Intermittent Fasting 18+ Hrs During Coronavirus
xophne
Posts: 19 Member
Some say it shouldn’t be done because it can cause stress on the body and make a person more susceptible to the virus... what’s your take on it?
I appreciate all responses.
I appreciate all responses.
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Replies
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What's the point? I like to eat pretty regularly. I get headaches otherwise.6
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I’m mostly doing it for weight loss and calorie restriction. ^3
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I’ve been intermittent fasting for almost 4 years now, mostly 16:8 with a few 18 hour fasts thrown in. My weight is stable (as I hear about everyone else worried about gaining weight) I’m healthy, no blood sugar issues, etc...
Not sure where you heard IF causes stress on the body, if anything, it relieves stress on the body and actually gives your body a break from nonstop digestion of food. Breakfast is 100% unnecessary and only adds to surplus calories in the diet that either need to be restricted at other meals/snacks and/or burned off so you can keep in calorie deficit for weight loss or maintainence. Nothing stresses the body more than carrying around a whole bunch of extra weight.
As far as stress goes, is much more stressful to wake up hungry (IF changes your appetite in as little as a couple weeks to where your no longer hungery during fasting window) to have to spend extra time, money, and effort planning breakfast, cooking breakfast, eating breakfast, and then going on to get that big afternoon carb crash.
IF keeps me full (during my fasting window) keeps me from mindlessly grazing on food and/or eating out of boredom (more important than ever while quarantined and stuck at home.
I’m only 5’0” with a BMR of 1220 and a TDEE of 1750 (that’s with being super active) if it wasn’t for intermittent fasting, I would absolutely be starving all the time. The 300-500 calories I’m not getting by eating breakfast goes toward a big lunch/dinner with the family often with dessert, while helping me maintain current weight. Otherwise, I’d be miserable trying to keep 3 solid meals under 500 calories a piece.
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I’m mostly doing it for weight loss and calorie restriction. ^
So what will you have learned once you've reached your goal weight? Will you continue eating like this? If not then I would reconsider if this is the right way to go for you. Losing weight is not just losing the weight but also the period where you learn new habits for the time after weightloss. If you don't learn how to eat afterwards then there's a substantial risk that you will regain the weight.9 -
I’m mostly doing it for weight loss and calorie restriction. ^
So what will you have learned once you've reached your goal weight? Will you continue eating like this? If not then I would reconsider if this is the right way to go for you. Losing weight is not just losing the weight but also the period where you learn new habits for the time after weightloss. If you don't learn how to eat afterwards then there's a substantial risk that you will regain the weight.
Yes, I will. Thank you for your concern.4 -
Do you exercise or plan to exercise while fasting?2
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Do you exercise or plan to exercise while fasting?
No, I workout after I’m done fasting and a few hrs after eating. I feel the best when I do it that way. I’m shooting for a 20 hr fast today, I’ve been doing 16 & 18 hr IFs for some time now. Lost 45 pounds before the coronavirus thing blew up.
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Thx for answering. I'm planning to research fasting. Any good resources you would recommend?2
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I exercise pretty regularly while I am in my fasting window. It has not only not affected my performance, I believe it helps me personally because I am sluggish when I eat before a workout - not to mention that if I eat and do a hard workout, I have problems with feeling nauseous because of the food in my stomach - and no, since I already get up at 4:30 to workout, I am not going to get up earlier to have a longer time difference between eating and working out.3
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Thx for answering. I'm planning to research fasting. Any good resources you would recommend?
Of course! I do like Dr.Berg’s explanation and stance on it:
How to do intermittent fasting for serious weight loss:
https://youtu.be/lwCRjwDs1Ek
Intermittent fasting basics for beginners:
https://youtu.be/3dHcT1-K-tw
There are loads of other sources on this topic and he has more YouTube videos if you check him out as well. I just personally like how he breaks things down.1 -
I exercise pretty regularly while I am in my fasting window. It has not only not affected my performance, I believe it helps me personally because I am sluggish when I eat before a workout - not to mention that if I eat and do a hard workout, I have problems with feeling nauseous because of the food in my stomach - and no, since I already get up at 4:30 to workout, I am not going to get up earlier to have a longer time difference between eating and working out.
