How to not mess up hormones when starting IF?
Replies
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@pierinifitness this was more in regards to IF and female hormones.... how long periods without food could potentially affect menstrual cycles and fertility. No one is blaming anything on weight gain. I would love to be able to control and manage my fertility with my weight alone. Oh how lovely that would be!!
This. OP was asking how to make sure IF didn't mess up her hormones, and you posted that the only way to not lose weight on IF is to be a glutton. Your follow up post is even farther off thread topic, while suggesting that in addition to being gluttons, women are trying to blame weight gain on female hormones.
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Just as an FYI to anyone reading who might also misunderstand the point of the OP, weight change (up or down) can sometimes throw off a woman's hormones, causing changes in monthly cycle and other physical characteristics. Losing weight quickly can cause a woman to lose her period and affect fertility. And there was the suggestion at some point in the media that women who fast for certain lengths of time might also throw off their hormone balance, causing changes to their cycles and fertility.
As many women do standard 16:8 and 5:2, I doubt it's a universal problem, but it's understandable that a woman who has experienced hormonal imbalance conditions or is currently interested in becoming pregnant would be concerned and ask the community for more info8 -
Your comment was: "What I learned from that experience is how hard it is to eat the calories one can eat in a normal eating pattern unless you're practicing gluttony. And, if you are practicing gluttony, you're not going to achieve weight loss no matter what eating schedule protocol you follow."
On the definition of gluttony: in casual conversation, yes, it means habitual excess in eating. That does not merely meaning "eating too many calories and gaining weight." It's commonly used to refer to eating huge amounts of food at a time (ironically) and gorging on expensive or wasteful things. A really good example of classic gluttony (in pretty much all ways) is Petronius' Dinner With Trimalchio section in the Satyricon (working title for Great Gatsby was Dinner With Trimalchio, btw, and Petronius was Nero's arbiter of taste, as well as an author of this truly bizarre novel that is fascinating for its insights into certain aspects of Roman culture).
More broadly, it's one of the seven deadly sins, and again the definition is more broad than merely eating. In particular, it is the sinful the overindulgence and overconsumption of anything. Excessive means both more than one needs (so habitually overeating to the point of obesity can be included -- but I note that you chose a word with an inherent moral connotation). The more significant use of the term is excessive in the sense of using more than your share, causing others to go without, not being willing to share with others. (And importantly again, this is not merely, or primarily, about food.)
According to St. Thomas Aquinas and others, gluttony would also include thinking about food excessively, over-anticipation of meals, and -- again similar to the conversational usage -- too much focus on fancy, costly, indulgent foods.
What I personally found incorrect in what you said was the idea that one cannot overeat when doing IF unless one is gluttonous, as if this were different from other ways of eating. If you were not trying to claim that was something different in general (and to insult those for whom IF doesn't work, or who find that they can easily gain on IF, not sure what you were trying to say -- I think you did not communicate it well).
FOR ME, it's FAR easier to gain weight (to mindlessly overeat) if I graze for a period of time on higher cal foods than if I eat 3 meals a day that basically fit my usual meal templates. I would find it very difficult to gain weight if I ate mindfully and only at regular meals (even if they are spread over the day, as mine are -- at 6, 12, and 9, usually). However, in contrast to you, I don't insist that someone for whom my preferred and easy schedule does not work must therefore be practicing gluttony. (An example of what I (unlike you) do not say: "what I learned from my experience in losing and maintaining weight is how hard it is to eat the calories in 3 standard time meals that one can following some other eating patterns unless you are practicing gluttony." See, that would be to suggest that anyone who tended to overeat on 3 meals = glutton, and that would not be correct. But it's precisely the same as what you said.)
I suppose you could argue that you only meant that no one gains weight without being a glutton, and while I think that's needlessly moralizing about the issue and not helpfully addressing the reasons many people find it easy to overeat without realizing how many calories they are consuming, I might have objected to that less. But that wouldn't explain why you were drawing a contrast between IF (IF works for everyone who is not a glutton) and other ways of eating. In theory, if eating more calories than you burn = gluttony in your mind, everyone who gains is a glutton and IF or no makes no difference. Just don't be a glutton. (But since that ignores the context and history of the word glutton, I would say it's a poor or uneducated word choice if that's the intended meaning.)11 -
On the hormone thing, I haven't studied it, so I would look into it if planning to do a more extreme version of IF, but given how many people routinely skip a meal and the variety of human eating patterns I can't imagine that merely eating in an 8 hour window would be a problem if you are eating enough and a well-balanced diet with enough fat.
