Intermittent fasting and calorie deficits
platypipearson
Posts: 8 Member
Morning
I’m starting a bit of a new regime, and having heard a lot of people talk about intermittent fasting I thought I’d give it a go. I’m doing 16:8, and only eating between 2pm and 10pm, but I’m also logging what I eat and maintaining a calorie deficit.
Does intermittent fasting increase your metabolism so that your bmr is higher? Or is it just another way of limiting calorie intake?
If it is just limiting calorie intake that’s fine, it’s another tool in the box. But I find it interesting as I like to calculate my BMR to get my deficits right (I have a spreadsheet )
I’m starting a bit of a new regime, and having heard a lot of people talk about intermittent fasting I thought I’d give it a go. I’m doing 16:8, and only eating between 2pm and 10pm, but I’m also logging what I eat and maintaining a calorie deficit.
Does intermittent fasting increase your metabolism so that your bmr is higher? Or is it just another way of limiting calorie intake?
If it is just limiting calorie intake that’s fine, it’s another tool in the box. But I find it interesting as I like to calculate my BMR to get my deficits right (I have a spreadsheet )
0
Replies
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IF is just another tool to get to a caloric deficit.12
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platypipearson wrote: »
If it is just limiting calorie intake that’s fine, it’s another tool in the box. But I find it interesting as I like to calculate my BMR to get my deficits right (I have a spreadsheet )
Unless you've had your BMR tested, you're just using statistical estimates which may or may not be accurate for you.
If you like spreadsheets, you might like to calculate your TDEE (you won't be able to isolate your BMR, but TDEE is more interesting anyway).
Use your actual calorie intake as logged and look at your weight loss trend over a few months (preferably using 7 or 15 day weight averages instead of individual weigh-ins, to filter out fluctuations).
Based on 3500 calories deficit equaling approximately 1lbs of fat loss (or 7700 calories for 1kg), you can calculate your average TDEE and also see if you're losing weight faster or slower than expected.
I love working on my spreadsheet, I've created quite a few graphs to crunch my data 😁
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its just another way to create a calorie deficit. nothing more nothing less. i could cram a WHOLE lot of food into 8 hours. though not intentional, I pretty much eat during an 8 hour timespan, just because of my daily schedule.3
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I think that the eight hour window is slightly to long for IF, I would decrease it to six TBH. In theory-many will disagree-it should extend the time period when your body is on low insulin level thus help it to burn fat more effectively. You are right it does help to control daily calorie intake.1
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I've been doing the eight hour window for over three months, and it's working for me, but I also count calories and stay low-ish carb. The important thing is to fast for at least 2-3 hours before going to sleep, at least for me, because I sleep better on an empty stomach. Yes, it is another variation of calorie restriction, but it's working for me, and it's more manageable for me. I feel like I can do the window for life, whereas, if I ate all day and tried just to calorie restrict, I know that doesn't last!
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You have to put your own spin on any method, I think. I have done the six hour window on days when my schedule allowed, and it does work better, but at this point I'm not ready to do that full time. Also cutting flour and sugar works better for me than anything else. Overeating during your window defeats the purpose. Eat enough for your nutritional needs,but still keep it to 1-2 meals a day.0
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I have done intermittent fasting for years. It worked for me and my schedule. I used to think it helped “burn fat” faster but after personal input from well-informed people and after verifying through my own personal research, I learned it works because you are more inclined to eat less therefore go into a calorie deficit hence you lose weight.
When I started tracking my macros and calories, reaching my goal of calories was sooo hard to do in 8 hours. I was stuffing myself and wasn’t hungry but I had to finish by a certain time to fit it everything into my eating window. This wasn’t sustainable for me so I decided to stop intermittent fasting.
Pros:
-you can make it work around your schedule and it gives you flexibility depending on your life, work, errands etc.
-I ate all my meals before I went into work in the evening and didn’t have to worry about making time to eat during work. That was a plus.
See if it works out for you and your schedule
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Does intermittent fasting increase your metabolism so that your bmr is higher?
- No. I've done 16:8 and 5:2 IF protocols and my weight trend tracked my calorie balance just like it does when I don't do IF.
Or is it just another way of limiting calorie intake?
- Yes. Especially for people who aren't calorie counting by restricting the time window when you eat can reduce your intake. Skipping breakfast is one of the tools I use to reverse an upwards drift in weight, I eat less over the course of a day when I have two meals instead of three. If you are calorie counting then eating windows and numbers of meals is purely an adherence factor. (BTW - making calorie control easier on a personal level is a very sensible thing to do, the beginning of the day is the easiest time for me to cut calories.)
If it is just limiting calorie intake that’s fine, it’s another tool in the box. But I find it interesting as I like to calculate my BMR to get my deficits right
- You work out your deficit from your TDEE and not your BMR. You can get your RMR tested but that's only a part of your calorie needs unless you are at total rest all day.
7 -
It's just another way to create a calorie deficit. A fine way to do it, imho. I've been doing 17:7 for over a year and a half and I see no reason I'd ever stop doing it. Even when I took a 3 month maintenance break this summer, I (mostly) stuck with IF, except for 2 weeks (not coincidentally the period in which I regained a few pounds).
When I started IF I was VERY hungry at night, but that passed in about 3 weeks and then I started having no appetite or interest in food outside the eating window. That has remained true ever since. This is my favorite feature of IF. So many of us are trained to respond to hunger pangs with food, like some evil Pavlovian experiment, but one thing you learn with IF is, another thing you can do with hunger pangs is just ignore them. And then, guess what, they stop. And then you're free!! I've gotten used to not being hungry and not obsessing about food but for the first 6 months or so of IF I found that remarkable.
IF has definitely been a game changer for me. But there's really no question that if you eat 100 calories every hour of the day or 2400 calories for dinner, it's gonna have the same impact on your weight.0
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