Intermittent fasting

OP is worse than...

Here's a good video on it OP. I learned a lot from this.

I avoid eating for 16 hours straight 2 or 3 days a week. I actually find myself a little mentally sharper those days.

No risk of damage to your metabolism, regular eating all day isn't actually what humans evolved to do. And our lack of adjustment to it is one reason diabetes is so common. Our body wasn't meant to produce as much insulin as frequently as it does and we still aren't really used to it

Like "keto" and "paleo" and "HIIT" it's one of those words that's misused and overused constantly.

I've heard people call not eating between 7pm and breakfast (9AM) "intermittent fasting"

Dave Asprey from Bulletproof helped to popularize it and there's plenty online about the benefits. As per OP some people do it for 24 hours straight--just water, coffee and tea. Others will drink Bulletproof coffee as part of the intermittent fast.

I'm in my late 50s and have lost weight doing IF and generally feel all around better. I do 16/8, eat during an 8 hour window. I started out 12/12 and worked my way up to 16/8.

Additional benefits for me have been no more snoring , no more heartburn at night, I wake up refreshed and with a flatter stomach than what I went to bed with. I do stop eating at 4:00 p.m. which works for me as I'm retired. The initial weight I lost has stayed off and I'm more lax now with calories than at the beginning but I do stick to the time frame. It's been 1.5 years.

Screw that nonsense and try aerobics, OP. With a little hard work, your body can look as good as mine.

What about intermittent farting?

I'm doing the 16/8 eating only between 1pm -9pm working out fine now that I'm used to black coffee

Yes, the black coffee is key.

I fast every day from somewhere between 8-9 pm and 5-5:30 pm the following day.

I've been eating two meals a day, one at 11:30AM and one at 6:30PM for three months - no snacks and only a couple of cups of coffee (with Stevia and a splash of milk or cream in the morning.)

This has helped with my diabetes, tremendously, my fasting blood sugar is now around 100mg/dl as opposed to 150+mg/dl I previous had which I attributed to dawn phenomenon.

I also trying to eat less than 60 grams of carbohydrates at each meal and eat a lot more vegetables and fruits that I used to and very little bread and no pastries or desserts.

I've been losing around 1.5lbs a week. The only side effect I've had is that I'm horny AF much more often than I'd been for a few years.

I'm hoping to be able to maintain this lifestyle indefinitely. Has anyone been able to do two meals a day as a regular lifestyle?

One meal a day for me, R10. Started 1-2 weeks 12 years ago; full-time the last 5.

Did you lose weight/how much, R11?

About 50 lbs, R12, a loss I've been able to maintain. I have a friend who's followed my lead & has also been successful.

R11:

Could you walk us through some of your meals?

Nothing special, R14. My meal is usually a dinner that's rather simple & small, followed by dessert (a must) & fruit. On those rare occasions I go out for lunch, I skip dinner, although I'll have dessert & fruit.

Thank you R13, R15, very helpful.

Actual fasting for 24 hours or more slowed my metabolism some years back. Even when I would eat extremely low calories for days and weeks at a time messed me up as well. But the intermittent fasting works as long as I don't go an entire day without food. I do this between 2 to 5 days a week and depending on my hours, instead of breakfast and lunch, I just eat a brunch (the majority of the food during that time) and a light early dinner then drink a lot of water but don't eat anything else until the next late morning or noon. I feel more energetic and focused and of course lost and maintain ideal weight this way. I also don't feel too exhausted for workouts whereas full fasting left me too tired. I don't know about the really long-term effects, but I've been doing the intermittent for 8 months with no harm. My doctors are varied on their opinions, one's fine with it, the other says it might be okay as long as I don't truly starve myself: he was hinting caution at going into anorexic territory which isn't the case for me. That doctor suggests one shouldn't go more than maximum 4 - 6 waking hours without at least a small snack, but most days I don't snack. One meal per day didn't work for me at all and added no wellness benefits. So it's 2 meals a day for me, but the 2nd is an early and light one.

Combine Keto with intermittent fasting. For the fasting, you need to not eat for 18-20 hours. Stop at 8 at night then don't eat until 6 p,m. the following night. Do that three days a week and eat keto the rest.

