Intermittent Fasting
HarveyA2020
Posts: 8 Member
What’s people thoughts on Intermittent Fasting using the 16/8 rule? Health benefits, weight loss.
3
Replies
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Health benefits?
Completely neutral by itself - it's just skipping a meal, nothing special about that at all, it's only extending people's normal sleeping fast by a few hours anyway.
Weight loss?
Might be helpful for some people who find it helps them control their calories and maintain a deficit easier. But if calories are the same then completely neutral.
Personally experience although I'm a frequent breakfast skipper the artificial time restriction just irritated the hell out of me and made me food and clock obsessesed. I'm more of a guideline person than a rule person, if I want to skip breakfast I do but just don't want to HAVE to skip breakfast or wait until xx o'clock before I can eat or stop at xx o'clock if I'm genuinely hungry. If someone thrives on set rules their experience may well be different.
I see no reason not to try it if you think it might help you manage your food allowance better but don't believe the non-scientific woo around what really is a very minor change for most people.10 -
Many thanks for your comments.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos especially CrossFit and I found these athletes have evidence to prove it improves sleep, well-being and most important of all testosterone levels. I’ll certainly give it ago.1 -
HarveyA2020 wrote: »Many thanks for your comments.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos especially CrossFit and I found these athletes have evidence to prove it improves sleep, well-being and most important of all testosterone levels. I’ll certainly give it ago.
Proof or anecdotes?
Did those athetes have identical twins eating in a different pattern but training the same?
Did they submit themselves to medical testing, along with their twins for comparison?
See no reason not to give it a go and certainly people are "successful" eating in an 8hr window.
While of course people are also equally successful not eating in a time restricted pattern, eating twice a day, eating 6 times a day etc. etc.8 -
HarveyA2020 wrote: »Many thanks for your comments.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos especially CrossFit and I found these athletes have evidence to prove it improves sleep, well-being and most important of all testosterone levels. I’ll certainly give it ago.
Its more anecdotal that supported by evidence from what i see. I know they promote increases in HGH, but that isn't supporting muscle building, it supports fatty acid mobilization. As the saying goes, no one gets jacked fasting. Muscle building is driven from muscle protein synthesis and having more protein turnover than periods of protein breakdown.
Overall, if it helps you control calories and lose weight, than its a great tool. Personal, it doesn't align to my eating style or goals. Some of the current evidence supports spreading protein for improved muscle building.5 -
Whether you do IF or not, remember that you need to be in a caloric deficit regardless to lose weight.
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Agreed!0
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HarveyA2020 wrote: »Many thanks for your comments.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos especially CrossFit and I found these athletes have evidence to prove it improves sleep, well-being and most important of all testosterone levels. I’ll certainly give it ago.
Proof or anecdotes?
Did those athletes have identical twins eating in a different pattern but training the same?
Did they submit themselves to medical testing, along with their twins for comparison?
See no reason not to give it a go and certainly people are "successful" eating in an 8hr window.
While of course people are also equally successful not eating in a time restricted pattern, eating twice a day, eating 6 times a day etc. etc.
Interested to know what someone disagrees with?
Two questions and pointing out that people who do and don't do IF both have can both have success - doesn't seem that controversial to me.....
Personally I had great results from using 5:2 intermittent fasting while losing weight.
But I lost weight due to my calorie deficit not because of my eating pattern.
I got a lot fitter - but was that due to increasing my cardio a lot?
I got a lot stronger - but was that due to finding the time to train consistently with the correct volume and intensity?
It might be reasonable to speculate that 5:2 can for some people support a high exercise regime better than an everyday deficit (majority of the time training and recovering fully fuelled) but it wouldn't be reasonable to make a sweeping statement that 5:2 causes better results.
There's a world of difference between saying X happened while doing Y and saying X happened because someone did Y.2 -
HarveyA2020 wrote: »Many thanks for your comments.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos especially CrossFit and I found these athletes have evidence to prove it improves sleep, well-being and most important of all testosterone levels. I’ll certainly give it ago.
Proof or anecdotes?
Did those athletes have identical twins eating in a different pattern but training the same?
Did they submit themselves to medical testing, along with their twins for comparison?
See no reason not to give it a go and certainly people are "successful" eating in an 8hr window.
While of course people are also equally successful not eating in a time restricted pattern, eating twice a day, eating 6 times a day etc. etc.
Interested to know what someone disagrees with?
Two questions and pointing out that people who do and don't do IF both have can both have success - doesn't seem that controversial to me.....
Personally I had great results from using 5:2 intermittent fasting while losing weight.
