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Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

bbc.co.uk

21–30 of 151 posts

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#21

This is not really a new thing. In India, fasting is a like a culture. More common with females though. Some of them fast like once every week. There are festivals which are based around fasting. Like Karvachauth, in which girls fast for their husbands etc (we are not very feminist yet). There are festivals during which people fast for straight 2-10 days! (chath, durga puja, somwari etc). Even in Islam, during ramzaa…

Note that in ramadaan they also don't drink any water during the day; and many who can afford to, flip their schedule to sleep through the day so they can eat at night.

Also, according to superfreakonomics, this wreaks havoc on gestating babies. Seems like all harm and no benefit fasting (which, perhaps is the idea - Jewish fasting on Yom Kippur is specifically spoused to be a soul-torture/soul-searching experience - both translations are valid - although it is often not experienced as either)

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#22
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did wheat do to you? Are you a celiac, or are there other reasons one might be interested in avoiding it?

Not op - My experience is that all grains (corn, rice, wheat) make me bloated and puffy, regardless of caloric content. Wheat is by far the worst offender, also making my breath shorter about 30-60 minutes after eating, lasting a couple of hours, and corn not having an immediately noticeable effect, but causing bloating that will stay for days. Not celiac, and not anything life threatening, but definitely a huge effe…

Please please do this. It's what I did. If you find similar affects, this can be life changing in a very very beneficial way.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#24
post #5

Looks like a derivation on the 5/2 diet. The 25/5 diet. My personal issue with these types of diets is that my concentration levels initially drop. I find the first couple of days extremely uncomfortable. The best lifestyle change I've made is to drastically cut down on carbs, generally avoiding wheat and try never to eat sugar, in particular fructose. Note this doesn't stop me eating carbs but that I generally try a…

When you say no fructose, that that mean that you don't eat any fruits?

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#25
post #21

This is not really a new thing. In India, fasting is a like a culture. More common with females though. Some of them fast like once every week. There are festivals which are based around fasting. Like Karvachauth, in which girls fast for their husbands etc (we are not very feminist yet). There are festivals during which people fast for straight 2-10 days! (chath, durga puja, somwari etc). Even in Islam, during ramzaa…

Note that in ramadaan they also don't drink any water during the day; and many who can afford to, flip their schedule to sleep through the day so they can eat at night. Also, according to superfreakonomics, this wreaks havoc on gestating babies. Seems like all harm and no benefit fasting (which, perhaps is the idea - Jewish fasting on Yom Kippur is specifically spoused to be a soul-torture/soul-searching experience -…

It's also worth noting that typically people gain weight during Ramadan. They eat way more, richer food as it's a time of celebration and dehydration from the day.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/07/cairo-the-...

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#26

I don't think we're even close to really understanding how the body works here. I'm not obese, but I gain weight from eating a little more, very easily. Last summer, I followed a Keto ("ultra low carb, high fat, medium protein") diet for about 4 months. After the first week of feeling terrible, a well-known side effect, I felt perfectly fine. It felt like I was binge eating, I limited what I could eat and just went m…

Chipotle for lunch

How did you do Chipotle? I'm guessing you just went with beans / meat / vegetables and skipped the rice and tortilla?

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#27
post #5

Looks like a derivation on the 5/2 diet. The 25/5 diet. My personal issue with these types of diets is that my concentration levels initially drop. I find the first couple of days extremely uncomfortable. The best lifestyle change I've made is to drastically cut down on carbs, generally avoiding wheat and try never to eat sugar, in particular fructose. Note this doesn't stop me eating carbs but that I generally try a…

When you say no fructose, that that mean that you don't eat any fruits?

I eat some fruit in moderation, but avoid juices and carbonated drinks which use high-fructose corn syrup.

IIRC Fructose is processed in a similar way to the way alcohol is processed in your system. It's not an energy source that can be used by your body without processing. I also believe it's one of those energy types that is readily stored as fat.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#28
post #10

I don't think we're even close to really understanding how the body works here. I'm not obese, but I gain weight from eating a little more, very easily. Last summer, I followed a Keto ("ultra low carb, high fat, medium protein") diet for about 4 months. After the first week of feeling terrible, a well-known side effect, I felt perfectly fine. It felt like I was binge eating, I limited what I could eat and just went m…

Did you notice any long term (lasting) effects after those four months? Also, any particular reason you stopped? Thanks.

After I stopped, and started eating regularly again, I found nothing different at all. One of the side effects, is that you're really susceptible to alcohol. One beer, and I'd be really feeling it. Whereas before, I could drink 3 without really noticing. After I stopped, my tolerance was still pretty low, though it's fine now. I don't know if the low tolerance afterwards could be the diet specifically, or just whether I'd not really drank in 4 months.

I stopped because it was just too awkward. Living with my girlfriend, it was annoying that we had to cook separately (she only believes in low calorie, zombie cardio 5 days a week). We could only go out to dinner at certain places, which got a bit tedious. And to be honest, I'd done pretty well, and was back to the sort of weight I wanted to be at. The toss up between the cost/awkwardness, and the amount of weight I still had to lose, it wasn't worth the hassle.

Though, if I ever need to lose weight again (hopefully never), I wouldn't even dream of anything else.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#29
post #9
post #5

Looks like a derivation on the 5/2 diet. The 25/5 diet. My personal issue with these types of diets is that my concentration levels initially drop. I find the first couple of days extremely uncomfortable. The best lifestyle change I've made is to drastically cut down on carbs, generally avoiding wheat and try never to eat sugar, in particular fructose. Note this doesn't stop me eating carbs but that I generally try a…

What did wheat do to you? Are you a celiac, or are there other reasons one might be interested in avoiding it?

As some others have noted, white flour products and other high-carb, high glycemic-index foods tend to lead to hunger in the short term and lethargy ('food coma').

Anecdotally, I've noticed that if I eat a small breakfast high in protein - e.g. 3 eggs - then I don't get hungry for several hours. If I eat a large breakfast high in carbs - e.g. pancakes or waffles - then I am hungry much sooner.

Re: Intermittent fasting: The good things it did to my body

#30

I don't think we're even close to really understanding how the body works here. I'm not obese, but I gain weight from eating a little more, very easily. Last summer, I followed a Keto ("ultra low carb, high fat, medium protein") diet for about 4 months. After the first week of feeling terrible, a well-known side effect, I felt perfectly fine. It felt like I was binge eating, I limited what I could eat and just went m…

Chipotle for lunch How did you do Chipotle? I'm guessing you just went with beans / meat / vegetables and skipped the rice and tortilla?

They have a pretty decent nutritional guide[1] on their website, my usual was the salad bowl (big lettuce), no salad dressing, no rice, no beans, fajita veggies, double meat steak + barbacoa, the green salsa (has the fewest net carbs), sour cream, cheese, guac. That leaves you with this: http://imgur.com/WZBEczv, 14g net carbs (net carbs = carbs - fiber). My target was [1] http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutr...
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