I think that rat and mice cannot be used as substitutes for people. I think that small studies on specific populations (like young healthy dutch men) cannot be used as evidence that all people will have similar results.

In my opinion, I think there probably are some minor health benefits to intermittent fasting but that they are overhyped just like many other things. I also think that men are probably better suited to intermittent fasting than women and in particular lean women should be careful. Until we have better studies I'm skeptical or how beneficial intermittent fasting is compared to eating 3x a day when it comes to health and most likely it is dependant on the individual context.

That said - when it comes to controlling calories - I think many people would greatly benefit by eating fewer larger meals. My wife is a natural grazer. I'm not. Eating every 2-3 hours drove me insane and I was always hungry. Now I eat 2 times a day, sometimes 3.

I think John brings up a good point... that women should be careful with it... I have read some anecdotal reports of women having some serious issues with IF, and also that a 14/10 window might be better for women if IF is practiced, but like I said this is just what I've heard anecdotally... I haven't seen the research on this yet if there is any...

Also I'm not using IF to lose weight, I'm using it as part of my strategy to reduce my BF% and so far I feel it's been very beneficial for me in that regard... but once again I have some pretty specific fitness goals that I would like to achieve again... So I'll be constantly reevaluating as I go along...

As far as possible health benefits... I do wonder about them... So far what I have seen for myself besides the gradual reduction in BF% is a pretty dramatic reduction in fasting blood sugars and postprandial numbers as well, which I like to track to see how my body is responding during the fasting periods and my eating window... So I guess depending on what you believe about insulin there might be some benefit there as well...

Interesting. This is what my body wants to do. I almost never eat between 10pm and 12pm and could easily go later into the afternoon. I usually have nothing in the morning, a light lunch, a light dinner and then a few snacks throughout the evening. Most of my eating is between 6pm and 10pm.

The thing is - you're not only intermittent fasting. You're training as well correct? Weight lifting and HIIT have profound effect on insulin sensativity. Furthermore - you've lost a lot of fat. That by itself increases insulin sensativity.

On the other hand - it does seem that intermittent fasting helps fasting blood sugar levels - and helps hypoglycemia as well. (The opposite of what oneo might expect)

Overall - I'd love to see some better research on intermittent fasting and I think in the years to come we will.

This is pretty interesting because I naturally do 14/10.

I eat dinner around 6pm and then don't usually eat breakfast until 8 or 9am. So, that's 14 hours of fasting, but I've never been a nighttime eater and am usually not hungry first thing in the morning so I've never considered that I was fasting.

I must stay within my calorie limits during the 10 hours of eating though or I will gain weight. So for me, IF is not doing anything miraculous. Not eating for 14 hours is not influencing how or what I eat during the 10 daytime hours.

IF seems to make sense. I am normally not a bfast eater and I can actually do until 11-noon without eating as long as I have my coffee. I tried the grazing thing but unfortunately thats probably how I ended up eating too much and my mind was/sometimes is always focused on the next eating session. Grazing just is not good for me as I feel like my life surrounds food all day long and I dont like that. It's almost as if you feel like you have to eat.

My worst time of eating is at nighttime. really a struggle between the hours of 7pm-10pm. Tried cutting it off but so far no luck...just a hurdle i have to try to overcome I guess.

Thanks for all the info on IF!!

Another good point... You're right I definitely don't think IF is the only reason for the progress I've been seeing lately... And also for anyone who happens to come upon this thread I hope they realize that even though I'm big fan of IF now, it's only one piece of the puzzle for me...

Now as far as all of the talk about insulin in certain weight loss circles these days... I think it's safe to say there is A LOT of FACT vs. FICTION to be sorted through there... but I guess on it's face I can see how the logic of lower blood sugars = lower insulin levels = lower fat storage makes sense to people... but people have to be careful to not oversimplify things too much and realize there is a lot of other things going on there as well...

I came across a quote the other day that went something like "Make things as simple as possible... but not simpler" and somehow that seemed like really good advice to me... especially when it comes to weight loss...