But I lost weight due to my calorie deficit not because of my eating pattern.
I got a lot fitter - but was that due to increasing my cardio a lot?
I got a lot stronger - but was that due to finding the time to train consistently with the correct volume and intensity?
It might be reasonable to speculate that 5:2 can for some people support a high exercise regime better than an everyday deficit (majority of the time training and recovering fully fuelled) but it wouldn't be reasonable to make a sweeping statement that 5:2 causes better results.
There's a world of difference between saying X happened while doing Y and saying X happened because someone did Y.
Have you ever listened to Dr. Rhonda Patrick? She has done some stuff with Layne Norton, the Paleo community, Dom D'agistino, and many others. She has discussed there are benefits of fasting in various lengths but its more related gene expression and increasing longevity. Obviously, the field is in its infancy but it is fascinating. Not really a silver bullet for fat loss and definitely not going to help people get jacked but interesting none the less.4 -
I’ve been doing IF since 2/23. It has been pretty life changing for me. I’m down 22lbs since starting. Some good books to read are The Obesity Code and Delay, Don’t Deny. This is something I can commit to long term, without a doubt.6
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I have had success with it. I recognize that for me it's just an easier way to stick to a calorie deficit; I don't think there is something magical happening because of IF. For me it's significantly easier to wait/tell myself I can have the food I want, just later, than to eat earlier in the day and end up hungry later with no calories left. I also don't tend to feel as hungry until I start eating for the day, so this is easier for me to stick to. Every once in awhile I'll have breakfast if it's a work event thing or something, and on those days I am ravenous the rest of the day. I also used to try the small and frequent meals/grazing thing and found I was just starving all of the time. Eating 2-3 bigger meals per day works much better for me to not feel deprived.
I am a teacher and when school was still "in person" I would skip breakfast and start eating at my lunch time, which was 12:45. I would pack a 300ish calorie super healthy lunch, recognizing that at work I was too busy to really enjoy the food anyway. This saved the majority of my calories for evening when I could relax and enjoy them. On weekends, I would wait until at least 2 PM to start eating for the day. Once we moved online, I've had success with pushing my eating window even later- recognizing that it's harder to have a calorie deficit when I'm just home all day! Now I just don't stop to eat until I'm done working for the day, which is 4:30 PM at the earliest. I either have two big meals between 4:30-5:30 and 10:30-11:30, or 3 medium sized meals maybe around 5, 9, and 12 (I stay up late).3 -
I feel it helps with not consuming too many calories. It’s less likely to go over your daily allowance when the eating window is shortened. It also helps out with getting to eat what you enjoy eating. You could eat a high calorie meal at 12 of something you love and stay full for a while.5
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Getting to enjoy what you eat is so important for me and others. IF is perfect for that !2
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I've been doing IF for about three weeks now and I'm seeing results, I started a caloric deficit in February and I lost a little weight at first but then nothing and I was frustrated, I'm finally seeing results again with IF. Though I admit it may be because I eat fewer calories now, or maybe I just finally passed the stubborn not budging phase in my weight loss. Who knows, either way I've liked it. It's helped me cut off my night time snacking by not eating past eight which has helped a lot (though I miss my morning iced coffees and I refuse to drink it black). I also feel like it's helped me with bloating.1
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Health benefits?
Completely neutral by itself - it's just skipping a meal, nothing special about that at all, it's only extending people's normal sleeping fast by a few hours anyway.
At the risk of being a pedant, IF is not "skipping a meal" but instead is eating meals only during a particular time period. It is simply convention that most eat 3 daily meals - morning, midday and evening. IF steps away from that, allowing the individual to eat their calories in a way that makes managing the number of calories consumed easier for them.2 -
HarveyA2020 wrote: »Many thanks for your comments.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos especially CrossFit and I found these athletes have evidence to prove it improves sleep, well-being and most important of all testosterone levels. I’ll certainly give it ago.
There is no benefit to increased testosterone levels if they are within normal physiological levels, and those levels fluctuate throughout the day anyway so not seeing any benefit even if this were true.
As for IF itself, I decided to try it just because I noticed I'm having issues sticking to my caloric budget sometimes due to eating at night out of boredom...go figure in this crazy time. I don't see anything wrong with it if it helps you, but I also don't see anything special. It's just another strategy to keep your diet in check.2 -
HarveyA2020 wrote: »Many thanks for your comments.
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos especially CrossFit and I found these athletes have evidence to prove it improves sleep, well-being and most important of all testosterone levels. I’ll certainly give it ago.
Proof or anecdotes?
Did those athletes have identical twins eating in a different pattern but training the same?
