Intermittent fasting

Katrina, Intermittent Fasting is just an eating schedule. There are a lot of different protocols people use.

For women it seems 16:8 or 14:10 are good schedules with which to start.

If you are using it for weight loss, drink whatever you want that keeps you within calories in order to lose weight. Weight loss is about calories. The idea with IF is to not intake calories during your fasting window, but it isn't an engraved-in-stone "rule" because nothing bad will happen if you do. IF is just a way to help you stay in calories by limiting you from eating mindlessly all day and night, and by doing so that helps some people curtail eating. It doesn't trick your body to lose weight. It isn't a hack, it's still about calories.

[edited by MFP Mods]

If you eat your first meal at 6am and your last meal at 8pm, you're already fasting 10 hours a day, every day. That makes your feeding window 14 hours. Tighten that up an hour on each end and you eat 12 hours and fast 12 hours. While you're fasting the body uses the glucose stored in the liver and muscle. As your blood glucose level drops those stores are released to fuel digestion, heart, lungs and all the other organs. It takes approximately 12 hours to deplete those stores. If you extend your fasting period to 14 hours once or twice a week you'll start burning energy stored in the fat cells. Once you "break-fast" you'll replenish your stores and feed your systems with the foods you eat throughout the day.

Not wishing to flame but what nillagfx says is wrong - losing weight is totally about calories in being less than calories out - you can't defy the laws of physics. What dieting is about is to try and make calorie deficit bearable and as efficient as possible. Fasting is just one strategy of many.

People here see will attempts to eat less than 1200 calories in a day as a red flag and will tell you so, but some people find that something like a 5/2 diet works really well for them. You can eat or drink whatever you like on a fast day, as long as you remain below the set level of calories. Just like any other sensible diet.

But - and it's a big but, the number one rule for healthy fasting is that you must still eat a sensible level of calories overall and fast days must be interspersed with several days of proper eating to bring you up to a healthy total weekly intake of food. Make sure you follow a proper diet plan. It is absolutely not acceptable to fast day after day. At best you'll feel terrible. At worst you are on your way to an eating disorder.

I gave an honest answer to the questions. Other people here seem to think cortisol, insulin and hormones have nothing to do with weight loss which I would say it does, hugely. I read many studies on the matter and gave you my answers with keeping my integrity in check. At the end of the day, take what everyone here said including me with a grain of salt. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Stick to science, not going to respond anymore because I know it’s an ongoing debate in the fitness world. Good luck.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8YA9lQawvCU

TeresaW1020 wrote: »

I just started IF and my advice is to do your research. There is a lot of info out there and a lot of different opinions on exactly what IF is and what is allowed and not allowed. I personally really like what Dr. Jason Fung has to say. This is a good article to get you started and there are a ton of YouTube videos to watch.

https://betterhumans.coach.me/the-difference-between-fasting-and-caloric-restriction-f93bb44a0534?fbclid=IwAR1mWBRCQCHtpw5tQoGP1xI1KECY0WVK9eYdMO5EriHBLi8-a9eS9349MVI

Fung is a quack and not regarded as trustworthy.

pierinifitness wrote: »

To all IF enthusiasts, join the IF sub-forum for a supporting woo-free atmosphere. I’ll greet you when you arrive.

I hope your sub-forum puts quacks like Fung and Berg under the microscope and rips their idiocy to shreds?

(Speaking as someone who has done IF and found it really helpful.)

nillagfx wrote: »

I gave an honest answer to the questions. Other people here seem to think cortisol, insulin and hormones have nothing to do with weight loss which I would say it does, hugely. I read many studies on the matter and gave you my answers with keeping my integrity in check. At the end of the day, take what everyone here said including me with a grain of salt. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Stick to science, not going to respond anymore because I know it’s an ongoing debate in the fitness world. Good luck.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8YA9lQawvCU

These hormones affect your hunger which can easily result in weight gain or weight loss because of the amount you are eating. Their effect on your actual calories burned is actually quite small.