Intermittent Fasting

[alotofyarn]

I'm thinking of trying this - I'd do a 16:8 approach and probably eat from 11-7 or 12-8. Right now I normally make a protein shake with iced coffee between 6 and 8, have a cup of black coffee around 8-9, and then eat lunch at 11 or 12, so really the only difference is that I'd drop my protein shake and just drink coffee. Has anybody else tried it? J is doing keto right now and having really good success so far, but I just can't see myself completely giving up carbs, especially when I'm feeding kids too.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

I’m sort of intrigued. I don’t want to lose weight per se but interested since it’s become harder and around to maintain my weight in my mid 30s.

Is there good data on this being effective? Or is it just another fad diet thing.


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[alotofyarn]

I searched a little bit and found some reviews that reported limited, mixed, but mostly positive benefits.

[OrionGrad]

I think I’ve started doing this by accident, and I’ve lost weight so I guess it’s working. 🤷🏼*♀️ I have black coffee at 5 and 8, then I don’t end up eating breakfast until DD has snack around 10:30. Since I eat breakfast so late, I’m not hungry for lunch until after school pickup at 2:30, then I usually eat dinner around 5:30. So I guess that’s like 16/8-ish.

[alotofyarn]

[MENTION=4422]MAPPLEBUM[/MENTION] - I think you've posted on FB about doing this?

[MAPPLEBUM]

Ah yes I did IF for years. 16-20/8 eating window is the easiest. Last summer on non exercise days (1x / week for the most part) I started implementing 24 hour fasts drinking broth when needed. It was not hard at all! That was also in conjunction with Keto. The arguments of giving your body a break from digesting make sense to me and since I naturally skip breakfast it was nice to not feel like I had to defend myself against the "breakfast is the most important part of the day" people. The main thing to remember when you're doing this for weight loss is to avoid feast / famine mentality which is really hard! If you restrict your eating window, or basically have 1-2 meals a day, those meals need to be the same size as when you eat 3 meals otherwise you're consuming the same number of calories in less time. I probably didn't lose weight while doing it but I also haven't weighed in 2 years.

IF came very naturally to me. I stopped because I bought some cutting templates designed for weight lifters called Renaissance Periodization. Probably because of the 24 hour fasts I noticed that my progress had stalled in the gym and decided it was time to try something new. RP is a LOT of protein and vegetables (about as many grams of protein per day as your body weight) moderate fat, and carbs vary between how long / heavy you lift. It was a MAJOR shock. I had grown accustomed to consuming very few calories even if that didn't correlate to weight loss.

I started RP again in the new year but got off it when I went out of town last weekend. I'm kind of ish'ing it with the nutrient timing (protein shake before and during CrossFit is a recipe for puke) and I suppose still doing IF 16/8 about 3 days a week. I simply prefer exercising fasted.

The only other thing I'd say is if 16/8 or longer fasts don't work for you some people prefer the 4/3 diet, which is eating normally 4 days a week and then restricting calories to 900-1000 3x a week. That doesn't work for me but does work for others.

One other thing about Keto. I believe I did lose weight on it and felt GREAT. Even on RP some days I start noticing "keto breath" after exercise. I do think simply by how my clothes fit that whatever weight I lost was gained back quickly. It's also one of those diets where people say "that's simply not sustainable" and while you're doing it you think what do you mean? It's perfectly sustainable! But then as soon as you stop you can't imagine how you possibly went so long without bread.

[Pollyanna]

The difficulty with IF is making sure you aren’t losing muscle as you lose weight. You may see a huge drop on the scale but if a portion of that is muscle then all you have done is effectively slowed your metabolism so when you eat normally you will gain the weight back quickly. Knowing your body composition during weight loss will help you get the most effective results.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Yeah the problem for me is that I run early early (think 5 AM) 5x/week so I don’t know if I can go until 10 or 11 without eating.

I might have more success with 24 hour fasts on the days I don’t work out.


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[Elchorrito]

Find books by Dr. Jason Fung. He has one called The Obesity Code and one called The Complete Guide to Fasting which I've read. He has another on type II diabetes that I haven't read but I assume it's similar to the first 2.

I've been doing 16:8 almost since this baby was born, with very little success, but I've had holidays stuck in there, etc, so I'm hoping to be more successful in the future. I've lost about 5 lbs since October. I need to lose at least another 20. Somehow I really packed it on with this baby and it just come off like it did with my first.

