How Long Before You Started Seeing Results from Intermittent Fasting

[Anonymous]

If you are eating a lot of calories in your eating period, you will never lose weight. The whole point is to prevent eating too much, as opposed to using a time window to eat three regular meals. As for 5:2 and going 24 hours fasting wit hone tiny meal after 24 hours, I saw results within first week. And would drop over 3lbs each week if I stick to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the timing of eating in relation to working out? And what do you

Here's how my week looks. When I am in weight loss mode (AKA I need to lose weight not maintain): Monday morning, I start my day with a normal breakfast and after that it's just water (nothing with artificial sweeneter) until Tuesday noon, then I eat lunch. In essence I skip 3 meals and that results in about 30 hours. Then I'll skip a day or two of fasting and do that again. The beauty of a 30 hour fast is that it also shrinks your stomach, kinda like when you have a stomach bug, and your first meal afterwards you're about 5 bites into the meal and you feel stuffed? It's kind of like that, so it works nicely to also curb the overeating abilities. When I'm in just maintenance mode (NOT weight loss mode) I just skip 2 meals, so I essentially fast Monday from breakfast to Tuesday breakfast and then do that again later in the week. It results in about a 23ish hour fast depending on how I time it.

As far as the relation to working out, I go to the gym and do heavy weight resistance training every weekday morning. It doesn't matter if it's in the middle of a fast or not, I workout in the morning, rotating through targeting different muscle groups for each day of the work week. Your body has enough sugar stored in the liver to sustain you for 16 to 18 hours and it's not until then that you start to fuel your body with stored fat. There's one thing to know about yourself, if you live in America you are addicted to carbs, sugars, and probably other food items/chemicals that you don't even know about. When my wife and I first started doing IF, it was MENTAL torture to not eat, and we thought it was just because we were hungry. No, it's not, it's because our bodies were going through withdrawals. After regularly doing this for over 5 years now, sure we feel hungry, it's natural, but the beginning was the worst part before we had acclimated our bodies.

If you're a female reading this, just know that my wife is right along side me doing the same protocol. You can't make excuses if you're not a guy, and no it doesn't affect her period. She's every 28 days on the dot.

Thanks for mansplaining this to us women. Nothing greater than a man with a thorough grasp of female hormones and reproductive cycles. Where did you attend medical school? Is your obgyn practice accepting new patients?

DP, oh yes, let's blame women overeating on our hormones! I am a women and do similar all the time. Nothing he wrote is wrong. Nothing is not applicable to women. Why don't you go eat some candy on your couch and then blame it on your hormones? I hate incompetent women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you drink the broth on fasting days? That’s not breaking the fast?

It depends on which type of fast you do. Dr. Fung allows bone broth. I’m still under 100-150 calories on fast days.

[Anonymous]

Mansplain Douchebag here...anything that can signal your body to release insulin will technically break your fast. One calorie of anything OR 0 calories of artificial sweetener technically takes your body out of a fasting state. It has been demonstrated that the taste of sweet on the tongue, even if it's 0 calories will cause insulin release in your body. I'm not going to argue if a low calorie day of broth will cause weight loss because I'm sure it will work great! That is clearly a major calorie restriction. I would say, the person who came up with that diet plan is doing the world a disservice by muddying the definition of the word "fast". They should call it a low calorie broth diet or something. It's just confusing to call that a fast. There's other ones out there like that too. I know someone who says they do a "fruit fast" and all they eat is fruit for 2 weeks. Sorry, not a fast. When my wife was going through her initial fasting experience and dropping 55 pounds in 5 months, I do wonder if part of the reason it happened so fast was because the fasting periods DID rebalance her hormones. As I stated in a previous post that's one of the many health benefits of going through the reset your body does during a true fasting period. She was doing lots of diet things to drop weight before fasting and none of it worked, until fasting and then she dropped weight like crazy. I can't help but wonder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mansplain Douchebag here...anything that can signal your body to release insulin will technically break your fast. One calorie of anything OR 0 calories of artificial sweetener technically takes your body out of a fasting state. It has been demonstrated that the taste of sweet on the tongue, even if it's 0 calories will cause insulin release in your body. I'm not going to argue if a low calorie day of broth will cause weight loss because I'm sure it will work great! That is clearly a major calorie restriction. I would say, the person who came up with that diet plan is doing the world a disservice by muddying the definition of the word "fast". They should call it a low calorie broth diet or something. It's just confusing to call that a fast. There's other ones out there like that too. I know someone who says they do a "fruit fast" and all they eat is fruit for 2 weeks. Sorry, not a fast. When my wife was going through her initial fasting experience and dropping 55 pounds in 5 months, I do wonder if part of the reason it happened so fast was because the fasting periods DID rebalance her hormones. As I stated in a previous post that's one of the many health benefits of going through the reset your body does during a true fasting period. She was doing lots of diet things to drop weight before fasting and none of it worked, until fasting and then she dropped weight like crazy. I can't help but wonder.

