Intermittent fasting

Barrysballs

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Went clothes shopping today as not much fits me anymore, currently 83kg. Had a lot of trouble finding shirts that are broad enough across the chest and and that my arms can fit into, but aren't wide across the waist area. Everthing looks like im in a tent from the solar plexus down.
IF problems the struggle is real
 
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a study that found intermittent fasting to be more beneficial than direct restriction dieting.


https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/oby.22345
That's am interesting study.
Has a few limitations -

IF70 is more effective than IF100 for weight loss in 88 overweight females over the age of 35.
70 and 100 referring to the percentage of the calculated caloric requirement for that person.

This means that of the two IF methods tested, the lower calorie one produced the biggest weight loss.

IF was compared to DR (dietary restriction) - where it was just a calorie restriction without the 24 hour fasting periods.

It adds to the body of evidence that IF produces better weight loss than straightforward caloric restriction. But I don't think it really reveals much about how it should be done for the everyday joe.

Are there any people out there doing 24 hour fasts multiple days a week? Thought most IF people were doing 18/6 or 16/8 on a daily basis?
 

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cant imagine having the energy to work out/run & do 24 hour fasts. i have been doing 16/8 around 4 times a week for a long while now & find it to be a pretty good balance
16/8 is a piece of piss to do but i don't find it as beneficial as a calorie limiter for two days.
 
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cant imagine having the energy to work out/run & do 24 hour fasts. i have been doing 16/8 around 4 times a week for a long while now & find it to be a pretty good balance

I did a 48 hour one about 14 months back. Was rough. 16/8 was ok for me whilst training and working though I have cut the fasting out completely now.
 

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I'm still doing 16/8, not eating between 8am and 12pm, quite enjoying it really. On Friday as part of a work ritual we get bacon and egg rolls so I only get about 12hrs of fasting, then weekends I usually get to about 11am then my missus is ready for her third breakfast or first lunch so seems convenient to eat then. Bit of a cheat but it's practical.

Still just eating chicken and salad for work lunches. This week been using Mexican sauce and put some black beans in there, changed it up a bit and I could eat Mexican every day for the rest of my life happily so quite content. Then I just have celery and carrot sticks if I'm still hungry. When I get home I have four rice cakes with Vegemite between dinner and every now and then a SkinnyCow icecream for desert but not often.

I really need to weigh everything and do an accurate calorie count. I feel ready to add in some workouts. I have a rather important event that also coincides with my 30th birthday in September. So far I'm down from 94kg in August to 86ish after a big stall over the holidays, ideally in that 8 months I'd like to be around the sub-75kg mark. I think I should be consuming around the 1800cal mark a day, work outs will mainly be bodyweight and kettlebell, decided it's not feasible to join the gym at the moment. Does my goal sound achievable or am I being unrealistic?

I might also post this in the general thread and see what others have to say in the matter.
 

saj_21

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I'm still doing 16/8, not eating between 8am and 12pm, quite enjoying it really. On Friday as part of a work ritual we get bacon and egg rolls so I only get about 12hrs of fasting, then weekends I usually get to about 11am then my missus is ready for her third breakfast or first lunch so seems convenient to eat then. Bit of a cheat but it's practical.

Still just eating chicken and salad for work lunches. This week been using Mexican sauce and put some black beans in there, changed it up a bit and I could eat Mexican every day for the rest of my life happily so quite content. Then I just have celery and carrot sticks if I'm still hungry. When I get home I have four rice cakes with Vegemite between dinner and every now and then a SkinnyCow icecream for desert but not often.

I really need to weigh everything and do an accurate calorie count. I feel ready to add in some workouts. I have a rather important event that also coincides with my 30th birthday in September. So far I'm down from 94kg in August to 86ish after a big stall over the holidays, ideally in that 8 months I'd like to be around the sub-75kg mark. I think I should be consuming around the 1800cal mark a day, work outs will mainly be bodyweight and kettlebell, decided it's not feasible to join the gym at the moment. Does my goal sound achievable or am I being unrealistic?

I might also post this in the general thread and see what others have to say in the matter.

So you are currently 86kg and want to get down to 75kg?

That is well truly achievable in 8 months, in fact 8 months is to long and you don’t want to be dieting for that long.

I’d suggest measuring your food and get an idea how much food/calories you are eating and how your body weight is corresponding.

1800 calories sounds very low, you will lose weight but what happens when you stall? Or being hungry in low calories can lead to binge eating.
 

Milpool

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So you are currently 86kg and want to get down to 75kg?

That is well truly achievable in 8 months, in fact 8 months is to long and you don’t want to be dieting for that long.

I’d suggest measuring your food and get an idea how much food/calories you are eating and how your body weight is corresponding.

