Fasting

You still need to control your calories. If IF helps you do that, then great.

No matter the weight loss plan, it’s always about eating less calories than your body burns. How you get there, and what you call the plan, is a personal choice, and what works best for you.

I do IF just to work around all my medications that shouldn't be taken with food and can't be taken together. I generally don't eat anything until 11:30 in the morning and then I have dinner around 6 and don't eat anything after that, unless I need to fit in more calories and was too full at dinner. The IF has really helped keep insulin resistance from PCOS under control. I still count calories, because my activity level can fluctuate a lot between seasons, work, and medical issues, so I try to audit my weight trend vs my calories periodically (once every month or two) to make sure I'm not over or under eating.

I haven't, but these guys did, and explain what they liked and did not like about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntVykcueZE8

khcrmo wrote: »

CILLAJ8 wrote: »

I started IF last July and have lost 22 pounds so far. I mainly do 16:8. Longest fast was 21 hours. I have not missed a fast yet. I use a fasting app to keep track. It has helped me stick to it. Weekends are hard for me because I’m home with two young kids that always want snacks. 😄 I do love this lifestyle. Weekdays I skip breakfast, eat lunch, a snack and dinner. Weekends I usually eat breakfast if I close my eating window early enough the day before.

Yes i cook for my 3 young boys and my husband, so being around food all the time might make it hard. But the reason it interested me so much is because i have never naturally been a breakfast eater. I am used to getting told its the most important meal of the day, and have had a really hard time when ive tried to impliment it in the past. I do however have a problem with coffee filled with sugary creamer, and night time snacking. So those would probably be my biggest obstacles.

Great job on your success so far

If you have trouble with IF, it might not be the way of eating for you. It's just meal timing and nothing more.

khcrmo wrote: »

CILLAJ8 wrote: »

I started IF last July and have lost 22 pounds so far. I mainly do 16:8. Longest fast was 21 hours. I have not missed a fast yet. I use a fasting app to keep track. It has helped me stick to it. Weekends are hard for me because I’m home with two young kids that always want snacks. 😄 I do love this lifestyle. Weekdays I skip breakfast, eat lunch, a snack and dinner. Weekends I usually eat breakfast if I close my eating window early enough the day before.

Yes i cook for my 3 young boys and my husband, so being around food all the time might make it hard. But the reason it interested me so much is because i have never naturally been a breakfast eater. I am used to getting told its the most important meal of the day, and have had a really hard time when ive tried to impliment it in the past. I do however have a problem with coffee filled with sugary creamer, and night time snacking. So those would probably be my biggest obstacles.

Great job on your success so far

khcrmo wrote: »

CILLAJ8 wrote: »

I started IF last July and have lost 22 pounds so far. I mainly do 16:8. Longest fast was 21 hours. I have not missed a fast yet. I use a fasting app to keep track. It has helped me stick to it. Weekends are hard for me because I’m home with two young kids that always want snacks. 😄 I do love this lifestyle. Weekdays I skip breakfast, eat lunch, a snack and dinner. Weekends I usually eat breakfast if I close my eating window early enough the day before.

Yes i cook for my 3 young boys and my husband, so being around food all the time might make it hard. But the reason it interested me so much is because i have never naturally been a breakfast eater. I am used to getting told its the most important meal of the day, and have had a really hard time when ive tried to impliment it in the past. I do however have a problem with coffee filled with sugary creamer, and night time snacking. So those would probably be my biggest obstacles.

Great job on your success so far

khcrmo wrote: »

CILLAJ8 wrote: »

I started IF last July and have lost 22 pounds so far. I mainly do 16:8. Longest fast was 21 hours. I have not missed a fast yet. I use a fasting app to keep track. It has helped me stick to it. Weekends are hard for me because I’m home with two young kids that always want snacks. 😄 I do love this lifestyle. Weekdays I skip breakfast, eat lunch, a snack and dinner. Weekends I usually eat breakfast if I close my eating window early enough the day before.

Yes i cook for my 3 young boys and my husband, so being around food all the time might make it hard. But the reason it interested me so much is because i have never naturally been a breakfast eater. I am used to getting told its the most important meal of the day, and have had a really hard time when ive tried to impliment it in the past. I do however have a problem with coffee filled with sugary creamer, and night time snacking. So those would probably be my biggest obstacles.

