Deisderata - its really about the WHY not the what. For many of us its also about once the floodgates open it is hard to close them.

Disordered eating isnt skipping to save up for a big meal. Disordered is skipping because food/calories are "bad" "to be avoided" "because if I eat I am worthless, no willpower, a fat pig (etc.)" because "if less is good then nothing is better" etc. There are dozens of different expressions of an eating disorder but the disorder is really rooted in the emotions and self talk that come WITH it, not the specific manner of eating or not eating.

Originally Posted by ennay:
For many of us its also about once the floodgates open it is hard to close them.

This is me, in a nutshell. The mantra about eating lots of small meals multiple times a day really doesn't work as well for me as skipping a meal. That tends to make me more hungry, believe it or not, and then I am quickly out of control. I cannot seems to eat "small and frequent"-- I overeat, don't feel satisfied, and worse, I end up obsessing about my next meal in 3 hours.

I find skipping a meal to be effortless. And really, I don't think of it as skipping a meal, it's more like eating only between 11am-7pm. For whatever reason, I find it incredibly simple to constrain myself to this "window".

I kept thinking something was wrong because 6 small meals over 18 hours never worked well for me. Seems like I have found what does work better for me!

Deisderata - I kind of get where you're coming from. I used have and eating disorder in my teens and I really enjoy the lifestyle of IF but for some reason it makes me feel a little guilty, like I'm heading back into disordered territory. I think it has to do with how you look at it mentally. You could do IF with an eating disordered mentality as a lot of anorexics do or you could do it without one as lots of people on this forum do.

I kind of play a 'trick' on my self so I don't get too heady about it. I eat breakfast at 12pm, lunch at 3pm and dinner at 8pm.

Intermittent Fasting
 

Hello everyone! I have been fasting for approximently 48 hours at a time, just water and coffee and then eating one meal (usually dinner) before fasting again. I did lots of research about fasting and pay close attention to my body. I really have felt great. At first, I lost 9 pounds in 7 days which was great. I even lost a dress size. However, I have actually GAINED weight the last few days. I'm not overeating when I do eat my one meal, so what do you think is going wrong? Could it be the coffee? I do put cream and sugar in it. But I only have one cup per day. Is it possible to gain 2 pounds of water weight in one day?

I don't know all the science-y stuff behind IF, but I've been doing my own version of it during the week (the weekends are too difficult to do this during) and I have to be careful with what foods I eat and how much. My stomach definitely shrinks up after the 16 or so hours of not eating so I need to get enough calories (1200-1500) in, but in a "smaller" portion, or I feel bloated and my body seems to hold onto a lot of it. So you might have to play around with your sodium content, make sure you're getting a lot of healthy fats and lean protein, lots of fiber and complex carbs to sustain you for the 48 hours or so (that seems like such a long time not to eat for!).

Anyways, I'm guessing the couple pounds is either from something high in sodium or your body might be getting more used to this style of eating and you might have to change the timing of your eating (and yes, it is possible to gain 2 pounds of water weight in a day). I doubt a coffee a day would effect you that much.

There are a few people on here that are pretty stead-fast IF-ers though that will probably have more insight on this.

All I know is if you lost 9 lbs in 7 days then plenty of that loss was water. You just got some water back. Does that still make a 7 lb loss total? If so, then you are doing fine. I don't believe that 48 hours is very productive for you. Most methods with Lean Gains and ESE are not over 24 hours. You shouldn't be having sugar while fasting, FYI.
Good luck.

Am I understanding your post correctly that you are fasting for 48 hours (just having a coffee with cream and sugar during that time) followed by one meal which you say is usually dinner and then fasting again for another 48 hours and then repeating this schedule?

Because if that's the case.... It doesn't sound sustainable and is not an effective use of IF'ing for weight loss...

And to address your last question... Yes it is possible to "gain" 2lbs. of water weight overnight....

Originally Posted by kelleyb:
All I know is if you lost 9 lbs in 7 days then plenty of that loss was water. You just got some water back. Does that still make a 7 lb loss total? If so, then you are doing fine. I don't believe that 48 hours is very productive for you. Most methods with Lean Gains and ESE are not over 24 hours. You shouldn't be having sugar while fasting, FYI.
Good luck.

I'm sorry but what do you mean it's not productive for me?



Trip, yes, that's what I have been doing.

Im usually very much a "to each his own" kinda person, but i have to jump in on this... this is not a healthy, sustainable, efficient, or even successful method.. theres a lot wrong with what you are doing. Im sorry to be so blunt. I really dont mean to come across like im attacking.

