Intermittent Fasting - Tips?

[KarenF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ER2B I used to be an 11AM - 7PM but found it very difficult to wait for breakfast in the morning. So I moved to 8AM - 4PM. I've learned to ignore hunger pangs at night. Hard but I got used to it. Noticed improved BP and A1C and weight down from 150 to 143 lbs. I have a lipid test next month. We'll see. I'm not giving up my homemade espresso half almond half whole milk latte.

Be aware that when you are losing weight your cholesterol may go up temporarily because some of the fat you are releasing is circulating in your blood. Show this article to your doctor if your lipids are up a bit and test again in a few moths.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2035468/

[FIREarly]

16 hours fasted
8 hours "eating window" (11am-7pm; you pick your time!)

I started the above window again today. There are very good videos via TEDtalk about it.

Also, Nimai Delgado has good nutrition videos (not intermittent fasting (IF) related but this is the nutrition side of it; IF is only the timing)

Overnight oats to break fast ("breakfast"). Almost every "morning" at 11am:
(Make in ball jar; get at Home Goods, Target, Walmart, etc...)
-5 scoops oatmeal (right from bag)
-1 serving Orgain Organic chocolate protein
-Cashew milk
(Mix)
-1/4 banana cut on top
(Fridge overnight; it'll be ready and waiting in fridge when you break fast.)
Also eat toasted English Muffin with vegan butter and shake little cinnamon on it
SO DELICIOUS!!
(Make 4 at a time WITHOUT milk and add milk to one each night for next day)

Take multiple vitamins with this (most USP verified):
-Multivitamin
-vitamin B Complex
-Vitamin D
-CoQ10 (for your heart)
-Zink
-Fish oil
-TruNature probiotic

Giving platelets is also super beneficial for cancer patients and actually helps your body too.

Not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night

[Vacation4us]

I have been doing keto, IF, and prolonged fasts since the end of July. I have lost 39 lbs so far. I actually enjoy fasting, actually feel euphoric on days 3,4,5. I walk at least 4 miles a day and never feel week or dizzy.

I essentially do a fat fast though which means some will say it’s not a true fast. The scale says otherwise. I drink at least 96 ozs water , have a bulletproof coffee around 11 and then 8 ozs of bone broth around lunch and dinner. Adds up to less than 500 cal/ a day while fasting. Fat does not effect your insulin/ blood sugar levels which is the whole point of fasting.

I highly recommend Dr Jason Fung’s book The Complete Guide to Fasting. This is not a diet for me but a lifestyle choice. Diabetes runs in my family type 2 diabetes is a dietary disease which is completely curable. Diabetes is treated like a long term progressive disease by most of the medical providers which is a crime in my book.

Day 2 is always the hardest and there is zero reason to scale back your activities like @ddorn recommended. Do your own research, fast your own way.

[gooddog]

I've found that fasting on non-exercise days is the easiest, and that the AM is the best time to set aside hours if only doing it for limited hours per day. Once you eat something, your blood sugar starts moving up...then down, and your hunger kicks in. Years ago, used to do it all of Saturday/Sunday - that was brutal towards the end of Sunday. Worked wonders, but was tough.

[FLJim]

30 months ago I went to black coffee (1-cup) in the AM; eggs/bacon at noon; "regular" dinner about 6pm-6:30pm with red wine. Lost 22 pounds (11% of body weight) and have kept it off with same routine. It's intermittent fasting, but with less carbs. kinda like keto. It's not a diet; it will be what I do til i die. I'm 73.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by volfan Does anyone have difficulty staying hydrated doing IF or even meal spacing? I have also been trying to wait 4-5 hours between meals but often find I haven’t had much to drink in between. And except for morning herbal tea and maybe 6-8 ounces of almond or oat milk, I basically only drink water. Any tips? Perhaps I need to start logging my water on my Fitbit App to make sure I am drinking enough?

No, I drink plenty of water between meals, and sometimes a black coffee between meals.

I also drink sparkling water from our SodaStream.

[SunnyOne]

Are there any of you who have been fasting - and so you changed up the timing of your food consumption, but not the type or volume of food consumed say...over day or week's timeframe? I've always been curious as to whether fasting alone can produce improvements in health parameters or weight loss without making any other adjustments?

I've just started all this, so too soon for me to tell.

[yakers]

Haven't changed the type of food, am somewhat low carb but I have noticed that I have trouble eating 3 meals. Two and a snack or one & a couple snacks, just not enough time or hunger to eat more. But I am not aiming to reduce calories.

[reneeh63]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katsmeow There are so many different ways of doing IF that you can kind of pick and choose what works for you. I do not do well with those with a strict eating window. I do try to fast for 14 hours most days but don't stress about it. What has worked better for me is a 5:2 schedule sometimes a 4:3 schedule or every other day schedule. Basically on the low calorie days I eat lower calories, typically between 600 and 800 calories. Again, I don't stress if it is a little below or more. The other days I eat normally. I don't gorge or try to eat extra, just eat regularly.