Great job on your success so far

I too like my coffee creamer. I can only drink black coffee if it’s iced but it’s too cold for they right now. I switch to green tea in the morning and if I really want that coffee I have it when my eating window opens.

khcrmo wrote: »

freda78 wrote: »

I have been doing IF for 6 or 7 months and have lost over 50 pounds so far, averaging around 2 pound a week, and have about the same amount to go.

I started doing 5:2, then I went to 2:1 but for the last couple of weeks I have shifted to 4:3 as this suits my current work and domestic life pattern a bit more.

So at the moment I am restricting myself to 600 calories on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at the weekend I allow myself 1800.

I binge if I restrict over an extended period of time but being able to eat good sized meals 4 days a week has meant I have not had a single binge session since starting IF - so it is working for me.

Might be a stupid question but...
5:2 and 4:3 make sense... but what is 2:1?
Eat two days fast for one? And then repeat?

Yes, that's right. I just did a rolling programme of 1500, 1500, 500.

But I am out and away from food all day on Wednesday at the moment, until around 8pm at night, so that is an easy fast day so I have decided to up my maximum calories on both fast and non-fast days and to fast three fixed days a week instead of two that move.

16:8 has been the key for me. I have dieted and gained back my whole adult life. But I also bought into the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" mantra. For me, it is not. If I have breakfast I wake up the hunger monster. Since 2016 I have been doing 16:8 and it has worked well for me in both losing (a lot - I was obese and am now a healthy weight) and keeping off. It is now a lifestyle. I may occasionally have breakfast on holiday but even then I usually don't. I count calories and eat a quarter of my daily allowance at around 2pm, another quarter at around 5pm and the last half for dinner at around 8.30pm.

khcrmo wrote: »

Was it hard to start? I dont have too hard of a time not eating in the morning, but its hard for me to cut myselfnoff at night...

That's exactly why I started... to save calories for my evening snacks, lol!

I didnt find it too hard, especially once I realized how many extra calories I had for after dinner this way.

If you're hungry before your 'eating window' try some broth or hot tea/coffee. Hot beverages work much better than cold, IMO.

I'm not into fasting myself.

As you said, it is CICO. It works for many people because they are taking in less calories than they are burning off. Some people don't realize this exactly, others do, some people fail with it, some succeed with it.

One of my weight loss friends lost the majority of her weight through doing intermittent fasting. She was basically *the* intermittent fasting gal. She could almost be called an expert at it in her devotion. She absolutely thrived on it, and it made her weight loss go much smoother than if she hadn't used it.

I always knew fasting wasn't for me, but due to her enthusiasm, I did give it a try, just to see how it'd go.

I only did it about 3 times. It was so exciting for me. I had all these plans set up, what days I'd eat how many calories. Honestly, on those days where I ate under 500 calories, it wasn't hard.

But, I quickly gave up. I find it much easier to eat under 1800 calories 7 days a week than to eat 2,000 calories 5 days a week but 2 days of under 500. (Or other variations of intermittent fasting). It's mostly that I just can't stick with it. For example, if I were supposed to fast one day, I could say "Well, I'll just do it tomorrow instead..." but then I wouldn't.

If it's something you're interested in trying, I say go for it. You never know. It could be the method you need. Trying it out doesn't mean you need to make a commitment to it. It just means you're checking out if it's right for you. If it's not, that's fine, you can always go back to your old plan or try to find a new one.

I think most fasting methods should not be long-term. Once you reach your goal weight, it would be better to ease off the fasting. But that's just my opinion. My intermittent fasting friend still sticks to her fasting method even though she's at maintenance now.

It's also important to be careful with how you fast. You should build up to longer fasts and research how to come off of them safely. (As in, don't just suddenly try to fast for a full 24 hours and eat a huge meal once the time is up.)

I started intermittent fasting in Jan this year. I’ve already lost 18 lbs. I do 18:6. I wanted to try this because I was never really hungry until late in the day anyway. But I had to change what I was eating and late night binging. I stick to 1500 cal a day, low carbs. Healthy calories. No junk. Lots of water and regular exercise. I don’t plan on ever changing once I reach my goal.