crewahl wrote: »

I’ll be curious to see how this unfolds. All too often, we hear glittering tales of the value of IF from converted true believers. I think your insights might be a bit more objective. (Specifically curious about the magic of timing vs IF simply leading to eating less.)

My goal is to be as objective as is possible. I have no preconceived notions. And, as I said, I will be logging my consumption/activity; although, I probably won't share the details of that publicly - just the total calories/steps.

Day Two:

A little anxiety to start the day because the team I manage had an off-site, social team luncheon scheduled. So, I would need to be careful. But, it went fine...other than the service taking forever due to the volume of people.

I started out the day +2 from my baseline weight on 8/1. I am well aware of daily fluctuations; so, I didn't let it bother me.

Mild hunger until around noon, then serious hunger kicked in for real. The slower service intensified that feeling. But, once they took our orders, the food came out rather quickly. I had a blue cheese burger and some fries. The calorie count was significant, but not nearly as bad as I expected. I had a salad for dinner; so, I still managed to feel sated and not go to far over my calorie budget. If I was doing WW, FlexPoints would have handled the difference easily.

The afternoon was a bit more fraught. Our 18-year-old, beloved cat had a health crisis, and we had to make the decision to say goodbye. We consulted with our longtime vet, and she confirmed we were making the correct choice. Very tough afternoon and evening.

I managed to eat my feelings only a bit, and it was, honestly, healthy stuff. So, I ended the day feeling pretty good. I slept very well.

Day 4

-1 relative to the starting weight.

Good energy. Mild Hunger for the morning. Good day.

Day 5
-2 relative to the starting weight. Slept in...got in some of walking as I did my errands. Not really hungry. But, I did eat slightly past my hours in the evening.

Day 6
-1 relative to the starting weight. Good day. No hunger. Had lunch with my son and DIL. Did pretty good. Once again, I did eat slightly past my hours. Weekend thing, maybe?

Day 7

-2 relative to the starting weight.

Did really well all day. Got in a good number of steps. Wasn't terribly hungry. Ate good healthy food.

Then, I went home. Ate a good, healthy dinner. But, I should've eaten half of it. Then, I kept snacking. And, I snacked beyond my timeframe. Didn't eat anything bad. Just kept eating. Not my finest hour.

Oh well. That day is done. Can't fix it. Moving on.

Day 9

-1 relative to starting weight

I had some early morning hunger, but it went away with some hot coffee and hot tea.

Pretty good energy through the day; but, I fell asleep in quite early. Got a good night of sleep, however.

Did not have snacking issues last night. That's a good thing.

Day 11, Day 12, Day 13

-1 (Fri), 0 (Saturday, -2 Sunday relative to original starting weight.

Decent weekend. Held my own. Not a lot of activity.

Solid sleep.

Day 15

0 relative to original starting weight

So, this day was weird. I felt off the entire day. Not sure why, but there was no energy, and I sort of felt out-of-body until the early afternoon. Again, not sure why. Got home from work and immediately took a nap. I woke up because my cell phone pinged, and I discovered I had been hard asleep for two hours. Very unusual for me. Naps are usually 1/2-hour, not much longer - often shorter.

I did okay food wise. A little carb craving in the later evening.

Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20

My weight range went from -2 to -1 to -4 and back to -1.

Little movement due to the storm...which, honestly, was just laziness on my part since I can walk in the comfort of my place.

Day 22

-3 relative to starting weight.

Yeah...I went off the rails yesterday. I did not sleep the previous night. At all. And, I've realized that my decision making process is greatly affected by how exhausted and clear-headed I am. Not my best day.

That said, I still have some time to mitigate those actions.

Day 24, Day 25, Day 26, Day 27

Overall, -4 relative to starting weight.

Tempted to call the experiment early, as I have pretty much drawn my conclusions. But, I will see it through to the end (08/31/2023).
.

Day 28

-4 relative to starting weight

Very busy day at work. However, I still managed to get some steps into the routine.

I find myself craving crunchy, salty food throughout the day. That was interesting.

Conclusions:

All conclusions are my opinion only and reflect my experience.

BLUF: Intermittent Fasting is not a magic bullet for losing weight - in and of itself. However, Intermittent Fasting, if done correctly, does cause one to focus on what the individual is eating - resulting in awareness and control.

I did not intentionally change the nature of the food I was eating. I pretty much ate the same food I would have eaten regardless, just in a time constrained manner.

What I noticed for myself is that I ended up being much more aware of my satiety levels. I'd eat as soon as 11am rolled around. I usually ate something small, like a breakfast sandwich or breakfast burrito. Then, I wouldn't be hungry again until 1:30 or 2:00. I'd eat my lunch then, and I quite honestly was not hungry until around 5pm or 6pm.

Intermittent Fasting did not resolve my issues with cravings. Nor, did it make it any easier to NOT want to nosh in the evening while watching television. Those issues remained. 11am is too late for me to eat breakfast - I generally like to eat within 2-3 hours of rising. I get up at 5am most days; so, eating in the 7am - 9am timeframe is optimal for me to start the day's consumption. Quitting at 7pm was, cravings notwithstanding, a perfectly fine time for me to stop consuming.

I did not feel any rebelliousness to the time constraints. I voluntarily committed myself to the time constraints, and when I commit to something I am pretty good at following through with it. Because the nature of my food choices did not change, there was no recalcitrance in that regard, either. I will say that, fudging the start and end times of the consumption hours became a bit easier as I neared the conclusion of the experiment.

There is nothing wrong with Intermittent Fasting. It can be a tool used to limit food consumption, and it is neither good nor bad. While it may seem a little faddish, there is recent scientific evidence that shows it to be as effective a tool as strict calorie/point counting. But, to be effective, it must be tailored and adjusted to meet the requirements of the individual using it as a tool. A certain discipline is required, and that, along with the awareness of what one consumes, is probably the key to success with Intermittent Fasting.

That said, it is not a magic bullet on its own. So, if you want to use it as a tool, use it. If you don't, then don't. It's sort of like choosing WW versus Noom versus MyFitnessPal. All choice.