Current or previous intermittent fasting people

[Bernadine]

Tell me everything- how you do it, what you eat, have you lost/maintained weight. Why does or didn’t it work for you?

I’m working my way through Fast. Feast. Repeat, and on my second day of IF.

[ohgillian]

I don't think I have "everything" to tell, but I started at 14:10 and currently do 17:7. In the beginning, 14 hours was really hard. Now most days, 17 isn't hard. I love the app Zero, which several people on here recommended.

Currently I eat about 11:30 to 6:30. At 11:30 I'll make fried eggs and spinach, and have that with a banana or maybe some chocolate. Sometimes I'll have a snack mid-day, then I eat dinner about 6. And repeat.

I've lost a few pounds, maybe 3-4. I never started losing until I went up in my hours. 14:10 didn't do anything for me weight wise, although I liked it anyway. I liked how I felt doing it, and supposedly it's good metabolically.

ETA: I hope this comment doesn't come across as .. something, I don't know what ... but I didn't really have much weight to lose. I'm right now pretty much smack in the middle of what a chart I just found online said was "normal" for my height. I have a lot of thoughts about what charts think is "normal," but I guess my point is I think I might have lost more if I had more to lose? 

[expectantsteelerfan]

I read Fast Feast Repeat and loved the concept and totally bought into it. I did it very strictly for 2 months, mostly doing 18:6, and didn't loose any weight but also didn't gain any. I was really eating whatever I wanted during those 6 hours, so all the bread, cheese, pasta, cookies, etc. I had been denying myself for years while doing other diets. During the 2nd month I tried to stick to more healthy foods and experimented a bit with the fasting window (I wanted to do every other day, but never made it through a whole day).

I need to loose weight, so I decided to stop worrying about IF and focus more on eating clean, low carb, low calories for a while. I do still mostly only eat during a 6 hour window, but I have gone back to putting honey in my morning tea or cream/stevia in my morning coffee that I drink a few hours before I eat anything. I was fine drinking black tea for the 2 months that I was strict, but I really ENJOY the flavored drinks and I wasn't enjoying drinking it black, so I decided that that will be my one indulgence (because I know from experience if I try to cut out all the foods/drinks I enjoy, I end up cheating majorly).  If I feel starving in the morning or I'm going to be out at the time I normally eat my first meal (10:30/11), then I will eat a scrambled egg in the morning too.

[susiebw]

I also love the Zero app. When I'm fasting (and I haven't for a while now), I usually aim for 16/8, and I stop eating by 8:00 pm at the latest. I sip cold-brewed green tea all morning (2 tea bags in a mason jar of water over night in the fridge), and tend to be a lot more mindful of what I eat during that 8 hours to make sure I'm getting everything I need. My longest stretch of IF was about 2 months, and I didn't fast on weekends, but I lost a bunch of weight. I don't own a scale, so I can't speak to numbers, but my clothes fit different and people were commenting on it a bunch. I bought new jeans that were 2 sizes smaller than the old ones.

Some days are obviously harder than others, and the first few days are the hardest - it's easiest to work up to the time you're shooting for. But most of the time, I didn't feel like I was missing anything at all, and it really showed me how much "extra" I was eating most of the time. Most of the time, I feel like I have more energy, and generally feel better. I'm sure that has to do at least in part to the fact that I am more careful about what I eat, and focus on more nutrient-dense foods when I'm fasting, but I also never deprived myself of a cookie or whatever if it was around, kwim?

Also, by stopping "eating" by 7:00 or 8:00 pm, I was drinking less alcohol, which I'm sure also contributed to my energy and general better feeling too. And lately, that's what's been stopping me from fasting. We're eating dinner later these days, and I really enjoy a drink after dinner with the world being what it is. I've learned that if I don't start my fast by about 8:00 pm, I wake up starving, and that makes for a really rough morning.

Good luck! It's not for everyone, but I did really well with it.

[vamoose]

Ugh. I LOVE intermittent fasting. It works really well for me for weight loss (I don’t gorge during the eating window, but I eat whatever types of foods I want and just drink plenty of water too and notice when I feel full). I usually did a 6-8 hour eating window followed by an 16-18 hour fasting window. BUT- it totally fucks with my hormones. Even if I am careful to eat plenty of calories to have moderate weight loss (2-3 pounds per week max), I still end up with bad insomnia and breakouts after the first two to three weeks of fasting. So, keep an eye on that. It’s apparently a thing for some women.

My main tip would be to drink plenty of water and that it gets easier after the first couple of days.

