12 to 14 Hour Fasts, Do They Work?
AquaMeow
Posts: 296 Member
So I have been fasting from 7pm to 7am for the past few weeks and at first it was tough (because I feel the hungriest in the evening).
I was wondering does anyone fast on here and has it helped or hurt your weight loss goals. And what do you do to beat your evening cravings if you happen to have nighttime munchies lol.
Comment Below
I was wondering does anyone fast on here and has it helped or hurt your weight loss goals. And what do you do to beat your evening cravings if you happen to have nighttime munchies lol.
Comment Below
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They only help if they help/aid your diet and exercise goals. Other than that, there is no magic to them. Some people like the structure fasting gives and they have good success with it. Others don't and don't. But it's not the fasting that works or doesn't work, is whether or not fasting is a good fit for the person.15
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Enough food so you feel full until bedtime.3
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I just naturally don't eat from about 6:30 pm to about 9:30 am. I don't consider it a fast. That sounds silly to me. It's just my downtime.11
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The only reason to engage in any type of fasting is if it makes things easier on you. That is the only proven benefit right now. If it makes things harder you don't need it. What it does or does not do for anyone else might be interesting but it is not a reason to do it yourself.
All you need to do to lose weight is maintain a calorie deficit.7 -
If you want to try it move your hours back. Maybe 9pm to 9am. My fast is between 7pm and 11am. It took me a few days to get used to not eating after 7pm but I soon adjusted. Pick the hours that suits your schedule.1
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Fasting does not do anything special for weight loss. It's just one way that some people prefer to eat while in a calorie deficit.
There is nothing wrong with eating at night if you want to. The only reason not to eat at night is if it puts you over your calorie goal or makes it hard for you to sleep.
I guess technically, not eating from 7 pm to 7 am is a fast, but I generally just think about it as not eating while I'm asleep 12 -
I technically fast in that I don't eat for 12 hours after I've gone to bed most of the time. It's made no difference to weight loss.
I eat my dinner late to beat late night cravings, I usually eat around 8:30/9pm. Lost 35 pounds doing so, because it helped me remain in a calorie defict. (regained some since but unrelated to this topic).5 -
Been doing IF 16:8 (11 am to 7 pm eating window) for 4 months, in conjunction with strict calorie logging to hit my MFP-supplied calorie deficit. It was a hard adjustment at first, but it's gotten really easy, with less appetite and less food obsession than in the pre-IF days. Allllll those wasted calories that used to go into nighttime snacking are now applied to real food at real mealtimes, leading to much larger, more satisfying meals while still being able to hit the calorie target. Those big meals have led to less craving to go off plan for cheat meals, so there's hardly ever an off meal now. Which has led to very steady, consistent weight loss. I really like the whole approach. I don't buy into the New Age/pop theory stuff about IF somehow losing weight faster than non-IF - I think it's just a good way to structure the eating day. You basically get two "real" meals instead of 3 diet ones, and you learn to be a little hungry some of the time, which is a useful skill to have.
Every time we (my wife and I) have gone off IF for a day, it's led to the depressing cycle of binge eating, blowing past the calorie target, etc. For whatever reason - and I don't claim to know what it is - IF keeps us engaged with our diets in a positive way. I would like to keep doing IF forever, I think it's just a good structure for consuming food.6 -
A 12 hour "fast" is completely normal life for many people. That's finishing dinner at 8pm and having breakfast at 8am.13
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if fasting is not eating for 12 hours, most of it sleep time, then I've been fasting all my life! haha11
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As long as you're not eating over your calories in your non-fasted hours it will work. Its still all about CICO. Fasting is just another way to control calories in, but you still have to watch your calories.3
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I’ve never been someone who snacks in the evening. Never wake up and have to have something to eat, a drink of water, yes, but don’t feel the need to eat. As others have said, 7:00 pm to about 7:00 am is a natural fast time for me.3
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So I have been fasting from 7pm to 7am for the past few weeks and at first it was tough (because I feel the hungriest in the evening).
I was wondering does anyone fast on here and has it helped or hurt your weight loss goals. And what do you do to beat your evening cravings if you happen to have nighttime munchies lol.
Comment Below
If I don't have a bed time snack I wake up hungry in the middle of the night and that messes up my next day.
How many pounds do you want to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you chose? You many be hungry at night because your calorie deficit is overly aggressive for the amount of weight you want to lose.
Or you might not being getting enough of a particular macro that you need to feel full. For me, that is protein (and fiber).2 -
I currently "fast" for 16-21 hrs/day. Only started doing this 6 wks ago but I did not find it difficuly to do. Lost 8#/trend wt in that time. So, it has worked very well for me. However, results for others surely will differ.3
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I accidentally began mild fasting due to GERD. I have to stop eating at least 3 hours before bedtime. In the morning, I have to wait at least one hour to eat after taking meds. But one hour after waking, I am busy getting ready or doing other things, so breakfast is usually around 9 am. So, about a 14 hour fast for the past 1.75 years.
