I tried the first day of fasting on the 5:2 diet yesterday and I thought I was going to die. No energy by the end of the day and felt awful well into the next morning. I don't think I prepared for it well and ate very little instead of low calorie foods. But in any case, does it get easier? I'm not sure I can function at work and with my kids like this.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

Despite what Dr. Fung says, fasting is not a long-term, sustainable diet.

That would have been news to both of my Indian grandmothers and women of their generation. They kept weekly religious no-food fasts for almost their entire adult lives and lived into their nineties.

Weekly religious fasts are typically a day, right? Or Ramadan, which is a limited fast over a month? Not eating only 2 or 3 days out of the week, as PP is doing. Sorry, that's abusing your body and it will catch up to you.

Not the pp, but another Hindu Indian poster and my mom and grandparents also fasted 2 days a week for pretty much their entire adult lives. Not just one day a year, not just a set few weeks a year but all the time. My cousin also fasts, though he only does a once a week fast.

It's very common for Hindus to fast at least one day a week, every week. Some do more like 2 or 3 days, it's up to them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Ok, it's been 2 days of "fasting", aka skipping breakfast. It's amazing...I'm not that hungry at all. I have no cravings. I actually made it to 12:30pm. I am usually starving by 10 if I eat breakfast at 7.

what gives?!?

Apparently breaking your fast - ie breakfast, or your first meal of the day - wakes up the metabolism and then you get hungry. A nutritionist told me I should eat breakfast even though I wasn’t hungry for it. But I tried, and then was ravenous the remainder of the morning. I told her that and she said “yes, eating breakfast will make you hungry.” Her advice was to eat breakfast, making myself hungry, and then manage my weight by eating less. I’ll just skip eating when I’m not hungry, thanks. I end up eating fewer calories overall.

While I'm not a faster, this is me me in general. If I eat breakfast, I'm ravenous for the rest of the day. Breakfast does not help me eat less the rest of the day by any stretch. One size does not fit all.

+2

+3 my first meal of the day, whenever it is, seems to flip the hunger switch then it's on like donkey kong.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

Despite what Dr. Fung says, fasting is not a long-term, sustainable diet.

That would have been news to both of my Indian grandmothers and women of their generation. They kept weekly religious no-food fasts for almost their entire adult lives and lived into their nineties.

Weekly religious fasts are typically a day, right? Or Ramadan, which is a limited fast over a month? Not eating only 2 or 3 days out of the week, as PP is doing. Sorry, that's abusing your body and it will catch up to you.

PP should clarify for themselves, but it doesn't work out to be only eating 2-3 days a week. I do 5:2, which is pretty standard IF. Five days a week totally normal eating. Two days a week you eat only 500 calories. On those "fasting" days, though, you might have a 36 hour period where you eat nothing or very little - say, from after dinner on Monday until breakfast on Wednesday. You have only fasted on Tuesday, but your body gets the benefit of a rest from insulin for 36 hours.

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

Despite what Dr. Fung says, fasting is not a long-term, sustainable diet.

I'm sorry, are you a clinician who has been using fasting as a therapeutic to with patients for years? You don't actually know, do you?

Of course occasional periodic fasting is sustainable. I don't expect to fast as often a year from now as I do now because I won't have as much stored body fat to use as fuel. But plenty of people in maintenance still use fasting as a maintenance tool. Bonus is its good for your immune system as well.

Good to hear. Although a year is still extreme.

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

Despite what Dr. Fung says, fasting is not a long-term, sustainable diet.

That would have been news to both of my Indian grandmothers and women of their generation. They kept weekly religious no-food fasts for almost their entire adult lives and lived into their nineties.

Weekly religious fasts are typically a day, right? Or Ramadan, which is a limited fast over a month? Not eating only 2 or 3 days out of the week, as PP is doing. Sorry, that's abusing your body and it will catch up to you.

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

Despite what Dr. Fung says, fasting is not a long-term, sustainable diet.