There's two forms of intermittent fasting - there's the 8 or 12 or 16 hour fast every day (say, no eating from 8 pm to 8 am), and there's the fast where you eat normally 5 days a week and fast more or less completely 2 days a week. They both seem to work pretty well.

I'm not sure why black coffee would be key, though.

I eat 500 calories on my fast days. It's not really fasting. It works best if you don't eat go wild on your non fasting days. I don't think it's magical. I just consume fewer calories over a week if I "fast" 3 to 4 days a week. It works for my lifestyle. I have a lot of events to attend. I just make those days my non fasting ones. I find the fasting helps me distinguish between genuine hunger and boredom or emotional eating. I do cranky in the late afternoon on fast days. I just remind myself it's just hunger and calm down. That feeling passes. I'm not hungry constantly, but there are times I'm preoccupied with thoughts of food. It's easier to stick with because I know I won't go hungry tomorrow.

R19 caffeine lowers your appetite and gives you energy. If it's black it has no calories. I have acid reflux so I can't do coffee on an empty stomach. I do drink a lot of black, white and green tea.

I have seen results and feel better doing 15/9 (eating breakfast no earlier than 9 AM and finishing dinner no later than 6 PM). I am usually up until 10 PM and wake up around 7 AM.

Currently doing the 16:8. Nothing before 9am, nothing after 5pm. I get off work at 4, so I don't have much time for a big dinner. Tonight I had toast and hummus. I was going to do just one meal a day, but my nutritionist told me that it would be too severe for someone just starting, so she put me on 16:8.

Fasting is a stupid idea, just as a 40 year old running 10 miles a day is stupid.

I fast for 15 hrs each day - don't eat between 8PM and 11AM. I found I lost a few pounds at the start, then my body adjusted to it.

Extreme Fasting has proven to extend life by many years. Google it, OP.

I had the same experience, R24. Maybe we don't much weight to lose.

Intermittent farting!

How do you go that long without eating? I'd kill myself

Eating is overrated

I lost 45 pounds on IF. Only ate between 11 and 5, no booze.

I've kept it off 6 years. If I eat at 9 pm, no big deal, I just back to 11-5:00 when I can.

This thread is so helpful. Another term for it is “digestive resting.” I don’t eat until noon which feels normal for me and amounts to 14 hours of not eating. My digestion and elimination have become more settled and regular. I’m working on getting to bed earlier and upping it to 16.

I've never eaten between dinner (usually about 6pm) and around 11am next morning, It was just normal in when I lived with my parents (over 30 years ago) and I haven't ever changed my routine.

I didn't realise that it was unusual.

Growing up we had breakfast at 8am and our dinner at 6pm. I guess we were doing 14:10 and didn’t know it! Are people really eating so much these days that they are eating from the time they wake until just before bed, is that why not eating after dinner/supper needs a name?

I've tried it, but it was hard to keep going after a month. I lost about 5 lbs, which was my goal, but it all came back. When I started intermittent fasting again, it just didn't come off as quickly.

For me, just not snacking between meals makes a big difference

My partner did IF for months and gained weight, so it did not work at all for him.

You have to have a calorie deficit to lose weight. Period. That’s thermodynamics. If you need 2000 to maintain your weight and you eat 2500 you will gain weight. It doesn’t matter if you eat those 2500 in one giant meal or by grazing every hour. It doesn’t matter if the calories come from carbs, protein or fat. You must be in a caloric deficit to lose weight and in a surplus to gain.

I've tried many different diets and I realized that the only thing my body trully cared about when dieting is the daily calorie intake - as long as you eat less calories than you burn you will lose weight. Your body won't give a damn (at least mine didn't) whether you eat those calories in one sitting or spread throughout the day - it's the calorie deficit that really matters at the end of the day.

I didn't even read R37's post before posting mine but I see now that we came here to post the exact same thing.

