Intermittent fasting

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Replies

  • nyakan
    nyakan Posts: 1 Member
    ttpr wrote: »
    hey y'all,

    I did this whole lose weight thing about 5 years ago. I lost 45 pounds and worked my *kitten* off... literally 😉. Problem was the minute i relinquished 100% control i gained the weight back. Now 2 kids later i was almost at my highest weight. I've started releasing weight again but this time I've started intermittent fasting. I do 16 and 8. Does anyone else add intermittent fasting to their weight release journey?

    I'm diabetic and I do a 20:4 fast everyday and a 24 hour fast once a week. However, this app has helped me also stick to a caloric deficiency as well. Haven't been on this long ... a month or so. However, my body hurts less (diabetics will understand this). My sugar is better controlled and I have lost a bit of weight. I stop eating at 3 PM and start at 11AM. Feels good most days but some days are harder than others.
  • BigMamaLynsey
    BigMamaLynsey Posts: 390 Member
    I used to do this and it actually worked really well for me lost a good amount but Christmas came and I got addicted to food again lol. Always every bloody year something to do with food spoils it.. oh and having children doesnt help me in the slightest 😂 right now I'm kinda doing it but not sure I would call it intermittent fasting as I skip breakfast ( i do have a cup of tea in the morning so this breaks my fast) I find this easier when I'm not hungry & can happily last until 12/1PM without food then I'll have dinner whatever I like really, even portion sizes are a little big but that's the reason i skip breakfast as well to give me those extra calories as I really love having my dinner lol. Then I'll eat again at 5PM (tea) then nothing more rest the day unless I get peckish I'll eat a small bit of fruit which helps. Have lost 4lbs so far in a week. I am breastfeeding too so this probably burns extra calories which helps as well :)
  • fatmanthinuk
    fatmanthinuk Posts: 44 Member
    Hello everyone. I've read through this thread with fascination as I've been hearing a lot about IF and the supposed benefits. I have a couple of questions and observations that hopefully those using an IF method can help me with.

    Firstly, I probably did the 16/8 method most of my life as I was terrible at eating breakfast. Honestly preferred the lay in int the mornings. I'd get up, grabs a coffee and head into work and not eat till lunch. I put this down to why I'm so big. By lunchtime I was starving and literally ate everything in site! Seems as this is my normal habitual behaviour which I'm trying to crack, is it a good idea for me to start with this method again more formally? When using this method (and all of them), I'm surmising that I would still limit myself to my current 1,700 cals in the eating period?

    If I decided to try the 5:2 method, I'm assuming those calories are forfeit for the week? So for example, I would cut out an additional 3,400 calories a week from my current intake? Is this a good idea, or would people recommend I increase the target on the non-fast days? Would this make the fasting a waste of time as I'd still be consuming the same calories in the week?

    From a practical point, even when fasting, I'd still have to cook meals for my wife and children. How do fasters deal with this?

    Cheers

    Andy


  • xGreatWhiteNorthx
    xGreatWhiteNorthx Posts: 335 Member
    I usually do 16:8 but sometimes I extend it to 18:6. Yeaterday I did 20 just because I happened to go into town around the end of my fast and I didnt want to get fast food.

    I take my pruvit ketones at the end of my fast and I will drink black coffee during the fasting period as well as water.

    I eat a full large dinner(usually between 700-1000 calories) and then I'll snack a little bit before and after. My daily calories are usually between 1300-1600 but I dont strictly count them. I just ball park it and eat until I'm satisfied. I never deprive myself though. If I want junk food now and then? I'll find a way to fit it in.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    The way 5/2 is supposed to work is that you eat at maintenance for 5 days and 20% or so of your maintenance cals on the 2 days. It's still an ordinary, reasonable deficit, not some crazy unsafe one.
  • minimiss669
    minimiss669 Posts: 86 Member
    I'm trying to find the right eating window that works for me. It seems the best time for me to stop eating is around 2. That way I can exercise in the afternoon and not be full. Im trying to close the gap in the morning. It's tricky though because the early morning is when I am most hungry. I can hold out till about 9 to 10, but sometimes I get a headache. I'll have somewhere between 1000 and 1200 calories split between two satisfying, healthy, low carb meals. I just want the extra pounds to be gone so I can look like myself again. I'm very impatient and frustrated at how slow weight loss is and I just want to "be" there. But I'll have to put in my time and effort... I'm also deathly afraid that this, too will fail or I'll gain it back. It's hard to know if something is working when the scale won't move. I feel like I look a tiny bit better but I won't feel right until I've lost 20 pounds, at least. Or when I can fit into my old clothes. I need to hear from women who have been successful with this.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Hello everyone. I've read through this thread with fascination as I've been hearing a lot about IF and the supposed benefits. I have a couple of questions and observations that hopefully those using an IF method can help me with.