Agree. I like to do my cardio HIIT before breakfast or dinner.
I have missed breakfast on purpose but never fasted longer consistently for fitness reasons.2 -
I exercise pretty regularly while I am in my fasting window. It has not only not affected my performance, I believe it helps me personally because I am sluggish when I eat before a workout - not to mention that if I eat and do a hard workout, I have problems with feeling nauseous because of the food in my stomach - and no, since I already get up at 4:30 to workout, I am not going to get up earlier to have a longer time difference between eating and working out.
That’s true, I’m considering working out during a fast but right before I break it and see how it pans out. Maybe later I will work my way up to mid fast.
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IF doesn't stress the body more than other forms of dieting, if you're talking about the typical 16:8, 18:6 or similar protocols. It could be argued (and has been, by me, elsewhere) that the large stretches of time each day that you give your GI tract a break from food is good from a physiological stress point of view. As far as more extreme forms of IF, like not eating anything for 48 hrs or alternate day fasting, that's not a good idea right now. I wouldn't be pushing your body harder than it needs to be pushed while trying to stay out of Covid-19's warpath.
Any form of calorie deficit is bad when you're sick, regardless of eating schedule. The immune system needs fuel to fight infections, and that's why "starve a cold, feed a fever" has evolved into "feed a cold, feed a fever" as people have gotten smarter about nutrition's impact on health. At first sign of illness, in general but especially right now, I'd pull the plug on dieting and switch to nutrient-rich, maintenance calorie dining until healthy again.
I've continued with IF through this quarantine, with a few binges due to there being too many cookies in our emergency food stash. I always feel better and less stressed when doing IF and really adhering to the schedule. I have no idea if that has beneficial impact on my immune system; it's probably irrelevant. My protocol is 17:7 (eating window of noon to 7 pm) with an hour of cardio, usually in the morning, and I don't see any downside to that from a virus point of view. Over the last 10 months of doing IF, I've discontinued my calorie deficit when I got colds (twice) but otherwise stayed on the IF track as much as possible.8 -
IF doesn't stress the body more than other forms of dieting, if you're talking about the typical 16:8, 18:6 or similar protocols. It could be argued (and has been, by me, elsewhere) that the large stretches of time each day that you give your GI tract a break from food is good from a physiological stress point of view. As far as more extreme forms of IF, like not eating anything for 48 hrs or alternate day fasting, that's not a good idea right now. I wouldn't be pushing your body harder than it needs to be pushed while trying to stay out of Covid-19's warpath.
Any form of calorie deficit is bad when you're sick, regardless of eating schedule. The immune system needs fuel to fight infections, and that's why "starve a cold, feed a fever" has evolved into "feed a cold, feed a fever" as people have gotten smarter about nutrition's impact on health. At first sign of illness, in general but especially right now, I'd pull the plug on dieting and switch to nutrient-rich, maintenance calorie dining until healthy again.
I've continued with IF through this quarantine, with a few binges due to there being too many cookies in our emergency food stash. I always feel better and less stressed when doing IF and really adhering to the schedule. I have no idea if that has beneficial impact on my immune system; it's probably irrelevant. My protocol is 17:7 (eating window of noon to 7 pm) with an hour of cardio, usually in the morning, and I don't see any downside to that from a virus point of view. Over the last 10 months of doing IF, I've discontinued my calorie deficit when I got colds (twice) but otherwise stayed on the IF track as much as possible.
Thank you! Great answer.
I do want to continue IF fasting, I was just concerned because I’m going past an 18 hr fast and eventually aim to hit 24 hrs. I agree that extreme fasting, 48+ hrs, would be very stressful on the body.2 -
People are disagreeing with personal comments that aren’t meant to be factual. Nice move.4
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People are disagreeing with personal comments that aren’t meant to be factual. Nice move.
Meh, some people just do this. I have over 70 disagrees about my personal story and journey. It's impossible to know what the disagree is for... Jealousy, my skill with the English language in me not. conveying my thought accurately, some part of what I said, thier mood today, thier story or bad experience.... etc...3 -
People are disagreeing with personal comments that aren’t meant to be factual. Nice move.