If you are diabetic, or there is diabetes in your family, or you have metabolic syndrome but are not diabetic ( yet), don't do it. You want your blood sugar to remain steady, not swing up and down. When fasting creates "lows" in your blood glucose, your liver will secrete stored glucose to raise it. If you are impaired because of genetics or other reasons, your pancreas will then put out insulin ( and if you are impaired, the glucose has difficulty entering the cells. So the pancreas continues to put out insulin, making you tired and apt to gain weight. I loved fasting, loved how it made me feel, and did it for years ( though in my 40s, the weight loss would not last and I would end up gaining more.) But I fell under the 2nd two categories, and I later found out from a holistic doctor that fasting was the worst thing someone with my background could do. If your metabolism is normal and there is no disposition towards diabetes, fasting may be right for you. But if not, don't have fruit juice ( have whole fruit but limit per day), limit total carbs per meal, walk after your meals.

My sister, who struggled with bulimia for many years and whose weight yoyo-ed, did this. She lost a lot of weight and has kept it off. Plus, says said that it helped with her bulimia as she tended to binge/purge at night and she stopped eating at night.

Fasting under the supervision of a medical professional can cure diabetes and heal your metabolism. Fasting is extremely healthy if done properly.

One can argue that IF isn't real fasting. Fasting is more effective if you go a minimum of 48 hours.

Also, there’s a difference between intermittent fasting/digestive resting and starving oneself.

You should wind up with a calorie deficit with IF. If you only have 500 calories for 3 to 4 days a week, you’ll be consuming less calories than before. Of course you can’t pig out on your non fast days. It’s worked for me. It’s not magic. watched my calorie intake on non fast days. If there was a party I’d just go ahead and enjoy the it. I found it helped me distinguish between true hunger and boredom or thirst. I don’t eat as much at parties as I used to. When I’ve gone off it because I was on vacation, I started to gain. You have to keep it up. You can reduce the number of days a week you do it once you’re at goal.

“ If you only have 500 calories for 3 to 4 days a week, you’ll be consuming less calories than before. Of course you can’t pig out on your non fast days”

That’s the problem for many people. You have to track calories somehow. A handful of nuts or a granola bar sound healthy but they will blow the calorie budget. So many people thing a “healthy” food is low calorie and only fast food and candy are calorie bombs. I’ve lost count of coworkers who were doing IF but came in the morning with a 400 calorie bran muffin and 400 calorie smoothie. At lunch it was a DIY salad loaded with nuts, seeds and avocado - healthy but a calorie bomb. So, when IF didn’t work it was simply because they were eating too many calories. On the other hand if you do it perfectly and eat 500 calories 4 days and at maintenance 3 days that’s a big calorie deficit for anyone who is just a bit overweight and wants to drop 20 lbs. it’s also difficult for an average person to get proper nutrition because the fast days force people into eating things like rice cakes and noodles to keep calories down and volume of food they can eat up.

It’s also been my experience that men cope better with the fast days than women. When IF was at its peak about 2 years ago we had a few women collapse at work.

Oh, never mind. I thought the subject heading was "Intermittent fisting."

Which, if you think about it, is probably the only kind there could be.

You know, we have an expert in this that no one has mentioned.

Darfur orphan, would you share your results with us?

I recommend 24/7 Intermittent Fasting. Worked for me!

It takes a bit of trial-and-error to find the right balance. My body seems to respond to predictability; nothing sudden or extreme. Also, after coming off of a fast I incorporate healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, coconut) into each meal which also creates a sense of satiety. I've lost 20 lbs. doing this gradually (1 -2 lbs/wk) but steadily and kept it off. I've also fucked up and overdone it, and the fat loss came to a screeching halt. At a minimum, you want to avoid sending your body into starvation mode. I just donated a fuckton of larger-size clothes I'll never wear anymore.

Doesn't your body go into fat storage mode when you go too long without eating?

Sure, all those fatties coming out of Auschwitz were in fat storage mode!

Nope. When the body doesn’t get enough calories it eats itself- fat and muscle. If we had a way to trick the body into maintaining weight under calorie restriction we could save millions of starving children worldwide.

