Intermittent fasting: sounds bad

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Replies

  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    edited October 2018
    rsclause wrote: »
    I don't really see why people are negative toward IF and some are very negative. I don't do IF but the way I see it if someone likes it more power to them and vise versa. I mean you can't sell it other than hope people by a book on it. As far as magic goes you can skip a meal and lower caloric intake but only if you keep a normal portion as your other meals. If your total daily calories are the same I guess you let the magic out.

    I don't think most people are negative on IF per se. Many folks commenting do or have done IF, including me. I think people are more negative about unproven claims like the autophagy benefit, which has not been demonstrated in human studies. Just like other things that get touted as fadslike paleo, keto, atkins and now IF, there is no magic to these things for either weight loss or health (with a few exceptions for special conditions, eg. keto and epilepsy).

    I am a big proponent of IF for keeping hunger signalling under control for some and for staying on target with calorie goals. The rest is just unproven noise at this point. As further study takes place, who knows what will emerge? But it is premature to start claiming some of these benefits at this point.

    Edited to add: IF doesn't take a lot of willpower if it is a good fit for you. Some folks just aren't hungry early in the day and can delay the first meal easily. For these people, IF can be a good calorie control tool and is fairly easy to execute. It is really sustainable and it not a willpower kind of thing for those for whom it is a good fit.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »

    So basically, if you eat like a normal person you're still getting the "magic"? 12 hours or more is pretty normal between dinner and breakfast, at least for people I know. Are all of them (including myself in the past when I was morbidly obese) were under the influence of IF magic?

    That's just where the magic starts :lol:

    According to the guy in the video, the chart is from Dr. Ted Naiman, who I googled and it turns out he is a primary care physician who grew up a nerdy vegetarian with eczema but now that he does low carb he has a 6-pack. And he refers his patients to dietdoctor .com :neutral:

    Autophagy is a super new concept with very little data to back it up, so all the snake-oil salesman are drumming it up because they know there's so little definitive data out there that a quick google search can't "disprove" it, and most people don't understand how science works so they think that means it's legit.

    What's interesting is that I've always lived with that "magic", getting a minimum of 14 hours between dinner and breakfast every single day for as long as I can remember and yet I got morbidly obese and managed to get pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Unless I acquired some superpower I'm not aware of, the magic doesn't appear to be potent.

    Any you were only drinking pure water during these 14 hours and no sodas or anything else when you got morbidly obese? God is watching.

    Funnily enough, I only drink water for thirst. It was a cultural shock when I found out people drink something other than water for thirst. My soda intake was something like 1-3 times a month in the summer and almost none in the winter.
  • williamgowjr
    williamgowjr Posts: 18 Member
    Here is my daily regiment:
    Up at 6am but I don't eat until lunch (200-400 calories).
    I'll grab a snack around 2pm (100 calories or so)
    I then eat dinner around 5pm and try to keep it under 800 calories.
    It becomes easy once you've acclimated to it but I'll admit...it was difficult to adjust to for a month or so. When I felt cravings coming on, I would drink tons of water to get myself over it.
  • Xerogs
    Xerogs Posts: 328 Member
    Everyone fasts overnight....hence break fast or breakfast. There are many difference varieties out there some extreme some not so much. I've never been a early morning eater so I typically don't eat from 7pm until 11-11:30am the next day and I've been doing that for decades before IF became a topic of discussion. Find what works for you and incorporate that into your lifestyle and listen to your body.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    I did IF easily for a long time until my training schedule changed and I required more calories. I naturally didn't get hungry until around 2pm and had a bad habit of night binging. IF was a good fit because all I did was cut out my unhealthy night binges. It was a very healthy choice for me at the time and helped me reach a healthy BMI weight. I'd have black coffee in the morning (still all I have unless I run before work) and then a small lunch or snack around 2pm followed by a large dinner.

    Now I need to eat more so I have oatmeal after my run mornings and eat a lunch every day around 11:30-noon. My largest meal is still dinner usually making up over half of my daily calories.

    I could personally never do the 5-6 small meals during the day style of eating. I get ill if I eat too early most days and those little meals would never leave me feeling full and satisfied. My large evening meal helps because I can't fall asleep if I'm hungry at all.
  • rfajitas12345
    rfajitas12345 Posts: 27 Member
    Create a calorie deficit is all it is - and you can achieve this through eating less, but reasonable, amount on a daily basis. You could also achieve this by skipping meals or timing your meals in different ways. It doesn't matter how you do it - as long as you're always on a deficit, you'll lose weight.
  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,143 Member
    julubeet 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?

    Many are combining keto and IF. I signed up today because my nutritionist/health coach recommended a paleo diet but recently recommended IF. They told me that IF has many health benefits and speeds up recovery and the healing process.

    Also said that it triggers autopathy, the process that filters out dysfunctional and damaged cells. That it improves heart function, boosts metabolism, reduces oxidative stress, hair, skin, nails and insulin resistance, stimulates brain function. They told me to aim for 22 hours aday of fasting to get all of these benefits.

    This is why people are doing it because they have been told that it will fix everything. But I had to reassess what I was hearing and reading. I decided that I would eat 3 meals aday and follow along here. I'm not going to do the keto/IF combo or fast 22 hours daily. I think MFP is going to be a better fit for me.

    No, it isn't why people are doing it. Your nutritionist is an idiot. I do it because it fits my schedule and I'm just not hungry until late afternoons.