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A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

jamesclear.com

101–110 of 202 posts

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#101

I started intermittent fasting in September and I thought I would do it only to lose my corona weight gains. But by now it's a lifestyle for me that has so many benefits. To be fair, breakfast was never that important to me. I typically start the day with a few cups of coffee with milk and going to black coffee without milk was and is funnily the biggest price I have to pay. To cut the junk food after 8pm has so many…

> and let's face it, it is always bad food we eat at night, nobody ever comes up at 22:30pm "hey look at that nice apple."

You're probably right in general, but I grew up in a house with no "bad foods" available (we were allowed them occasionally, but they weren't kept in stock in the house). So fruit and rice cakes or maybe raisins were the late-night snack options. And while I'm definitely not as strict about this now, I will still quite often pick an apple or celery/carrot sticks as a snack.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#102

Intermittent fasting works because you end up eating less calories. On the other hand, shifting your eating to earlier in the day while eating the same amount of calories leads to weight loss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQThN6e4PD4 I don't have a reference to it handy, but I know Rhonda Patrick talk about this: it takes a minimum of three days fasting in humans to reproduce the effects seen in one day fasting in…

You're completely discounting the effects of fasting on insulin levels. Low levels of insulin are correlated with higher rates of lipid oxidisation.

Not that this effect will outweigh e.g. an additional banana you devour because you're famished after fasting. But it is there. Counting calories is a good help in making sure you don't nullify it.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-a...)

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#103
post #76

I’ve been doing intermittent fasting (time restricted feeding) with 16:8 (I do at least 16 hours fasting and at most 8 hours feeding window everyday) for several years. It’s more convenient (as with others, I find skipping breakfast easy) and makes night times easier in a few ways (fall asleep fast, have a good sleep, etc.). Social outings in the evening could be an issue since I stop eating by around 6, but it’s not…

I've been doing 14:10 for about 9 months, and even that has had a big effect on my weight. And I don't even consciously realise I'm actually fasting at all.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#104
post #98

I'm doing 20h/4h for almost 2 years now. Which means i eat one meal a day, but that is split into two, first i eat around 11AM then around 2-3PM then 20 hours fasting. Most people thing that's insane, but the reality is, once you're done eating at 2PM, you don't have to think about food anymore for the rest of your day. "Ohh no, what am i gonna eat for dinner or for breakfast?", this is irrelevant. I've lost 10kg in…

> Most people think that's insane

To anyone starting IF I would advise not caring about what the average joe think. Most people are overweight, eat 3 times a day while the most strenuous activity they'll go though is getting out of bed in the morning, what they consider healthy/insane or not isn't relevant

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#105

For decades of my adult life I skipped breakfast, going against all conventional dietary wisdom. Having 3 meals a day just felt like turning my body into a conveyor belt that produces faeces. Now I feel kinda vindicated. A few times I traveled with a friends who did the breakfast - lunch - dinner thing and after two or three days I had to opt out of either breakfast or dinner. I remember asking "how do you even manag…

Ha! Same here, I stopped eating breakfast as soon as I became a student and kept hearing people telling me it's unhealthy... I just don't feel good when I have breakfast, I'm never hungry in the morning and forcing myself to eat breakfast is nauseating.

This is the way. ;)

I only eat a breakfast if it's like 3 hours after I've woken up, and consists mostly of coffee and maybe some eggs Benedict and if it's sitting in the sun in a little square on the Mediterranean somewhere.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#106
Just started doing this (again) two weeks ago and am down 4 lbs already. All I do is skip breakfast, and be a little aware not to gorge when lunch/dinner comes around, and then stop snacks (other than maybe a pickle or something) after dinner.

It really depends on the person, for my wife, she just calorie counts and can shed the pounds with little problem. I can't stand being constantly hungry and not eating until I'm full, and dealing with hunger in the morning until lunch is only a mild annoyance. For her, she needs regular food or she gets really hangry. Different strokes.

Funnily, I never ate breakfast until I met my wife, and because she's a breakfast nazi ("Most important meal of the day!!!"), I started eating breakfast, and struggled with weight over the years since then. I never had weight issues before that. So I'm dropping breakfast (except on the weekends, as it's a group thing for us to have a big breakfast, but then I skip lunch) and we'll see how it goes :)

The first week or so was rough, but yesterday I ate oatmeal for lunch (with walnuts and blueberries and slice banana) and then had a Factor meal (very tasty, not a shill!) that had lower calories than my usual dinner, and I was totally satisfied. That was like 1/2 the calories of a normal day previously and I had no hunger - so weird and awesome!

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#107

It's great way to lose weight if you can keep yourself from overeating when your feeding window opens. It's the same result as calorie restriction. I like stuffing my face instead of eating smaller portions. So I decided to go down to 1 meal a day doing 20/4; I lost around 48 pounds in 3 months.

Isn't part of the point that if you are doing one meal a day you can eat until you are stuffed and still avoid excess calorie intake?

And that is what I did. Sorry if it was unclear. You can still overeat in one sitting. It all depends what you eat, it's just tougher with one meal.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#108
post #88
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The work from Dr. Sinclair, and various other scientist seems to agree that its not just weight and body shape, you actually live longer and have less illnesses throughout your life. Really fascinating stuff - the Lifespan podcast really changed how I think about all of this. I'm like you and haven't had breakfast in quite a while, but recently started skipping launch as well. A lot harder, but supposedly will feel a…

What is the main mechanism behind the claim? I've heard it may have to do with the fact that catabolic conditions correlate to a longer lifepan. With that said, I'm sure there are people who (at least occasionally) want to be in an anabolic state, so I wonder how to balance those conflicting goals. E.g., can you get similar effects by creating a catabolic window for a few months every year?

[deleted]

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#109
post #16

For decades of my adult life I skipped breakfast, going against all conventional dietary wisdom. Having 3 meals a day just felt like turning my body into a conveyor belt that produces faeces. Now I feel kinda vindicated. A few times I traveled with a friends who did the breakfast - lunch - dinner thing and after two or three days I had to opt out of either breakfast or dinner. I remember asking "how do you even manag…

The work from Dr. Sinclair, and various other scientist seems to agree that its not just weight and body shape, you actually live longer and have less illnesses throughout your life. Really fascinating stuff - the Lifespan podcast really changed how I think about all of this. I'm like you and haven't had breakfast in quite a while, but recently started skipping launch as well. A lot harder, but supposedly will feel a…

I'm not doctor but I why skip lunch if it's hard to do? Eat something healthy and enjoy your time and days spent on the earth. I'm not saying ignore eating healthy or exercising. Those are key but punishing yourself to optimize for the possibility of living longer is a weird one. Especially since diet science seems to be far from perfect.

Re: A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. I often skip breakfast without issues, but I once attempted to do this on a cycling holiday where my morning consisted of cycling at a moderate pace for several hours and I ended up collapsing asleep at the side of the road for about half an hour, then continued very slowly until I could find some food. What you're doing can have a big impact on how much food you need.

Ah yes, a bonk. Horrible experience. Happened to me once or twice, I never actually slept, but I had to essentially walk the rest of the way back. Always carry some gels, and fuel up properly at the start!

> Always carry some gels, and fuel up properly at the start!

Yes, lesson learnt! A friend I was with actually realised they had glucose tablets with them for exactly this purpose, but unfortunately they didn't remember until past the time where they were needed.

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