R51 the idea with IF I’d that you avoid starvation mode by only fasting a day at a time. You don’t fast 2 days in a row. I don’t know if it’s true or not. I find it’s easier to have a lot of discipline for one day knowing I won’t be hungry tomorrow. I don’t have to swear off any food forever or even for a week. It’s not for everyone and you need a calorie counting app on your phone. Anyone trying to lose weight one any kind of diet should have one. It’s good to know how much you’re really eating. I go mostly protein and green vegetables on fast days. I have half a low cal English muffin with a tiny amount of peanut butter. A little fat and starch helps a lot. Also drink lots of calorie free beverages.I drink a lot of green tea, the caffeine suppresses hunger and green tea is easy on the stomach, black coffee is too much acid with no starch in my belly.

It’s a myth

[quote]Couldn't it damage your metabolism?

Oh noes! You’ll need a metabolism transplant if that happens. Very painful recovery.

R54 - Don't click on his fraud. It's another bullshit ad thing.

Actually, r54's article was pretty interesting

I did 16:8 for the first time yesterday and felt good if a little weird and antsy. I come from an “always eat breakfast when you get up/dinner at 8pm” European family, so it’s quite a bit adjustment.

Should I do it again today (and for the next couple days) or alternate days (so do it again Friday and maybe Sunday)? I asked the Internet and there seems no clear consensus on what is best for a newbie to do in terms of days on/off.

^^I’m female and healthy BMI btw. Just slightly overweight (freshman 10, ugh) and mostly fairly fit/no known disease.

It is the fastest way to lose weight. If you can deal with fasting, it's absolutely the best and quickest way to diet.

I go on a broth and whole wheat bread diet and the pounds drop off when I need to.

TMI but I’m worried so I figure I’ll ask here - since starting IF a week ago I’m having green soft stools compared to normal and way more flatulence....am I dying or is this to be expected?

I've done it, several times, usually unintentionally as a result of disorganisation or being too busy and forgetting to eat. Am over 40, has done no harm at all, no negative side effects

Completely harmless

I've been doing it for the past 4 or 5 weeks and have noticed a subtle but positive change (so far three different friends/relatives have asked me if i've lost weight too). I eat all my meals between 2pm and 10pm, but I should add that i'm a night owl and have never been a huge breakfast person anyway (can't even do coffee in the mornings, just water). I work in the afternoons as a music tutor so this fits in just about right, eating a full meal before I start with my students and having the last one a bit later in the evening as i'm up so late. Usually with some sort of snack in the middle of those 8 hours.

Like a poster a few posts up, it really just seemed to stop me from all my super late night snacking, or habitual eating when I really didn't need to. I never even felt starved except for maybe the first day. It's amazing how much we eat just for the sake of it, or out of boredom. Because now even in my 'eating periods' (within the 8 hours) i'm not usually that hungry. My appetite has gone way down because of it and I find it easier to eat less food and thus less calories as well.

I've even been getting to bed earlier, although I have to admit i've found I have a bit less energy for exercise. Having said that i'm a naturally stocky build and this has been the easiest weight loss method i've ever tried. I wonder just how long i'll be able to keep losing weight with this method though, as a lot of people seem to 'hit a wall'.

If I don't eat for long periods of time, I get headaches, feel lethargic and the hunger pains are terrible. No thanks.

I eat 5x a day, no processed foods, no wheat for the last 4 years and have only gained 3-5 pounds at most, usually during the holidays. No need to torture yourself.

[quote] No need to torture yourself.

Because everyone has a body exactly like R65's.

I stick to a diet that I invented myself, or rather cobbled together out of various different diets that I have seen or heard about, and it has worked really well for me. I have lost about 7 stone over 2 years and kept it off, and it's not hard after the first couple of weeks. I am still in the "overweight" BMI category, but I can live with that. I had got really fat. There were several years when I couldn't tell how fat, because all the scales were reading "overload".

- no breakfast - only coffee and/or tea till midday - lunch early at 12.00 - only proteins and vegetables, but you can literally eat as much as you like. Today I had a a bowl of mixed stir-fried vegetables with meatballs in tomato sauce, 2 chicken and leek kebabs, a German veal sausage and a jar of kimchi. Afterwards I had half a big bar of dark chocolate. - dinner - anything you like, but keep the calories below 400 - 500. I had some penne with Italian sausage. Afterwards a chocolate biscuit with my coffee.

