intermittent fasting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. For those who have been doing IF, a couple questions...

1. Did you just jump right into it and fast for 2 days? How rough a start is it? I work and have young kids and worry about being angry and/or unfocussed.
2. If you fast for entire days or multiple days, do you also exercise? Only exercise on days you eat? Or don't exercise at all?

Thanks.

I've been fasting on and off for a couple of years doing 5:2. Yes, I jumped right in. My routine is coffee with cream in the morning, but nothing more until dinner. I drink a lot of water, have herbal tea, sometimes a cup of chicken bullion. For some reason salt seems to help on fasting days - I got headaches when I first started, and the chicken bullion helped a lot. I try to stay to 500 calories on fast days, so for me that is the coffee plus a dinner with lots and lots of vegetables and a piece of protein - chicken breast, an egg, something like that. If I have a few calories left over I'll have a few chocolate chips. During the rest of the week (my non-fast days) I eat the number of calories I can eat a day without gaining weight, which is about 1500 for me. I do most of my exercising (yoga, climbing wall, hiking, kayaking) on the weekends, and I eat normally on the weekends.

Part of what I had to get my head around was mental. I realize some people get dizzy and cranky when they are hungry, but I found I don't have to (but truly, people are different. IF is not a good fit for many people). When I started to see hunger as any other feeling in my body, and not an existential emergency I had to respond to, I stopped feeling so bad when I was hungry. I remind myself that people have always had times of hunger, and they didn't start swooning and hollering when they couldn't bring down a buffalo. They carried on. So basically I told myself to suck it up. Which works for me, but which isn't necessarily helpful for others!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. For those who have been doing IF, a couple questions...

1. Did you just jump right into it and fast for 2 days? How rough a start is it? I work and have young kids and worry about being angry and/or unfocussed.
2. If you fast for entire days or multiple days, do you also exercise? Only exercise on days you eat? Or don't exercise at all?

Thanks.

I've been fasting on and off for a couple of years doing 5:2. Yes, I jumped right in. My routine is coffee with cream in the morning, but nothing more until dinner. I drink a lot of water, have herbal tea, sometimes a cup of chicken bullion. For some reason salt seems to help on fasting days - I got headaches when I first started, and the chicken bullion helped a lot. I try to stay to 500 calories on fast days, so for me that is the coffee plus a dinner with lots and lots of vegetables and a piece of protein - chicken breast, an egg, something like that. If I have a few calories left over I'll have a few chocolate chips. During the rest of the week (my non-fast days) I eat the number of calories I can eat a day without gaining weight, which is about 1500 for me. I do most of my exercising (yoga, climbing wall, hiking, kayaking) on the weekends, and I eat normally on the weekends.

Part of what I had to get my head around was mental. I realize some people get dizzy and cranky when they are hungry, but I found I don't have to (but truly, people are different. IF is not a good fit for many people). When I started to see hunger as any other feeling in my body, and not an existential emergency I had to respond to, I stopped feeling so bad when I was hungry. I remind myself that people have always had times of hunger, and they didn't start swooning and hollering when they couldn't bring down a buffalo. They carried on. So basically I told myself to suck it up. Which works for me, but which isn't necessarily helpful for others!

So you don’t fast for 24 hours on your fasting days?

[Anonymous]

I don’t go 24 hours without eating, no. During a 36 hour period I eat about 500 calories (from end of dinner one night until breakfast the morning after the fast day). That is how the 5:2 IF Program defines a fast day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. For those who have been doing IF, a couple questions...

1. Did you just jump right into it and fast for 2 days? How rough a start is it? I work and have young kids and worry about being angry and/or unfocussed.
2. If you fast for entire days or multiple days, do you also exercise? Only exercise on days you eat? Or don't exercise at all?

Thanks.

I've been fasting on and off for a couple of years doing 5:2. Yes, I jumped right in. My routine is coffee with cream in the morning, but nothing more until dinner. I drink a lot of water, have herbal tea, sometimes a cup of chicken bullion. For some reason salt seems to help on fasting days - I got headaches when I first started, and the chicken bullion helped a lot. I try to stay to 500 calories on fast days, so for me that is the coffee plus a dinner with lots and lots of vegetables and a piece of protein - chicken breast, an egg, something like that. If I have a few calories left over I'll have a few chocolate chips. During the rest of the week (my non-fast days) I eat the number of calories I can eat a day without gaining weight, which is about 1500 for me. I do most of my exercising (yoga, climbing wall, hiking, kayaking) on the weekends, and I eat normally on the weekends.

Part of what I had to get my head around was mental. I realize some people get dizzy and cranky when they are hungry, but I found I don't have to (but truly, people are different. IF is not a good fit for many people). When I started to see hunger as any other feeling in my body, and not an existential emergency I had to respond to, I stopped feeling so bad when I was hungry. I remind myself that people have always had times of hunger, and they didn't start swooning and hollering when they couldn't bring down a buffalo. They carried on. So basically I told myself to suck it up. Which works for me, but which isn't necessarily helpful for others!

This is disordered and unhealthy, period. Sure, it's a fad now, but it is NOT healthy by any means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. For those who have been doing IF, a couple questions...