Ok, so, doing ONE 48 hour fast, PER WEEK would make alittle more sense, although, even dong a weekly fast, its supposed to only be 24 hours. There is no reason, or benefit, to going 48 hours at a time. On TOP of that, you arent just gonig 48 hours, you are basically fasting every minute of every day, with the exception of one hour, EVERY 4 DAYS, where you eat? (48 fast, one meal, immediately into another 48 hours).
Most recent research is showing that IF is Not a good idea for women. (of course there are exceptions)...., but its been known for a long time that womens fasting windows should be shorter.. 12-14 hours vs 16 or 18 hours for men. not 48 hours. WOmen have different hormonal needs/responses, and the original data showing all the health benefits originally, were geared towards men. Women show a drop in sex hormones (big suprise) an increase in cortisol (water weight gain?) Completely out of whack leptin and ghrenlin responses, and the list goes on. (**Note, not ALL women, of course).
Im not going to tell someone not to intermittent fast, but i will tell someone not to starve themselves 98% of the time.

Plus to reap the full benefits of fasting you should not consume ANYTHING (coffee and sugar included)

Ok, i admit, this all came out very, very harsh.
Can you please explain what you think you are accomplishing by doing a 48 hour fast? And whats wrong with attempting to IF how it *should* be done? (1 or 2 24 hour fast per week or 16 hour fasting windows daily?)


And yes, you can absolutely gain 2 pounds of water in a day... I can gain 8. easily.
But if you arent counting your big meal, you could be offsetting your entire deficit, too

No worries. I know that it sounds pretty bad when I descibe what I'm doing, however, I have learned a LOT about how and why I eat. My clothes are loose on me and I have a lot of energy. I don't plan on doing this forever, but it's been a great kickstart to my goals. I now find it MUCH easier to eat better because I know when I am really hungry and when I just want to eat something that tastes good. I also have gained more self control and insight.

If it weren't beneficial at all, I don't think I would be seeing the weight loss? I know a lot of what I have lost is water, but I can't deny going down a size either.


Also, my meal isn't big. It's pretty moderate.

Well, water does have volume too, ya know? ;) When im bloated and up 5 pounds from TOM< my clothes are tight, when i lose weighter weight, my cloths are loose!

Youve been doing this for a week? I cab GUARANTEE that this will back fire. BIG. HUGE. Set you up for binging issues/restricting cycles. It doesnt sound like you have issues with binging now, but this method will lead to it. No one had an eating disorder till they started overly restricting their food, first

Originally Posted by mkroyer:
Youve been doing this for a week? I cab GUARANTEE that this will back fire. BIG. HUGE. Set you up for binging issues/restricting cycles. It doesnt sound like you have issues with binging now, but this method will lead to it. No one had an eating disorder till they started overly restricting their food, first

Now THAT was pretty effing harsh.

How would you like it if I went to some other poor girl and told her, because I disagree with her diet, that the only reason she is fitting into smaller clothes is because she lost water, and that she's GURANTEED to start binging soon. I mean, comeon.

Originally Posted by TripSwitch:
Am I understanding your post correctly that you are fasting for 48 hours (just having a coffee with cream and sugar during that time) followed by one meal which you say is usually dinner and then fasting again for another 48 hours and then repeating this schedule?

Because if that's the case.... It doesn't sound sustainable as an effective use of IF'ing for weight loss...

Eating only one meal every three days, if that is what you're doing, is more consistent with starvation/crash diets than true IF. The basic premise of IF is providing enough calories to sustain a reasonably active lifestyle with regular exercise. Normally crash diets (eventually, sometimes it takes several weeks to deplete energey reserves enough to notice) do not provide enough energy for regular exercise.

I've had a lot of experience with crash/starvation diets, and eating one meal in three days isn't going to sustain most people (unless the one meal is so humongous a meal that it's large enough to contain two to three days worth of calories).

I strongly believe that eating as you describe (if I understand it right and you're talking about 2,000 or fewer calories every three days - an average of 700 calories or less per day over the course of a week) is counterproductive in the long run. Unless it's PURE protein, you risk muscle loss (and with muscle loss you can't decide which muscle is lost, so it could be muscle from your calf, or it could be muscle from your heart).

I also believe that eating this way over the long term (probably years, maybe even decades) eventually erodes metabolism. The calorie level at which I could once lose several pounds a week easily upon, is now a calorie level that maintains my weight, and I suspect that a large part of that metabolic erosion (and the health problems such as Insulin Resistance and autoimmune disease including low thyroid function) is directly due to frequent use of the type of fasting you describe.