To be honest, I am not naturally a big meat fan, but you can make it interesting with good sauces. I love picked ginger, kimchi, mustard etc. I try not to eat too much red meat, more white meat and fish, but I am not too obsessive. In the evening I go for the comfort food - pasta, potato, rice etc., but just in small portions. I started out with good quality TV dinners (Marks & Spencers in the UK), but now I try to make my own, but sticking to the same moderate portion sizes. The only hard bit is fasting till noon. By 11.00 I am often looking at the clock. But you get used to it, and I feel a lot of the good work of the diet is done in those pre-lunch hours.

I don't honestly know whether this is a good diet for anyone, or whether I just managed to hit on something that really suits me. It suits my lifestyle - office worker with long sedentary days, not much into exercise - and the weight has just fallen off in a slow but regular drip.

Does anyone else get ‘just got home’ binge munchies on 16-8? I walk in the door and just devour pickles, salami slices, veg sticks, olives from the can, handfuls of puffed rice, spoons of yoghurt, crackers..

Maybe I’m not eating enough at mealtimes. I don’t like eating much at breakfast/brunch really but a bran cranberry muffin and a cappuccino is kind of an Olsen Twin-esque meal, huh?

It's funny how people will spend so much time reading up on the latest fad diet, making charts, planning their carbohydrate intake by practically using the Pythagorean theorem, and who knows what else. However they won't just stop stuffing junk in their mouth or spend a 45 minutes a day walking an hour and half with their headphones one. A plan that would easily have them lose 25 pounds in a year. Instead they keep falling for shit like this and just get fatter and fatter.

I’ve been doing some homework on this, and it seems a lot of women are badly affected by this approach to eating. IF was designed (untested, btw) with male bodies and endocrine systems in mind, and ergo isn’t suitable for a typical female to do.

There are countless reports online of women who after only a few months or years of IF lose their periods, disrupt their hormones/thyroid completely (in some cases irreversibly), develop alopecia and cystic acne, have blackouts and even put on weight through bingeing because their bodies (designed to store fat for childbearing purposes) panic and cling to every fat cell while seeking more food. This has happened to otherwise-healthy women of normal weight and not just the obese/ED cases it would have happened to anyway. Isn’t this concerning to anyone else?

Here’s one testimonial I liked:

[quote] What amazes me is that the woman’s body fights so hard to hold onto fat, and can get fatigued and sluggish, but once real starvation is detected, it almost throws itself in the other direction, inciting energy and increasing performance, becoming “masculinized” in order to find food. It’s no wonder the modern woman has such a hard time bucking off the yoke of commercial foods. Something that worries me about fasting is that it can feel so great to be so alert and energized. Many women fast or live on super low carb diets for several months on a kind of high before things start going wrong..

I have been trying IF our for a couple of weeks and have seen fat loss and increased energy, but I don’t want to end up like my poor Mom with thyroid issues out the door in six months (she’s on awful pills to stop her blacking out, that have made her fat).

Today's Times has an article, not expressly about IF, but the value of skipping breakfast.

Everyone listen to R69!

Somehow she has harnessed the ability to spend only 45 minutes walking an hour and a half!

Think about the way most Americans eat--they eat a lot and a lot of it is shit. When they do IF, they are cutting down the hours they can eat a lot of shit. Ergo the weight loss.

I KNOW R73! In Europe it's nothing but water, fruits, vegetables, fish, and lean mean. An occasional treat of a lemon wedge in the water! Oh the willpower they have! I don't think they have a single fat person on the whole continent!

That's interesting R71

I have always worked out in the AM and would never think to have anything more than coffee and water before working out. Maybe a half a banana if I knew I was going to go on a two hour bike ride or similar (but that's happened once in the past 10 years, lol.)

Guess I was onto something

IF is up to you as to how successful it is OP

If you stuff your face with ice cream, donuts and other high-sugar, high-carb foods during your eating periods, it's not going to do anything for you--you'll just be consuming too many calories in a more condensed window of time.