I would not say that a slightly longer than normal overnight fast has made much difference for me in being able to lose weight. Certainly, it made less difference than the large variety of foods that I had to stop eating.
I'm hungry by 8 PM, and I continue to be hungry until I eat breakfast. But, I am used to it.1 -
I have been 16:8 IF for about 3 years. It doesn't seem to make me lose weight faster per say, but what I find very helpful is that it contributes to me staying in control of binge eating which will happen for me quickly
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Been doing IF 16:8 (11 am to 7 pm eating window) for 4 months, in conjunction with strict calorie logging to hit my MFP-supplied calorie deficit. It was a hard adjustment at first, but it's gotten really easy, with less appetite and less food obsession than in the pre-IF days. Allllll those wasted calories that used to go into nighttime snacking are now applied to real food at real mealtimes, leading to much larger, more satisfying meals while still being able to hit the calorie target. Those big meals have led to less craving to go off plan for cheat meals, so there's hardly ever an off meal now. Which has led to very steady, consistent weight loss. I really like the whole approach. I don't buy into the New Age/pop theory stuff about IF somehow losing weight faster than non-IF - I think it's just a good way to structure the eating day. You basically get two "real" meals instead of 3 diet ones, and you learn to be a little hungry some of the time, which is a useful skill to have.
This is exactly my story. I've been doing IF 16:8 for about a month or so (10a-6p) and the weight has been coming off steadily. I don't think there's any magic with IF (based on my experiences) but this method keeps me from over indulging at night and I tend to eat meals that are more filling during the day.
Actually when I recall the last time I lost a significant amount of weight it was sort of IF based. I watched portion sizes, ate healthier meals and snacks and never ate after 6:00 pm.
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I just naturally don't eat from about 6:30 pm to about 9:30 am. I don't consider it a fast. That sounds silly to me. It's just my downtime.
Yeah, me too.
I don't snack, so I don't eat after dinner (I do usually eat dinner kind of late). Increasingly I've been skipping breakfast if I don't work out first thing in the morning, just because I'm not yet hungry. I don't find it makes a difference for me whether I eat breakfast or not, except that I can eat more at my other two meals if I don't eat breakfast.
I don't snack after dinner since I don't find snacking a satisfying way to consume my calories.1 -
I have been on what's called a 16/8 fast. On Monday's and Thursday's I do what's called 5/2 where I only eat 600 calories on those days. In between I eat well and exercise a lot. 25 lbs lost in 3.5 months. There are good days and bad days. Try to have a lot more good days than bad. It's not for everyone, but it works for me.1
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kshama2001 wrote: »So I have been fasting from 7pm to 7am for the past few weeks and at first it was tough (because I feel the hungriest in the evening).
I was wondering does anyone fast on here and has it helped or hurt your weight loss goals. And what do you do to beat your evening cravings if you happen to have nighttime munchies lol.
Comment Below
If I don't have a bed time snack I wake up hungry in the middle of the night and that messes up my next day.
How many pounds do you want to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you chose? You many be hungry at night because your calorie deficit is overly aggressive for the amount of weight you want to lose.
Or you might not being getting enough of a particular macro that you need to feel full. For me, that is protein (and fiber).
My calories is 1,240 daily and my goal weight is 120.1 -
Gilligan67 wrote: »I have been on what's called a 16/8 fast. On Monday's and Thursday's I do what's called 5/2 where I only eat 600 calories on those days. In between I eat well and exercise a lot. 25 lbs lost in 3.5 months. There are good days and bad days. Try to have a lot more good days than bad. It's not for everyone, but it works for me.
Good job! That's alot of weight to lose in 3 months!0 -
TBH, I don't consider that fasting. That's how the traditional 3 meals a day eating plan works if you don't have a snack after dinner. I think a lot of people just eat that way naturally.
Some days I probably go 12 hours between eating, other days less. I don't really think either has an effect on anything. It's all calories in vs. calories out.7 -
So I have been fasting from 7pm to 7am for the past few weeks and at first it was tough (because I feel the hungriest in the evening).
I was wondering does anyone fast on here and has it helped or hurt your weight loss goals. And what do you do to beat your evening cravings if you happen to have nighttime munchies lol.
Comment Below
I guess I fast for 12 hours daily. I eat breakfast at 9-10am and have dinner anywhere from 8-10pm. It's not intentional, just when I get hungry and when I end up going to bed.