I would be more concerned about extensive fasts, and I would be very careful that you don't pick a pattern that causes you to eat too low (or a less healthy diet to get in all the cals in a short window).3 -
Your comment was: "What I learned from that experience is how hard it is to eat the calories one can eat in a normal eating pattern unless you're practicing gluttony. And, if you are practicing gluttony, you're not going to achieve weight loss no matter what eating schedule protocol you follow."
On the definition of gluttony: in casual conversation, yes, it means habitual excess in eating. That does not merely meaning "eating too many calories and gaining weight." It's commonly used to refer to eating huge amounts of food at a time (ironically) and gorging on expensive or wasteful things. A really good example of classic gluttony (in pretty much all ways) is Petronius' Dinner With Trimalchio section in the Satyricon (working title for Great Gatsby was Dinner With Trimalchio, btw, and Petronius was Nero's arbiter of taste, as well as an author of this truly bizarre novel that is fascinating for its insights into certain aspects of Roman culture).
More broadly, it's one of the seven deadly sins, and again the definition is more broad than merely eating. In particular, it is the sinful the overindulgence and overconsumption of anything. Excessive means both more than one needs (so habitually overeating to the point of obesity can be included -- but I note that you chose a word with an inherent moral connotation). The more significant use of the term is excessive in the sense of using more than your share, causing others to go without, not being willing to share with others. (And importantly again, this is not merely, or primarily, about food.)
According to St. Thomas Aquinas and others, gluttony would also include thinking about food excessively, over-anticipation of meals, and -- again similar to the conversational usage -- too much focus on fancy, costly, indulgent foods.
What I personally found incorrect in what you said was the idea that one cannot overeat when doing IF unless one is gluttonous, as if this were different from other ways of eating. If you were not trying to claim that was something different in general (and to insult those for whom IF doesn't work, or who find that they can easily gain on IF, not sure what you were trying to say -- I think you did not communicate it well).
FOR ME, it's FAR easier to gain weight (to mindlessly overeat) if I graze for a period of time on higher cal foods than if I eat 3 meals a day that basically fit my usual meal templates. I would find it very difficult to gain weight if I ate mindfully and only at regular meals (even if they are spread over the day, as mine are -- at 6, 12, and 9, usually). However, in contrast to you, I don't insist that someone for whom my preferred and easy schedule does not work must therefore be practicing gluttony. (An example of what I (unlike you) do not say: "what I learned from my experience in losing and maintaining weight is how hard it is to eat the calories in 3 standard time meals that one can following some other eating patterns unless you are practicing gluttony." See, that would be to suggest that anyone who tended to overeat on 3 meals = glutton, and that would not be correct. But it's precisely the same as what you said.)
I suppose you could argue that you only meant that no one gains weight without being a glutton, and while I think that's needlessly moralizing about the issue and not helpfully addressing the reasons many people find it easy to overeat without realizing how many calories they are consuming, I might have objected to that less. But that wouldn't explain why you were drawing a contrast between IF (IF works for everyone who is not a glutton) and other ways of eating. In theory, if eating more calories than you burn = gluttony in your mind, everyone who gains is a glutton and IF or no makes no difference. Just don't be a glutton. (But since that ignores the context and history of the word glutton, I would say it's a poor or uneducated word choice if that's the intended meaning.)
I refreshed before I posted my reply which said "if you are so greedily consumed by your desire to eat that you would take food from a hungry person you are a glutton."4 -
Well, that would be a much shorter and better way to say basically the same thing!2
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The assertion that a person cannot gain weight on IF without engaging in gluttony is patently false. There are many people that bulk on IF without engaging in gluttonous behavior.
Gluttony, being inherently a moralistic term which was not part of the OP's question, has nothing to do with hormones, so I have to wonder why it would be brought into the discussion in the first place.
Regadless, under that theology, if a person were advocating IF on the idea that it made them more virtuous than other people who are not IF practitioners, it would be reasonable to think that person was falling into the error of Pride, another cardinal sin. Further, they would be failing to practice the cardinal virtue of Faith due to their putting that value on the materialistic idea of an eating pattern rather than the divine.
But, again, that's well away from the original scope of the OPs question.
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ummmm are there not meta analyses that measure these hormonal changes in women.. I dont have any of the problems hormonally, but IF has worked for me. Thats a fact I can attest to. Other people i know in real life have experienced the same thing...men and women..To the OP..I hope that you are able to find some solid answers....
Love,
Lee
[edited by MFP mods]5 -
I am not working out at this time but I have worked out fasted before. It increases autophagy whether you may believe it or not.11
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Fasting is healing to the body. I know you people dont agree, but you dont have to because I see the good results and positive effects in me..😁15
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lleeann2001 wrote: »I am not working out at this time but I have worked out fasted before. It increases autophagy whether you may believe it or not.