Some people report experiencing this metabolic decline very quickly (their weight loss slows DRAMATICALLY after the first few weeks) and their energy level likewise plummets and they find even normal tasks physically exhausting.

For me, the energy drain was much more dramatic than the metabolic decline AT FIRST.

I can't even manage one day of eating nothing without seeing my energy level plummet to the point that even remaining conscious is a Herculean effort. I suspect the decades of fasting as you describe has left me with less resilience than I had years ago.

If you're young, healthy, and don't have any form of IR, you often can go for longer periods without food than those of who are older, more active, or have other salient issues, but even so one meal in three days is extremely stressful on any body (even a young, healthy one) and the cons start overshadowing the pros very quickly. I'd highly recommend (at the very least) getting a full checkup and seeking medical supervision and nutritional counseling from your doctor (and ideally also a dietitian).

Originally Posted by :
And to address your last question... Yes it is possible to "gain" 2lbs. of water weight overnight....

There's also the weight of food digesting in your digestive tract (not-yet pooped poop if you will). Every month I gain up to 10 lbs of non-fat weight with TOM/PMS. Usually it's around 5-8 lbs and in a few days (drinking a little extra water and eating even MORE fruits and vegetables) will get "things" (water and waste) moving and the weight disappears within 3 to 10 days, usually around 5-7.

Originally Posted by mkroyer:

Youve been doing this for a week? I cab GUARANTEE that this will back fire. BIG. HUGE. Set you up for binging issues/restricting cycles. It doesnt sound like you have issues with binging now, but this method will lead to it. No one had an eating disorder till they started overly restricting their food, first

Originally Posted by Rikku:
Now THAT was pretty effing harsh.

It may be "effing harsh," but it's also probably "effing true." For those of us who've experienced the "effing" truth of it, we can be a little "effing" passionate about trying to spare others the "effing" pain and trauma of it.

To put it bluntly, eating the way you describe did more to get to me nearly 400 lbs than it ever did to help me lose. The first step to permanent success was giving up this kind of eating.

Miraculously, when I gave up this kind of eating, my ever increasing weight gain STOPPED in it's tracks. From the point I gave crash-diet-fasting even when I didn't diet at all my weight didn't inch further and further upward as it had since I was in KINDERGARTEN. All it took for me to stop gaining was giving up this kind of dieting (Gosh how I wish I had discovered this in first grade, I never would have been overweight at all).

Ironically it was encountering and embracing the Fat Acceptance Movement rhetoric that argued that dieting did more to cause weight gain than weight loss that convinced me to stop dieting (and for me dieting ALWAYS meant crash dieting as you describe - going for as long as I could without eating, eating as little as I could before going on to eating nothing until I just couldn't tolerate anotoher minute of it, and then I'd bine and regain).

Too bad I learned to diet this way at all. I wish I could have aat least learned to give up this kind of crash dieting when I weighed 150 or even 200 lbs, rather than discovering this miracle when I weighed almost 400 lbs. Even so though, I'm extremely grateful to have given it up when I did, and not when I'd reached 400 or even 500 lbs.

I've been "at this" weight loss business since I was in kindergarten, and I'm going to be 47 in a few months. I've been in countless weight loss programs, on countless weight loss sites and support groups, and I've both worked with eating disorder patients (due to my psych degree) and beein in eating disorder support groups myself, and I've never met a single person who felt this kind of eating did them anything but harm.

You might be the exception, but I doubt it. You can choose to benefit from the experience of others, or you can learn it the hard way yourself. At least be smart about it and do it under a doctor's supervision, because the way you're describing it, you could be setting yourself up for some serious physical harm. The most serious and significant risk is to your heart. This kind of eating can result in mitral valve prolapse and other cardiac damage.

I really have to agree with mkroyer on this one. She said what she said because it is true and because it is hard to see someone engage in self-destructive behavior and not try to stop them. (For the record, I also agree with kaplods.) I've "dieted" like this before and I know many other people who have. It never ends well.

It may work for awhile, but sooner or later this type of behavior ALWAYS leads to binging. And then weight gain (which usually ends up leaving you heavier than you were than you started, but with less muscle mass). Plus, there is no way you are getting all of the nutrients you need. Just because you are losing weight now doesn't mean you will continue to or that what you are doing is healthy.

Do what you want, but I've been down this road over and over again and I would put money on you finding out that you don't like where you end up if you keep at it. They call it crash dieting for a reason. I would say for your own wellbeing to either do IF the real/healthy way or find a better, saner plan. Losing weight the healthy way (which is different for everyone) is not only way less painful, but will also be sustainable and leave you with lasting results.