Intermittent Fasting question
dsum420
Posts: 3 Member
I’ve been looking to get into intermittent fasting but had one question about it. With intermittent fasting do you need to do it every day or can you alternate the days you fast? My diet is very non processed foods when I eat. So for example. Could I fast for three days then take a two day break from fasting?
Any information would be great.
Thanks
Any information would be great.
Thanks
1
Replies
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I’ve been looking to get into intermittent fasting but had one question about it. With intermittent fasting do you need to do it every day or can you alternate the days you fast? My diet is very non processed foods when I eat. So for example. Could I fast for three days then take a two day break from fasting?
Any information would be great.
Thanks
You can absolutely alternate days. Really, how you eat is all about what works for you. Not arbitrary internet rules made by a lot of people who really don't know much.1 -
There is 5:2, look that up.
Why would you think that you can't fast then not fast? What is it you are trying to accomplish with fasting? If it's weight loss, then you need to just eat less over a period of time. Fasting helps some people do that. It's still about calories.1 -
I work a 12 hour continental shift with a 15 hour period between when I leave for work and when I get home. I find it quite easy to fast during that period of time. I find it harder to fast on the days I’m off as I’m feeding the kids and just spending more time around the house. This is why I believe I could do it for a few days then have a day or two where things are trickier with busy life.
My main goal is fat loss but I have read about many other benefits fasting can have. I have improved my diet greatly and basically cut out added sugar completely. I’m hoping fasting will give a boost to the fat loss even if I’m doing it only a few days a week.0 -
Absolutely do what is easiest for you to do and still stay within a calorie budget.
Some people track calories by the week, not the day. I have a spreadsheet with daily and weekly calories and every Monday I have the previous week's numbers on which to reflect.
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Doing a continuous 48 hour fast involves a lot of nuance and should be discussed with a professional that is aware of your overall health issues and your goals to make sure these are compatible and doable because 48 hour fasts involved quite a few metabolic effects and changes that have both positive and negative effects. From my understanding of fasting and I've done a fair amount of research I just want to mention that doing a 2 day fast every week is probably too much, but like I said, you should seek someone with experience, hopefully an informed dietitian. Another approach is to consume a small amount of calories during the 48 hour fast and 500-800 for a 24 hour period seems to be a popular approach, and in this context I don't see a reason why this couldn't be accomplished every week, I would still try and seek some professional advice. Cheers
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It doesn’t matter. Your Fatloss will be determined by what your WEEKLY calorie deficit is. Meal timing has nothing to do with it. If IF, fasting, etc causes you to consume fewer weekly calories then it’s a good thing however the overall calorie amount is what to concentrate on.1
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What would your calories be on the other 4 days?
One thing that seems like a red flag to me- You said you’ve been looking to get into intermittent fasting , which means you have no prior experience so you don’t know how it will impact you. For those starting, they usually begin with something like a 12 or 14 hour fast and work their way up over an extended period of time. To make a comparison to what you’re considering doing, it would be like going from a couch potato to running a half marathon week after week. I’m not sure why you would want to consider this as an option. If your primary goal is to lose weight, find out your calorie goal here on MFP and either 1. Eat those calories everyday for a week or 2. Do a beginner IF plan and divide those weekly calories accordingly.
There’s really no reason to make yourself suffer or make things harder for yourself. You deserve to be happy and comfortable while reaching your goals.3 -
If your goal is to lose weight and you're successfully losing weight at a reasonable and moderate rate when you look at your overall monthly picture, It is almost never the "all ends well in the end" answer to increase the speed of loss to get weight loss over faster.
To the contrary looking to wrap things up earlier is more often than not a red flag that you're on the path that's not a sustainable as it should be.
And finding sustainable solutions is the only way I'm aware of succeeding in appreciable weight loss and maintaining that loss for an appreciable amount of time2 -
I’m more or less just looking to add an extra tool to my arsenal with fasting. It’s something I feel confident I can do while at work. I have done some trial days with success. Over the last two years I’ve lost 50lbs by eating better and moderate exercise. Are there not other benefits from fasting as well that I can be taking advantage of? And yes I am hoping it will burn off some more fat especially around the waist and stomach.
I do understand that sustainability is the key and all the other importances with weight loss.
