Intermittent Fasting

[Subtle_badger]

How to move from standard modern eating to IF

* Start with lowering carbs and increasing fat.

* Cut out snacks and move to 3 meals a day only.

* Extend your overnight fast to make sure it's 12 hours.

Then you are 12:12 IF. Well done!

At that point, you could start skipping breakfast or dinner if that's easy for you, otherwise you should gradually lengthen the gap overnight. I like dinner, so my suggestion is eliminating breakfast. You could do similar to remove dinner.

* move your dinner to the earliest time that suits you. It should finish several hours before bed. No snacking afterwards.

* Gradually move your breakfast to later in the morning.

* As it approaches lunch, replace both meals with a brunch.

* Move brunch gradually to after midday, and start calling it lunch again.

There you are: 16:8 or 18:6 pattern. Job done!

ALTERNATIVELY: you could move dinner earlier, breakfast later and lunch to halfway between, and enjoy 3 meals in your eating window.

Types of fasts

This is definitions, not advice and these definitions apply to IF as well as longer fasts. I am happy to be corrected on this.

* Michael Mosley's: you eat 500,600 or 800kcal on "fast" days. That's not really fasting, it's calorie cycling. Edit: it could be fasting, if you kept the calories to one or two meals a day, and fasted 16 or more hours.

* Dirty fasting: where you allow yourself a small amount of calories and artificial sweeteners, eg broth, cream, lemon in water etc. I have been known to eat a gherkin while dirty fasting.

* Clean fasting: Nothing with any calories, or any artificial sweeteners, so just plain coffee and teas, and flat or sparkling water, no flavourings, not even lemon. Salt should be added.

* Water fasting: nothing but water. Salt should be added.

* Dry fasting: I think this is only for religious or spiritual purposes. Ramadan is a dry fast. You don't swallow anything during the fast.

* Hard, dry fasting: This sounds OCD to me. I am not aware it has any health or spiritual benefits. You don't let water come in contact with your body: don't clean teeth, wash face or shower.

[SofaJockey]

I've experimented around these models. As a 14 hour 'fast' is almost as effective as more, I follow 14:10. Breakfast around 10am, Lunch and Dinner by 8pm.

I enjoy my meals, so I'm following IF as a weight-loss aid to eliminate late night munchies, not as a masochistic punishment. 😊

[Subtle_badger in reply to SofaJockey]

Great. But that's a 14 hour fast by my reckoning, and a 10 hour feeding window.

I wasn't trying to be prescriptive, just offer suggestions. Thanks for other suggestions!

It's not masochistic for me. I used to naturally skip breakfast and lunch if I was busy. I didn't suffer at all, if you don't count passing out - I wasn't fat adapted😂. But I hadn't skipped breakfast for years, because I had believed what I was told that it lead to weight gain. I had to retrain my body.

[SofaJockey in reply to Subtle_badger]

Yep, just got that the wrong way around (fixed).

[TheAwfulToad Visitor]

While I dislike the idea of fasting-with-intent (I think it encourages people to try to run before they can walk) I seem to do it naturally, and as you said the crucial step is to lose the carbs from your diet. Without doing that first, it's not going to work out.

People might be interested in my experience: for the last month, I've been building a house. Team of three people, buckets, shovels, and many tonnes of gravel, dirt and cement. No powered assistance apart from small electric tools. I still follow my appetite, and find that I eat almost exactly what I've always eaten: a cup of coffee in the morning, breakfast around 11am (eggs, bacon, and a few random veg) and then a very large meal at 7pm. I have some occasional rice and fruit, so I'm not even strict low-carb right now. My bodyfat has gone down to the point where I'm getting comments about my shirtless appearance; I guess about 9-10%.

So if anyone is aiming to get the last few inches off their bellies, I can recommend 7 hours a day of constant exercise to do the job

[Shield-Maiden]

Hi SB,

I know you wrote this post 3 months ago, I just wanted to say "Thank you" this is very helpful.

I am going to keep this near, for future reference.

Take care,

SM x