It happens. There are some who just disagree with something but never have the gumption to say what or why. And sometimes people mistakenly hit the disagree button while scrolling on the app. I've had disagrees on straight up, neutral, uncontroversial statements.3 -
People are disagreeing with personal comments that aren’t meant to be factual. Nice move.
There's a lot of that here. Ignore it, especially if you plan to opine on IF. Some people here are driven into paroxysms by IF talk and, especially, personal testimonials that it works. Once you're under their skin as an IF-fer, you can get a Disagree for saying "Thank you for your concern", as you experienced a little earlier.
Welcome to MFP. Congrats on the 45 lbs. I hit 71 lbs lost before Covid-19 AKA "the Diet Killer", and now I sadly must report it's only 67, the first time in 10 months I gave back any of my progress, but I'm pretty much back in the saddle and kicking Quarantine's butt at this point. Unfortunately boredom binging was always a problem with me and Quarantine is heinously boring. Ah well, I guess I'll get off the computer and go watch Breaking Bad for the third time.2 -
I would not want to add mental stress right now but unless you are tapping out all your normal energy reserves exercising while fasted I do not see why it would add physiological stress.
Mental stress/misery though is something to avoid. Not because it might make you more likely to get ill which does seem to happen to some people too regularly to be coincidence but because isolation can be hard enough. I have no way of knowing who might feel this way or if anyone would. I am just speculating.
Exercising while fasted is interesting. I have found that if I do not establish a limit I can burn enough calories to run myself off an energy cliff which is unpleasant for many hours even after eating. I feel poorly and I have a headache. I assume if I feel that bad I am experiencing some physiological stress. I am certainly feeling some mental stress.
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People are disagreeing with personal comments that aren’t meant to be factual. Nice move.
There's a lot of that here. Ignore it, especially if you plan to opine on IF. Some people here are driven into paroxysms by IF talk and, especially, personal testimonials that it works. Once you're under their skin as an IF-fer, you can get a Disagree for saying "Thank you for your concern", as you experienced a little earlier.
Welcome to MFP. Congrats on the 45 lbs. I hit 71 lbs lost before Covid-19 AKA "the Diet Killer", and now I sadly must report it's only 67, the first time in 10 months I gave back any of my progress, but I'm pretty much back in the saddle and kicking Quarantine's butt at this point. Unfortunately boredom binging was always a problem with me and Quarantine is heinously boring. Ah well, I guess I'll get off the computer and go watch Breaking Bad for the third time.
Yes, I see that lol. Thank you for the welcome and congratulations. 67lbs is still great progress, I’m trying to lose about 20 more. I feel great overall and much less hungry and I’m at my 19hr 21 minute mark. I def plan to continue this longterm, as I love how IF makes me feel. Before IF I cleaned up unhealthy eating habits so it helped me fast without feeling as hungry/uncomfortable with cravings.
Sorry about the setback! & I love Breaking Bad as well. How did you feel about El Camino?2 -
People are disagreeing with personal comments that aren’t meant to be factual. Nice move.
There's a lot of that here. Ignore it, especially if you plan to opine on IF. Some people here are driven into paroxysms by IF talk and, especially, personal testimonials that it works. Once you're under their skin as an IF-fer, you can get a Disagree for saying "Thank you for your concern", as you experienced a little earlier.
Welcome to MFP. Congrats on the 45 lbs. I hit 71 lbs lost before Covid-19 AKA "the Diet Killer", and now I sadly must report it's only 67, the first time in 10 months I gave back any of my progress, but I'm pretty much back in the saddle and kicking Quarantine's butt at this point. Unfortunately boredom binging was always a problem with me and Quarantine is heinously boring. Ah well, I guess I'll get off the computer and go watch Breaking Bad for the third time.
Yes, I see that lol. Thank you for the welcome and congratulations. 67lbs is still great progress, I’m trying to lose about 20 more. I feel great overall and much less hungry and I’m at my 19hr 21 minute mark. I def plan to continue this longterm, as I love how IF makes me feel. Before IF I cleaned up unhealthy eating habits so it helped me fast without feeling as hungry/uncomfortable with cravings.