Did they submit themselves to medical testing, along with their twins for comparison?
See no reason not to give it a go and certainly people are "successful" eating in an 8hr window.
While of course people are also equally successful not eating in a time restricted pattern, eating twice a day, eating 6 times a day etc. etc.
Interested to know what someone disagrees with?
Two questions and pointing out that people who do and don't do IF both have can both have success - doesn't seem that controversial to me.....
Personally I had great results from using 5:2 intermittent fasting while losing weight.
But I lost weight due to my calorie deficit not because of my eating pattern.
I got a lot fitter - but was that due to increasing my cardio a lot?
I got a lot stronger - but was that due to finding the time to train consistently with the correct volume and intensity?
It might be reasonable to speculate that 5:2 can for some people support a high exercise regime better than an everyday deficit (majority of the time training and recovering fully fuelled) but it wouldn't be reasonable to make a sweeping statement that 5:2 causes better results.
There's a world of difference between saying X happened while doing Y and saying X happened because someone did Y.
Have you ever listened to Dr. Rhonda Patrick? She has done some stuff with Layne Norton, the Paleo community, Dom D'agistino, and many others. She has discussed there are benefits of fasting in various lengths but its more related gene expression and increasing longevity. Obviously, the field is in its infancy but it is fascinating. Not really a silver bullet for fat loss and definitely not going to help people get jacked but interesting none the less.
I've seen some of that research, there is some supporting evidence, mostly from mice studies that I have seen, that fasting can increase life span. Much of the research is on restricting food intake in general and not just IF as a diet strategy. Obviously, it's hard to say if this applies to humans as the majority of rodent studies really don't pan out but it's possible that reducing load on organs such as the pancreas, as well as reducing the time of inflamation in the body due to eating might logically improve long-term health.
I think we'll be dead before this is settled science though.1 -
Since this lockdown began 2 months ago, we have been, in effect, intermittent fasting by virtue of a planned menu program to accommodate the erratic resupply situation. While we aren't "rationing" our foods, there hasn't been a lot of excess or snacky stuff, and we are fitting into the IF eating windows through our planned meal program.
We have all lost weight (15-20lbs). Our calories and macro goals (esp. of protein, which I fret over) are being met; MFP planning and recording tools are helping, so it isn't strictly the IF timing theory that can take the bow for working. But the IF concept is gaining cred with us. I was more-or-less neutral to the idea before, now, the Dark Side is gaining appeal.0 -
Hi,
I hope somebody can give me advice what to do. I am 32-year-old, and I have around 9 pounds to lose. I usually eat healthy, Mediterranean diet with a lot of vegetables fish, white meat, healthy snacks etc. My philosophy is everything in moderation, and it is the diet I feel the best with.
I work out at least two times per week, sometimes three (pilates, a lot of walking, biking…) I am stuck at losing the last 9 pounds I want to lose.
I started intermittent fasting in January. From January to March I did 16/8 and from March I am doing 20/8.
In summary: I ate good before I'm eating good now, I still workout the same amount as I did before. I feel good, I feel that 20/4 is the right option for me. If I do something longer I don't feel right.
The weight just will not budge. It is not a lot to lose but I can see the pounds in my problem area, and I do not know what to do anymore. I did reach my goal weight before and I know how it feels and looks.
I don't know if I should keep trying or I should just make peace with the fact that this is the lowest my body can get and just accept myself.
Thank you!
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@ReaGaladrielReaGaladriel wrote: »Hi,
I hope somebody can give me advice what to do. I am 32-year-old, and I have around 9 pounds to lose. I usually eat healthy, Mediterranean diet with a lot of vegetables fish, white meat, healthy snacks etc. My philosophy is everything in moderation, and it is the diet I feel the best with.
I work out at least two times per week, sometimes three (pilates, a lot of walking, biking…) I am stuck at losing the last 9 pounds I want to lose.
I started intermittent fasting in January. From January to March I did 16/8 and from March I am doing 20/8.
In summary: I ate good before I'm eating good now, I still workout the same amount as I did before. I feel good, I feel that 20/4 is the right option for me. If I do something longer I don't feel right.
The weight just will not budge. It is not a lot to lose but I can see the pounds in my problem area, and I do not know what to do anymore. I did reach my goal weight before and I know how it feels and looks.
I don't know if I should keep trying or I should just make peace with the fact that this is the lowest my body can get and just accept myself.
Thank you!
The one thing you haven't mentioned is calories - which actually determine weight gain/loss/maintenance.
Obvious solution is to continue eating the diet and in eating window that suits you but eat less (*) or move more. If you reached your goal before there's no reason you can't again.
