I’m going to start a 16/8 IF program this week or next. I have a few friends who have been very successful with the plan, and I’m looking forward to getting it going. I’m curious what you guys have for your break fast. I’m thinking oatmeal with blueberries and bananas, or plain yogurt with granola and some fruit, or maybe a healthy smoothie of some kind.
I do three 42 hour fasts a week, eating lunch and dinner on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Usually to break my fast I will have a low carbohydrate waffle of my own recipe, a couple of sunny side up eggs, and an avocado. I eat a low carbohydrate diet as well as doing the intermittent fasting.
Noon to 8 is my target window but practically speaking that means noon to 6-ish, which is when we usually eat dinner, and if I can push that window smaller by delaying lunch all the better.
The gimmick of IF is supposed to be that you don’t focus on low-calorie or any specific kind of foods. While I have mixed feelings about the gimmick itself, I (anecdotally) feel like there’s something to be said about the affects of naturally satiating food (read: fatty/carby) on “willpower.” I still eat a lot of junk food.
I started doing this a year ago and wrote about it, although I predictably (and correctly) was roasted for being too skinny to worry about losing weight. FWIW I did lose the belly chub that I wanted to, but this year I’d like to push myself more for longer fasts of the sort that Bill Door apparently does regularly. I managed only a single 24 hour fast in the past year, although once or twice a month I’ll only eat once a day. This year I’d like to do 2 or 3 24-hour fasts and maybe one 2+ days, mostly for the positive effects on longevity that I’ve been reading about.
First, last and only meal is dinner, around 6pm. I have a 2-3 hour eating window. Going on 15 plus years on this routine and unlikely to change any time soon.
I have done multi day fasts, as long as 5 days. Considering another one after new year.
IF works for me.
I don’t do it but I know people who do, they usually follow the 16:8 plan and their eating window is around 3-11pm. Somewhere around there so they can get lunch, dinner and a before bed snack in.
Depends on what the scale tells me. Most often, lunch. Sometimes, dinner. Occasionally, tomorrow’s lunch.
This is goals. I want to do this but haven’t been able to discipline myself to that. I eat lunch and dinner, usually a small lunch (sometimes just a handful of pretzels), and that’s it, when I’m on IF. I fell off the wagon lately and it’s been bad. I use IF for appetite control. The more I eat, the more I want to eat. 16:8 is usually easy for me. This year life has conspired to kick me in the pants and I’ve reacted by turning to food too much, which doesn’t make anything better.
Let me rephrase. What are you actually, physically eating? Have you also changed your diet along with fasting?
I started doing intermittent fasting while on a long term low carbohydrate diet. Hunger has really not been a problem on it. If I had to make a recommendation, I’d avoid the carbohydrates if you want to extend your fasts. Something like a handful of pretzels is going to really kick your insulin response into high gear and make you hungrier than if you hadn’t eaten at all. I aim for a high fat diet, with 65 to 70% of my calories coming from fat.
One thing you’ll have to be wary of when you get to fasts longer than 24 hours is gastrointestinal problems when breaking your fasts. Here is a post I made last February responding to a question about a different, but related topic. I’m more than ever convinced that the theory I propose in that post is true, at least for me. I break my fasts now without any concern about GI issues.
It matters very little how you choose to break your fast. I mean, keep it healthy and avoid sugar. Otherwise, eat what you like.
Why are you interested in IF anyway? What are your goals?
As I said in my OP, I have a few friends who have been very successful with IF. My goals are to lose weight/fat, have more energy, feel better, etc.
you will likely lose muscle mass too.
You will almost certainly not. Thousands of bodybuilders use IF to build lean muscle mass. There are a lot of data proving that human growth hormone and metabolism both increase during intermittent fasts.
You will almost certainly achieve those goals with IF. But like any weight loss plan, you must commit to it as a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix. Embrace the suck until it no longer sucks and feels like normal eating/living.
I’ve sort of been doing this my whole life, although unintentionally. I only eat 2 meals a day. I’ve never eaten breakfast on weekdays as an adult, as a black coffee with sweetener is all I need to make it to lunch. On weekdays, I eat a pretty big lunch in the 12 noon to 2pm time frame, and then dinner any time from 7pm to 11pm. On weekends (or days off from work), I might eat a big breakfast, but then only 1 other meal. So not quite the text book IF, but kinda sorta. I really don’t care what I eat. Anyway, it’s worked out great so far. I just had my first physical in about 10 years, and the only issue is cholesterol of 220. That said, my ratio of LDL to HDL is good enough that the doc didn’t recommend any lifestyle changes.
That’s my plan.
Another bit of advice:
People often start out by making unrealistic changes to eating habits. You’re immediate goal right now should be reducing your eating window to whatever you are comfortable with and can reasonably achieve. To that end, if you don’t normally eat plain yogurt and egg white omlettes with whole grain toast for breakfast, don’t start thinking this is what you must do as you start your IF plan. Eat what you normally eat and if there is anything you feel you must change, make that removing as much added sugar from your diet as you can. Otherwise, if you eat an egg mcmuffin every morning, continue to eat that, for now. Focus on eating the food you enjoy but reducing the hours of the day that you enjoy it. You’ll find that by virtue of reducing your eating time, you’ll begin to eat less calories each day and extend your non-eating window. That will be a big enough challenge to start. When you feel you’re fully comfortable with that, start making dietary adjustments as to the quality of food you consume by making healthier choices. Worst thing you can do is set yourself up to fail by denying yourself the foods that you really love from the start. I’d say that’s by far the biggest mistake people make. Far bigger than jumping on some unrealistic HITT exercise routine at the same time, especially if they’ve never enjoyed exercise or done it in years.
It’s a process. Good luck.
Cheerios with milk, a banana, and orange juice. (I eat nothing from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m.)
I think that’s just called, eating. 