1800 calories sounds very low, you will lose weight but what happens when you stall? Or being hungry in low calories can lead to binge eating.

I'm not really dieting though, just making a better effort to eat well and IF is really becoming more of a choice than a diet also. I will try track my calories next week and see how I'm looking. The weekends blow out a little, I like to cook one meal on either a Friday or Saturday that is generally a bit gluttonous and there's beer in there but the missus is also trying to eat healthier after some issues she has been having so I'd say that will improve too.

I guess as workouts increase calorie intake will have to increase too, I'm not trying to get skinny as such, i actually just don't know my ideal weight, always been a fatty. I would like to build muscle too so I guess I have a lot to sort out over the coming months.
 

saj_21

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I'm not really dieting though, just making a better effort to eat well and IF is really becoming more of a choice than a diet also. I will try track my calories next week and see how I'm looking. The weekends blow out a little, I like to cook one meal on either a Friday or Saturday that is generally a bit gluttonous and there's beer in there but the missus is also trying to eat healthier after some issues she has been having so I'd say that will improve too.

I guess as workouts increase calorie intake will have to increase too, I'm not trying to get skinny as such, i actually just don't know my ideal weight, always been a fatty. I would like to build muscle too so I guess I have a lot to sort out over the coming months.

Sounds like you need to determine what you want to do, build muscle or reduce body fat. If you are relatively new to resistance training you can do both at the same time but otherwise it is very hard to do.

My advice lose the weight first and then build up the muscle. Personally I think 1800 calories is too low.

Understand when you say you aren’t on a diet, but when talking about calorie restriction to lose weight I will use the word diet - as opposed to foods you are eating and/or eating patterns.

Just be mindful about the glutton nights, you can easily undo a weeks worth of dieting with a bad meal.
 

Milpool

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Sounds like you need to determine what you want to do, build muscle or reduce body fat. If you are relatively new to resistance training you can do both at the same time but otherwise it is very hard to do.

My advice lose the weight first and then build up the muscle. Personally I think 1800 calories is too low.

Understand when you say you aren’t on a diet, but when talking about calorie restriction to lose weight I will use the word diet - as opposed to foods you are eating and/or eating patterns.

Just be mindful about the glutton nights, you can easily undo a weeks worth of dieting with a bad meal.


Yeah I am going to be a lot more careful with the blowout meal. Just have to break the cycle.

I will try to accurately track calories next week and see where I'm at intake wise. I'll be very new to resistance training so I guess if I just give it three months and see how I'm tracking I will be able to gauge what my best options are with weight loss vs build muscle, leaving 5 months-ish to reach the goals. Ideally I would like to build lean muscle I guess but I've got a big ol' not so lean layer of fat to deal with first.

Thanks for your insight saj_21, always very helpful.
 
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Sounds like you need to determine what you want to do, build muscle or reduce body fat. If you are relatively new to resistance training you can do both at the same time but otherwise it is very hard to do.

My advice lose the weight first and then build up the muscle. Personally I think 1800 calories is too low.

Understand when you say you aren’t on a diet, but when talking about calorie restriction to lose weight I will use the word diet - as opposed to foods you are eating and/or eating patterns.

Just be mindful about the glutton nights, you can easily undo a weeks worth of dieting with a bad meal.
Yo Saj - Really appreciate your input here.

Are you of the opinion that you cannot lose fat whilst also gaining muscle?
 
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I'm on holidays for a week and a half and thought I would use the freedom to trial an 8/16 intermittent fasting approach as I'm keen to lose that last bit of fat so that my abs are showing properly.

Four days in and I feel like trash. Have been eating really good quality food - high protein, am still eating carbs - but am so drained and cranky during the fasting period, and constantly thinking of food, which wasn't happening when I was just tracking food and making sure I was in deficit.

Has anyone else had this experience?
 
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I'm on holidays for a week and a half and thought I would use the freedom to trial an 8/16 intermittent fasting approach as I'm keen to lose that last bit of fat so that my abs are showing properly.

Four days in and I feel like trash. Have been eating really good quality food - high protein, am still eating carbs - but am so drained and cranky during the fasting period, and constantly thinking of food, which wasn't happening when I was just tracking food and making sure I was in deficit.

Has anyone else had this experience?

There is a correlation with mood swings and the leaner you get IMO.
 

Milpool

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I struggled after a few days, probably lasted a week or so. Mine was carb flu-ish, but I was also getting light headed and stuff. I upped my salt intake a bit and focused on drinking lots of water which also lessened the hunger pains. Are you doing much activity still? I'm sure that makes it a lot harder.

I weighed myself this morning and lost another couple of kgs, down to 84 so that's 10kgs since August without really doing any exercise other than a change of job. I've been eating better too obviously but I definitely think IF has been the big difference.
 

saj_21

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Yo Saj - Really appreciate your input here.

