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How effective is IF (Intermittent Fasting) for weight loss?
I’ve sort of done this most of my life. I’ve never been a fan of traditional breakfasts, and eating too early in the day often leaves me feeling terrible so I naturally don’t eat until noonish on most days. But after I read more about intermittent fasting, I’m considering taking a more proactive stance to my fasting and making sure that I’m getting the proper amount of calories.
I’m still taking baby steps toward a more healthful lifestyle so maybe is can be a bit of a jumping off point for me! Though I do wonder how working out without food will effect this girl who has, at times, struggled with quickly dropping blood sugars.
I’ve never eaten breakfast regularly. I can’t stomach anything but coffee before 11. I thought everyone was like that. Now I’m thinking back to all the commercials with dad trying to sneak out the door and off to work without eating and the child shooting him a reprimanding look, and wondering if they would bother with such a small consumer base for such a large budget ad campaign.
I wonder what would happen if I shocked my body by not fasting in the morning.
It’s so true that our bodies are trained to eat. I got really busy for several weeks and kept a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter in my desk for lunch. (This is how we get ants, people!) My lunch became one quick half sandwich and that’s it. At first I was soooo hungry, but after about two weeks, I couldn’t eat more if I wanted to. Now I feel hopeful that I can change my evening routine, which now includes a fourth meal and a lot of self-loathing.
I remember when I was drinking coffee/water in the morning instead of breakfast and eating 2 healthy meals a day, I dropped from 150 lbs to 130 all while working out a few days a week and walking daily.
It did not take long to drop the weight (At this time, I also was not trying to lose it!) and I never had any issues with mood changes and uncontrollable hunger because I was certainly well hydrated. Of course I changed my habits, did not work out as often and eating 6 small meals a day.
I gained the weight back and I have been in a stall pattern at 150 ever since… This week, I was seriously considering going back to eating my calories in my 2 meal process while working out again because I miss the 130 lbs muscular (but not bulky) me. Very timely post. I may try it again starting Sunday!
I just finished trying this for a week. I thought this sounded so stupid after doing the six-small-meals-a-day thing for the past decade, but I’m amazed how it worked so far.
A few things on the initial adjustment period: I didn’t have any issues with energy levels or focus. I actually had more energy and it was more consistent throughout the day. My biggest issues were (1) stankmouth and some nausea during the fasting part, and (2) my sleep schedule getting messed up from eating a gigantic meal at night. You know, because the meat sweats make sleeping hard.
The stankmouth and nausea were easily manageable with water and sugarfree mints. For the sleeping issues, my body adjusted to a big evening meal after a few days and things returned to normal, but at the beginning I just laid there wanting to die while my stomach churned like a cement mixer.
I haven’t eaten breakfast in a very long time, I found that eating early in the morning had a tendency to make me queasy, so I just stopped doing it. I must be doing something right, I’ve lost 30 lbs so far (while still lifting heavy things). Next: control my late night eating.
I endured the rough transition into paleo, but me being too lazy to cook and a very picky eater, I found that sometimes I would just not eat anything.
So I was fasting. I had all the concerns you addressed in this article, grumpiness, energy depletion, etc. So, being a nerd, I did more research on fasting diets. Just about 2 weeks ago I made the conscious decision to try intermittent fasting and I am really enjoying it. My eating window is 3p-10p and as I am typing this I am on hour 40 of a long-fast (just to see if I could do it).
I haven’t been intermittent fasting long enough to notice any real gains or fat loss yet, but being paleo only since July I’ve noticed fat loss and muscle growth. It’s incredible!
I’ve actually tried this for about a week, and after it I seemed to have lost about 5 pounds. I felt great, was reasonably pleasant. My family was giving me the strangest looks though haha. I am looking forward to trying this again, hopefully I can lose at least another 5.
Read more about intermittent fasting on this article: Does intermittent fasting really facilitate more effective weight loss?
I started intermittent fasting two weeks ago and was expecting a lot more push-back from my body. If anything, I’ve found I’m more productive in the mornings as I don’t have breakfast and post-meal slowdown.
I do have a coffee in the morning, but like you said it’s not the end of the world and I would have very likely failed without it. Haven’t noticed a dramatic change on the scales but it’s still a short amount of time.
The other benefit is that I’m really enjoying my meals when I do eat now, as they are more special 🙂
Followed a diet like this years ago called the Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler. IT WORKS! Actually a great book detailing more specifics. Even has a separate companion book that takes a seriously deep dive into the mechanics of the body and why this works (very heady stuff for non propeller heads).
I used to eat MONSTROUS dinners of high quality foods, didn’t exercise all that rigorously and still lost 30 lbs in about 7 months, mostly from my enormous “spare tire”. This diet principle definitely works. Give it a try.
This is very interesting. I’m definitely going for this diet pattern right away because truth be told, it’s a really good concept for those of us that can’t afford hardly a damn thing right now.
I’m literally doing this only because I still want to be able to build muscle even while I’m poor. Lucky for me my apartment has a garden we upkeep, and I just harvested some really good looking cucumbers and summer squash.
My overall diet will be as follows:
1. Intermittent fasting for the 16 hour blocks,
2. Paleo diet with the 80/20 rule,
3. That 20% of carbs targeted specifically at the “least evil” carbs and only eaten after a workout in a fasted state and/or during heavy meals.For about a month I went about as paleo as it gets, although I kept dairy because I have always seen ineffably positive results when I incorporate milk and Greek yogurt. Other than that I literally ate more like 5% grains and sugar over that whole month. It was a pretty great month too, but now I’m low on food and have been filling in the “not enough food” gap with this fasting & “smart carb loading” ideas. We’ll see how it goes.
I fast every day between dinner and breakfast. 🙂
Seriously, I try to extend the natural daily fast by finishing dinner early, and having breakfast late. Ideally I shoot for 14-15 hours of fasting.
Daily intermittent fasting has many health benefits, including that it:
1. Enables the burning of fat. Studies demonstrate that intermittent fasting decreases body fat, LDL cholesterol, and triacylglycerol concentrations. A great advantage of intermittent fasting is that it enables the body to maximize its fat-burning abilities fifteen hours/day. Accustoming oneself to daily fasts and building them up to fifteen to sixteen hours/day trains one to stretch out the daily fat-burning window. When glycogen (sugar) stores are low, the body speeds up fat burning in attempt to prevent using up all the sugar reserves. The longer the fast, the lower the glycogen stores, and the faster the body burns fat. Yet maintaining the eight hour window for daily food consumption avoids the harm of going too long without food causing the body to feel weak, slow one’s metabolism, and burn muscle for sustenance.
2. Lowers blood pressure. Studies demonstrate that intermittent fasting lowers blood pressure.
3. Avoids bad digestion.
4. Enables deep sleep and secretion of HGH. Digestion inhibits sleep. When the digestive tract and the liver are required to work to process food, they demand higher blood concentration, pressure, and flow; thereby disrupting the rest of the cardiovascular system. Failing to have deep sleep inhibits the secretion of HGH (human growth hormone).
5. Avoids inhibition of HGH by avoiding insulin secretion at night.
6. Avoids the ills of hyperinsulinemia. Studies demonstrate that the intermittent fasting improves insulin sensitivity in humans.
7. Enables control of total daily caloric intake.
8. Enables detoxification.
9. Intensifies autophagy. Intermittent fasting also intensifies the body’s natural process of autophagy — the controlled destruction of damaged organelles within a cell, which has been shown to have anti-aging effects — and is required to maintain muscle mass.
10. Prolongs life. Studies on mice clearly demonstrate that intermittent fasting lengthens life.
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