Intermittent Fasting Thread

[Anonymous]

I'm late to this party; call me Dina. I just started on 16/8. Anyone else get hunger headaches? If so, do they go away as your body adjusts? I'm eating between 11 and 7. Maybe I should switch to 10 - 6 so I'm not skipping breakfast.

[Anonymous]

An honest question. I've posted before but not specifically about this. When do you think IF slips into disordered eating? Instead of a system of keeping calories in moderation or in check?

I'm thinking about a cousin who keeps encouraging and I feel like she is looking so much healthier but she eats an average of 4 times a week, excluding coffee. A pretty decent sized meal but not a binge by any stretch, not even what I would say was a big meal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An honest question. I've posted before but not specifically about this. When do you think IF slips into disordered eating? Instead of a system of keeping calories in moderation or in check?

I'm thinking about a cousin who keeps encouraging and I feel like she is looking so much healthier but she eats an average of 4 times a week, excluding coffee. A pretty decent sized meal but not a binge by any stretch, not even what I would say was a big meal.

Sorry that should say 5 times as she told it to me. Sometimes 6 but generally 5. 23 he fasting with at least 1 40 he fast thrown in a week so usually nothing between Thursday night to Saturday morning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New here but not new to IF. I’m Jen. I’ve been doing IF on and off for about one year. Consistently all of 2020. I lost only about one pound. I keep losing and gaining the same 2 lbs. I’m trying to stick to it.
SW 119
CW between 117lbs and 118lbs
GW between 110-113lbs
I’m 5’1”. I know I don’t have much to lose but it’s still frustrating I’ve been doing this for so long with so little progress. I started at 16:8 and now do mostly 18:6. I’ll keep trying and will follow this thread.

Newbie here. Trying to learn. What is SW CW and GW?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New here but not new to IF. I’m Jen. I’ve been doing IF on and off for about one year. Consistently all of 2020. I lost only about one pound. I keep losing and gaining the same 2 lbs. I’m trying to stick to it.
SW 119
CW between 117lbs and 118lbs
GW between 110-113lbs
I’m 5’1”. I know I don’t have much to lose but it’s still frustrating I’ve been doing this for so long with so little progress. I started at 16:8 and now do mostly 18:6. I’ll keep trying and will follow this thread.

Newbie here. Trying to learn. What is SW CW and GW?

I’m not the pp, but I’m guessing starting weight, current weight and goal weight

[Anonymous]

Ana jumping in here.
SW 142 lb.
CW 140.
GW 125.

I fell off the wagon, but I'm back to trying 16/8 and now adjusting to black coffee in the morning, usually I have a splash of nutpods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ana jumping in here.
SW 142 lb.
CW 140.
GW 125.

I fell off the wagon, but I'm back to trying 16/8 and now adjusting to black coffee in the morning, usually I have a splash of nutpods.

I forgot to mention, I'm 5'3". I usually look my best around 123-125 lb. The closest I've gotten is 127 lb after the pregnancy weight melted off (thanks overactive thyroid!).

[Anonymous]

New to this party too. I’m Sonya. I started 16:8 two weeks ago and I’ve lost 4 pounds already. No caloric restriction in my eating window. I started at 132 pounds and want to get down to 120. This seems very doable. It’s the only thing that’s worked recently. I am in my mid 40s and could not lose weight for the life of me.

[Anonymous]

Just joining today. I have lots more to lose than most of you it seems. My short term goal is 50 pounds. I am doing 18:6 with my eating window being 2-8pm. I have been going 3 days and have lost 2.5 lbs. Before that I had lost 10, so I am about 37 lbs away from my goal. My problem is that typically I do IF and the pounds melt off the first week but then I get stuck in subsequent weeks and then loose motivation. Going to try to push through the plateau this time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One approach that has worked for me is to do one 24-hour fast, once per week, and just skip breakfast on the other days and try to stay low carb when you do eat during the day. Super easy once you get into it, and for days when you are just not feeling it to fast, eat when you are hungry and try again later in the week. I’ve lost about 20 pounds over about a year doing IF in sort of a half-hearted and episodic way.

^^I do this too--every Tuesday is a fast day for me, so I don't have meal until end of the day. I will say that it has helped me cut down on how much I eat on other days too and I am less hungry in general.

On Fast Days what do you drink? What is the plan overall? Is better to focus on when you eat rather than what?

[Anonymous]

Ana here. I didn't make it through my fast this morning. I've been feeling very draggy and thought it was my new meds, but turns out I do need something small in the morning for now. I know there'll be an adjustment period, I just can't make it happen right now so I'm going to pause IF and just try to do a weekly fast day.

Good luck everyone!

[Anonymous]

I posted a few pages back on the thread but here are my stats:
5'6" Medium/athletic build
SW: 153 in March
CW: Fluctuates between 135-138
GW: 130ish?

I've been IFing since March doing 18:6, most of the weight came off in the first 3 months, then I seemed to plateau for a month and then lost a few more the next month. Now I'm in a plateau again but granted I have been drinking in moderation here and there lately. I'm actually happy where I'm at but I enjoy IFing and don't find it that hard to maintain so I plan on continuing as long as I can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An honest question. I've posted before but not specifically about this. When do you think IF slips into disordered eating? Instead of a system of keeping calories in moderation or in check?

I'm thinking about a cousin who keeps encouraging and I feel like she is looking so much healthier but she eats an average of 4 times a week, excluding coffee. A pretty decent sized meal but not a binge by any stretch, not even what I would say was a big meal.

I would assume it becomes an ED when the length of the fasting period increases into unhealthy territory. I don't think there is a hard and fast line where that occurs, though, and that's why there are so many arguments when someone tries to label IF as an ED. I would say an ED is when you push yourself to do something that is unhealthy and makes you feel worse. Some people only eat one meal a day and feel better than they've ever felt before. I don't think those people have an ED. They found a system that works for them. I, however, would probably feel like trash on OMAD, and it would be an ED if I forced myself to stick to it despite feeling bad.

So if you try 16:8 and you feel terrible, then stop. No one should continue with a diet if their body is telling them it's not working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An honest question. I've posted before but not specifically about this. When do you think IF slips into disordered eating? Instead of a system of keeping calories in moderation or in check?

I'm thinking about a cousin who keeps encouraging and I feel like she is looking so much healthier but she eats an average of 4 times a week, excluding coffee. A pretty decent sized meal but not a binge by any stretch, not even what I would say was a big meal.

I think it’s pretty straightforward, it is disordered eating if you are becoming malnourished, if it’s making you feel bad but you do it anyway, or if you are becoming physically frail. Compare that to 16:8–which is really just skipping breakfast and having a late lunch—and you can see the difference. As for your friend, I’d say multiple multi-day fasts per week is really pushing the envelope. Four to five meals per week must include one 72-hour or two 48 hour fasts, and that’s pretty extreme.

One-meal-a-day is actually pretty easy and provides no reason for health concern, so anything less extreme that seems nowhere close to disordered to me so long as the meals are relatively substantial. (If you are eating just lettuce, or just skittles, that’s disordered but not an IF issue).

[Anonymous]

I’m new here as well, but not new to IF. I did it successfully 10 years ago after having my daughter, and have allowed things to creep back up to the same territory over that decade. Now that she’s 10, my daughter has become my workout buddy, and we help each other stay on top of our exercise.

I’m 5’1”, started at around 130, currently at 128, with a goal weight if 110. I want to be fit by the time my birthday rolls around next year (April).