I think you can intermittently fast instead going days without food. If you feel some benefit great, I feel benefit to actually eating.
However I don't think you should be promoting what you are doing in the main forums.14 -
lleeann2001 wrote: »I am not working out at this time but I have worked out fasted before. It increases autophagy whether you may believe it or not.
How would I be able to measure this autophagy increase for myself? And does this have anything to do with hormone production?4 -
lleeann2001 wrote: »Fasting is healing to the body. I know you people dont agree, but you dont have to because I see the good results and positive effects in me..😁
I am glad you are seeing positive results. Unfortunately at this time the only proof that fasting is anyway beneficial is only in lab rats. All human studies have concluded no measurable benefit. If you have a pet rat that you want to keep healthy I suppose this is still good news though.8 -
Listen my pet rat is more healthy than I am! If I may say this, All the human studies that I need are in me. I see as you have said you are glad Im seeing positive results and so have tons of other people. These are the facts.And I speak of people that I know and see in real life. Its not a thing sought possibly in Utopia. .I SEE the results in me AND others. Thats all the proof I need really.I understand that IF is definitely NOT for everyone..Just as keto isnt. But if you have a WOE and exercise and/or diet that IS working for you,I would never tell you that you are delusional and that you are wrong , that it doesnt work. I respect everyones right to diet the way they wish...Sometimes we go through trial and error.. But if you find something healthy that works for you, I am the first one to say congratulations, Im happy you found something that works for you.. Who am I to tell you that your method is flawed..It doesnt make sense....Peace and Love to all. 🌹🌹11
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No one has said IF doesn't work for some people. All anyone has said is that there's no particular reason for people who don't find it helpful or prefer eating other ways and who already are having success to do IF.
People have also said that asserting that IF is a more virtuous or "disciplined" way of eating or that people for whom it does not work must be gluttons is inaccurate.6 -
pierinifitness wrote: »Now, someone asked me what my comment had to do about female hormones. I probably got off original topic as did others and for that I ask for your forgiveness. But, and this will result in more stones being thrown at me, this female hormone stuff is not a free card to hang your hat on with regard to weight gain. Men have hormones too. You don't hear me going around blaming my weight gain on my hormones. Nope, it's because I am or was a glutton. Now given, hormones can wreck havoc with one's body and us guys can have our testosterone which can contribute to us being ballistic at times, even get into fights, exhibit road rage, you name it. We all have a responsibility to manage our emotions and thoughts and be responsible for our conduct as a human being. If I eat like a glutton, I'll gain weight and I won't be blaming it on my hormones. Nor will I cry about it because I've gained a few lbs. and attribute it to my hormones. This hormone thing blame game is a woo at it's finest.
Everyone has testosterone. It's a myth that natal females just don't produce testosterone.4 -
@lemurcat2 I dont understand your statement. You guys have a good day...Ciao .💝3
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lleeann2001 wrote: »@lemurcat2 I dont understand your statement. You guys have a good day...Ciao .💝
I had a typo, which might be the problem. Anyway, I edited to make it clearer. Hope that helps!1 -
Back to the hormone thing, this is pretty interesting: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting-women
"An accompanying trend that’s emerged: While some women who try IF say it’s the best thing that’s happened to them since grapefruit, others report serious problems, including binge eating, metabolic disruption, lost menstrual periods, and early-onset menopause. This has happened in women as young as their mid-20s."
I would ignore the ad in the article, and note that it seems based on a rat study plus anecdotes, but I think it gives some good advice at the end. Don't do a form of IF that feels very stressful to you, do start gradually if it's a big change (some people have been grazing forever, whereas for some it's natural to eat in a narrow window already), and pay attention to negative effects and stop if there are any.5 -
lleeann2001 wrote: »Fasting is healing to the body. I know you people dont agree, but you dont have to because I see the good results and positive effects in me..😁
What good results are you referring to?1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »lleeann2001 wrote: »Fasting is healing to the body. I know you people dont agree, but you dont have to because I see the good results and positive effects in me..😁
What good results are you referring to?
I'm very curious about this myself. Because I lost the bulk of my weight adhering to an IF protocol, and now I'm leaning out chasing aesthetic goals not using one.
I really feel no different.
At all. Except my bras are looser
I'm an experienced dieter. I've tried everything, failed multiple times. I'm successful this time and have maintained a large weight loss for three years now, which is allowing me the luxury of playing around with vanity weight.
So, I'm interested in what measurable results someone else has that they can specifically attribute to IF alone.2
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