Sorry about the setback! & I love Breaking Bad as well. How did you feel about El Camino?
I haven't watched El Camino yet. I discovered Better Call Saul in February, which I liked a lot, but my memory of BB was a little fuzzy from my last re-watch in 2015 and that was taking away from my ability to savor some of the character development and story world in BCS, so I paused BCS to re-watch Breaking Bad again - am now in the last season (finally). Meanwhile, Netflix issued a new season of BCS on me LOL So when I finish BB and then catch up on BCS, I'm off to El Camino as kind of the dessert topping for the overall effort.
I'm OK with the setback of 4 lbs, which was actually 6.4 lbs before I regrouped. I was worried for a few weeks as I watched my old obese-person eating habits creeping back - overeating supplementing by binging, and especially, not being able to comply with "it's before noon or after 7 pm and that means NO calories", the cornerstone of my diet that had worked so well and consistently for 10 months. One night during quarantine some people in my county succumbed to covid-19 and I binged three entire packages of Pepperidge Farm cookies (!) and three tall sleeves of Ritz crackers (!) which totals to around 6,000 calories, in probably 30 minutes, and I felt like it was all coming unglued, because that was what I used to do all the time before New Me. To my horror, New Me was just Old Me ten months later, oops! But now that I've worked my way through a third of the damage and have things back under control, I'm actually thinking it was a blessing in disguise. It wasn't a bad thing to be reminded that coming up with a system and losing a bunch of weight and posting on forums doesn't mean I don't have food issues or won't always have them. It's got me refocused, and 6.5 pounds, now 4, wasn't a huge price to pay for that knowledge. I've come out the back end more skeptical of the whole "You have to develop new habits" mantra. I believe in that mantra 100 % and have worked very hard to develop new habits, but it isn't enough. Self-discipline and honest self-awareness are just as important; hopefully I gained a bit of the latter during this quarantine. It's easy to get a bit hubristic on a successful weight loss run, but hubris is never helpful.2 -
I would not want to add mental stress right now but unless you are tapping out all your normal energy reserves exercising while fasted I do not see why it would add physiological stress.
Mental stress/misery though is something to avoid. Not because it might make you more likely to get ill which does seem to happen to some people too regularly to be coincidence but because isolation can be hard enough. I have no way of knowing who might feel this way or if anyone would. I am just speculating.
Exercising while fasted is interesting. I have found that if I do not establish a limit I can burn enough calories to run myself off an energy cliff which is unpleasant for many hours even after eating. I feel poorly and I have a headache. I assume if I feel that bad I am experiencing some physiological stress. I am certainly feeling some mental stress.
Agreed. For that same reason I haven’t exercised while fasting. I think once I really master IF I can attempt to do that but right now I wouldn’t wanna risk it mid fast. Definitely something to think about for the future. For now I am content and the least stressed with waiting until after I break my fasts.2 -
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DancingMoosie wrote: »
I know lol. Also doing it for other reasons, those are just my main.1 -
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People are disagreeing with personal comments that aren’t meant to be factual. Nice move.
There's a lot of that here. Ignore it, especially if you plan to opine on IF. Some people here are driven into paroxysms by IF talk and, especially, personal testimonials that it works. Once you're under their skin as an IF-fer, you can get a Disagree for saying "Thank you for your concern", as you experienced a little earlier.
Welcome to MFP. Congrats on the 45 lbs. I hit 71 lbs lost before Covid-19 AKA "the Diet Killer", and now I sadly must report it's only 67, the first time in 10 months I gave back any of my progress, but I'm pretty much back in the saddle and kicking Quarantine's butt at this point. Unfortunately boredom binging was always a problem with me and Quarantine is heinously boring. Ah well, I guess I'll get off the computer and go watch Breaking Bad for the third time.
Yes, I see that lol. Thank you for the welcome and congratulations. 67lbs is still great progress, I’m trying to lose about 20 more. I feel great overall and much less hungry and I’m at my 19hr 21 minute mark. I def plan to continue this longterm, as I love how IF makes me feel. Before IF I cleaned up unhealthy eating habits so it helped me fast without feeling as hungry/uncomfortable with cravings.
