Intermittent Fasting, Is it a trend or does it work?

[Guest ModCat]

Did anyone try this to lose weight? Did it work?

 

I naturally skip breakfast but have struggled with weight for years, wonder if anyone actually has lost weight or maintains on IF.

 

https://www.futurity.org/intermittent-fasting-time-2328992/

[Guest]

I never really believed in magic formulas. Normally eating less and moving more will do the trick.

But with closed gyms, parcs and stay at home directives, the timing sucks. I try reducing portions and walk in quiet streets to avoid problems with by-law enforcers who seem to nuts in Ottawa parcs these days.

[Guest lydiahardwood]

I listened to a great podcast on this recently by a clinical nutritionist - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/why-intermittent-fasting-is-so-popular/id1441209943?i=1000451697550

TLDR (or listen, lol): Intermittent fasting won't be the reason you lose weight - only calorie deficit can achieve that. However, you do tend to lose weight whilst doing intermittent fasting as you're cutting out a couple of meals, therefore living in a calorie deficit 🙂

When I diet I do tend to do intermittent fasting as I find skipping breakfast fairly easy. Would rather that than cut out my dessert 😛

[Guest]

I remember reading several times intermittent fasting has health benefits, like lowered blood pressure etc.

If I remember rightly it was called the 5-2? diet, 2 days of dieting to the tune of 600 calories max, the other days, normal calorie intake.

Never tried it though!

[Guest]

    On occasions will replace a meal with something like "SlimFast" or Ensure" with a coffee or juice to get the minimum without starving myself. Never tried for a long controlled diet, but it's less expensive and more healthy than living on fastfood.

[NataliaNordstromm 1]

It's about insulin levels after food ingestion. Having a long enough unfed window of time allows your body to deplete it's stores of readily available glucose and use stored glycogen and fat.  I find it the easiest because there is nothing restricted and nothing to count except hours.  You don't have to be one of those people that has food exceptions for everything and if you want pizza you eat it. 

[HenryOcean 196]

From personal experience I can say this works. Eating healthy is always key but I typically take 3 days of the week and minimize my meals between 2pm and 8pm. My doctor says it it's working well as my blood tests have come out to his liking which I am happy with lol

[OldandNerdy 1304]

I've been trying this for about a week and I'm averaging 1lb / day loss right now.  

 

Yes part of it is eating less, basically for me that means no snacking after 6pm, but the other part is that over time you are training your body how to burn energy and fat more efficiently and after the initial hump of the first couple of weeks, you will stop craving food outside of your eating hours.

 

I got turned on to it when listening to a nutritional expert interviewed about it on CBC radio a few months ago.

 

I've also been tracking my caloric intake for the past couple of weeks so that I could compare pre-fast calories and post-fast.  

 

I'm taking in less, by about 400 calories / day, but I've done that before without the fasting aspect (actually cut out close to 1000/ day). And didn't see this type of result.  

 

For reference I'm doing the daily 8/16 method.  So I only eat for 8 hours a day. And fast for 16.  I chose to eat from 10-6 each day as that suits my lifestyle.

 

So a protein shake for breakfast around 10 am

A reasonable lunch around 1, depending on my work schedule.

A snack mid day

And then a standard supper before 6.  

And of course lots of water through the day.

 

My exercise routine hasn't changed nor has my activity level.  

 

So for me I'm seeing results, which makes me happy, and less likely to cause any ladies I choose to see to immediately recoil in disgust when the tarp comes off.

[someguy 67067]

I've done this for a while. I fasted for 4 days straight a few times.

then went to once a day eating. most days I skip breakfast, sometimes lunch. and have dinner and a snack at night.

It does work. It's not about how much you eat but how often and when you eat.

I've lost a lot of weight. I went from large and currently have to buy small pants and shirts. 

going to rebuild it in muscle. lol  

Better then other diets. easy to do once you get use it to it . saves time and money.