That would have been news to both of my Indian grandmothers and women of their generation. They kept weekly religious no-food fasts for almost their entire adult lives and lived into their nineties.

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

Despite what Dr. Fung says, fasting is not a long-term, sustainable diet.

I'm sorry, are you a clinician who has been using fasting as a therapeutic to with patients for years? You don't actually know, do you?

Of course occasional periodic fasting is sustainable. I don't expect to fast as often a year from now as I do now because I won't have as much stored body fat to use as fuel. But plenty of people in maintenance still use fasting as a maintenance tool. Bonus is its good for your immune system as well.

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

I need more info.

Does it have to be every day to be effective?

Can I have coffee with creamer and sugar? It might be over 50 calories. Does it have to be all or nothing?

OMG, OP, no, do not use creamer and sugar in your coffee. That will spike your insulin and defeat the purpose of the fasting which is to lower your baseline insulin and burn fat.

If you have coffee, use full fat cream. No sugar. Full fat cream will not raise your insulin.

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

Despite what Dr. Fung says, fasting is not a long-term, sustainable diet.

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.

1. I started with 12, then 14, then 16, then 18, then 24 hour fasts. Took a couple of months to get to 24. Just doing 14 was a big accomplishment for me at first!

2. I do two 36-42 hour fasts most weeks. Amazingly, exercising while fasted is great!!! I have more energy and growth hormone spikes when you feast after fasting, so it's great for muscle growth too.

I watched this British "documentary" on youtube yesterday. "Why are thin people thin", something like that. It wasn't a full evidence backed up documentary, but they followed two people who say they eat what they want whenever they want and don't gain weight. It was interesting that couple of days one of them skipped breakfast completely, ate McDonalds for lunch(and a lot of it) and that in fact the other had what he called guilty pleasure cereal but it was low or no added sugar. Would be nice if they made the similar about heavy people and followed them for a week, to see if they eat the same or more or even less.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you read the obesity code, which is a great read about IF, Dr. Fung discusses the impact of insulin on obesity and the fact that What the fasting is doing is reducing insulin resititance. The sweetener in the coffee (sugar or artificial sweeteners) has an insulin effect. Heavy cream has almost no sugars (.3 grams per cup) while whole milk has 13 grams of sugar per cup. I only have cream in my coffee during the fast (I do 16:8).

+1 no artificial sweeteners or sugar. heavy cream is best. (bullet coffee just has no appeal to me) though In his complete guide to fasting - he does allow whole milk - 1 tblspoon, but never lowfat or skim milk - because at that small amount too little sugar to trigger - so in a pinch it would work.

This might explain why I still lost a bit of weight/ or didn't gain on that day. I made strawberries and cream(heavy whipping Chantilly cream) and pigged out on it! And I actually added a bit of powdered sugar to it, and then I ate nothing from 2pm till next morning. But, sugar should have made a difference, yet I was fine?

I am officially a convert. I’ve been making an effort to workout and eat healthy since Thanksgiving, but haven’t lost more than a few pounds. I decided to try intermittent fasting a few times a week since the New Year and the scale finally started to move. This week I went to a work Happy Hour, had several margaritas, nachos and tacos and still managed to lose 1.5 pounds. Previously that little outing would have set me back a week on the scale. Best of all I’m not hungry. I’ve never felt that way on any other diet I’ve tried.

Anonymous wrote:If you read the obesity code, which is a great read about IF, Dr. Fung discusses the impact of insulin on obesity and the fact that What the fasting is doing is reducing insulin resititance. The sweetener in the coffee (sugar or artificial sweeteners) has an insulin effect. Heavy cream has almost no sugars (.3 grams per cup) while whole milk has 13 grams of sugar per cup. I only have cream in my coffee during the fast (I do 16:8).

+1 no artificial sweeteners or sugar. heavy cream is best. (bullet coffee just has no appeal to me) though In his complete guide to fasting - he does allow whole milk - 1 tblspoon, but never lowfat or skim milk - because at that small amount too little sugar to trigger - so in a pinch it would work.