Intermittent Fasting

I'm doing IF 20:4 with MFP counting cals to be sure I don;t go over. And yes I can go over my cal limit for the day in four hours easy peasy.

I do anywhere from 16:8 to 19:5. I love eating this way. I like a big meal. I still watch and count calories. Which is a lot easier when you are eliminating one or two meals a day and snacks.

Eating small meals throughout the day involved a lot of prep and packing and it was never enough to fill me up.

If that’s how you like to eat, go for it.

Drink lots of water. And be patient. It takes some time to adjust.

IF works great for me. I really have never "craved" breakfast but ate it because I thought I had to have "something" to get thru the morning. LOL. I 99% stick with 16:8 and it fits wonderfully into my daily schedule. Breakfast has been replaced with an early morning walk every day. IF has also led to an easy reduction of daily calories. I love to cook and plan all meals with "healthy" foods. The only time I really alter the schedule is for planned engagements or if away on a special getaway.

Back in 2013 I weighed 405. I lost roughly 200 lbs. and have kept the majority of it off for 4-5 yrs...then started slacking with habits for about 12 mos. Started IF last May and should be back to goal within 2 months more days

Seems like the above posters have covered the pro's and con's pretty well. I'll address your other three questions.

Yes, you must count calories if you do IF.

Eating in an 8 hr window is the most popular and probably the easiest form of IF. I eat in a 7 hr window because I find it easier, and you'll probably do your own fine-tuning along those lines, but 16:8 is a good place to start.

As far as whether to do it 7 days a week: I think it's a good idea when you start IF to get a solid month under your belt of 7 days a week. There's an adjustment involved, more psychological than physical -- getting used to not eating anything most of the time, and getting used to ignoring hunger pangs and not reaching for food every time you feel a tiny bit hungry or get a craving. These are immensely useful skills for dieting, which IF provides, but you have to really get in there and do it full time for a while to lock in these new behaviors.

After a month or thereabouts, you'll probably start loosening up a bit, taking some days off from IF. Nothing wrong with that. Social obligations and such do not always fit with IF and it's best to be flexible once you're in the swing of things. I don't have scheduled non-IF days but if a day comes up where it doesn't fit, I don't try to force-fit it, I rearrange my food schedule around other things. Remember, IF is here to make your diet easier, not harder.

Been doing IF purely to help stop evening snacking. It worked from that aspect. But I like to run in the morning and not have something before I run was not working well. So now I stop eating at around 7pm, or after my evening meal, then just half a banana and a coffee in the morning, then nothing till lunch. A split IF if you will.

Purests will say I've eliminated the "benefits" by having a banana but those benefits have yet to be proven to occur in humans.

IF is about improving your body's production of insulin and energy usage, not about losing weight. It *can* help you losing weight if you pair it up with a diet, and some people find they naturally eat less as they effectively skip a meal, but it's not its primary focus.

I do 16/8, Mon-Fri I have a yogurt and a banana at 11am, lunch at 1pm, snack at 3pm, and dinner at 6pm; Sat-Sun I'll skip the 11am meal and have dinner a little later.

My pros and cons:
Pros - it has improved my mental clarity in the morning, it has even made me less crabby. It saved me a lot of money as I am not buying breakfast on the go anymore. It massively improved my bowel functions (I have IBS) and in general I feel lighter and less bloated. I've always preferred eating big meals and feeling full instead of having 5 small meals anyway, so this works great and even after eating a big meal I don't feel uncomfortably full and lethargic like I used to.

Cons - it takes a bit to get used to, especially if breakfast is your favourite meal like it was for me. It can be difficult to pair up with an active social life as you need to think in advance about when you can eat, alcohol counts so if you start eating at 1pm but then go out and keep drinking till midnight that was not an IF day. This was not an issue for me as I rarely go out and drink very little alcohol anyway, but it can be an issue for other people.

IAmGainingHealth wrote: »

I am using a combination of intermittent fasting, and low carb mainly.

[b}One endocrinologist told me that intermittent fasting is scientifically proven to aid weight loss.[/b]

Only if it helps you stay at a calorie deficit. It does nothing in and of itself in terms of weight loss.