I need advice about intermittent fasting

[robnplunder]

I simply don’t believe that eating at regular times each day is critical for health. Humans did not evolve that way.

+1. Even my intermittent time interval isn't regular these days. I just try to get at least 12 hours of not eating anything. But I must admit that is just a guideline to me these days. Still, I the intermittent fasting has been working for more than a year now.

 

[footenote]

+1 more IF fan.

Agree with audreyh1: our ancestors did not enjoy three squares plus snacks. We evolved "fasting."

 

[meleana]

I encountered the definition of intermittent fasting the other day. One of the variants - time restricted feeding - is what I've been practicing since 2007. My version has a major meal around 11 am and then an optional light snack around 5 pm (I call this the 1 to 1.5 meals-a-day plan).

I giggled when I saw the definition because from my perspective anyone eating more often than 1.5 times a day is engaged in intermittent gluttony. I rarely get hungry, have had a BMI of 19 since 2004 with little fluctuation in weight, and enjoy excellent physical health (am taking zero meds) - YMMV.

So when do you cook this big meal? In the morning when you wake up?



May I ask exactly what you eat for that meal and snack later in the day?



Doesn't that kind of interfere with things to do and places to go- eating a dinner at 11am- practically in the middle of the day?



How do you handle social situations? I mean- someone invites you for dinner or you want to go out for dinner with friends- do you not eat then? I mean- most people have dinner in the early evening (or even late evening). What about going out for lunch?


People who are not yet retired- it would be almost impossible to have dinner at 11am or even 12pm, with a half hour allotted for lunch time.


Just doesn't seem practical.


I eat an early breakfast- 1/4 cup oatmeal and blueberries at 7am with grapefruit juice and black tea. Sometimes I change it up with an omlette and toast.


I have Greek low fat yogurt at like 11:30 am and sometimes I might eat a salad for lunch or not and dinner at like 4pm. No snacking or anything at night except plain green tea and water. I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly. And I am always hungry no matter what.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly. And I am always hungry no matter what.

I can empathize, this is a very frustrating situation to be in. For me, the only thing that works for weight loss is following a ketogenic diet. Combined with IF, I can consistently drop weight, and because a keto diet has plenty of fat (from avocados, etc), I’m rarely hungry. It’s almost magical how this diet turns off food cravings. DW and our kids have all kinds of junk food in the house, and it’s very easy for me to abstain. This was not at all the case when I tried simple calorie restriction diets.

It’s worth trying for a month if you’re not having luck with other approaches. IF and keto work very well together, but you could start with keto, and then slowly phase into time-restricted eating as you adapt.

 

[haha]

I think a lot depends on genetics. I have never been more than 5# above my "ïdeal weight", nevertheless for maybe 40 years I have had to be quite attentive to staying very low carb eating or I think I would have frank diabetes.

I think it is likely if I hadn't eaten lots of sugar as a child things would be easier. I feel fairly certain that as long as I stay very strict low carb- not just no sugar, but very low on all types of carbs- I will not start to run diabetic blood sugars at this point in my life.

I also think that it is highly likely that many of us would be much better off if we had never tasted sugar.

Ha

 

[Chuckanut]

I eat an early breakfast- 1/4 cup oatmeal and blueberries at 7am with grapefruit juice and black tea. Sometimes I change it up with an omlette and toast.


I have Greek low fat yogurt at like 11:30 am and sometimes I might eat a salad for lunch or not and dinner at like 4pm. No snacking or anything at night except plain green tea and water. I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly. And I am always hungry no matter what.

One thing I learned is that exercise is at best 20% of what controls our weight. Yes, it had many good effects on us, but losing weight is really a minor one based upon what I have read. It's what we eat that drives weight gain/loss.

I lost 25 pounds and kept it off without going hungry thanks to eating like the book below recommends. I was not severely over weight, but I was going in the wrong direction adding 2 inches to my waist every 2-3 years, with no end in sight. First I gave up the sugar (very hard for me) and lost 10 pounds in a few months. Then, I cut the processed carbs and lost another 15 pounds. My waistline is back to where it was 15 years ago.