* = the eat less part might be a result in reviewing and tightening up your logging accuracy (portion creep?) or simply reducing your calorie goal a little for simplicity.1 -
Health benefits?
Completely neutral by itself - it's just skipping a meal, nothing special about that at all, it's only extending people's normal sleeping fast by a few hours anyway.
At the risk of being a pedant, IF is not "skipping a meal" but instead is eating meals only during a particular time period. It is simply convention that most eat 3 daily meals - morning, midday and evening. IF steps away from that, allowing the individual to eat their calories in a way that makes managing the number of calories consumed easier for them.
Being equally pedantic when I skip breakfast (as I have today) I meet the criteria for 16:8 IF although more likely to be 17:7.
Yes time restricted eating IF can be simply skipping a meal.
Yesterday however, I would have had to skip a meal and several snacks to meet the criteria as eating three meals and about four snacks allowed me to manage that day's calorie goal better (4,563 cals).3 -
I lost 15 pounds through intermittent fasting alone but have had to go back to monitoring my calories as well since I want to lose at least 40 more. I continue with 16:8 IF most days, although if something is going on that requires changing my schedule, I change it. Losing that first 15 pounds was extremely motivating to me as before that I despaired of ever being able to lose a single pound. Waiting to eat helped me get rid of my constant grazing habit.
Summary: I think intermittent fasting is a good way to bring bad eating habits under control.2 -
I have been doing IF since Dec and I have lost 40lbs. In the past when I have dieted I have found myself struggling to stay within my caloric range. This time some days I struggle just to reach 1000. I am simply not hungry. So for me it's a sustainable way of eating.
1 -
Check out Dr. Jason Fung on youtube. He knows everything about fasting and encourages his patients to do it. I'm on my third day of 16:8 and feel great! I can't wait to see what the future holds.0
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hey,
yeah i do intermittent fasting, i generally stop eating around 20:00 hours and start again at 1200. the only things i consume during this time is plain water after 20:00 and black coffee with no sugar or milk after i wake up. i find this works very well but they key to being successful for me is the food i consume during eating hours. The biggest tip however i can give you is to make sure that with your dinner in the afternoon/evening, it consists of no lower than 50 percent carbs as they are the main source of energy your body uses and it will go to your carbs first for energy use. if you lower your suggested carb intake for the day your body will find it much harder during fasting and will become very tired a lot quicker. They do however need to be the right type of carbs, these would be complex instead of refined or simple. Complex carbs consist of potato, wholegrain pastas rice and breads. complex carbs are digested by your body slowly over time, helping you to stay full and keeping hunger at bay plus giving your body energy gradually. refined carbs (white pasta and rice) have largely been stripped of anything beneficial to your body and simple carbs (milk,cookies, cakes etc) are digested by your body quickly, meaning you feel hungry quicker and can cause a sugar spike as carbs are where your sugar intake comes from. sorry for the long response, i found it easier to stick to when i understood the nutrition side a bit more1 -
I started IF in early March. I mostly started it as a colleague at work had been doing it, and she reported feeling less sluggish, more energy, better sleep. I thought I would give it a go because that sounded brilliant and also it might help me with two things 1) eating on the way to work- would always buy a croissant or pastry on my commute, and then eat again when I got to my desk and 2) grazing in front of the TV in the evenings.
I only do 14:10 so eat breakfast at 10am and finish dinner by 8pm but it has helped me so much with both of the above issues. It also gave me the motivation to think about losing the remaining 10lbs that were annoying me!
I don’t believe it had any impact on my immediate weight or health but it has improved my relationship with food and given me the motivation to start a slow, steady effort in losing a bit more weight.2 -
Health benefits?
Completely neutral by itself - it's just skipping a meal, nothing special about that at all, it's only extending people's normal sleeping fast by a few hours anyway.
At the risk of being a pedant, IF is not "skipping a meal" but instead is eating meals only during a particular time period. It is simply convention that most eat 3 daily meals - morning, midday and evening. IF steps away from that, allowing the individual to eat their calories in a way that makes managing the number of calories consumed easier for them.
Being equally pedantic when I skip breakfast (as I have today) I meet the criteria for 16:8 IF although more likely to be 17:7.
Yes time restricted eating IF can be simply skipping a meal.
Yesterday however, I would have had to skip a meal and several snacks to meet the criteria as eating three meals and about four snacks allowed me to manage that day's calorie goal better (4,563 cals).
To repeat IF is most certainly not about skipping meals but about adjusting when calories are consumed for better management of those calories. This might mean 1 meals, 3 meals or 5 meals and you might pick a time period in the day to eat similarly every day or go for a 5:2 or 4:3 regimen.
