Fasting.

Midnight

Midnight

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Morning all,

Hope everyone is keeping safe and coping the best they can in this situation.

Quick question, anyone who can give advice on nutrition know/done fasting?

After your views on it please.

Cheers

Midnight...
 
Warning this is going to be wordy and long: I'm assuming by fasting your talking about IF(Intermittent Fasting) as a form of diet to control calories and maintain weight/lose weight rather than full on extended Fasting. Before considering it though I'd suggest like any dietary change don't do it to just go on a diet for diets sake. Any change should be for long term benefits to establish better eating patterns not to just crash diet and then undo it all afterwards. You have to commit to it fully.

There's no simple answer as there are many factors to consider as with IF you need a very consistent schedule. Many say its great because its flexible so don't need much consistency but in my experience and that of people I know using it in sports and work life the consistency is absolutely key.

Such as what is your work schedule, if you're a shift worker or in a role where your breaks are decided by others not yourself it can be near enough impossible to hit the windows consistently.
.
What is IF: simply the practice of going an extended period of time taking in zero calories— drinking only plain water & either black coffee or tea. Many variations of IF exist, but the preferred method involves fasting for a set amount of time e.g the most common is 16 hrs, then eating all your food during an 8hr window commonly called the "feeding window." This type of IF is often called "16:8" fasting. You can change these to suit for example 12:10, 18:6 etc

Sleep: , If you go to bed then wake up 8 hours later, you're already 8 hours into your fast with only 8 more to reach your goal of 16.

Feeding Window: This is your key area & where consistency is key, how ever long you've deemed the right amount of time to you, you need to ensure you consume all your calories in this window alone, if you're looking to do IF I wouldn't recommend cutting large amounts of calories in the first month as your body needs to adjust to going longer periods without food first once you've adapted then make small changes to your intake but again it has to be within this time slot. Only things outside this window allowed are water, black tea or coffee with no sugars. I'd also recommend your first meal of the day is mainly high protein lower carb so as not to bloat you or cause an energy slump. Use the carbs in the subsequent meals.

Exercise: I'd recommend any exercise takes place during your feeding window and after at least your first meal as you will be opening up to injury as its such a long fasted period, plus it means you also have scope for a post workout meal.

Benefits of IF after the initial tiredness and hunger pangs where the body has to adjust, its really good for hormone balances especially those suffering from type 2 diabetes or pre stage diabetes but these people should consult their Dr before going ahead. It can also in conjunction with exercise accelerate fat loss as the body will use hormone balances to incorporate more mitochondrial fibres in muscles causing fat stores to be used as energy. Its also believed that over time IF followers eat somewhere in range of 800-1000 less calories per week. By not snacking or having any calories outside their feeding windows..

Basically yes its doable and has many benefits.

But is it for everyone? NO

Is it more beneficial than simply eating a healthy well balanced diet with a slight calorie deficit? NO there's nothing to suggest otherwise despite what certain people claim.

Does IF mean you Can you eat whatever you want? NO you still need discipline not to eat crap all the time, just because you're changing how doesn't mean its a free pass to bad food habits

Are you disciplined enough to make sure you have only water, black tea or coffee outside of your feeding window? If the answer is Yes then give it a try but you need to try for a couple of months as at the beginning you will suffer for energy until adapted. If the answer was NO, and you struggle with healthy foods normally then stick to changing to a Norma healthy balanced diet and try being consistent with that.

There are other variations such as 5:2 where you eat normally for 5 days and fast 2 days a week. But where is the fun in not eating for 2 days.
 
Last edited:
My sister did the 5:2 thing for a spell. It worked for her but she was pretty miserable during the 2 days of fasting. Needless to say, she has piled the weight back on since she stopped it. I did suggest she cuts out the constant chocolate snacking and actually do some exercise but that did not go down too well :whistle:
 
Lord Tyrion said:
My sister did the 5:2 thing for a spell. It worked for her but she was pretty miserable during the 2 days of fasting. Needless to say, she has piled the weight back on since she stopped it. I did suggest she cuts out the constant chocolate snacking and actually do some exercise but that did not go down too well :whistle:
Click to expand...
Perfect example LT of where it fails. 5:2 is terrible idea why would you choose to be devoid of energy for 2 whole days a week.

Then there's the discipline of eating absolutely nothing outside the feeding windows.

Simpler answer to any balanced diet is step away from the cupboards or the fridge.

We as humans already fast for 8hrs on average with sleep so, just need to control what we put in our mouths the rest of the time.
 
Are you asking as a religious thing or simply to lose weight.

My personal belief for losing weight is simple

Work out how many calories you need based upon your current weight* and then eat less calories than that. Remember to recalculate how may calories you need as you weight goes down.

* a 20 stone person needs a lot more calories than a 10 stone person simply because the 20 stone person uses up more calories simply by existing let alone moving.

Take a look at
https://www.lifespanfitness.com/fitness/resources/weight-loss-calculator
 
A fasting diet has previously worked well for me... Working a fixed night shift made it fairly easy to achieve... When I was on a rotating work pattern I found it impossible to achieve... Currently following a low-carb diet and, aside from a couple of side effects which I am advised will sort themselves in time, well pleased with the way it is going...
 
I’m doing it and have done for a while now.
Finding it really easy fasting from 9 pm to midday.
Started off 9 till 9 and built up to midday.
Certainly works for me.
As Wolf says make it a lifestyle not a diet.
 