OP here. This is really interesting. I’d read that anything under 50 calories doesn’t break the fast. Now, my typical day is to not have anything other than black coffee and water in the morning until I break at noon. Yesterday, I was rinsing some blueberries to put in my daughter’s lunch, and ended up eating a handful (yes, I admit that I googled the calorie count to make sure I was staying under 50). Then I fasted like normal until about 12:30. Fast forward a few hours, and i was unable to stop snacking all day!!! This hasn’t happened since i started IF, but it makes sense now, if what you’re saying is true, that the blueberries triggered my insulin response even though they’re low calorie. Really interesting (to me :-p)

[Skittles]

IF is a great way to introduce healthier habits, however you still need to remember the kcal in vs. kcal out rule. If you're eating at maintenance instead of a deficit you will still not lose anything.

[Anonymous]

I will have no calories or artificial sweeteners during fast. Nothing else makes sense. Creme in coffee is calories and sweet at that. The fastest way to start losing weight is to embrace going without food for 36 hours, meaning skip eating one whole day. I love food, and found that mentally this is the easiest way for me. It is definitely not for everyone, but it is not so hard either. Let's say you do it on the weekend. Stay up late the night before, and sleep in late. Keep busy that day, and soon it will be 6pm, now just power through it. Funny observation, next morning you will not be hungry and realize that you can go longer without eating. You will be pound or 2 lighter the day after. Remember Gandhi went on a hunger strike for 21 days and he was already skinny. He lived. In fact this is easier for overweight people who don't have health complications. I see no benefit to 18:6, unless you are restricting your calories while eating, and hence that is same as counting calories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will have no calories or artificial sweeteners during fast. Nothing else makes sense. Creme in coffee is calories and sweet at that. The fastest way to start losing weight is to embrace going without food for 36 hours, meaning skip eating one whole day. I love food, and found that mentally this is the easiest way for me. It is definitely not for everyone, but it is not so hard either. Let's say you do it on the weekend. Stay up late the night before, and sleep in late. Keep busy that day, and soon it will be 6pm, now just power through it. Funny observation, next morning you will not be hungry and realize that you can go longer without eating. You will be pound or 2 lighter the day after. Remember Gandhi went on a hunger strike for 21 days and he was already skinny. He lived. In fact this is easier for overweight people who don't have health complications. I see no benefit to 18:6, unless you are restricting your calories while eating, and hence that is same as counting calories.

Mansplain douchebag here... +1 on the 18:6 comment. It truly is just calorie restriction, not really getting into the fat burning time frame of IF. 18 hours of not eating isn't necessarily fun, so why not get the most of it and just go 4 to 6 hours longer at a minimum. It will exponentiate the potential fat burning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been eating between 1pm -7pm on Tues and Thurs for 3 weeks. I am losing 1-2lb a week. I am working with a dietitian and I also cut out fried food and keep my added sugar under 24g a day. My dietitian thinks IF 2-3 days a week is appropriate for my desired 30-40lb weight loss. She only recommends daily for people with 75lb or more to lose

Interesting. I do a 16/8 IF every day. My first meal is @ 2 PM as we are not able to sit down for dinner till 8 PM.

[Anonymous]

Question for the fasters - how do you do physical activity when you're fasting? I play a lot of tennis and enjoy being active with my kids; I worry I'd pass out if I haven't eaten in 24 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will have no calories or artificial sweeteners during fast. Nothing else makes sense. Creme in coffee is calories and sweet at that. The fastest way to start losing weight is to embrace going without food for 36 hours, meaning skip eating one whole day. I love food, and found that mentally this is the easiest way for me. It is definitely not for everyone, but it is not so hard either. Let's say you do it on the weekend. Stay up late the night before, and sleep in late. Keep busy that day, and soon it will be 6pm, now just power through it. Funny observation, next morning you will not be hungry and realize that you can go longer without eating. You will be pound or 2 lighter the day after. Remember Gandhi went on a hunger strike for 21 days and he was already skinny. He lived. In fact this is easier for overweight people who don't have health complications. I see no benefit to 18:6, unless you are restricting your calories while eating, and hence that is same as counting calories.

Mansplain douchebag here... +1 on the 18:6 comment. It truly is just calorie restriction, not really getting into the fat burning time frame of IF. 18 hours of not eating isn't necessarily fun, so why not get the most of it and just go 4 to 6 hours longer at a minimum. It will exponentiate the potential fat burning.

OP here. Ok, so going back to mansplaining douche's earlier post () where you said you eat breakfast on a monday and then you don't eat again until tuesday lunch (or dinner?), I think I'm going to try that on Mondays and Fridays. I do a HIIT bootcamp monday, wednesday, and friday, so I'm thinking I do bootcamp monday morning (pre-breakfast), then eat breakfast, and then fast until noon tuesday. I usually spin on tuesday evenings, so that would work perfectly.

