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Old 12-20-2018, 01:34 PM   #21
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One thing that helps me with IF is to have a glass of ice water nearby at all times. When i notice the hunger pains, a couple swigs of water take them away (yes, you can get used to going to the bathroom more or feeling chills in the middle of the summer because of the water). It takes a little effort to get used to hunger pains but they are perfectly natural. I think people are obese because when they feel hungry, they are programmed to stuff there faces.
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Old 12-20-2018, 07:16 PM   #22
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I've been doing IF and low carb for a year, have lost 45 lbs. Generally I never eat breakfast, and stop eating by 8 at night. I don't get up until around 9 most mornings, and get to work at 11, so fasting until after 12 isn't a problem.

I never could have done it when I was eating high carb/low fat. Blood sugar swings were brutal. Now there are days when I can go longer with no problem. As mentioned above, adequate fat consumption is a big part of satiety.

That said, once you learn how real hunger feels, as opposed to cravings, you'll realize sometimes that you are truly hungry outside your window. And then you eat!
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Old 12-20-2018, 07:53 PM   #23
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I’ve been skipping most dinners for months now and don’t eat breakfast first thing but at least a couple of hours after waking. Lunch can be mid afternoon. Didn’t lose weight, but having many hours fasting before bedtime means my tummy is very settled during the night, which is a big improvement.
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Old 12-21-2018, 02:25 PM   #24
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Thanks for the info. I've been skipping breakfast and eating in ~16 hour window for months now (with exceptions) and generally feel better doing that. I sometimes eat too much for lunch but I have lost a few pounds (my BMI is 26 - trying to bring that down gradually) and have kept the weight off even with travel in Europe and then back-to-back cruises (actually having defined mealtimes like on the cruise is probably better than having the kitchen and snacking potential right there all the time). I'm having my annual physical next week and hope to see good numbers, though diabetes has never been a worry for me or any one in my family.
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Old 12-21-2018, 03:11 PM   #25
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Whenever this topic comes up I'm always reminded of something I read years ago by Garrison Keillor. He said that when you get into your 50s, you need to forget the concept of "3 meals a day." At that age you should really be looking at "one meal and two snacks."

That made a lot of sense to me.
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Old 12-21-2018, 03:57 PM   #26
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Whenever this topic comes up I'm always reminded of something I read years ago by Garrison Keillor. He said that when you get into your 50s, you need to forget the concept of "3 meals a day." At that age you should really be looking at "one meal and two snacks."

That made a lot of sense to me.
I'm so old that for me I think this concept has morphed into one snack and two smaller snacks tiny tidbits.
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Old 12-22-2018, 10:37 AM   #27
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I may try this myself. But, for me, I will skip dinner in the evening. I am an early riser and skipping breakfast is just that much harder.

I am thinking of having a good breakfast as usual, a good lunch and then perhaps a light snack around 6 PM. After the snack nothing but water until the next breakfast. That would be a 12 hour fast each day. Of course, I would continue to avoid highly processed foods/carbs/sweets.

The key seems to be fasting for 12 hours. After that the law of diminishing returns seems to take over and one gets less 'good' health' per hour of fasting.

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Old 12-22-2018, 03:52 PM   #28
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I used to go light on breakfast, but now I try to eat a 700 calorie breakfast. I think it has kept me from snacking during the day. I do get hungry especially if I am doing my usual fun stuff: hiking, cycling, running, dog walking. But I am a light eater for lunch and dinner. For instance, I can make a Chipotle bowl last for 3 full meals.

I am not assiduous about carbs, but tend to avoid rice, pasta, breads, potatoes, sugars and allow oatmeal. Metabolic / cardiac / BMI numbers are good, but that doesn't mean I won't keel over today or tomorrow.

As for HbA1c, I think you might be able to goose your number if you:
1. Donate blood on schedule (say every 60 days), and
2. Try an extreme no carb, no sugar, no glucose diet for 4 months.

The blood donation should get rid of existing hemoglobin with lots of carbohydrate attached and the low carb, no sugar diet should reduce the attachment of oligosaccharides to the fresh hemoglobin created by the need for more of it by the blood donation.

Make sure your spleen is healthy so that is scavenges away the red blood cells, too.

If after 6 months, your HbA1c is unchanged, I would be surprised, but let us know.
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Old 12-22-2018, 09:50 PM   #29
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The idea of donating blood to drop one's HbA1c is misguided. It definitely works but it doesn't mean that one is any healthier. Having an increase in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is not harmful to your health, it is all of the other proteins and substances that are being glycated that are the problem. HbA1c is just a marker for the rate at which this is occurring, and this is proportional to one's level of blood glucose. By donating blood, one would be effectively shortening the average red blood cell lifespan, this means less exposure to blood glucose and thus reduces HbA1c levels. So the HbA1c level looks better but all of the other stuff is still being glycated and causing trouble.
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Old 12-23-2018, 02:38 AM   #30
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The idea of donating blood to drop one's HbA1c is misguided.
I thought I made that clear by using the word "goose."

