Intermittent fasting experience

[Anonymous]

How do you do it? I’m thinking of trying the 12-7 eating block fast 7-12. For this who do similar, do you have anything, tea etc in the am and what about if you’re going to exercise? All advice and experience feedback welcome!’

[Anonymous]

I do this mostly unintentionally because I hate breakfast and never eat it. Just plain coffee with a little milk (no sweetener) til lunch.

[Anonymous]

I do what 22:51 does, but I also don't eat grains/carbs other than veggies. Lots of fat and protein and veggies and some fruit and nuts. No added sugar. You have to do that first, so your body adapts to it, I'd say for about three weeks (and the first few days you may experience a brain fog called 'carbo-flu'.)

But you don't want to do IF if you are on sugar and carbs, because your insulin will be all over the place. It's the protein and fat that allow your levels to stay over fasting periods.

Mark Sisson says it better: marksdailyapple.com look up intermittent fasting

[Anonymous]

But you don't want to do IF if you are on sugar and carbs, because your insulin will be all over the place. It's the protein and fat that allow your levels to stay over fasting periods.

This is not exactly true. It is important to have sufficient protein and fat for satiety, but plenty of people are successful on IF eating a range of foods--they just eat less of them and have longer periods in a fasted state. In fact, the reason why IF is successful for so many people is that it does not require strict dieting.

[Anonymous]

True, restrict eating times to restrict calories. No restriction on type of food, obviously fat and protein provide the most value, but your body should decide what it needs during the eating times.

[Anonymous]

I don't restrict anything right now in terms of carbs, etc. but I do eat between 12pm and 8pm. Again, this is mostly natural for my schedule. I do drink a cup of coffee every morning. I workout after work, so if you work out early morning, I could see this schedule not working well for you.

It has cut down on my snacking immensely. I also have lower blood glucose levels (fasting) than I did before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But you don't want to do IF if you are on sugar and carbs, because your insulin will be all over the place. It's the protein and fat that allow your levels to stay over fasting periods.

This is not exactly true. It is important to have sufficient protein and fat for satiety, but plenty of people are successful on IF eating a range of foods--they just eat less of them and have longer periods in a fasted state. In fact, the reason why IF is successful for so many people is that it does not require strict dieting.

+1
My DH does this. He eats all his calories (healthy, balanced meals) between noon-8 pm, and just has black coffee or seltzer at other times. He has lost and kept off 50 lbs for the past five years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But you don't want to do IF if you are on sugar and carbs, because your insulin will be all over the place. It's the protein and fat that allow your levels to stay over fasting periods.

This is not exactly true. It is important to have sufficient protein and fat for satiety, but plenty of people are successful on IF eating a range of foods--they just eat less of them and have longer periods in a fasted state. In fact, the reason why IF is successful for so many people is that it does not require strict dieting.

I've been doing IF for 14 months now and I started on a really high carb diet. The only thing I cut down was actual sugar, like sugar in my tea and candy. But I still ate loads of pasta and tortilla chips and such. IF was so so easy and so successful. Even without reducing carbs that much, the fasting lowered my baseline insulin so I was able to tap into fat stores, and reducing my hyperinsulinemia overall had such great effects on my health. I started occasional longer fasts as well. (I followed suggestions from The Obesity Code and the Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung.)

I have gradually gone lower carb and just this past month, full
Keto. I never imagined this carb addict could do it, but I am!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't restrict anything right now in terms of carbs, etc. but I do eat between 12pm and 8pm. Again, this is mostly natural for my schedule. I do drink a cup of coffee every morning. I workout after work, so if you work out early morning, I could see this schedule not working well for you.

It has cut down on my snacking immensely. I also have lower blood glucose levels (fasting) than I did before.

Have you lost weight doing this?

[Anonymous]

I do. I eat 9/10-6pm and fast the rest. I have lost weight and it's retrained my stomach and hunger to not longer feel like I need to eat all day long. I have naturally eaten less because my hunger has adjusted. I have not had any blood work done to see what that looks like. It took a few weeks to adjust but now it's second nature. I drink black coffee only in the AM. I haven't been restricting types of food too much but I stay away from alcohol on week nights and now I'm trying to avoid sugar during the week too. I didn't need to lose a ton of weight but felt like I needed to get some control of my diet. But, I've never been one to stick to an all or nothing approach and didn't want to cut things out completely. This has worked well for me and I don't feel it's too extreme. Fits nicely into my lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't restrict anything right now in terms of carbs, etc. but I do eat between 12pm and 8pm. Again, this is mostly natural for my schedule. I do drink a cup of coffee every morning. I workout after work, so if you work out early morning, I could see this schedule not working well for you.

It has cut down on my snacking immensely. I also have lower blood glucose levels (fasting) than I did before.

Have you lost weight doing this?

NP. I eat on the same schedule, drinking coffee in the morning and eating from 12-8. (Though I don’t freak out if invited to a weekend brunch or something.) I’m short and it’s hard to lose weight, but I did drop about 7 pounds on this plan, and have kept it off. I feel more energetic too.

[Anonymous]

I have to be up at 4:30 to take dc to early swim. I’d like to do IF from 8am-4pm since I start my days so early and in bed by 9 most nights.

Can I have one coffee with small cream/ no sugar. I would then have breakfast later at 8am. I don’t think I can wait from 4:30 am until 8am to have a cup of coffee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to be up at 4:30 to take dc to early swim. I’d like to do IF from 8am-4pm since I start my days so early and in bed by 9 most nights.

Can I have one coffee with small cream/ no sugar. I would then have breakfast later at 8am. I don’t think I can wait from 4:30 am until 8am to have a cup of coffee.

I’m the PP right above you. I have a cup of coffee with about 2t of 2% (no sugar) at about 6am. I start my “eating time” at either noon or one. Sometimes I have herbal tea, no milk/cream/sugar in between. It’s all been fine

[Anonymous]

Thank you, PP. I’ll give it a try!