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Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

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Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#51
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you. Breakfast has always felt very skippable for me. My body doesn't seem to crave it in any way. I'd grown up listening to the conventional wisdom: eat a hearty breakfast, or else you'll be so hungry you'll snack all morning and afternoon. But I never really found that to be the case. Really, I experienced the opposite effect, as you've described. Whenever I eat breakfast, I find myself hungry again anywhe…

I basically never eat breakfast and see no negative effect, but when I tell people this they immediately get concerned about my wellbeing. The "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" idea is deeply ingrained in our culture.

I typically do better having breakfast, a hearty breakfast allows me to have a light lunch without heavy cravings. I've tried skipping breakfast with mixed results. I've also tried moving my eating period to breakfast & lunch with skipping dinner with some positive results, although it can be tough when I'm with others eating or drinking after work.

I do agree though, that the concept of breakfast being important is bunk. Everyone is different and as these IF studies show, no one meal is all that important.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#52
post #49
post #32

I have being doing IF now for a 4 months and out of all the various dieting methods I have tried over the years I'm very impressed so far. I only do one meal a day (big lunch around 2pm) and then a protein shake and maybe a beer at 8ish. I like that I can have a beer every day. I have noticed a couple of things with diet: * shockingly you can still workout hard while starving. * it seems to help regulate and improve…

> TMI but if I eat healthy and frequently I kill several trees w/ toilet paper consumption Why would frequent bowel movements (which I assume were implied by the above) be an "improvement"? Wouldn't the best case scenario be once a day, regularly (same time every day), very low TP consumption (not too much fluid)?

Improvement in this case being slower and less movements :)

I sometimes can go two days with IF with out visiting the throne.

If I eat old body builder style wih lots of fiber (was considered healthy) I end up going a lot and wiping a lot.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#53
post #30
post #18

I've been following the 5:2 fast since Jan 1, and running 60-80 miles per week. I've run my 3 best marathons in this time, including a PR. (I'm not crediting the diet for this, just saying that the diet hasn't hurt my performance.) I'm mostly doing it as an experiment for myself, after talking with a friend who did it last year, and watching the BBC Documentary on the diet (Eat, Fast, and Live Longer). I thought runn…

Do you feel a need to eat right after running to rebuild muscle?

I've read conflicting information about whether it's truly necessary to consume protein/carbs within 30 minutes of a workout, which I think is the basis of your question. Or whether as long as your overall diet is sufficient, it doesn't matter.

I've been fasting on Mon/Wed, and these are usually the days when I do recovery (i.e. slow) runs. I will run once or twice on these days, with my single meal in between. Typically I'll get up, have coffee (black), work an hour or two, then do a mid-morning run of 6-7 miles (about an hour). I'll have my meal around 1 PM. I then do a second run in the evening of 4-5 miles (about 40 mins).

My "meal" on fasting days is typically a nutribullet shake of spinach, frozen blueberries, banana or apple, cocoa powder (no sugar), unflavored whey protein powder, cashews or almonds, and two tsp of fish oil. My Fitness Pal says its ~ 600 calories, 27g fat, 60g carbs, 34g protein.

I'll have a second black coffee in the afternoon, and a green tea in the evenings.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#54
post #5
post #4

Having done IF myself, where I would eat between noon and 8pm and skip breakfast during a 'cutting phase', my experience: * 'IF' is great if you are "cutting" and trying to achieve a lower body weight or maybe just maintaining what you have. * 'IF' is not good or practical if you are going through a traditional bulk phase * The feeling of alertness, energy and maybe slight 'high' during the morning, is real. * Not su…

I feel like IF would be detrimental to maintaining muscle mass during a cut. You really want to keep a steady stream of amino acids to prevent catabolism of muscle tissue even when reducing total caloric intake. Usually you cut fat first during a cut. You want to keep carbs to fuel your workouts and you want to keep the protein flowing to prevent muscle loss.