1. Did you just jump right into it and fast for 2 days? How rough a start is it? I work and have young kids and worry about being angry and/or unfocussed.
2. If you fast for entire days or multiple days, do you also exercise? Only exercise on days you eat? Or don't exercise at all?

Thanks.

I've been fasting on and off for a couple of years doing 5:2. Yes, I jumped right in. My routine is coffee with cream in the morning, but nothing more until dinner. I drink a lot of water, have herbal tea, sometimes a cup of chicken bullion. For some reason salt seems to help on fasting days - I got headaches when I first started, and the chicken bullion helped a lot. I try to stay to 500 calories on fast days, so for me that is the coffee plus a dinner with lots and lots of vegetables and a piece of protein - chicken breast, an egg, something like that. If I have a few calories left over I'll have a few chocolate chips. During the rest of the week (my non-fast days) I eat the number of calories I can eat a day without gaining weight, which is about 1500 for me. I do most of my exercising (yoga, climbing wall, hiking, kayaking) on the weekends, and I eat normally on the weekends.

Part of what I had to get my head around was mental. I realize some people get dizzy and cranky when they are hungry, but I found I don't have to (but truly, people are different. IF is not a good fit for many people). When I started to see hunger as any other feeling in my body, and not an existential emergency I had to respond to, I stopped feeling so bad when I was hungry. I remind myself that people have always had times of hunger, and they didn't start swooning and hollering when they couldn't bring down a buffalo. They carried on. So basically I told myself to suck it up. Which works for me, but which isn't necessarily helpful for others!

This is disordered and unhealthy, period. Sure, it's a fad now, but it is NOT healthy by any means.

NP here. Maybe it is a fad. But it's what humans have done for millennia. Up until 80 years ago we never had access to food 24/7 and there were often long stretches where the body went without food. Common sense tells me that our bodies adapted to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. For those who have been doing IF, a couple questions...

1. Did you just jump right into it and fast for 2 days? How rough a start is it? I work and have young kids and worry about being angry and/or unfocussed.
2. If you fast for entire days or multiple days, do you also exercise? Only exercise on days you eat? Or don't exercise at all?

Thanks.

I've been fasting on and off for a couple of years doing 5:2. Yes, I jumped right in. My routine is coffee with cream in the morning, but nothing more until dinner. I drink a lot of water, have herbal tea, sometimes a cup of chicken bullion. For some reason salt seems to help on fasting days - I got headaches when I first started, and the chicken bullion helped a lot. I try to stay to 500 calories on fast days, so for me that is the coffee plus a dinner with lots and lots of vegetables and a piece of protein - chicken breast, an egg, something like that. If I have a few calories left over I'll have a few chocolate chips. During the rest of the week (my non-fast days) I eat the number of calories I can eat a day without gaining weight, which is about 1500 for me. I do most of my exercising (yoga, climbing wall, hiking, kayaking) on the weekends, and I eat normally on the weekends.

Part of what I had to get my head around was mental. I realize some people get dizzy and cranky when they are hungry, but I found I don't have to (but truly, people are different. IF is not a good fit for many people). When I started to see hunger as any other feeling in my body, and not an existential emergency I had to respond to, I stopped feeling so bad when I was hungry. I remind myself that people have always had times of hunger, and they didn't start swooning and hollering when they couldn't bring down a buffalo. They carried on. So basically I told myself to suck it up. Which works for me, but which isn't necessarily helpful for others!

This is disordered and unhealthy, period. Sure, it's a fad now, but it is NOT healthy by any means.

I disagree with you, clearly, and so does my GP and my nutritionist. What for me was disordered was constantly thinking about food and snacking. My body was also disordered and sick with pre-diabetes. I’m healthy now, so I’ll carry on.

[Anonymous]

I've been doing 16:8 for a couple of years, which basically translates to skipping breakfast and no snacking after dinner.

Not something I'd consider disordered and unhealthy. I actually think the unhealthy thing is to somehow believe that three meals and two snacks a day is a way to lose weight.

I also can feel much more satisfied on two meals of 800 calories than three meals of 565.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
NP here. Maybe it is a fad. But it's what humans have done for millennia. Up until 80 years ago we never had access to food 24/7 and there were often long stretches where the body went without food. Common sense tells me that our bodies adapted to that.

I don't think this is accurate. While humans can store fat in times of excess for times of scarcity, I think for most of human history, we've typically had food for regular meals. Fasts were not common, periodic, or desired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read The Obesity Code by Dr Fung. Basically he says it's not as simple as calories in/out. Weight gain/loss is dependent on insulin levels. Fasting is a way to do this. He goes way in depth about how the body processes food but that stuff went over my head. Coffee is fine. Black coffee is best but if milk helps you comply then it's ok. Diet sodas are not fine (sugar subs raise your insulin). Some people do 2 days of fasting to five eating. I do 16:8, do basically I eat from noon-8. Around ten I may feel hungry, but I drink water, stay busy and it goes away.