[sarahswim]

I fell into IF accidentally. I’m a teacher, and had a scheduled lunch time at noon. I found myself skipping breakfast due to rushing in the mornings. Then I would get busy at school, and just started eating at my lunchtime for my first meal of the day. I made sure to stop eating around 8pm. That was last year.
This year my lunch is at 1. It’s a little harder for me to wait that long, so I try to have a yogurt or baked oatmeal around noon before my actual lunchtime.
I’ve put on a bunch of weight since Covid began-basically been eating everything in sight while sitting around at home. When I recently started back with IF, I decided to let myself still eat what I wanted during my eating hours, rather than severely restricting myself like I have in the past. I’m not eating dessert all day and well, I’m not eating all day anyway, thanks to IF. All of that to say, I’m probably losing a bit of weight simply because of those factors, not necessarily due to IF alone.

[lemoncupcake]

I don’t buy into the whole hype of it, but I like the strict structure around not eating after dinner. Once I tried IF I realized that every night when I was having a snack after putting the kids to bed it was never because I was actually hungry. Unless I drank alcohol, then the snacking was turned up to 11. I naturally don’t want to eat until 10-ish in the morning so it works well for me.

I have lost weight, but I really think it’s that lack of late night snacking and more exercise.

[isabel]

I read that book. I did not buy into it.

As I was reading it, all I could really think is that essentially it's a low calorie diet. You don't have to count calories, but since you're only eating a couple meals per day (or less), you're just naturally eating fewer calories. It also eliminates late night eating/drinking, which is often a culprit of weight gain for people.

I tend to naturally follow an IF diet simply because I frequently don't feel hungry before 11. My first meal of the day is often closer to noon. I think if I ate as I normally do and stopped eating in the evening, I'd lose weight.

I think you can achieve the same results through a standard low calorie diet if you're willing to calorie count. If you're not, IF is probably an easier means of achieving the same thing.

[Deleted]

I tried it and still do it occasionally to kind of recalibrate when I find I'm getting a bit too food-focused or snacking a lot. Long-term, it wasnt a good fit for me because I had a hard time fueling my early a.m. workouts while IF.

[eddy]

I just do it.  I don’t have a real plan. I do it because I do terrible with diets. This does not feel like a diet.

my eating window is 10-6. I workout in the morning and I have trained my body to be okay.

I also don’t weigh myself so no clue what weight loss is like.

I think it is very manageable.

[kittenponypony]

Jan 12, 2021 22:15:24 GMT -5 spearmintleaf said:

This mimics my natural eating habits, which I find to be interesting because although I have many struggles in my life, weight management hasn’t been one of them, and I try to eat healthy but I mostly eat what I want.

Question: If I have coffee with cream and sugar around 8 am, does that ruin the fast? I often don’t even feel like eating until 10 or 11 am and would be fine to wait. But I want my coffee, and I want it how I like it.

I did intermittent fasting with cream and sugar in my coffee and lost significant weight. I don’t know if you get the same supposed metabolic/cell repair benefits though. For me I think it just reduced my overall calories. It’s easier to me than counting calories because you can be lazy and just not eat at certain times rather than having to measure things out and track, etc

[wesleycrusher]

Jan 12, 2021 22:18:44 GMT -5 kittenponypony said:

Jan 12, 2021 22:15:24 GMT -5 spearmintleaf said:

This mimics my natural eating habits, which I find to be interesting because although I have many struggles in my life, weight management hasn’t been one of them, and I try to eat healthy but I mostly eat what I want.

Question: If I have coffee with cream and sugar around 8 am, does that ruin the fast? I often don’t even feel like eating until 10 or 11 am and would be fine to wait. But I want my coffee, and I want it how I like it.

I did intermittent fasting with cream and sugar in my coffee and lost significant weight. I don’t know if you get the same supposed metabolic/cell repair benefits though. For me I think it just reduced my overall calories. It’s easier to me than counting calories because you can be lazy and just not eat at certain times rather than having to measure things out and track, etc

Same. I don't eat lunch before noon and have dinner by 7, but I still have a coffee with cream in the a.m. More than the fasting, I lost weight by just reducing calories by not eating breakfast or eating the food people brought in to work (occasional donuts, bagels, that sort of thing)

[sunshineluv]

I read the obesity code, and found it really helpful and interesting. I have done 16:8 fasting for maybe 2 years? I am down 25 lbs overall but it’s not just the fasting, I also tracked food for some of that time and workout a lot.

I like skipping breakfast and working out while fasted. The holidays got me a little off schedule but I am back on track now. I am in weight maintaince mode and really it’s just easier to not eat too much if it’s less hours per day. The Reddit intermittent fasting group is really motivating to me.

[Deleted]

Another vote for the Zero app. I'm not doing IF right now, but have in the past and found that it was really a great fit for me. I'm not really a breakfast person to begin with, so pushing back my eating window wasn't too difficult, it was eliminating the night snacking that was a bigger challenge. I've done 18:6 with some regularity and found that that was the best for me. I also liked doing OMAD for a while, which is basically 23:1, but I really do like food, and only eating once a day made me sad LOL