But if you eat a filling meal of real food in that window, then yes, you can lose weight.

Not sure I buy all the attendant propaganda about your cells healing themselves and all that, but I have found that if I set 6 or 7pm as a cut-off for any kind of eating, I sleep much better. So that alone would seem to be worth it.

I found skipping breakfast is self defeating. If I do it, and when I do it, I'm at those vending machines at about 10AM. I figure a hard boiled egg, a yogurt, and a piece of fruit is better than a Big Texas danish and a pepsi from the vending machine.

R74, I wouldn't know, I am an American and know how badly most of us eat. I am no saint, but compared to most Americans, I eat pretty well. Admittedly, the bar is really low. Every few years, I count calories for a few weeks to months to remind myself to not overeat and re-calibrate my portion control sensor.

I can't exercise on an empty stomach in the morning. I tried it once and I was sluggish for the session and nearly blacked out.

I really need to do this.

I think I need to do a 10 am and 6 pm meal and then do 16 fasting.

I have been doing this all my life. No breakfast, no lunch, wonderful dinners, done eating by 10pm. I had to fast for a medical procedure - went 4 days without eating, just juice and water.

It felt great.

LOL@ R74

I’ve been doing OMAD “one meal a day” 3-4 days a week for the past three weeks. I have about 5-10 lbs to lose. I’ve already dropped 3-4 lbs. it’s surprisingly easy. I have lots of energy and mental focus. I do a 25 minute HIIT workout 4 days a week (or a good old fashioned 5k run) as well to keep my metabolism fired up. I tend to binge on snacks when I smoke weed (usually 2x’s a week), and now I don’t even feel guilty doing it because I know I’m still at a calorie deficit in the long run.

R70 did your Mama develop thyroid issue from doing IF or is that a separate issue?

As I understand it isn’t recommended for perimenopausal girls & women to fast more than 14 hours at a time, and to fast alternate days not consecutive. There are so few studies with women it’s hard to tell what the longterm effects are.

I have been doing 16:8 since March 18 and have lost 13.9 lbs. I try to stay at a daily calorie limit, with 40% of calories coming from carbs (under 150 grams a day), 30% from fat and 30% from protein. I track everything on MyFitnessPal. Some days I go over the limit, and some days the ratio is a bit off, but in those 12 weeks I have not eaten anything after the 8 hour mark. I get the majority of my calories spread out during the first four hours of eating, and usually end up with 400 - 500 calories left for dinner and dessert (Yasso bar, some fruit with whipped cream, or a cookie which I buy individually from the bakery, yes, they will sell you a single cookie of those they sell by the pound).

I have another 10 - 12 lbs to go. Now that beach season is here, I might buckle down for the next few weeks and not go over my daily calories and totally cut out booze to get faster results, but what I am doing is working for me. I am not hungry, don't feel deprived, and am eating much healthier food overall. Knowing I have to put the fork down at a certain hour is actually very helpful to me. I developed some bad habits of "grazing" after dinner, looking for something to satisfy my sweet tooth. Now if I plan to allocate 110 - 150 calories a day for dessert I am not deprived.

Whether or not you are doing IF, the key to success is to track every morsel you eat. What I like about MyFitnessPal is that it's free, and you can track nutritional information, which will help you eat a more balanced diet and make better choices. It's basically Weight Watchers without the cult mentality and points bullshit.

R84, I'm not doing IF but started using Lose It which is similar to MyFitness Pal. I'm trying to lose 12 pounds. Not a big deal, but have let my snacking and portion control go pretty slack. It sounds like IF is helping you stick to calorie total and not that IF is why you've lost weight.

R85 here, forgot to add, have lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks using Lose It. I'm pretty sure some of the weight gain was from medication. I've tapered down and keeping the meds to 1/2 dosage so they may have been factor in the weight loss. So the 4 pounds in 2 weeks could be that. If I lose another 8 pounds though, I think it would be down to eating less, exercising more.

r85, I think it is a combination of the time of day I consume my calories and limiting my calories. Some days I blow it and exceed calories, especially if booze is involved, but the majority of the time I am ok. I think knowing I am done eating at a certain time is helping most of all.