This doesn't seem so much like "fasting" as "skipping breakfast." Not a great idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read The Obesity Code by Dr Fung. Basically he says it's not as simple as calories in/out. Weight gain/loss is dependent on insulin levels. Fasting is a way to do this. He goes way in depth about how the body processes food but that stuff went over my head. Coffee is fine. Black coffee is best but if milk helps you comply then it's ok. Diet sodas are not fine (sugar subs raise your insulin). Some people do 2 days of fasting to five eating. I do 16:8, do basically I eat from noon-8. Around ten I may feel hungry, but I drink water, stay busy and it goes away.

This doesn't seem so much like "fasting" as "skipping breakfast." Not a great idea.

When it helps someone go from pre-diabetic to healthy it is a good idea, wouldn’t you agree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. For those who have been doing IF, a couple questions...

1. Did you just jump right into it and fast for 2 days? How rough a start is it? I work and have young kids and worry about being angry and/or unfocussed.
2. If you fast for entire days or multiple days, do you also exercise? Only exercise on days you eat? Or don't exercise at all?

Thanks.

I've been fasting on and off for a couple of years doing 5:2. Yes, I jumped right in. My routine is coffee with cream in the morning, but nothing more until dinner. I drink a lot of water, have herbal tea, sometimes a cup of chicken bullion. For some reason salt seems to help on fasting days - I got headaches when I first started, and the chicken bullion helped a lot. I try to stay to 500 calories on fast days, so for me that is the coffee plus a dinner with lots and lots of vegetables and a piece of protein - chicken breast, an egg, something like that. If I have a few calories left over I'll have a few chocolate chips. During the rest of the week (my non-fast days) I eat the number of calories I can eat a day without gaining weight, which is about 1500 for me. I do most of my exercising (yoga, climbing wall, hiking, kayaking) on the weekends, and I eat normally on the weekends.

Part of what I had to get my head around was mental. I realize some people get dizzy and cranky when they are hungry, but I found I don't have to (but truly, people are different. IF is not a good fit for many people). When I started to see hunger as any other feeling in my body, and not an existential emergency I had to respond to, I stopped feeling so bad when I was hungry. I remind myself that people have always had times of hunger, and they didn't start swooning and hollering when they couldn't bring down a buffalo. They carried on. So basically I told myself to suck it up. Which works for me, but which isn't necessarily helpful for others!

This is disordered and unhealthy, period. Sure, it's a fad now, but it is NOT healthy by any means.

I disagree with you, clearly, and so does my GP and my nutritionist. What for me was disordered was constantly thinking about food and snacking. My body was also disordered and sick with pre-diabetes. I’m healthy now, so I’ll carry on.

DP. Well, I just saw a nutritionist for my teen DD, and honestly these are the same people and GPs who recommended carb full diet for the last 30 years, so I agree with you that Drs who are more open might be on the right track! The list of how much my done growing DD should eat in a day was insane. I grew up in Europe and never ate one third of what this nutritionists was recommending my DD eats, and my DD is not underweight at all. We saw a different nutritionist for my below 1%percentile DS and that is a different story on how much he should eat! So, I decided to take a good look at GPs and many other health professionals who allowed sugar industry to make us into research projects for the last 30 years. Thanks, but no thanks! I will eat how my grandma who was born in 1910 thought me to eat. Plus no way, did us humans evolve to catch up with eating this much food in the last 150 years! Not even in 2000 years can our bodies evolve to process this much food. So, your GP is one of few that is right, the rest are delusional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This doesn't seem so much like "fasting" as "skipping breakfast." Not a great idea.

Why? You do know that breakfast being "the most important meal of the day" was basically a slogan engineered by Kellogg's and Post, right?

Do you think our ancestors ate three squares?

Older people also often start downshifting to just two meals a day.

And if you stop eating sugar and other processed carbs, you'll suddenly find that you're not ravenous at the beginning of the day anyway.

There's no Immutable Law of Breakfast.

But I'm also assuming you're just trolling at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
NP here. Maybe it is a fad. But it's what humans have done for millennia. Up until 80 years ago we never had access to food 24/7 and there were often long stretches where the body went without food. Common sense tells me that our bodies adapted to that.

I don't think this is accurate. While humans can store fat in times of excess for times of scarcity, I think for most of human history, we've typically had food for regular meals. Fasts were not common, periodic, or desired.

Which human history are you basing this on? Where can I find this history? I gotta be the worst history grad student!

[Anonymous]

Instead of doing 16:8, can you do 12:12?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
NP here. Maybe it is a fad. But it's what humans have done for millennia. Up until 80 years ago we never had access to food 24/7 and there were often long stretches where the body went without food. Common sense tells me that our bodies adapted to that.

I don't think this is accurate. While humans can store fat in times of excess for times of scarcity, I think for most of human history, we've typically had food for regular meals. Fasts were not common, periodic, or desired.

Which human history are you basing this on? Where can I find this history? I gotta be the worst history grad student!

+1
I'm pretty certain that "regular meals" meant once or twice a day for most of history which is in line with the fasting regime. It didn't mean 3 meals, 2 snacks and that after-dinner bowl of frosted mini wheats you had at 11 p.m.