That's the standard recommendation from sports nutrition texts, and I've certainly found it to be very true for myself. Over many cutting cycles as a strength athlete over the years, I always lost high ratios of muscle:fat during IF-style cuts, and augmenting with protein intake during long breaks between meals has made a tremendous difference despite my advancing age.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#55
post #7

I've been doing IF (the "one meal per day" form) for a while now, mostly because I find it helps me focus during the day. When I used to eat breakfast, I'd be productive in the morning, until I started getting distracted by craving lunch. Then I'd eat lunch, and end up sleepy and groggy afterwards while I digested. Now that I'm used to IF, I feel more productive; I spend less time at work thinking about food, and I m…

I'm with you. Breakfast has always felt very skippable for me. My body doesn't seem to crave it in any way. I'd grown up listening to the conventional wisdom: eat a hearty breakfast, or else you'll be so hungry you'll snack all morning and afternoon. But I never really found that to be the case. Really, I experienced the opposite effect, as you've described. Whenever I eat breakfast, I find myself hungry again anywhe…

Same here. I do regularly eat breakfast... but only because my preferred tea is strong enough that drinking it on an empty stomach is a very bad idea.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#56
post #7

I've been doing IF (the "one meal per day" form) for a while now, mostly because I find it helps me focus during the day. When I used to eat breakfast, I'd be productive in the morning, until I started getting distracted by craving lunch. Then I'd eat lunch, and end up sleepy and groggy afterwards while I digested. Now that I'm used to IF, I feel more productive; I spend less time at work thinking about food, and I m…

Tangentially, "post-lunch carb crash" means you have insulin resistance and should be restricting carbohydrates, either low-carb or ketogenic. You'll know you set the dial properly when you no longer droop after a meal. That is, blood insulin and glucose curves are mild.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#57
post #18

I've been following the 5:2 fast since Jan 1, and running 60-80 miles per week. I've run my 3 best marathons in this time, including a PR. (I'm not crediting the diet for this, just saying that the diet hasn't hurt my performance.) I'm mostly doing it as an experiment for myself, after talking with a friend who did it last year, and watching the BBC Documentary on the diet (Eat, Fast, and Live Longer). I thought runn…

Your experience is interesting to me. I'm a runner as well and I end up doing several races per year including a marathon, a few 1/2s, few 5k and 10ks. Do you do any interval training or long runs on the days you fast? What do you do about post run nutrition replacement and do you do glucose replacement during your longer runs? I'd love to shave off a few pounds for racing reasons as well. I always find myself eating…

Fasting days (Mon/Wed) are recovery runs. I usually run long on the weekend, and do my workouts on Tue (intervals) and Thu (tempo), but before breaking my fast.

My Tue interval day may include a 12 mi AM run of 2 mi w/u, 8 x 1000M at 8K pace w/600M RI, 2 mi c/d and 4 mi PM recovery run. My Thu tempo is usually something like a 10 mi AM run of 2 mi w/u, 6 mi at HMP, 2 mi c/d, then possibly a 4 mi PM recovery run.

Sunday is my cheat day. But there's only so much ice cream you can eat in one day. :-)

During long runs, I usually carry 21 oz of sports drink.

Post-marathon recovery drink: Guinness Float (that would be Guinness draught and a scoop of vanilla.)

My plan this year is to run a marathon each month, and 3000 miles total. So far so good.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#58
post #18

I've been following the 5:2 fast since Jan 1, and running 60-80 miles per week. I've run my 3 best marathons in this time, including a PR. (I'm not crediting the diet for this, just saying that the diet hasn't hurt my performance.) I'm mostly doing it as an experiment for myself, after talking with a friend who did it last year, and watching the BBC Documentary on the diet (Eat, Fast, and Live Longer). I thought runn…

nice. do you run in the morning or afternoon? i'd considered doing the same as you but I usually run after work and hate running with food in my stomach...

do you run in the morning or afternoon?

Yes. :-)

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#59
Nearly every health-related article that makes it to the top of Hacker News these days is stuff that was discussed in the Paleo community 5+ years ago. Earlier today was the benefits of a high fat ketogenic diet in regards to cancer, and now IF. Good to see you guys catching up!
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