Sorry about the setback! & I love Breaking Bad as well. How did you feel about El Camino?
I haven't watched El Camino yet. I discovered Better Call Saul in February, which I liked a lot, but my memory of BB was a little fuzzy from my last re-watch in 2015 and that was taking away from my ability to savor some of the character development and story world in BCS, so I paused BCS to re-watch Breaking Bad again - am now in the last season (finally). Meanwhile, Netflix issued a new season of BCS on me LOL So when I finish BB and then catch up on BCS, I'm off to El Camino as kind of the dessert topping for the overall effort.
I'm OK with the setback of 4 lbs, which was actually 6.4 lbs before I regrouped. I was worried for a few weeks as I watched my old obese-person eating habits creeping back - overeating supplementing by binging, and especially, not being able to comply with "it's before noon or after 7 pm and that means NO calories", the cornerstone of my diet that had worked so well and consistently for 10 months. One night during quarantine some people in my county succumbed to covid-19 and I binged three entire packages of Pepperidge Farm cookies (!) and three tall sleeves of Ritz crackers (!) which totals to around 6,000 calories, in probably 30 minutes, and I felt like it was all coming unglued, because that was what I used to do all the time before New Me. To my horror, New Me was just Old Me ten months later, oops! But now that I've worked my way through a third of the damage and have things back under control, I'm actually thinking it was a blessing in disguise. It wasn't a bad thing to be reminded that coming up with a system and losing a bunch of weight and posting on forums doesn't mean I don't have food issues or won't always have them. It's got me refocused, and 6.5 pounds, now 4, wasn't a huge price to pay for that knowledge. I've come out the back end more skeptical of the whole "You have to develop new habits" mantra. I believe in that mantra 100 % and have worked very hard to develop new habits, but it isn't enough. Self-discipline and honest self-awareness are just as important; hopefully I gained a bit of the latter during this quarantine. It's easy to get a bit hubristic on a successful weight loss run, but hubris is never helpful.
I started Better Call Saul but never finished, I should get back into it. I’d definitely recommend El Camino if you liked BB... it’s worth it to watch, feels like a very legit continuation. Plus I always liked seeing Jessie.
I had a rough time last year, my diet was completely different because I decided to do an extremely dirty bulk and gained 45 pounds. Super unhealthy, Idk what I was thinking. Looking back on it I did it because I feel I have a little body dysmorphia, I think I’m either too big or too small 24/7. Nothing seems to be enough. But this year I’m really glad I cleaned up my diet. I can only speak for myself, as I know everyone is different, but I seem to do really well on a high fat low carb type of eating pattern. I’m really enjoying it but now that I lost the 45 I had gained I’m stuck at the weight I was for the longest time. So IF I took interest in not only for weight loss but cognition/growth hormone benefits and being able to have more structure in when I eat. Helps eliminate snacking for me, which was an issue last year when I decided to ruin dirty bulk in the worst way. I wouldn’t advise that to anyone now, not how I was doing it with barely any cardio.
Overall I’m really enjoying IF and I’m glad I found others who feel the same. I know how you feel, sometimes I really REALLY crave chips (that was my one guilty pleasure, I start and can’t stop eating them). Now I substitute that for cashews/nuts and it’s helping me a lot.
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Not sure where you heard IF causes stress on the body, if anything, it relieves stress on the body and actually gives your body a break from nonstop digestion of food. Breakfast is 100% unnecessary and only adds to surplus calories in the diet that either need to be restricted at other meals/snacks and/or burned off so you can keep in calorie deficit for weight loss or maintainence. Nothing stresses the body more than carrying around a whole bunch of extra weight.
Well that goes for any eating.
Dessert, coffee, lunch, snacks, dinner etc etc are each 100% unneccesaryv and of course if you consume calories on breakfast or anyone of the other things, you have to restrict intake at other times to balance it out.
For me personally, breakfast, particularly on days I go to work, is 100% neccesary. My job is physical and I feel faint and nauseous way before lunch if I try to work all morning without food.
And I don't find it hard to not eat those calories at other meals - it balances out well for me.
If you want to do any form of IF - fine.
But blanket statements about what ' you should do' - Nah,4
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