Always Hungry by David Ludwig
(Bad title name, IMHO, since the whole idea of the book is to lose weight and not be hungry). Most libraries have it.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/always-hungry-david-ludwig/1121710248?ean=9781455533879#/

You can watch him explain his studies here. It is somewhat technical with lots of big medical words. What it comes down to is this - People don't gain weight because they eat to much, they eat to much because their body wants to gain weight. The body wants to gain weight because we eat foods (carbs, especially processed carbs) that tell the body to store more fat.

I can't say it will work for anybody else, but it certainly has for me.

 

[MRG]

One thing I learned is that exercise is at best 20% of what controls our weight. Yes, it had many good effects on us, but losing weight is really a minor one based upon what I have read. It's what we eat that drives weight gain/loss.

I lost 25 pounds and kept it off without going hungry thanks to eating like the book below recommends. I was not severely over weight, but I was going in the wrong direction adding 2 inches to my waist every 2-3 years, with no end in sight. First I gave up the sugar (very hard for me) and lost 10 pounds in a few months. Then, I cut the processed carbs and lost another 15 pounds. My waistline is back to where it was 15 years ago.

Always Hungry by David Ludwig
(Bad title name, IMHO, since the whole idea of the book is to lose weight and not be hungry).

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/always-hungry-david-ludwig/1121710248?ean=9781455533879#/

Most libraries have it.

You can watch him explain his studies here:

I can't say it will work for anybody else, but it certainly has for me.

I benchmarked a 20 pound weight loss when I was losing. Of the twenty pounds I lost 4 because of the amount of calories exercising took off. Sixteen were due to the calorie deficit from diet.

 

[socca]

So when do you cook this big meal? In the morning when you wake up?

I start cooking around 10 am.

May I ask exactly what you eat for that meal and snack later in the day?

Main meal = plant-based (vegan) except for one fish-based meal per week. Snack (a few times a week) = fruit or dark chocolate.

Doesn't that kind of interfere with things to do and places to go- eating a dinner at 11am- practically in the middle of the day?

No. After the mid-day meal, it's nap time!

How do you handle social situations? I mean- someone invites you for dinner or you want to go out for dinner with friends- do you not eat then? I mean- most people have dinner in the early evening (or even late evening). What about going out for lunch?

Social situations are awkward, to put it mildly. Sometimes I will go out with others and just not eat anything (a mini-fast). I place higher priority on my health than 'fitting in'.

People who are not yet retired- it would be almost impossible to have dinner at 11am or even 12pm, with a half hour allotted for lunch time.

I agree. I started this regime after becoming self-employed / working-from-home.

Back when I was a working stiff, I would fix the major meal around 6 pm, sleep until midnight, work on my own projects until 4 am, and sleep again until about 6 am. This was a killer schedule (maybe literally ). Back then, I would also have breakfast and lunch. By age 42 (in 2004) I was 30 pounds over my current weight (BMI around 22 IIRC). A corporate health screening identified me as borderline hypertensive. They wanted me to go on drugs; I lost 30 pounds instead.

I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly. And I am always hungry no matter what.

I exercise every other day, but not for weight control.

BTW: I'm a fan of the Nutrition Action Healthletter from CSPI. It has an appropriately in-your-face attitude toward the American food industry.

 

[TrophyWife]

I eat in an 8 hour window or less. I rarely get that hungry. Most days it's one big meal and one smaller meal, snack or coffee. I don't snack anymore. I shift my times around to what is convenient for me. I eat whatever I want at these meals including carbs. Both my husband and I are down one size with almost no effort-we don't weigh ourselves. Here's my list of places to do more research. I also use an app to track my eating window so I dont have to think about it. Its free-FAST HABIT. And really simple.