I'm not swearing by this method, but my doctor did recommend it - he lost 10 lbs himself, after having a patient lose 40 lbs in 4 months doing 16:8. Whatever I am doing is working. It didn't take me a few weeks to gain 20 lbs, so I don't expect to lose it in a few weeks. If I can speed it along during the next few weeks that would be great, but overall I am pleased with the progress I am making because it doesn't feel like I am sacrificing anything.

LoseIt and MyFitnessPal are both great apps.

What they do is make you aware of how much you are eating so that you can keep track of what your macros (how many carbs/fats/proteins you are eating) and how many calories overall.

After a few months, you should have a good sense for how much food is enough--most people do tend to eat the same set of foods.

It would be helpful for those who are losing weight to note how overweight they are. Losing 4 pounds is not the same if one needs to lose six versus twenty six.

R85 here, trying to lose 12 pounds, lost 4 already. I selected 12 pounds as a reasonable goal for my middle age. If I wanted to go back to my fittest and slimmest, I would have aimed for 20. But again, at my age, I just want to get to a good weight rather the very best I've ever been.

I've posted a few posts above but have pretty much found a similar thing to R84. It's just kinda stopped my 'grazing' late at nights, and I was never a huge breakfast eater anyway.

I do notice my results are slowed down when I eat less healthy during those 8 hours. I might have to download one of those apps to track macros, although I pretty much know when i'm being good or bad lol.

I was well into middle age when started intermittent fasting. I lost over 50 pounds, reducing my weight to about 165. And, as I continue this regimen, have kept the weight off for a long time.

"I have been doing this all my life. No breakfast, no lunch, wonderful dinners, done eating by 10pm."

How do you go without eating lunch or breakfast? I'd be suicidal by noon

R93, you'd be surprised what your body could get used to.

I never thought I could skip breakfast, let alone breakfast and lunch. I did it in the space of 6 months. I open my eating window at 2 pm and close it at 8. Lost a good 20 pounds basically still eating what I want, but not going overboard.

165 at middle age? you must look like shit.

Not at all, R96. In fact, I was shopping recently and ran into a former good friend whom I had not seen in many years. As we talked for a bit, he admitted that he didn't recognize me at first, instead thinking, "Who's this hot guy?'

R70/R83 it’s probably taken for granted that most fertile women who get their period know or assume that fasting during flow is a terrible idea. Allopathic doctors are notorious for overlooking the concerns young & old women, women with dietary dysfunction and those who fall outside the ‘typical’ health bracket, remember.

I do occasional long term water fasts. I've done 4. The longest was for 21 days. On the third fast, which was 18 days, a sugical scar from 30 years ago that has always been completely numb in the whole area regained feeling. I was shocked.

I'm sorry, it was the 4th fast.

R99 you didn’t eat anything for 18 days? How did you not lose your mind or end up chewing on one of your own limbs?

I’m really interested in that scar story too. I have a pyloric scar across my navel that I got from surgery I had as a baby (like, a month old) and I have no feeling there as well as fat around the scar I’ve never been able to lose. I assume it’s my body protecting the nerves there or something?

R101 the 18 day one was the last one, but the time before that was 21 days. You only feel hungry for the first three days. If you can get past the third day, the hunger disappears. It's boring as he'll though. I am still amazed that the area regained feeling, I mean, it was without it for 30 years. That's phenomenal. I have nothing but water on these fasts, no vitamins. Some people drink electrolytes, but I never have.

*hell

I fast just about every day (though I found a grub on Friday).

I have tried IF a few times and, each time, I lost the weight I wanted to (usually 5 lbs or so).

The problem is I have a hard time sticking to it. Inevitably I start eating at night again and I regain the weight

A friend has had amazing success doing a long-term fast every quarter. He does 5 day fasts. He gets a little loopy during the last day, so I don't think that's a great idea. I think 3 days would be the max.

In a year, he's lost 50 lbs and looks like a completely different person.