I like the 5:2 schedule - I'd lost 15 pounds initially and was trying then to do a "maintenance" plan of 6:1...then fell off the wagon completely with COVID when I had to quit the gym and it seemed all my routines were ruined.

In the last month I've started again, and being much more strict with myself on my "fasting" days. That means a couple cups of coffee with a bit of milk, a 150 calorie lunch, a 200 calorie "dinner" with a tiny snack in between (an ounce of pistachios, for example). I haven't kicked up my excerise but have lost almost 5 pounds - which is fantastically fast for me! And though I'd love to lose faster I know it's not realistic or a smart way to do it. So...I'd settle for losing another 5 pounds but another 10 would be great. Another 15 and I would be truly ecstatic, but we'll see.

I think I'd do better without a work schedule - I do get a bit cranky sometimes but other times I'm engrossed enough in what I'm doing that I practically forget my lunch. Of course in terms of extending my fast, I'd be better off forgetting my dinner but that never happens!

[turbo89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyOne Are there any of you who have been fasting - and so you changed up the timing of your food consumption, but not the type or volume of food consumed say...over day or week's timeframe? I've always been curious as to whether fasting alone can produce improvements in health parameters or weight loss without making any other adjustments? I've just started all this, so too soon for me to tell.

I can say that I was already eating a reduced calorie diet and was stuck in a “weight range” for months (eating 500-1k calories less than my base metabolic rate indicated), then switched to fasting and instantly broke out of that weight range and started loosing again.

I’m still tracking calories religiously, but it seems that I just loose weight when I fast, and progress stops or is much slower with just a reduced calorie diet.

I believe the big difference that I’m seeing is due to fasting, and more specifically pushing myself to stay in ketosis as long as possible everyday.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yakers Haven't changed the type of food, am somewhat low carb but I have noticed that I have trouble eating 3 meals. Two and a snack or one & a couple snacks, just not enough time or hunger to eat more. But I am not aiming to reduce calories.

I’ve found that with two meals a day which is now typical for me, I have to add a more food to get sufficient protein. I sort of have snacks, but these are really just a second small course at the end of a meal rather than between meals.

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbo89 I believe the big difference that I’m seeing is due to fasting, and more specifically pushing myself to stay in ketosis as long as possible everyday.

I eat very low carb which is easy for me just avoiding grains and some starchy vegetables, limited fruit. Net carbs typically under 25g, and rarely above 35g. As far as I can tell I’m in ketosis all the time. I’ve measured at different times of day, between meals etc. I think if you are low carb enough you stay in ketosis.

[Old Microbiologist]

I do both intermittent fasting and keto for 2 years now. I was doing One Meal a Day until I reached my goal weight of 78kg. Then I started eating a "snack" 3 hours before dinner. I strictly fast between 1900 and 1500 every day and only have black espresso with 1 tsp of MCT oil in the morning to get energy. I work out roughly 2 hours every morning with a weight routine 3 times a week. I switched from actual weights to elastic bands and don't regret it at all. My more recent goal is to do 10 pullups and 1 one-arm pullup. I am currently at 6 unassisted so the goal is within reach again. My body fat percentage I am keeping t 15% which is what is recommended for seniors. I want to get back into rock climbing again hence why I am trying to get back in shape again.

For the keto, I basically modified my usual recipes and substitute where possible. Here in Hungary, they haven't heard of keto but there are plenty of things around that work fine. I am able to stay under 20 grams carbs a day without any big problems. But, we don't eat in restaurants at all. My wife is not doing keto with me but I do 90% of the cooking so she is more or less doing it on her own. She has lost 15kg and now fits into clothes she hasn't worn for 20 years again. On the flip side when you lose a lot of weight your wrinkles get deeper. Personally, I don't care about it myself being a man and we generally look better as we age.