My question again was more about fasting for 16 hours for a couple of days in a row and then not fasting for a couple of days right after and if that has any negative effects. I’m not sure if autophagy is achievable the first time you fast for 16 hours or if you need to work at it for a week or month before it will start triggering in the body.0 -
Autophagy is one of those gray science areas. It occurs naturally anyway, but if you think it's somehow going to lengthen your life, then you're on your own. If you want to debate the YouTube claims about specific hours and days, I think that's a "Debate Club" topic...because inducing a process that already naturally happens and isn't really measureable on an individual basis here on myfitnesspal really is outside the scope of "fasting" as we are defining it.0
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I’m more or less just looking to add an extra tool to my arsenal with fasting. It’s something I feel confident I can do while at work. I have done some trial days with success. Over the last two years I’ve lost 50lbs by eating better and moderate exercise. Are there not other benefits from fasting as well that I can be taking advantage of? And yes I am hoping it will burn off some more fat especially around the waist and stomach.
I do understand that sustainability is the key and all the other importances with weight loss.
My question again was more about fasting for 16 hours for a couple of days in a row and then not fasting for a couple of days right after and if that has any negative effects. I’m not sure if autophagy is achievable the first time you fast for 16 hours or if you need to work at it for a week or month before it will start triggering in the body.
So if you’re fasting for 16 hours you’ll have an 8 hour eating window. That’s the equivalent of eating between 12pm-8pm. This is basically missing breakfast. You should be fine but only you can say how you react to it. Doing a full fast for 3 days in a row as a beginner, not recommended.
We can’t claim the benefits here without more research but there is some compelling evidence for longer fasts and for those with a lower BMI, seen in documentaries by Michael Mosley. It’s up to you to decide if it works for your lifestyle and how far you want to dive into IF. Give the 16 hour fasts a try and take it from there. Personally, I don’t really notice I do IF anymore, it’s second nature to me at this point, I guess it always was.1 -
Some people fast regularly, some sporadically. I do IF 16:8 or 18:6, I didn't plan on it actually but I started on a high fat/low carb regime which is very satiating. I kinda just fell into eating 1 or 2 meals and not being hungry, then I learned about IF and developed a workable pattern.
But if there's like a holiday weekend or a road trip or something, if I can't do the IF and get hungry, I eat. No big deal, as long as I stick to my diet's usual guidelines for the day it doesn't matter. Not fasting on those days doesn't do any damage. I may or may not lose as much, it depends on what I'm doing.
If you wanna do IF it can be a really great tool, even if you can only do it for a day or two per week, or every other day... As long as you're sticking to your food plan the rest of the week it shouldn't be a problem.0 -
Doing intermittent fasting only on some days: the most important potential downside could be hunger. Our body gets used to a certain rhythm, so if you (for example) skip breakfast every day, you won't be as hungry in the morning as when you always have breakfast.
With an irregular rhythm, hunger cues might be higher on IF days than if you do IF every day.
But it's highly personal, if I were you I would just try it out and see how it feels?2 -
I’m more or less just looking to add an extra tool to my arsenal with fasting. It’s something I feel confident I can do while at work. I have done some trial days with success. Over the last two years I’ve lost 50lbs by eating better and moderate exercise. Are there not other benefits from fasting as well that I can be taking advantage of? And yes I am hoping it will burn off some more fat especially around the waist and stomach.
I do understand that sustainability is the key and all the other importances with weight loss.
My question again was more about fasting for 16 hours for a couple of days in a row and then not fasting for a couple of days right after and if that has any negative effects. I’m not sure if autophagy is achievable the first time you fast for 16 hours or if you need to work at it for a week or month before it will start triggering in the body.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24058-autophagy
...How long do you have to fast for autophagy to occur?
Studies involving animals suggest that autophagy may begin between 24 to 48 hours of fasting. Not enough research has been collected on the ideal timing to trigger human autophagy.