AC: The Power of Appetite Correction
Unbelievable Freedom by Kim Smith-there's also a facebook group-mostly 40+
Delay Dont Deny Podcast and Book
The Obesity Code
Any video by Dr Fung
Reddit Intermittent Fasting Subreddit

Hunger is not an emergency. Hunger doesn't build-it comes and goes. Often there is a spike around 9 and 3. Get busy during these times if they aren't in your eating window. There is so much freedom in this way of eating. (I even eat donuts a couple days a week-as long as its in my window)

 

[Tailgate]

I have been doing 16/8 for 3 months along with DDP Yoga. I was told that 16/8 and others types of restricted hours is called 'Time Restricted Eating' or TRE and not IF. One of the gurus on the Obesity Code Facebook group suggests that anything 24 hours or longer is IF. Makes sense to me.

BTW, blood work yesterday. A1C from 5.6 to 5.1, cholesterol down, BP down. She took me off 2 BP meds. Down 30 lbs in 3 months. 30 to go. Feel better than ever. Truly a game changer for me.

 

[haha]

BTW, blood work yesterday. A1C from 5.6 to 5.1, cholesterol down, BP down. She took me off 2 BP meds. Down 30 lbs in 3 months. 30 to go. Feel better than ever. Truly a game changer for me.

Congratulations, you are doing wonderfully!

Ha

 

[Katsmeow]

I have been doing 16/8 for 3 months along with DDP Yoga. I was told that 16/8 and others types of restricted hours is called 'Time Restricted Eating' or TRE and not IF. One of the gurus on the Obesity Code Facebook group suggests that anything 24 hours or longer is IF. Makes sense to me.

There are a variety of different methods. I personally follow the 5:2 method where I have 5 days that I eat normally and 2 days I eat a restricted amount. The original author of the 5:2 book (Michael Mosley) originally suggested 500-600 calories but he now feels you get the same benefits with 800 to I shoot for that 2 days a week.

 

[footenote]

I have been doing 16/8 for 3 months along with DDP Yoga. I was told that 16/8 and others types of restricted hours is called 'Time Restricted Eating' or TRE and not IF. One of the gurus on the Obesity Code Facebook group suggests that anything 24 hours or longer is IF. Makes sense to me.

BTW, blood work yesterday. A1C from 5.6 to 5.1, cholesterol down, BP down. She took me off 2 BP meds. Down 30 lbs in 3 months. 30 to go. Feel better than ever. Truly a game changer for me.

Great job: getting out of diabetic A1C range is outstanding, as is getting off BP meds. Congrats and keep going!

 

[socca]

I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly.

Back in 2003, I noticed that my jeans suddenly stopped fitting. I thought that they had shrunk in the wash. After all, what else could it have been? I had never had trouble with my weight before. I finally figured out that at age 41 I was getting a tad plump. The negative result from my health screening sealed the deal.

So, I decided to do an experiment. The CDC claimed that a BMI around 19 (I think the actual number was 18.5) is the lowest "healthy" weight. I decided to give it a try just out of curiosity. So, during the first part of 2004 I lost 30 pounds by calorie-counting.

The experts claim that losing about one pound per week is the maximum "healthy" rate; I actually lost about 1.5 pounds per week. The most bizarre experience I had during my weight loss experiment was having cold hands and feet but otherwise feeling warm all over - very strange! I liked living in a BMI 19 body so much that I've never gone back.

I watch many people play games with the composition of their diet in an attempt to make weight loss "easier". Call me a skeptic - simple calorie restriction worked for me.

 

[TrophyWife]

I have been doing 16/8 for 3 months along with DDP Yoga. I was told that 16/8 and others types of restricted hours is called 'Time Restricted Eating' or TRE and not IF. One of the gurus on the Obesity Code Facebook group suggests that anything 24 hours or longer is IF. Makes sense to me.

BTW, blood work yesterday. A1C from 5.6 to 5.1, cholesterol down, BP down. She took me off 2 BP meds. Down 30 lbs in 3 months. 30 to go. Feel better than ever. Truly a game changer for me.

This is awesome!!! Great Job

 

[audreyh1]

So when do you cook this big meal? In the morning when you wake up?



May I ask exactly what you eat for that meal and snack later in the day?



Doesn't that kind of interfere with things to do and places to go- eating a dinner at 11am- practically in the middle of the day?



