwise occupied you are fine fasting. More than likely it's boredom or maybe even habit. Just offering a different perspective. I find that for myself getting up and walking around for a few minutes usually works.

    ^^^agree:)
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    ^^ This - for me, a good solid workout is the best appetite suppressant that I have found.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,426 MFP Moderator
    Personally, I hated doing 16:8. I was always starving and felt like crap. I perform much better doing 3 large meals a day.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    It really doesn't matter what time you eat; but if it helps you adhere to your daily calories then it's a great tool. I don't eat my first meal until 1pm and I would wager a guess I eat more than most women here. I cut easily on 1900 cals/day @ 145lbs so I'm not sure what sounds unhealthy about how someone else times their eating.
  • Stellamom2018
    Stellamom2018 Posts: 120 Member
    I naturally do this now that I listen to my body about when I'm actually hungry. I usually stop eating around 7 or 8 PM and then I eat lunch around 11 or 12 the next day. I'm not a breakfast person so i dont waste the calories on it, I just haven't joined the bandwagon to make a big deal about it.
  • elsie6hickman
    elsie6hickman Posts: 3,864 Member
    This is very interesting. I just read today that there are a number of iterations of IF, some that involve fasting 24 hours, and then eating the next 8. My feeling is this - if you find what works for you and doesn't make you sick, then it is a good thing. We humans are so unique. I don't think it would work for me (although I do eat 3 meals, I don't snack much and I am always done with eating by 6pm.) but maybe I am doing some variation and it is working. The only time I feel hungry is when I have fish for both lunch and dinner.
  • SuzOh
    SuzOh Posts: 262 Member
    kds10 wrote: »
    I have been seeing more people talk about intermittent fasting as a weight lost tactic. This seems....unhealthy. Where have people gotten this idea recently?

    I don't think so. I fast including overnight sleep time between 16 to 18 hours per day. I eat lots of fruit and veggies, calcium, fiber, protein, etc. during my eating time.

    Unhealthy to me is when I weighed just about 40 lbs heavier and was on blood pressure meds.

    I researched IF on my own and decided to try 14/10 which was suggested for women, instead of 16/8. I just started so can't really say if it is helping me jump start more consistent weight loss (my reason for trying it), but I can say I'm really hungry.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,168 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4516560/

    If people want to understand the impacts of IF using human and animal trials, I recommend reading this 2016 meta-analysis.

    Thanks, Psu! :flowerforyou: