Is Fasting ok?

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Replies

  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    Yeah, it's no big deal to eat under your cals or not to hit your macros once in a while. I read your initial post as if you were saying you weren't eating anything all day (fasting), because you just weren't hungry.
  • wowisforstuds1238
    wowisforstuds1238 Posts: 77 Member
    Yeah it was just for part of the day was all and Like I said I don’t think I hit my macros for that day and I was definitely calorie Deficient for that day. I ended up having to sub in some candies ( which I actually didn’t even eat) just to make my 1200 minimum calorie eaten a day just to be able to post my diary. I think everything is fine now. I started a new post to refresh thread if any of you want to comment on that as well.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    On the topic of appetite - I have, to my own surprise, gradually shifted to a one meal a day/IF sort of schedule. I'm not rigid, I'm not doing it on purpose as a strategy. I just now ONLY seem to get hungry at between 4 and 5 p.m. My calories are fine. I have never liked or wanted breakfast. I just seem to have gradually lost my desire for lunch.

    It is what it is.
  • wowisforstuds1238
    wowisforstuds1238 Posts: 77 Member
    As long as you hitting your daily caloric intake and trying to hit those macros. It doesn’t really matter when or what you do right?
  • thelastnightingale
    thelastnightingale Posts: 725 Member
    As long as you hitting your daily caloric intake and trying to hit those macros. It doesn’t really matter when or what you do right?

    As long as the calories you consume are fewer than the calories you burn, you'll lose weight. To an extent, it doesn't matter when you eat them, but if, taking an extreme example, you eat all of your calories for the day in the morning you'll probably feel uncomfortably full and lethargic for the whole day then suddenly starving in the evening. So, I'd say it doesn't really matter, as long as you listen to your body (if you do listen, it will tell you when it's eaten too much and when it's really hungry).

    If you're doing any exercise, planning the timing of when you eat can also affect your workout. Everyone is different here - I know some people who need to fuel a few hours beforehand and others who would be sick if they did, and so plan to eat immediately afterwards.

    If you vary the timing of when you eat from day to day, to be blunt, the timing of your bowel movements is not going to be consistent, so this may make you think you've gained/lost more than you really have, depending on how often and when you weigh. You'll be able to track your progress over time anyway, trends will always reveal the real truth, but if you're the sort of person to get freaked out by an unexpected result, it's something to bear in mind.

    Hitting your macros isn't essential for weight loss (just the calories) but balancing those macros can make you feel more satisfied. Skimping on protein for example may be a bad idea if you struggle with feeling full and/or if you work out a lot.

    So... itsortofdoesntreallymatterwhenorwhatyoudo. But it sort of does too.
  • wowisforstuds1238
    wowisforstuds1238 Posts: 77 Member
    I thought the key to losing weight was staying under your BMR and being in a caloric deficit. 3500 calories= 1 pound of fat so theoretically if you went into a 500 deficit all week you could still lose a pound of fat without even having to exercise at all, not so much having to eat less then you burn? Can you clarify that statement in more detail plz?
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    edited February 2021
    I thought the key to losing weight was staying under your BMR and being in a caloric deficit. 3500 calories= 1 pound of fat so theoretically if you went into a 500 deficit all week you could still lose a pound of fat without even having to exercise at all, not so much having to eat less then you burn? Can you clarify that statement in more detail plz?

    It's staying under your TDEE, not your BMR. (Your BMR is what you burn if perfectly still but for necessary bodily functions, as if in a coma. TDEE is the sum of all calories you actually burn in a day, regardless of how they are burnt.) But yeah, a 500 cal deficit from your TDEE over the course of a week = 1 lb loss (on average!) even without intentional exercise.

    When people say "eat less than you burn," they typically are referring to what your body burns from any source (exercise, other activity, digestion and bodily functions), not just exercise burn.
  • thelastnightingale
    thelastnightingale Posts: 725 Member
    When I talk about what you burn, I mean the calories you expend. You expend calories just from breathing, you don't need to exercise to burn calories (but you'd burn significantly more calories from going to the gym than simply sitting on the couch). To clarify, I mean you need to eat fewer calories than you use up in whatever activity you do (and even being in a coma counts as 'activity' for this purpose).

    I know they're not wholly accurate, but I use a fitness tracker to measure what I burn in a day, i.e. it tells me how many calories I use up on the days when I do nothing and the days when I'm more active. My calorie goal, therefore, is more dynamic - lazy Sundays like today don't net me any extra calories, but if I do a lot of movement, I 'earn' some additional calories from exercise and eat a bit bit more on those days.

    I have been a couch potato for the last 11 months and have still lost over 2 stone. Exercise is for health, strength and definition. Weight loss is all about what you eat. In an ideal world, you'd do both. Depends what your goals are, really.

    That 3,500 calories thing is just an estimate - take it with a pinch of salt.

    Personally, I think a 500 deficit is a good number to aim for because it is realistic and has a margin built in. I mean, if you aim for a 250 deficit, if you get some of your weighing a little bit wrong, you may well eat up to maintenance or worse, eat over. With a 500 deficit, even allowing for errors, you're likely to have some sort of deficit.

    A 750 deficit (which may be capped anyway if you're small enough/short enough) is just aggressive. The more aggressive a target, the harder it is to keep it up.
  • wowisforstuds1238
    wowisforstuds1238 Posts: 77 Member
    How do you determine your TDEE or whatever. I dont know, but let me give you my stats. I’m 38. 5’ 6” and I currently weigh 218. Don’t exactly know my BF% but my scale says 29%. But I don’t really know exactly
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    How do you determine your TDEE or whatever. I dont know, but let me give you my stats. I’m 38. 5’ 6” and I currently weigh 218. Don’t exactly know my BF% but my scale says 29%. But I don’t really know exactly

    There are several calculators online that will give you an estimate of your TDEE based on your personal information (weight, etc) and your estimate of your own activity level. You can then compare it to your real life results in order to see how accurate it is.

    You can also use the tools on MFP -- it will give you the estimated number of calories you burn each day given your stats and lifestyle and you then log your exercise.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,721 Member
    How do you determine your TDEE or whatever. I dont know, but let me give you my stats. I’m 38. 5’ 6” and I currently weigh 218. Don’t exactly know my BF% but my scale says 29%. But I don’t really know exactly

    Try this TDEE calculator: https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

    It compares multiple research-based estimating methods, and has more different activities (with better descriptions) than most.

    Without exercise (sedentary), it suggests your TDEE would be in the 2200-2400 range (with or without assuming the 29% body fat is correct).

    If you use a TDEE calculation to set a deficit, include your exercise in the calculation, knock 500 calories off the TDEE to lose an estimated pound a week, then stick to that goal every day. If you let MFP calculate your calorie goal, *don't* include intentional exercise in your activity level, then log exercise and eat it back separately. That's two different methods, with different calculations. Either method, follow the recommendation for a month (would be a whole menstrual cycle if you were a premenopausal woman), then compare your average weekly weight loss to your intended weight loss. Adjust calories if needed, because the so-called calculators only give estimates, and your results give you a more personalized insight.