For my snack, I have 30 grams of popcorn,1 hard-boiled egg, 75 ml of bone broth, 200 grams of yogurt, 200 grams of aged goat cheese, and 200 grams of my homemade keto candy (mostly coconut oil and butter with unsweetened white chocolate, peanuts, sunflower seeds, stevia, and erythritol). I also drink 500 ml (or more) of 10% lemon juice (unsweetened) with stevia sometimes with gin and always with 1 TBSP of Epsom salts. I have the same every day no change. Food is not central to my life and is basically a necessity and tool. The meals are always a meat dish with green vegs (usually cabbage or broccoli) a salad (often cabbage) or sliced tomatoes with basil, onion, and mozzarella, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. We eat fish every day as an appetizer which is either herring, homemade cold smoked salmon, or salmon eggs. Generally, we drink green tea but often have vodka with the herring (a Russian tradition). No bread, rice, potatoes, or noodles whatsoever for me although I will cook this for my wife when she asks for it. I found a noodle company here that has low-carb noodles (3 grams per 100 grams noodles) so use that if I am desperate (taste is not so great) or just use thinly sliced cabbage as noodles. We eat dinner precisely at 1800 and usually finish by 1830. I follow it up with my homemade yogurt (using bacteria of my own design) with erythritol. That is always the last thing I eat and it serves to colonize the mouth flora and teeth (prevents dental problems). I drink 2 liters of mineral water a day (at least) and 5 or 6 cups of coffee. I have one cup in the evening around 2000. I go to bed at 2330 and my wife at 0230. I get up at 0630 and she at 1000. She has her last cup of coffee with me (1tsp sugar) at 2000 and doesn't eat until 1100 or so. I fast roughly 20 hours a day and she is at around 15 hours. It isn't a big problem at all. It only requires discipline. I no longer crave sugar at all and my wife's blood glucose and HgBA1C are back to normal again. I have zero health problems (so far).

[NgineER]

I started IF because of some of the potential long term health benefits, these are my findings after two years.

I dropped from 180 lbs to 167 lbs 23.75 BMI to 22 BMI. My abs are more defined and I can suck my belly in below my rib cage which I hadn’t been able to do for at least 15 years. So I assume I have less visceral fat by that observation.

I find that low calorie diet is much harder than a complete fast. I’d much rather eat nothing for 24 hours vs eating 800 calories as I find any food intake makes me hungrier.

I do 16:8 four days a week, 24 hour fast twice a week and one day with breakfast each week. We did 36 hour fasts for a while but got cranky and couldn’t wait for bedtime. When I woke up I could usually go longer, but never tried it.

Overall I don’t think I eat less, but the 8 pm to noon fast prevents the late night ice cream or glass of wine which I think is somewhat responsible for the weight reduction.

I find that not having to stop for lunch on fasting days is helpful with time management The most difficult thing is when you are preparing as meal (for the kids) while fasting. Especially freshly baked bread.

I don’t change exercise regimen for fasting days, the fasting days usually concur with going in to the office, and in the summer I try to bike the 17 miles each way without a problem.

I found the longevity diet by Dr. Longo and life in the fasting lane by Dr. Fung insightful.

[KarenF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyOne Are there any of you who have been fasting - and so you changed up the timing of your food consumption, but not the type or volume of food consumed say...over day or week's timeframe? I've always been curious as to whether fasting alone can produce improvements in health parameters or weight loss without making any other adjustments? I've just started all this, so too soon for me to tell.

I think I eat the same food/amount of food in 7 or 8 hours now and I have lost 8 pounds. I don't track calories though. I used to, before I started IF.

[chassis]

What I gather from many recent posts is that keto/intermittent fasting/time restricted eating is used for weight loss. It helps achieve weight loss by creating discipline around eating behaviors. Calories and quantity of food are mentioned, this brings up the notion of calories in-calories out, which is a principle of thermodynamics.

Agree?

What if discipline around eating, and calories in-calories out are established by some other means than keto/intermittent fasting/time restricted eating? Could that practice potentially have the same outcome (weight loss and eating behavior discipline)?

Is keto/intermittent fasting/time restricted eating a "diet" by another, much longer and fancy-sounding, name?

[captain3d]

I use intermittent fasting as part of marathon training. Yes to cut weight but also to exercise fasted so that the body becomes more active in using fat for energy.

If I did all my running using sugar I would not be prepared for the marathon distance where fat burning is needed to be successful

So weight loss and changing the bodies preffered fuel type is the result.

[FIREarly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chassis What I gather from many recent posts is that keto/intermittent fasting/time restricted eating is used for weight loss. It helps achieve weight loss by creating discipline around eating behaviors. Calories and quantity of food are mentioned, this brings up the notion of calories in-calories out, which is a principle of thermodynamics. Agree?

Yes, agree, and way more. It's been a while since researching this topic but IF helps many areas of the body and life. This includes weight loss and beyond. Believe it helps mitigate/reduce cancer, heart attacks, and way more. NOT remove but very helpful at mitigating it proactively.

There is a nice book to read "How not to die" which is not about IF but how to mitigate some of the most common causes of death.

[EastWest Gal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chassis What I gather from many recent posts is that keto/intermittent fasting/time restricted eating is used for weight loss. It helps achieve weight loss by creating discipline around eating behaviors. Calories and quantity of food are mentioned, this brings up the notion of calories in-calories out, which is a principle of thermodynamics. Agree? What if discipline around eating, and calories in-calories out are established by some other means than keto/intermittent fasting/time restricted eating? Could that practice potentially have the same outcome (weight loss and eating behavior discipline)? Is keto/intermittent fasting/time restricted eating a "diet" by another, much longer and fancy-sounding, name?