...A note from Cleveland Clinic
Recent conversations about autophagy often frame it as a health trend — a process to get younger, healthier cells. In reality, autophagy isn’t that simple. Autophagy is indeed essential for healthy cells. It’s also true that problems with autophagy are associated with some diseases. Still, there’s not enough research to support inducing autophagy as a wellness strategy. Depending on your health, fasting, reducing your calories, making drastic changes to your diet or taking on a rigorous exercise routine may be dangerous. Speak to a healthcare provider if you’re curious about making any lifestyle change that can disrupt your body’s natural processes.0 -
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nm, dun wanna argue about this . at all.1 -
Doing IF intermittently is difficult as you need to slowly let your body adapt to no food until noon or however you structure the eating window. If that is inconsistent then it becomes difficult to adhere to.1
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »Doing IF intermittently is difficult as you need to slowly let your body adapt to no food until noon or however you structure the eating window. If that is inconsistent then it becomes difficult to adhere to.
That's very much an individual, YMMV kind of thing.0 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »tomcustombuilder wrote: »Doing IF intermittently is difficult as you need to slowly let your body adapt to no food until noon or however you structure the eating window. If that is inconsistent then it becomes difficult to adhere to.
That's very much an individual, YMMV kind of thing.
It can be individual, but for most, Tom's right. Your body gets in a routine and expects food at certain times. If it's used to not getting breakfast, it won't tend to send hunger signals in the morning, because it knows there's no food coming. If your body gets breakfast some of the time, then when it doesn't, it's going to send major hunger signals being like "hey, WTH, it's eat o'clock and your not sending me food. This is no bueno!!!0 -
sollyn23l2 wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »tomcustombuilder wrote: »Doing IF intermittently is difficult as you need to slowly let your body adapt to no food until noon or however you structure the eating window. If that is inconsistent then it becomes difficult to adhere to.
That's very much an individual, YMMV kind of thing.
It can be individual, but for most, Tom's right. Your body gets in a routine and expects food at certain times. If it's used to not getting breakfast, it won't tend to send hunger signals in the morning, because it knows there's no food coming. If your body gets breakfast some of the time, then when it doesn't, it's going to send major hunger signals being like "hey, WTH, it's eat o'clock and your not sending me food. This is no bueno!!!
Maybe most, I don't know. pretty sure it's not all.
OP seems to be reporting a variable schedule, different on working days vs. home days. Bodies do respond to routine, but the whole context matters.
If s/he adopts a different routine on work vs. non-work days, that may be fine. I think that is individual. We see so many people here who establish positive habits on weekdays (their work days), but have trouble with the weekends. That suggests to me that the routine - what one's body expects and does - can be context-dependent.
I'm retired, but usually have a different routine (in summer) on rowing days vs. non-rowing days. That includes different meal sizes and timings. Sometimes on non-rowing days, it's more like 2 meals rather than 3. It doesn't result in different hunger patterns on the differently-structured days just because I don't stick to one eating schedule across all formats of days . . . kind of the opposite, actually.
I vote that OP should try the plan, see how it works at the n=1 level. (I'm with Lynn, pretty much, in this case.)0 -
Nothing will ever be absolute. Always worth a try. Just don’t be surprised when the body gets confused and rebels with odd hunger issuessollyn23l2 wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »tomcustombuilder wrote: »Doing IF intermittently is difficult as you need to slowly let your body adapt to no food until noon or however you structure the eating window. If that is inconsistent then it becomes difficult to adhere to.
That's very much an individual, YMMV kind of thing.
It can be individual, but for most, Tom's right. Your body gets in a routine and expects food at certain times. If it's used to not getting breakfast, it won't tend to send hunger signals in the morning, because it knows there's no food coming. If your body gets breakfast some of the time, then when it doesn't, it's going to send major hunger signals being like "hey, WTH, it's eat o'clock and your not sending me food. This is no bueno!!!
Maybe most, I don't know. pretty sure it's not all.
OP seems to be reporting a variable schedule, different on working days vs. home days. Bodies do respond to routine, but the whole context matters.
If s/he adopts a different routine on work vs. non-work days, that may be fine. I think that is individual. We see so many people here who establish positive habits on weekdays (their work days), but have trouble with the weekends. That suggests to me that the routine - what one's body expects and does - can be context-dependent.
I'm retired, but usually have a different routine (in summer) on rowing days vs. non-rowing days. That includes different meal sizes and timings. Sometimes on non-rowing days, it's more like 2 meals rather than 3. It doesn't result in different hunger patterns on the differently-structured days just because I don't stick to one eating schedule across all formats of days . . . kind of the opposite, actually.
I vote that OP should try the plan, see how it works at the n=1 level. (I'm with Lynn, pretty much, in this case.)
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