# Intermittant fasting? how to cope with hunger? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289 "2019-04-09T17:05:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/21 "2019-04-10T21:24:03Z")
I can’t manage full keto either but restricted carbs (I elected to go for a maximum of 60gm net carbs/day) worked well for me. Allowed me to have a baked potato dinner when I wanted it or some rice under my curry and to eat fruit along with my veg. Also, sticking with the most complex carbs I could manage helped a lot too–I do love my Dave’s Killer Bread. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/22 "2019-04-10T23:55:14Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > I’m also curious about this. Skipping breakfast is still a bitch for about a week but much easier than trying to sleep while hungry. Unless there are good reasons to specify dinner over lunch, I’d say your physician may not have much enough thought into this. … The op’s doctor actually seems well read. None of the studies that support time restricted eating as a form of “intermittent fasting” (such as the 16:8 plan) include meals after 6 and the one that shows metabolic impact even without weight loss stopped intake after 3. The reasons to specify skipping dinner over lunch, or minimally moving dinner to before 6, are that that is what has been shown to be effective. Back loading the calories late in the day is popular but is not how the studies showing the most impressive metabolic impacts were done. Disclosure - I eat dinner late because that’s when my wife and I are home together. That trumps all. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/23 "2019-04-11T00:12:22Z")
I do late time restricted feeding only because it fits better with my lifestyle. I eat 8 meals a week, lunch and dinner on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I got into it before I every heard of intermittant fasting. After retiring I’d started out exercising in the mornings. I never liked eating before a workout, so always waited to have breakfast until I was done. As I got more fit, the workout took longer and longer, and the breakfast got later and later. Finally it just made sense to skip breakfast completely and roll right into lunch. So I was doing late TRF for around a year when I heard of Jason Fung and his book; _The Complete Guide to Fasting_. It all made a lot of sense to me, I I already knew that the TRE was working for me in terms of blood chemistry and cardiac markers, and I started doing longer fasts; ending up with my current schedule; where I’ve been for six months or so. It may seem paradoxical, but I find it incredibly liberating. I don’t have to worry about what to eat on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays. I save an enormous amount of time purchasing, preparing, eating, and cleaning up after meals. Because I only eat those eight meals a week I’m much more cognizant of the quality of those meals. It’s more mindful eating; when I eat; I pay attention. And it’s flexible enough to accommodate social events. For example, today (Wednesday) I attended my grandchild’s birthday party, so yesterday I skipped lunch, and tomorrow I’ll skip lunch, dropping this week’s meals to seven. It gives me one 48 hour fast, two 24 hour fasts, one 42 hour fast, and one 16 hour fast as opposed to my normal three 42 and one 16 hour fasts. People worry about being able to exercise while fasting. Twice a week I start my workout 36 hours after my last meal. I’ll walk 7 miles, go to my Silver Sneakers group session, then finish up with a 90 minute strength circuit at the gym, ending up a little over 42 hours fasted. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/24 "2019-04-11T18:49:44Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > People worry about being able to exercise while fasting. Twice a week I start my workout 36 hours after my last meal. I’ll walk 7 miles, go to my Silver Sneakers group session, then finish up with a 90 minute strength circuit at the gym, ending up a little over 42 hours fasted. Extended fasting + circuit training after a prolonged fast + time-restricted eating + keto diet? Seriously? Your cortisol levels must be through the roof. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/25 "2019-04-11T19:00:58Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Extended fasting + circuit training after a prolonged fast + time-restricted eating + keto diet? Seriously? > > Your cortisol levels must be through the roof. From the commercials I’ve seen I assume cortisol is a bad thing, but I have no idea what my levels are. How would you know that they’re high? ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/26 "2019-04-11T20:10:20Z")
> **[Comparison of the effects of acute exercise after overnight fasting...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4500013/)** > > \[Purpose\] We compared the effects of acute aerobic exercise following overnight fasting > and breakfast on energy substrate and hormone levels in obese male college students. > \[Subjects and Methods\] This crossover study recruited 10 obese male college... ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/27 "2019-04-11T20:49:21Z")
> [@adhemar](#): > > My doctor wants me to try intermittent fasting by not eating dinner at night. However I get hungry and I don’t sleep well if I am hungry. Drinking water doesn’t help. The only times I have been successful is when I ate a big lunch which defeats the purpose. > > Any suggestions? When I did this, I ate from 12pm-8pm. I am not a doctor or anything, my experience has nothing to do with yours, etc, but I found this to be the easiest schedule to keep as I’ve never been a breakfast person anyway. The hardest part was, of course, the 11am-12pm hour, not so much physical as psychological. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/28 "2019-04-11T21:28:49Z")
**Surreal** , that doesn’t seem relevant to me. My BMI is \<25 and my body fat is \<20%. Plus “increased cortisol levels following exercise after overnight fasting may negatively affect long-term weight loss in obese men” strikes me as kind of weaselly. A lot of things “may have negative effects”. I look at the glucose in the people who exercised after eating at 110 mg/dl. Damn, that’s a lot higher than any test I can remember. My HbA1c is 5.0 and my mean glucose is 80.5 mg/dl. I’d say those folks have more to worry about than cortisol. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/29 "2020-09-29T17:08:59Z")
A recently published randomized controlled trial of time-restricted eating showed that it doesn’t work for fat loss and may actually cause loss of lean body mass: > **[Effects of Time-Restricted Eating on Weight Loss and Other Parameters in...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2771095)** > > This randomized clinical trial examines the effect of 16:8-hour time-restricted eating on weight loss and metabolic risk markers. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/30 "2020-09-29T17:22:02Z")