How do you handle social situations? I mean- someone invites you for dinner or you want to go out for dinner with friends- do you not eat then? I mean- most people have dinner in the early evening (or even late evening). What about going out for lunch?


People who are not yet retired- it would be almost impossible to have dinner at 11am or even 12pm, with a half hour allotted for lunch time.


Just doesn't seem practical.


I eat an early breakfast- 1/4 cup oatmeal and blueberries at 7am with grapefruit juice and black tea. Sometimes I change it up with an omlette and toast.


I have Greek low fat yogurt at like 11:30 am and sometimes I might eat a salad for lunch or not and dinner at like 4pm. No snacking or anything at night except plain green tea and water. I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly. And I am always hungry no matter what.

When you are retired, it’s easy to handle meals at “odd” times. We eat our main meal in the middle of the day, usually around 1 or 2pm. Yes, I’m doing the main cooking mid-day, that generally works well with my schedule. I tend to eat a later breakfast too - usually after 9 or even 10am if I go to yoga class.

We rarely have evening meals with friends, but if we do I tend to eat lightly and skip breakfast the next day or push it way later. We prefer to go out to lunch with friends as we don’t care to be out at night.

I have all this extra time in the evenings plus I sleep way better as my digestion is well settled by bedtime.

Actually I started doing the intermittent fasting of skipping meals when I realized my stomach never really felt empty anymore - like my digestion had slowed. Now I get the old stomach growls that lets me know it’s empty.

 

[bmcgonig]

So when do you cook this big meal? In the morning when you wake up?



May I ask exactly what you eat for that meal and snack later in the day?



Doesn't that kind of interfere with things to do and places to go- eating a dinner at 11am- practically in the middle of the day?



How do you handle social situations? I mean- someone invites you for dinner or you want to go out for dinner with friends- do you not eat then? I mean- most people have dinner in the early evening (or even late evening). What about going out for lunch?


People who are not yet retired- it would be almost impossible to have dinner at 11am or even 12pm, with a half hour allotted for lunch time.


Just doesn't seem practical.


I eat an early breakfast- 1/4 cup oatmeal and blueberries at 7am with grapefruit juice and black tea. Sometimes I change it up with an omlette and toast.


I have Greek low fat yogurt at like 11:30 am and sometimes I might eat a salad for lunch or not and dinner at like 4pm. No snacking or anything at night except plain green tea and water. I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly. And I am always hungry no matter what.

It seems like you might be light on protein given what you listed as what you're eating. Also low on good fats. Emphasize that first as you will be less hungry if you eat more of that and less carbs.

Google "protein satiety". Lots of studies talking about how it works.

What I try to do is get about 120g or so of protein every day. So that's the first thing that goes on the plate. Then some good fats and then carbs. I do my best to deemphasize the carbs and just eat less of those. By emphasizing the others it's a lot easier.

 

[nativenewenglander]

I started on a low carb higher fat diet in Dec. 2017. I went from 228 to 187 currently. I can wear size 33 jeans again. Each morning around 10 am I eat bacon without sugar or nitrates and eggs from our chickens, usually an avocado too. I then don't eat again until 7 pm. I exercise daily, but have not added extra exercise to lose the weight it's been all diet. Fasting is pretty easy once your body adjusts to eating less and as we age we need less food.

 

[RAE]

I eat an early breakfast- 1/4 cup oatmeal and blueberries at 7am with grapefruit juice and black tea. Sometimes I change it up with an omlette and toast.

I have Greek low fat yogurt at like 11:30 am and sometimes I might eat a salad for lunch or not and dinner at like 4pm. No snacking or anything at night except plain green tea and water. I exercise 5 days per week and am still fat as ever and gaining rapidly. And I am always hungry no matter what.