I say this because "skipping meals" implies the calories are not being eaten at all, which is getting us into disorderly eating territory and that is not IF.0 -
Health benefits?
Completely neutral by itself - it's just skipping a meal, nothing special about that at all, it's only extending people's normal sleeping fast by a few hours anyway.
At the risk of being a pedant, IF is not "skipping a meal" but instead is eating meals only during a particular time period. It is simply convention that most eat 3 daily meals - morning, midday and evening. IF steps away from that, allowing the individual to eat their calories in a way that makes managing the number of calories consumed easier for them.
Being equally pedantic when I skip breakfast (as I have today) I meet the criteria for 16:8 IF although more likely to be 17:7.
Yes time restricted eating IF can be simply skipping a meal.
Yesterday however, I would have had to skip a meal and several snacks to meet the criteria as eating three meals and about four snacks allowed me to manage that day's calorie goal better (4,563 cals).
To repeat IF is most certainly not about skipping meals but about adjusting when calories are consumed for better management of those calories. This might mean 1 meals, 3 meals or 5 meals and you might pick a time period in the day to eat similarly every day or go for a 5:2 or 4:3 regimen.
I say this because "skipping meals" implies the calories are not being eaten at all, which is getting us into disorderly eating territory and that is not IF.
I believe the point is that for many people skipping a meal results in them eating in an IF pattern. If already at a deficit, perhaps the other meals will be bigger, if not at a deficit already skipping the meal might result in a deficit.
Most obvious example -- many people think they need to eat breakfast but breakfast makes them hungrier, so they try not eating breakfast and putting off the first meal until they are hungry (say, at 1) and end up eating less.
I find it kind of odd to call eating later in the day (or just stopping eating earlier) vs. a more traditional pattern of, say, breakfast, lunch, and dinner "fasting" -- I prefer the term time restricted eating if it must have a special name -- and I think it's often overcomplicated or given magical powers by some fans, but certainly for some people eating during fewer hours makes calories easier to control. When I was losing the time period in which I ate was pretty irrelevant, but not snacking and eating only at three meals (and mostly eating home cooked meals and being mindful about what they included) made calorie control easier, and I don't really see that as so different from TRE as some seem to. It's just about having an eating pattern that makes calorie control easier.2 -
Health benefits?
Completely neutral by itself - it's just skipping a meal, nothing special about that at all, it's only extending people's normal sleeping fast by a few hours anyway.
At the risk of being a pedant, IF is not "skipping a meal" but instead is eating meals only during a particular time period. It is simply convention that most eat 3 daily meals - morning, midday and evening. IF steps away from that, allowing the individual to eat their calories in a way that makes managing the number of calories consumed easier for them.
Being equally pedantic when I skip breakfast (as I have today) I meet the criteria for 16:8 IF although more likely to be 17:7.
Yes time restricted eating IF can be simply skipping a meal.
Yesterday however, I would have had to skip a meal and several snacks to meet the criteria as eating three meals and about four snacks allowed me to manage that day's calorie goal better (4,563 cals).
To repeat IF is most certainly not about skipping meals but about adjusting when calories are consumed for better management of those calories. This might mean 1 meals, 3 meals or 5 meals and you might pick a time period in the day to eat similarly every day or go for a 5:2 or 4:3 regimen.
I say this because "skipping meals" implies the calories are not being eaten at all, which is getting us into disorderly eating territory and that is not IF.
You seem to have a misunderstanding of two simple words - namely "intermittent" and "fasting".
Can you point out to me how not eating for 17hrs does not qualify as time restricted eating? Is that 17hrs not a fasting period? If not, why not?
Skipping a meal means nothing except a meal is being skipped, the rest of your post is purely projection on your part trying to find an implication where none exists. You do seem to be reading through a distorting prism.
I also skip a meal (lunch) when I'm doing a long distance cycle - that says nothing about my calorie intake that day (huge by the way), just simply means I skipped lunch. Simple words with a simple meaning.
You also seem to have a very distorted view that IF and/or skipping a meal means a calorie deficit or under eating - again for clarity intermittent fasting periods and/or simply skipping meals and can be done in an overall calorie deficit, balance or surplus.
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I tried IF for awhile and lost weight doing so because I forced myself not to eat on off hrs BUT I found the scheduling too restrictive.
Now, I just eat when I get hungry and count/log all my cals and weigh myself daily to stay on track.
I gained some weigh back but have continued to maintain it below my "red line" doing this despite giving up IF but everyone is different.0
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