What I have done a LOT (like 2 yrs) of, and had good success with, is a modified 5-2 diet. The real 5-2 allows something like 500 calories on the 2 fasting days, but I have zero self control when it comes to calories, so I do 0 calories on those days and eat whatever I want on the 5 days. To me, this is the easiest diet I have ever tried, and it got me down to pre-wedding weight, which i hadn't been for a few years. I've done diets where I can eat certain foods, and they're a pain to live with. IF is not. If someone invites you to dinner, you go and just fast the next day or whatever. It's super flexible and works into regular life. The first couple of fasts are hard, but your body gets used to it then and it becomes no big deal. I have 2 complaints about it: DH thinks I'm irritable in the evenings of fast days, and I feel cold when I'm fasting.

As for how scientific it is, Dr. Fung's books are pretty convincing to me, and he goes into a lot of science about how insulin and glycogen works, and what fasting does for them, but I'm not sure how backed up his research is. It makes sense, I'm just not sure it's proven. My OB, however, was super into IF, and she totally supported it and did it herself. She was ok with me doing 16:8 while pregnant (I didn't, which is probably why I have 20 lbs to lose now).

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[Elchorrito]

The difficulty with IF is making sure you aren’t losing muscle as you lose weight. You may see a huge drop on the scale but if a portion of that is muscle then all you have done is effectively slowed your metabolism so when you eat normally you will gain the weight back quickly. Knowing your body composition during weight loss will help you get the most effective results.

According to what I've read this basically never happens unless you do a super prolonged fast, like a month or something. Your body preferentially uses other, easier, energy sources first. In the book The Complete Guide to Fasting, they did some scans and found no protein loss. I forget the details...

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[Elchorrito]

And btw, eating whatever you want on non-fasting days is NOT recommend. It's just what I do because I'm a pig and a junk food monster. Pretty sure I'd be more successful in life if I were not. But even this is at least mildly successful for me, so i don't care.

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[alotofyarn]

Find books by Dr. Jason Fung. He has one called The Obesity Code and one called The Complete Guide to Fasting which I've read. He has another on type II diabetes that I haven't read but I assume it's similar to the first 2.

I've been doing 16:8 almost since this baby was born, with very little success, but I've had holidays stuck in there, etc, so I'm hoping to be more successful in the future. I've lost about 5 lbs since October. I need to lose at least another 20. Somehow I really packed it on with this baby and it just come off like it did with my first.

What I have done a LOT (like 2 yrs) of, and had good success with, is a modified 5-2 diet. The real 5-2 allows something like 500 calories on the 2 fasting days, but I have zero self control when it comes to calories, so I do 0 calories on those days and eat whatever I want on the 5 days. To me, this is the easiest diet I have ever tried, and it got me down to pre-wedding weight, which i hadn't been for a few years. I've done diets where I can eat certain foods, and they're a pain to live with. IF is not. If someone invites you to dinner, you go and just fast the next day or whatever. It's super flexible and works into regular life. The first couple of fasts are hard, but your body gets used to it then and it becomes no big deal. I have 2 complaints about it: DH thinks I'm irritable in the evenings of fast days, and I feel cold when I'm fasting.

As for how scientific it is, Dr. Fung's books are pretty convincing to me, and he goes into a lot of science about how insulin and glycogen works, and what fasting does for them, but I'm not sure how backed up his research is. It makes sense, I'm just not sure it's proven. My OB, however, was super into IF, and she totally supported it and did it herself. She was ok with me doing 16:8 while pregnant (I didn't, which is probably why I have 20 lbs to lose now).

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We actually have The Obesity Code. My husband just read it, which is why he decided on Keto. I need to read it too.

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[Elchorrito]

We actually have The Obesity Code. My husband just read it, which is why he decided on Keto. I need to read it too.

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I liked it. ...except. there were a few random things in there that didn't totally add up for me, like how he thinks we need to drink vinegar and it's really beneficial, but he doesn't really have anything to back that up. He seemed all scientifically based and then he just threw out a few random bits that I thought would've been better omitted, and the whole book better and more credible without them. It's been a year or so since I've read it, though, so maybe I'm misremembering.

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[SoonerTexan]

Vgirl is on here anymore, but she mentioned a few months ago she had some success with this.

In reality, this is basically what my super skinny husband does (in addition to burning like 12k+ calories a week ha)

I took out The Obesity Code from the library, but never read it. After this kid is born I'm going to go back to plain old calorie restriction, which has usually worked well by breastfeeding. And then when the weight loss comes to a screeching halt when I wean, I might consider this.

[L.Jane]

My friend/ neighbor who is also a physician loves intermittent fasting and wrote a blog on it. You might check it out.
https://fastingworkgirl.com/

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