What helps my weight loss, maintenance and or bulk goals is energy balance...3 -
I actually can't do it because I'm on medication I have to take with food (if I don't get at least 400 calories with the medication, I get dizzy and don't feel safe driving, etc., as I've experimented with this number a bit) twice a day, which for practical purposes (involving my job and not eating before doing cardio) means at about 7AM and about 8:30-9PM.
On the plus side, IF is absolutely not necessary for weight management if you can't make it work, and the medication finally has my blood pressure under control. (Losing weight did not help one bit with that.)
But in general I think it is nice to have a lot of different strategies so people can choose what works for them.2 -
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https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/intermittent-fasting/Dropout rates ranged from 0-65%. When comparing dropout rates between the fasting groups and continuous calorie restriction groups, no significant differences were found. Overall, the review did not find that intermittent fasting had a low dropout rate, and therefore was not necessarily easier to follow than other weight loss approaches.
When examining the 12 clinical trials that compared the fasting group with the continuous calorie restriction group, there was no significant difference in weight loss amounts or body composition changes.
Ten trials that investigated changes in appetite did not show an overall increase in appetite in the intermittent fasting groups despite significant weight loss and decreases in leptin hormone levels (a hormone that suppresses appetite).
A randomized controlled trial that followed 100 obese individuals for one year did not find intermittent fasting to be more effective than daily calorie restriction. [6] For the 6-month weight loss phase, subjects were either placed on an alternating day fast (alternating days of one meal of 25% of baseline calories versus 125% of baseline calories divided over three meals) or daily calorie restriction (75% of baseline calories divided over three meals) following the American Heart Association guidelines. After 6 months, calorie levels were increased by 25% in both groups with a goal of weight maintenance. Participant characteristics of the groups were similar; mostly women and generally healthy. The trial examined weight changes, compliance rates, and cardiovascular risk factors. Their findings when comparing the two groups:
No significant differences in weight loss, weight regain, or body composition (e.g., fat mass, lean mass).
No significant differences in blood pressure, heart rate, fasting glucose, and fasting insulin. At 12 months, although there were no differences in total cholesterol and triglycerides, the alternate-day fasting group showed significantly increased LDL cholesterol levels. The authors did not comment on a possible cause.
The dropout rate was higher in the alternate-day fasting group (38%) than in the daily calorie restriction group (29%). Interestingly, those in the fasting group actually ate less food than prescribed on non-fasting days though they ate more food than prescribed on fasting days.
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If you don't eat until later in the day, rather than fasting after eating the same day, you won't feel hungry after a certain amount of time. I used to intermittent fast/one meal a day kind of thing. After a few hours of hunger in the morning it goes away. If I ate anything I would actually be hungrier after a while. The longest I've fasted was 3 days. The first day in the morning I was hungriest. After 12 hours I didn't even want food anymore.0
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divinehipster69 wrote: »If you don't eat until later in the day, rather than fasting after eating the same day, you won't feel hungry after a certain amount of time. I used to intermittent fast/one meal a day kind of thing. After a few hours of hunger in the morning it goes away. If I ate anything I would actually be hungrier after a while.
A friend of mine ate the same way for a while. He said it was actually more difficult if he allowed himself a snack now and then, but not bad at all if he ate/drank nothing. I did OMAD back before it was a thing, and still do IF fairly frequently, but mostly because it's just easier to fit into my schedule.
I do vastly prefer the fasted workouts in the morning though. Food followed by a workout just leaves me feeling lethargic.2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »So I have been fasting from 7pm to 7am for the past few weeks and at first it was tough (because I feel the hungriest in the evening).
I was wondering does anyone fast on here and has it helped or hurt your weight loss goals. And what do you do to beat your evening cravings if you happen to have nighttime munchies lol.
Comment Below
If I don't have a bed time snack I wake up hungry in the middle of the night and that messes up my next day.
How many pounds do you want to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you chose? You many be hungry at night because your calorie deficit is overly aggressive for the amount of weight you want to lose.
Or you might not being getting enough of a particular macro that you need to feel full. For me, that is protein (and fiber).
My calories is 1,240 daily and my goal weight is 120.
Few more Qs:- How tall are you?
- How many pounds until you reach 120?
- What weekly weight loss goal did you chose?
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So I have been fasting from 7pm to 7am for the past few weeks and at first it was tough (because I feel the hungriest in the evening).
I was wondering does anyone fast on here and has it helped or hurt your weight loss goals. And what do you do to beat your evening cravings if you happen to have nighttime munchies lol.
Comment Below
I've been doing IF protocols for years now and for me personally, I realized that eating at night was due to habit and not actual hunger. After I figured that out it became much easier to 'close the kitchen' after my evening meal and now it feels really weird if I do have to eat at night (social situations etc).2
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