Are you of the opinion that you cannot lose fat whilst also gaining muscle?

As a blanket statement, you cannot burn fat and build muscle at the same if you aren’t on any iligeall supps.

However newbies and obese people can burn fat and build muscle at the same time.

If you are a relative lean person and train constiently highly unlikely you can do both at the same time.
 
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I struggled after a few days, probably lasted a week or so. Mine was carb flu-ish, but I was also getting light headed and stuff. I upped my salt intake a bit and focused on drinking lots of water which also lessened the hunger pains. Are you doing much activity still? I'm sure that makes it a lot harder.

I weighed myself this morning and lost another couple of kgs, down to 84 so that's 10kgs since August without really doing any exercise other than a change of job. I've been eating better too obviously but I definitely think IF has been the big difference.
I've kept my diet the same, my activity the same, and in 4 days I've dropped 1.5kgs from 72.7

So far - I really don't like what's happening and I'll probably resume to my 3 meals across the day with extra snacks on heavy workout days.
 
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As a blanket statement, you cannot burn fat and build muscle at the same if you aren’t on any iligeall supps.

However newbies and obese people can burn fat and build muscle at the same time.

If you are a relative lean person and train constiently highly unlikely you can do both at the same time.
Thanks saj - that's the kind of blanket comment I was after. Much appreciated.
 

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I'm on holidays for a week and a half and thought I would use the freedom to trial an 8/16 intermittent fasting approach as I'm keen to lose that last bit of fat so that my abs are showing properly.

Four days in and I feel like trash. Have been eating really good quality food - high protein, am still eating carbs - but am so drained and cranky during the fasting period, and constantly thinking of food, which wasn't happening when I was just tracking food and making sure I was in deficit.

Has anyone else had this experience?

I actually have the opposite problem on keto where I just don't feel hungry. At 5 today I remembered that I hadn't eaten all day. And I didn't feel hungry. I cooked a steak and spinach and basically forced myself to eat it.
 

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I've just been on a 10 day Vipassana retreat and did 23 hours 45 minutes fasting with a 15 minute eating window each day, felt great and did it on my ear although I don't think I could do it as a permanent lifestyle thing. It didn't involve any exercise so I didn't need the fuel, longest I've been without exercise for many a year and hell I missed it.

Got back at lunch time, didn't feel hungry but once I started I couldn't stop and have been binge eating all afternoon, mmmm- Hommus with carrot sticks, 2 skinny cow ice cream cookies, 1/2 block of 85% cocoa Lindt dark chocolate, 2 avocado/cucumber/spinach/salad mix wraps. Now I have to think about what's for dinner.

Back to 18-6 IF, yoga and running tomorrow.
 

Barrysballs

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I've just been on a 10 day Vipassana retreat and did 23 hours 45 minutes fasting with a 15 minute eating window each day, felt great and did it on my ear although I don't think I could do it as a permanent lifestyle thing. It didn't involve any exercise so I didn't need the fuel, longest I've been without exercise for many a year and hell I missed it.

Got back at lunch time, didn't feel hungry but once I started I couldn't stop and have been binge eating all afternoon, mmmm- Hommus with carrot sticks, 2 skinny cow ice cream cookies, 1/2 block of 85% cocoa Lindt dark chocolate, 2 avocado/cucumber/spinach/salad mix wraps. Now I have to think about what's for dinner.

Back to 18-6 IF, yoga and running tomorrow.
Impressive :)
What did you eat in the 15min window?
What was the meditations like? Recommended it?
 

M Malice

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Impressive :)
What did you eat in the 15min window?
What was the meditations like? Recommended it?
It was vegan/vegetarian, I had rice and vegetable curries or bean salads, they had dates/fruit for more if you needed it, I'm a meat eater but not a huge amount but I loved the meals.

The meditations were good although the whole experience was one of the hardest things emotionally and intellectually that I have ever done. It was also done it what they call Noble Silence, you can speak to your teacher though, spoke half a dozen words the whole time, LOL only when they come and asked me why I wasn't eating.

I would recommend it if you have a bit of experience with long periods of meditation and are interested in getting into it on a deeper level.
 

Barrysballs

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It was vegan/vegetarian, I had rice and vegetable curries or bean salads, they had dates/fruit for more if you needed it, I'm a meat eater but not a huge amount but I loved the meals.

The meditations were good although the whole experience was one of the hardest things emotionally and intellectually that I have ever done. It was also done it what they call Noble Silence, you can speak to your teacher though, spoke half a dozen words the whole time, LOL only when they come and asked me why I wasn't eating.

I would recommend it if you have a bit of experience with long periods of meditation and are interested in getting into it on a deeper level.
Sounds intense, i am nowhere near that level. Good on for you doing it hell of an experience i bet.
 
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