Do the 5:2 thing for the health benefits. Don't really need to lose weight that much but feel it helps maintain weight.
If you're doing it to lose weight do not over-eat on feeding days and if anything eat less than you normally would. Do that and the weight will drop off a pound or two a week.
 
Wolf said:
Warning this is going to be wordy and long: I'm assuming by fasting your talking about IF(Intermittent Fasting) as a form of diet to control calories and maintain weight/lose weight rather than full on extended Fasting. Before considering it though I'd suggest like any dietary change don't do it to just go on a diet for diets sake. Any change should be for long term benefits to establish better eating patterns not to just crash diet and then undo it all afterwards. You have to commit to it fully.

There's no simple answer as there are many factors to consider as with IF you need a very consistent schedule. Many say its great because its flexible so don't need much consistency but in my experience and that of people I know using it in sports and work life the consistency is absolutely key.

Such as what is your work schedule, if you're a shift worker or in a role where your breaks are decided by others not yourself it can be near enough impossible to hit the windows consistently.
.
What is IF: simply the practice of going an extended period of time taking in zero calories— drinking only plain water & either black coffee or tea. Many variations of IF exist, but the preferred method involves fasting for a set amount of time e.g the most common is 16 hrs, then eating all your food during an 8hr window commonly called the "feeding window." This type of IF is often called "16:8" fasting. You can change these to suit for example 12:10, 18:6 etc

Sleep: , If you go to bed then wake up 8 hours later, you're already 8 hours into your fast with only 8 more to reach your goal of 16.

Feeding Window: This is your key area & where consistency is key, how ever long you've deemed the right amount of time to you, you need to ensure you consume all your calories in this window alone, if you're looking to do IF I wouldn't recommend cutting large amounts of calories in the first month as your body needs to adjust to going longer periods without food first once you've adapted then make small changes to your intake but again it has to be within this time slot. Only things outside this window allowed are water, black tea or coffee with no sugars. I'd also recommend your first meal of the day is mainly high protein lower carb so as not to bloat you or cause an energy slump. Use the carbs in the subsequent meals.

Exercise: I'd recommend any exercise takes place during your feeding window and after at least your first meal as you will be opening up to injury as its such a long fasted period, plus it means you also have scope for a post workout meal.

Benefits of IF after the initial tiredness and hunger pangs where the body has to adjust, its really good for hormone balances especially those suffering from type 2 diabetes or pre stage diabetes but these people should consult their Dr before going ahead. It can also in conjunction with exercise accelerate fat loss as the body will use hormone balances to incorporate more mitochondrial fibres in muscles causing fat stores to be used as energy. Its also believed that over time IF followers eat somewhere in range of 800-1000 calories per week. By not snacking or having any calories outside their feeding windows..

Basically yes its doable and has many benefits.

But is it for everyone? NO

Is it more beneficial than simply eating a healthy well balanced diet with a slight calorie deficit? NO there's nothing to suggest otherwise despite what certain people claim.

Does IF mean you Can you eat water you want? NO you still need discipline not to eat crap all the time, just because you're changing how doesn't mean its a free pass to bad food habits

Are you disciplined enough to make sure you have only water, black tea or coffee outside of your feeding window? If the answer is Yes then give it a try but you need to try for a couple of months as at the beginning you will suffer for energy until adapted. If the answer was NO, and you struggle with healthy foods normally then stick to changing to a Norma healthy balanced diet and try being consistent with that.

There are other variations such as 5:2 where you eat normally for 5 days and fast 2 days a week. But where is the fun in not eating for 2 days.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that mate, one of my friends who suffers from type 2 was asking me about, but I didn't want to give him advice on it as it is something I know nothing about.
Thank you for your explanation, if now makes more sense to me. I will forward it to my friend, I had advised him to speak to a Dr before doing anything like this.

Cheers again for your help and advice.

Guy...
 
My wife does 5:2 from time to time. She doesn't fast completely on the 2 days, just much reduced calorie intake (maybe 1,000? - don't really know). What I do know is she is unbearably grumpy on those 2 fasting days, guaranteed we will have an argument.

My heart sinks every time she says she's going to start the diet again.
 
This where I've been going wrong doing it on the 1:364 scale. One day of abstinence and 364 eating like a pig.
 
I've been a 18:6 faster for 5 years. there are numerous benefits for fasting but the biggest being how difficult it makes over consumption of calories.
however, almost a year ago I stopped my fasting and spread my meals back out. I noticed instant strength and size increase. unfortunately I find it harder not to over eat now so funnily enough, it takes more discipline not to eat than fasting did!!! funny old world.

for 90% of people fasting is great and recommend it (if it suits their lifestyle)

oh, you save a bloody fortune too!!!
 
Last edited:
Midnight said:
Thank you for that mate, one of my friends who suffers from type 2 was asking me about, but I didn't want to give him advice on it as it is something I know nothing about.
Thank you for your explanation, if now makes more sense to me. I will forward it to my friend, I had advised him to speak to a Dr before doing anything like this.

Cheers again for your help and advice.

Guy...
Click to expand...

If your mate needs a bit of a kick start/inspiration to reverse his condition... Then I can recommend a read of Fixing Dad or Downsizing... Certainly helped me, for sure...
 
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