I wonder if intermittent fasting also has an element of goosing. And I would be concerned about creating an eating disorder where one does not exist.
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Old 12-23-2018, 06:01 AM   #31
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Gee, I thought I was being bad by skipping breakfast. I remember all those 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day' public service announcements I used to hear all the time.
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Old 12-23-2018, 09:22 AM   #32
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Does having coffee or tea result in breaking the fast?



An early dinner and a late breakfast and I could easily do a 14-15 hour fast every day. But I like my morning cup of coffee.
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Old 12-23-2018, 10:24 AM   #33
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If you were/are a hard-scrabble farmer, up at 5am to milk the cows, before plowing with a team of mules, before cutting hay with a scythe, etc., breakfast was likely important. If you’re sitting on your rump, drinking coffee and surfing the nets, maybe not so much...
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Old 12-23-2018, 12:56 PM   #34
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I thought I made that clear by using the word "goose."

I wonder if intermittent fasting also has an element of goosing. And I would be concerned about creating an eating disorder where one does not exist.

Apologies but your meaning wasn't clear to me.

In my opinion, the idea of intermittent fasting of 12-16h duration (which in my mind isn't fasting at all) is more to get the body back to a more normal state where insulin levels can get low enough to let the body actually use fat for fuel like it was meant to do.
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Old 12-23-2018, 02:26 PM   #35
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Apologies but your meaning wasn't clear to me.

In my opinion, the idea of intermittent fasting of 12-16h duration (which in my mind isn't fasting at all) is more to get the body back to a more normal state where insulin levels can get low enough to let the body actually use fat for fuel like it was meant to do.
Another way to get the body to use fat for fuel is to use up all available glucose and glycogen by exercise. In the old days, this may have been called "hitting the wall." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_the_wall
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Old 12-23-2018, 06:39 PM   #36
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If you were/are a hard-scrabble farmer, up at 5am to milk the cows, before plowing with a team of mules, before cutting hay with a scythe, etc., breakfast was likely important. If you’re sitting on your rump, drinking coffee and surfing the nets, maybe not so much...
I think most of us fit somewhere between the farmer and the couch potato. Unless your a bean pole with 1% body fat your body has a lot of reserves. I walk 18 holes of golf 3-4 days a week, go on 6-10 miles hikes on the other days, all before my first meal of the day. I make sure to stay hydrated but don't feel like my energy level is lacking from not having food before hand.
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Old 12-23-2018, 08:02 PM   #37
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I think most of us fit somewhere between the farmer and the couch potato. Unless your a bean pole with 1% body fat your body has a lot of reserves. I walk 18 holes of golf 3-4 days a week, go on 6-10 miles hikes on the other days, all before my first meal of the day. I make sure to stay hydrated but don't feel like my energy level is lacking from not having food before hand.

I almost always had breakfast when I was w*rking, and I’m usually hungry after a night’s sleep. Since retiring, I usually have 3-4 cups of coffee, then, depending on how I feel, I’ll do a “weight day”, consisting of a mile warm-up walk, then three sets of 12 reps on chest, back, shoulder, and lat machines, with a third of a mile walk/rest between, or a non-weight day with a 3-4 mile walk. Often this works okay, though sometimes I bonk, thus the “depending on”. Don’t think I could reliably walk 6-10 miles before bonking... Bicycling definitely requires pre-fueling, but then an hour or two before.
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Old 12-23-2018, 08:43 PM   #38
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Another way to get the body to use fat for fuel is to use up all available glucose and glycogen by exercise. In the old days, this may have been called "hitting the wall." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_the_wall

Sure but not many people going that route and those that do don't usually have an issue with too much adipose. Fasting for 12 hours should exhaust glucose/glycogen stores.
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Old 12-24-2018, 05:59 AM   #39
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Does having coffee or tea result in breaking the fast?



An early dinner and a late breakfast and I could easily do a 14-15 hour fast every day. But I like my morning cup of coffee.
Saw a discussion on Reddit about this that basically said there was no evidence one way or the other about this. Take that for what it's worth. Cup of coffee easily tides me over when hungry.
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Old 12-24-2018, 06:15 AM   #40
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I think most of us fit somewhere between the farmer and the couch potato. Unless your a bean pole with 1% body fat your body has a lot of reserves. I walk 18 holes of golf 3-4 days a week, go on 6-10 miles hikes on the other days, all before my first meal of the day. I make sure to stay hydrated but don't feel like my energy level is lacking from not having food before hand.
Perhaps I could adjust, but unless I have breakfast before golf I run out of gas when playing in the morning. And I ride. Ha. I could do no breakfast on those non golfing days. And breakfast plus late afternoon meal on golfing days.

Bottom line I do need to switch to 2 meals a day. Mind over matter. Whenever I've had to fast for a medical procedure I've never had a problem with it. December 26 will be a good time to start the new routine.
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