Meleana, you might want to try switching to some different foods for your breakfast and snack. As Chuckanut and others have said, usually it is carbohydrates and sugar that cause most of the weight gain - not fat. Your bowl of oatmeal is very high in carbs, and your grapefruit juice is high in sugar (all fruit juices are loaded with sugar). I would suggest eating more protein and fats for breakfast........perhaps scrambled eggs with some meat/veggies mixed in. And the low-fat yogurt is probably also causing weight gain, believe it or not. When they removed the fat from yogurt (not a good idea in the first place), they replaced it with sugar. Look at the label on your yogurt carton........many of them have 20g or more of sugar per serving - way too much sugar. Instead of low-fat yogurt for snacking, consider eating something like nuts or a piece of full-fat cheese. I know that this advice goes against a lot of the "cut the fat" advice we have been told for years (decades) now by USDA and the food industry, but in my opinion a lot of that advice is all wrong. There are many studies out now that pretty much refute all of that nonsense.

Anyway, if you are struggling to lose weight, it can't hurt to make some dietary changes and see what happens. My guess is that you will start losing weight if you cut back on carbs and sugar, and replace that with more healthy fats, protein, and veggies. Intermittent fasting is also a good idea, but if I were you I would first focus on the foods I am consuming (at any time of day).

 

[socca]

I know that this advice goes against a lot of the "cut the fat" advice we have been told for years (decades) now by USDA and the food industry, but in my opinion a lot of that advice is all wrong. There are many studies out now that pretty much refute all of that nonsense.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, you might be interested in reading Krause's Food & the Nutrition Care Process, a standard reference for dietitians. After digesting 1,152 pages (forgive the pun), you may acquire an appetite (forgive the pun) for biochemistry in general and human biochemistry in particular, in which case there are many other opportunities for learning.

 

[Katsmeow]

Meleana, you might want to try switching to some different foods for your breakfast and snack. As Chuckanut and others have said, usually it is carbohydrates and sugar that cause most of the weight gain - not fat.

I personally tend to eat a low moderate amount of carbs and am not worried about fat at all. But -- carbs and sugars don't cause weight gain any more than fat causes weight gain. Having a calorie surplus causes weight gain. You could 100% carbs and you would gain weight if you had a calorie surplus, same thing for fat.

I do not think sugar has nutritional benefits and most people eat too much of it. And, for many people, a high carb diet isn't optimal particularly in terms of blood sugar. So I am not at all opposed to low carb eating.

But high carbs and sugar cause weight gain if and only if they result in a calorie surplus over time.

 

[Chuckanut]

Anyway, if you are struggling to lose weight, it can't hurt to make some dietary changes and see what happens. My guess is that you will start losing weight if you cut back on carbs and sugar, and replace that with more healthy fats, protein, and veggies. Intermittent fasting is also a good idea, but if I were you I would first focus on the foods I am consuming (at any time of day).

+1

If if ain't working, it's time to try something else regardless of what the experts say or what worked for other people (including yours truly). FWIW, the book I recommended Always Hungry is more of a slow-carb book once past the first two weeks. Slow carbs are ususally food in a more natural state - whole fruit isntead of juice, chunks of nut meats instead of pulverized grains, and one of my favorites - whole milk yogurt instead of sugary concoctions that have yogurt as an ingredient.

 

[joeea]

I simply don’t believe that eating at regular times each day is critical for health. Humans did not evolve that way.

If you restricted yourself to doing only what humans "evolved" to do, you would be missing out on most of modern life.

 

[footenote]

If you restricted yourself to doing only what humans "evolved" to do, you would be missing out on most of modern life.

If your body has evolved at the same speed as computing has, good on ya.

(Spoiler: Most of our bodies have not.)

 

[bmcgonig]

I personally tend to eat a low moderate amount of carbs and am not worried about fat at all. But -- carbs and sugars don't cause weight gain any more than fat causes weight gain. Having a calorie surplus causes weight gain. You could 100% carbs and you would gain weight if you had a calorie surplus, same thing for fat.

I do not think sugar has nutritional benefits and most people eat too much of it. And, for many people, a high carb diet isn't optimal particularly in terms of blood sugar. So I am not at all opposed to low carb eating.

But high carbs and sugar cause weight gain if and only if they result in a calorie surplus over time.

Protein and good fats will make you feel full more than carbs so you're less inclined to be hungry and eat more.