If that was intermittent fasting your post might be relevant, although a 12 week trial is far too short a time to be a valid trial, but as it is time-restricted eating not so much. It really wasn’t even time-restricted eating, since the trial allowed unlimited food during the 8 hour window. Time restricted eating has meal windows with no snacking in between meals. It was kind of a classic straw man test. They developed a protocol that had nothing to do with intermittent fasting, tried it for too short a time, and concluded that intermittent fasting didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/31 "2020-09-29T17:35:46Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > s. It was kind of a classic straw man test. They developed a protocol that had nothing to do with intermittent fasti Yeah, you’ve got nothing. No science at all, just pure anecdotal bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/32 "2020-09-29T17:40:19Z")
Dude, you’re the one that rolled in here with a twelve week study of NOT intermittent fasting and tried to debunk intermittent fasting with it. You sure got tense about it though, have a snack; you might feel better. You’re probably a little hangry. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/33 "2020-09-29T17:49:36Z")
The OP stated “My doctor wants me to try intermittent fasting by not eating dinner at night”, which certainly qualifies as time-restricted eating. Perhaps his situation is more like 14-10 than 16-8, but it’s clearly time-restricted. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/34 "2020-09-29T21:13:28Z")
What is usually implied is that people should avoid squeezing the same amount of calories into a shorter time period. This is part of the reason why I don’t find 16/8 to be very effective for caloric restriction. Depending on a person’s eating habits, 16/8 is pretty much normal eating if they normally just eat two meals a day. And it may even be complete fiction based on what people consider to be a “meal” or a “fast”. People are really good about lying to themselves about how many calories they consume in a day. I’ve been doing daily 20/4 to 22/2 time restricted eating for going on 20 years. And even with 2-4 hour eating window, it’s surprising just how many calories you can pack in. So I’m not at all surprised that the results for unrestricted caloric intake within an 8 hour window doesn’t yield much in the way of weight loss. I’m curious why anybody even thought it was worth studying except to show it’s insufficient for weight loss. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/35 "2020-09-30T14:49:54Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I’ve been doing daily 20/4 to 22/2 time restricted eating for going on 20 years. Gee, maybe if you’ve spent the past _two decades_ of your life engaging in something that’s not supported by science you aren’t exactly the most objective person when it comes to evaluating this particular study? Unfortunately this is how “science” works on this message board. If you agree with the outcome of a study, it’s fully accepted without any scrutiny whatsoever. However if you disagree with the outcome, you can just scan through the study to find some reason to discount it. “What, this study was only lasted 12 weeks? Everyone knows that the metabolic benefits of cramming all 3,000 of your daily calories into your face in a 2-hour window don’t show up until the 14th week.” ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/36 "2020-09-30T15:00:20Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Everyone knows that the metabolic benefits of cramming all 3,000 of your daily calories into your face in a 2-hour window don’t show up until the 14th week.” I suppose you could cram 3000 calories into your face in a 2 hour window. They wouldn’t be high quality calories, nor would they be anything like a reasonably balanced diet. Plus, you’d better be a construction worker or a high performing amateur athlete in order to be burning the calories above your basal metabolic requirement to avoid packing on the fat pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/37 "2020-09-30T15:27:13Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > > [@adhemar](#): > > > > My doctor wants me to try intermittent fasting by not eating dinner at night. However I get hungry and I don’t sleep well if I am hungry. Drinking water doesn’t help. The only times I have been successful is when I ate a big lunch which defeats the purpose. > > > > Any suggestions? > > I found it a lot easier to skip breakfast. No food between 6pm and 10am is not that big a deal, 6-12 is slightly harder but you get used to it. This is what I do as well. Three days a week, I don’t eat between six PM and noon\*. The first week or two was hard, but you quickly get used to it. \* I do have a tablespoon of peanuts or six almonds before bed. A medication I take cannot be taken on an empty stomach. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/38 "2020-09-30T22:04:37Z")
Well it’s all anecdotal now, isn’t it? I tried doing 16:8 but that did absolutely nothing for me (as it was probably not too far off what I did naturally anyway, without calling it anything…) But I moved to 1 meal a day 5 days a week (less restrictive on Friday and Saturday) and I’ve lost 25 lbs without too much difficulty. W/ regards to the hunger, I’d say “you get used to it-ish.” I think people aren’t always in tune with what their body is telling them and getting used to a little bit of background hunger isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Personally I end up drinking a lot more water and it does help… but if the hunger is impacting your sleep, drinking a lot of liquids before bed might impact your sleep just as much 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289/39 "2020-09-30T22:09:56Z")
> [@adhemar](#): > > My doctor wants me to try intermittent fasting by not eating dinner at night. This is, I have to say, very odd advice from a doctor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intermittant-fasting-how-to-cope-with-hunger/832289.md?page=1)