I'm not too excited about doing a longer fast, but I would like to see better results than what I'm getting with 16:8. Thanks for all the input!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will have no calories or artificial sweeteners during fast. Nothing else makes sense. Creme in coffee is calories and sweet at that. The fastest way to start losing weight is to embrace going without food for 36 hours, meaning skip eating one whole day. I love food, and found that mentally this is the easiest way for me. It is definitely not for everyone, but it is not so hard either. Let's say you do it on the weekend. Stay up late the night before, and sleep in late. Keep busy that day, and soon it will be 6pm, now just power through it. Funny observation, next morning you will not be hungry and realize that you can go longer without eating. You will be pound or 2 lighter the day after. Remember Gandhi went on a hunger strike for 21 days and he was already skinny. He lived. In fact this is easier for overweight people who don't have health complications. I see no benefit to 18:6, unless you are restricting your calories while eating, and hence that is same as counting calories.

Mansplain douchebag here... +1 on the 18:6 comment. It truly is just calorie restriction, not really getting into the fat burning time frame of IF. 18 hours of not eating isn't necessarily fun, so why not get the most of it and just go 4 to 6 hours longer at a minimum. It will exponentiate the potential fat burning.

OP here. Ok, so going back to mansplaining douche's earlier post () where you said you eat breakfast on a monday and then you don't eat again until tuesday lunch (or dinner?), I think I'm going to try that on Mondays and Fridays. I do a HIIT bootcamp monday, wednesday, and friday, so I'm thinking I do bootcamp monday morning (pre-breakfast), then eat breakfast, and then fast until noon tuesday. I usually spin on tuesday evenings, so that would work perfectly.

I'm not too excited about doing a longer fast, but I would like to see better results than what I'm getting with 16:8. Thanks for all the input!!!

MS DB here...I wish you well! Sounds like you have the logistics worked out. Please update us on how it went!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question for the fasters - how do you do physical activity when you're fasting? I play a lot of tennis and enjoy being active with my kids; I worry I'd pass out if I haven't eaten in 24 hours.

MS DB here... When you're first getting into a life of consistently IFing, I wouldn't play tennis past the first 6 or 8 hours of your fast. Like I mentioned in a PP, your body goes through alot of carb/sugar withdrawal early on, and compounding it with something like tennis might be a bridge too far. For the point I am at of my (5+ years) IF lifestyle I do strenuous weight lifting when I'm 25 hours into a 30 hour fast and I feel just fine. The most important thing is staying hydrated. Once you're 25 hours into a fast, your body goes into a serious detox mode, and you'll feel like you can't drink enough water and you're constantly peeing. It's expected, so drink plenty of water, but at the beginning I would ease into strenuous activities while halfway through a 24-30 hr fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mansplain Douchebag here...anything that can signal your body to release insulin will technically break your fast. One calorie of anything OR 0 calories of artificial sweetener technically takes your body out of a fasting state. It has been demonstrated that the taste of sweet on the tongue, even if it's 0 calories will cause insulin release in your body. I'm not going to argue if a low calorie day of broth will cause weight loss because I'm sure it will work great! That is clearly a major calorie restriction. I would say, the person who came up with that diet plan is doing the world a disservice by muddying the definition of the word "fast". They should call it a low calorie broth diet or something. It's just confusing to call that a fast. There's other ones out there like that too. I know someone who says they do a "fruit fast" and all they eat is fruit for 2 weeks. Sorry, not a fast. When my wife was going through her initial fasting experience and dropping 55 pounds in 5 months, I do wonder if part of the reason it happened so fast was because the fasting periods DID rebalance her hormones. As I stated in a previous post that's one of the many health benefits of going through the reset your body does during a true fasting period. She was doing lots of diet things to drop weight before fasting and none of it worked, until fasting and then she dropped weight like crazy. I can't help but wonder.

Not any pp’s but I’m curious. Hasn’t it been shown that even thinking or smelling something sweet can illicit insulin response?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will have no calories or artificial sweeteners during fast. Nothing else makes sense. Creme in coffee is calories and sweet at that. The fastest way to start losing weight is to embrace going without food for 36 hours, meaning skip eating one whole day. I love food, and found that mentally this is the easiest way for me. It is definitely not for everyone, but it is not so hard either. Let's say you do it on the weekend. Stay up late the night before, and sleep in late. Keep busy that day, and soon it will be 6pm, now just power through it. Funny observation, next morning you will not be hungry and realize that you can go longer without eating. You will be pound or 2 lighter the day after. Remember Gandhi went on a hunger strike for 21 days and he was already skinny. He lived. In fact this is easier for overweight people who don't have health complications. I see no benefit to 18:6, unless you are restricting your calories while eating, and hence that is same as counting calories.

1) Some studies show artificial sweeteners do have an insulin response - it's worth looking into.

2) Fats (so things like heavy cream) and protein have a very low insulin response, which is why some people say you can have some cream in your coffee, etc. so it has nothing to do with calories and everything to do with insulin repsonse