Fasting - does it work?

I need to ask a possibly stupid question...do people ever do this accidentally? I hardly ever eat before noon or after 9pm, I usually eat around noon, 3pm, and a later dinner, with a sort of mini-meal after my workout somewhere in between the rest. From reading through this whole thread (admittedly I haven't read the group) it seems like I've been doing what is described here. I started pushing back my breakfast because I don't get hypoglycemia symptoms first thing in the AM but DO get them if I go too long between meals. And I don't do the 6 meal a day thing because I don't think eating mini meals all day is satisfying- feels like a diet. I've always been kind of ashamed of my late breakfasts because of how much blah blah you hear about mandatory breakfast...

I need to ask a possibly stupid question...do people ever do this accidentally? I hardly ever eat before noon or after 9pm, I usually eat around noon, 3pm, and a later dinner, with a sort of mini-meal after my workout somewhere in between the rest. From reading through this whole thread (admittedly I haven't read the group) it seems like I've been doing what is described here. I started pushing back my breakfast because I don't get hypoglycemia symptoms first thing in the AM but DO get them if I go too long between meals. And I don't do the 6 meal a day thing because I don't think eating mini meals all day is satisfying- feels like a diet. I've always been kind of ashamed of my late breakfasts because of how much blah blah you hear about mandatory breakfast...

Yes, they do...the thing is, it can affect your body differently. I ate like this (understand, I had little activity, desk job...etc, plus I'm sure I was over on calories often, even with only 1-2 meals a day) simply because I was too busy during the daytime to eat...and it made me fat...

Until I started strength training.

It just seems to me hard to believe that the way I eat, having a late breakfast, would be what anyone considers fasting. I believe you- it's just strange. If this is considered the low end of what IF entails, then the people who are referring to it as an eating disorder are outright wrong.

I need to ask a possibly stupid question...do people ever do this accidentally? I hardly ever eat before noon or after 9pm, I usually eat around noon, 3pm, and a later dinner, with a sort of mini-meal after my workout somewhere in between the rest. From reading through this whole thread (admittedly I haven't read the group) it seems like I've been doing what is described here. I started pushing back my breakfast because I don't get hypoglycemia symptoms first thing in the AM but DO get them if I go too long between meals. And I don't do the 6 meal a day thing because I don't think eating mini meals all day is satisfying- feels like a diet. I've always been kind of ashamed of my late breakfasts because of how much blah blah you hear about mandatory breakfast...

Yes, they do...the thing is, it can affect your body differently. I ate like this (understand, I had little activity, desk job...etc, plus I'm sure I was over on calories often, even with only 1-2 meals a day) simply because I was too busy during the daytime to eat...and it made me fat...

Until I started strength training.

It just seems to me hard to believe that the way I eat, having a late breakfast, would be what anyone considers fasting. I believe you- it's just strange. If this is considered the low end of what IF entails, then the people who are referring to it as an eating disorder are outright wrong.

That's exactly the point those of us who have researched it and/or practice it...are making.

Well I just 100% proved your point with a single serving of anecdotal evidence. I should have stepped in earlier and cleared this up so you guys wouldn't have had to mess around with studies and the like. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

LOL thanks!!

why don't you ask a personal trainer? someone who has an educational background in nutrition, weight loss, exercise programs catering to certain requirements? just a thought....

If you go to 3 different ones you will get 3 different opinions. Just compare the Weight Watchers vs. Dr. Atkins vs. Dr Fuhrmann and all have a medical background. LOL

why don't you ask a personal trainer? someone who has an educational background in nutrition, weight loss, exercise programs catering to certain requirements? just a thought....

If you go to 3 different ones you will get 3 different opinions. Just compare the Weight Watchers vs. Dr. Atkins vs. Dr Fuhrmann and all have a medical background. LOL

My experience of Personal Trainers is that they don't know much about anything except how to do exercises. Usually they have been taught a position on nutrition and don't keep up with current research.

For example, a PT at my gym insisted that I needed to eat 6 small meals a day to boost my metabolism. I didn't listen to much after that.

It's debatable whether they actually know that even. For example (and oddly enough lol) I actually had a little fun tonight at the gym (LA Fitness) by asking four separate personal trainers just how much the bar/rack on the leg press machine weighed. Can you guess the response? Let me put it this way, they all had to appeal to a higher power, and I got three different answers back (two came back with the same answer), none of which were correct.

Notice,

the only naysayers are those who have not yet tried it, or have clearly failed middle school Biology.


Please. I beg you. Stop saying "Starvation Mode" like it's an actual concept.

I think it will work for you if you have the ability to fast.
I find if i go without food for about 5 hours i get very faint and dizzy, and i start to struggle with simple motor fuctions.
And i will just start to shake and after about 8 hours of not eating i will start to go into like hazy trances.
Fasting is not an option for me lol.

Sound like you have hypoglycemia, I have it and I do they same thing you said when I go a while with out eating. My blood sugar gets too low.