One cannot completely apply laws of thermodynamics to the human body. We don't actually burn calories, as in catch fire. It's not just what we eat. It's what our bodies do with what we eat. And we have gut bacteria that also metabolize what we eat. We have hormones that direct our energy metabolism and appetite, and we also have emotional triggers and habits.

Hormones such as insulin, glucagon, leptin, and ghrelin. Carbohydrates cause the pancreas to produce insulin. If we didn't produce insulin, we would die from hyperglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis (which is not the same thing as ketosis!). Our insulin drives the glucose into cells, where we use it for energy, or convert it to fat for energy storage in the liver, abdomen and subcutaneous regions. Our bodies can also use ketones (betahydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate for energy, and ketones) Our heart uses acetoacetate for preferentially over glucose. Insulin drives metabolism of glucose first if we ingest carbohydrates, as it is critical for us to avoid hyperglycemia.

If we produce less insulin through the ketogenic diet and/or intermittent fasting, we must utilize fatty acids for energy preferentially. Ketogenic diet can reverse Type 2 diabetes, reduce blood pressure, and rapidly reduce fatty liver disease. Indian and Asian populations have less obesity than those of African and European descent, but the rate of diabetes there is very high. Ketogenic diet has been a known treatment for epilepsy since the 1930s. It may have a role in mental disorders and cancer prevention, as well as an adjunct for cancer treatment. Insulin promotes tumor growh.

"Numerous epidemiological and pre-clinical studies have demonstrated that the insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system plays a key role in the development and progression of several types of cancer."

-Front. Endocrinol., 15 May 2015 |

https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2015.00077

The ketogenic diet was developed in the 1930s to treat intractible epilepsy in children. It induces many neurohormonal changes which can have many positive effects. This paper from 9 years ago in Epilepsy Research Journal discusses this rather succinctly.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3244537/

[SunnyOne]

I essentially do a fat fast though which means some will say it’s not a true fast. The scale says otherwise. I drink at least 96 ozs water , have a bulletproof coffee around 11 and then 8 ozs of bone broth around lunch and dinner. Adds up to less than 500 cal/ a day while fasting. Fat does not effect your insulin/ blood sugar levels which is the whole point of fasting.

I have a question about this - is fat fasting just the bulletproof coffee and broth? thanks

[Vacation4us]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunnyOne I essentially do a fat fast though which means some will say it’s not a true fast. The scale says otherwise. I drink at least 96 ozs water , have a bulletproof coffee around 11 and then 8 ozs of bone broth around lunch and dinner. Adds up to less than 500 cal/ a day while fasting. Fat does not effect your insulin/ blood sugar levels which is the whole point of fasting. I have a question about this - is fat fasting just the bulletproof coffee and broth? thanks

Essentially no. Any fats would work like avocados,butter, MCT oil. You want to avoid all carbs and protein. I make the bone broth similar to Dr. Fungs recipe minus the peppers since I am not a fan. Getting used to the fat slick in the broth was a challenge for me. DH has always said I dissect my food. I don’t eat visible fat on steaks or chicken skin, it grosses me out.

I have BP coffee daily at 11 am but on non fasting days I add a scoop of vital proteins chocolate collagen. 1 tbsp of butter 2 tsp or 1 tbsp MCT oil. The MCT oil occasionally gives me heartburn, so sometimes I use less. Before I started using the bone broth I only had BP coffee and tea during the day. Adding the broth definitely makes it easier. Day 2 is always the hardest. Per Dr Fung you should avoid a 48 hour fast for this reason. Either do a 24 or a 72 or longer fast.

The worlds record for fasting is something like 370 days (was completed under Dr. supervision) The pt went from 400 lbs to less than 200 lbs during that time. A normal weight loss while fasting is about 1/2 a lb per day anything more is usually water and comes back post fasting.

Calories in calories out is bunk. Fasting doesn’t effect your metabolism while calorie restriction does. Look at the Biggest Loser most have regained the weight after 6 years because even though they eat less their metabolism is even lower.

Fasting leads to cellular renewal and can also help prevent cancers . Not only does Diabetes run in my family but cancer does too. I am a convert for sure.

Now I am also not perfect and like to vacation which leads to drinking and eating out but I have found coming home getting back on keto and then fasting for 3-5 days helps me shed the lbs quickly. I am determined that this is a way of life for me, and compared to 38 lbs ago I feel fantastic.

PS I started my walking regiment when I first retired in hopes of shedding the weight. Walked 4-6 miles a day and from November to February had walked 500 miles but lost zero weight and still felt crappy. I still walk 4-5 miles most days but I know the walking ie calories out didn’t help me to shed the lbs. Keto and fasting did.