    Firstly, I probably did the 16/8 method most of my life as I was terrible at eating breakfast. Honestly preferred the lay in int the mornings. I'd get up, grabs a coffee and head into work and not eat till lunch. I put this down to why I'm so big. By lunchtime I was starving and literally ate everything in site! Seems as this is my normal habitual behaviour which I'm trying to crack, is it a good idea for me to start with this method again more formally? When using this method (and all of them), I'm surmising that I would still limit myself to my current 1,700 cals in the eating period?

    If I decided to try the 5:2 method, I'm assuming those calories are forfeit for the week? So for example, I would cut out an additional 3,400 calories a week from my current intake? Is this a good idea, or would people recommend I increase the target on the non-fast days? Would this make the fasting a waste of time as I'd still be consuming the same calories in the week?

    From a practical point, even when fasting, I'd still have to cook meals for my wife and children. How do fasters deal with this?

    Cheers

    Andy


    @fatmanthinuk

    Andy.
    The whole idea of 5:2 is only to restrict calories on the two fasting days, the five days are supposed to be "eating normally" or in calorie counting terms - weight maintenance calories. Those days eating normally are what makes the two very low calorie days far easier to do as you are effectively only dieting one day at a time and they also should prepare you well for maintenance at goal weight.

    Don't understand what you mean by "making fasting a waste of time" - the idea is that over the course of a week you create a sensible and sustainable calorie deficit.

    Regarding 16:8 - in general I would say don't fight your natural and preferred eating schedule. If skipping breakfast makes you extra hungry by lunchtime then it seems to me an easier solution to get in the routine of a quick but filling breakfast. Giving up a very few minutes of time in bed to avoid hunger seems like a good deal to me. After all your goal should be to make dieting easier and not turn it into a white knuckle ride.
  • PatasDeGallina
    PatasDeGallina Posts: 155 Member
    Hello everyone. I've read through this thread with fascination as I've been hearing a lot about IF and the supposed benefits. I have a couple of questions and observations that hopefully those using an IF method can help me with.

    Firstly, I probably did the 16/8 method most of my life as I was terrible at eating breakfast. Honestly preferred the lay in int the mornings. I'd get up, grabs a coffee and head into work and not eat till lunch. I put this down to why I'm so big. By lunchtime I was starving and literally ate everything in site! Seems as this is my normal habitual behaviour which I'm trying to crack, is it a good idea for me to start with this method again more formally? When using this method (and all of them), I'm surmising that I would still limit myself to my current 1,700 cals in the eating period?

    If I decided to try the 5:2 method, I'm assuming those calories are forfeit for the week? So for example, I would cut out an additional 3,400 calories a week from my current intake? Is this a good idea, or would people recommend I increase the target on the non-fast days? Would this make the fasting a waste of time as I'd still be consuming the same calories in the week?

    From a practical point, even when fasting, I'd still have to cook meals for my wife and children. How do fasters deal with this?

    Cheers

    Andy


    Hey Andy. First off welcome. I just started 18/6 fasting a few weeks ago and these are my thoughts...

    Regardless of what you do you have to track something, either calories, macros, meals, something. I have found very few people can just intermittent fast (IF) without some kind of tracking, or they end up doing what you did and eat everything in site when they sit down to eat.

    Every diet I've seen that works is because they person doing it was consistent and mindful. Keto, Paleo, IF, CICO, etc.

    My personal reasons for trying IF is to give myself a smaller window to eat less calories, especially when the calorie goals get very small towards the end of my journey. Every time I get closer to my goal weight, I can't keep up with the low cals. I'm hoping this helps.

    I also plan to incorporate one day a week of not eating, a 42 hour fast. That's a ways off.

    For your purposes, yes, stick to your daily recommended calories on the days you eat. In fact, I went so far as to calculate my weekly calories and divide that between 6 days to see what I COULD eat if I were to skip one day and fast 36 or 42 hours.

    There is no hard and fast rule about these things. You really just have to try and see what feels good and works for you. Everyone's threshold for entering into "starvation mode" is different. I know, personally, you can drop me down well below 1000 cals/day and I'll keep losing. I might be hangry, but I'll lose weight.

    But the act of tracking is not to make us obsessive compulsive with our eating habits (which unfortunately happens I think too often, certainly has to me), but rather to keep us consuming mindfully. Weight loss and eating healthier are decisions we have to make every day, several times a day, each week, for the rest of our lives. It becomes a practice. Habits make for a lifestyle.

    Best of luck and I'll send you a friend request. :)