I've been doing this, not on purpose, and lost the 15 lbs I'd stress gained... without even trying!

I have decided to only eat when I'm hungry. It seems silly to force my body to consume calories when it doesn't seem to want them! Sometimes I eat 3 meals a day. Sometimes I randomly snack... usually I don't eat until dinner and I feel great! I make sure the calories I do eat are balanced and high protein. It makes so much more sense to me than the 8 meals a day thing. My blood sugar isn't bouncing around all day!

hello - again.
I went off plan - no excuses. I've been really thinking about it and I was wondering if there are any rules as to when your window needs to be. I think I'd be better off if I could eat at work (bringing an alloted amount of food) and then not eat at home at all. So my window would look like a normal day - 9-5 or even 10-4, and my fasting would be all evening and night. I usually go to bed at 8pm anyways with my daughter.
What do you think?

I'm very interested in giving this a go. But I am curious about one thing. Are most of you doing IF single everyday or is one day on, one day off type of plan. If you are doing one day on, one day off please share the way your schedule works.

I went off today. I started eating at 10am, instead of my usual 2-8pm. This is my third day, since starting, and i'm thinking of closing the window at 7pm, and starting again at 1 pm tomorrow.

I'm also intersted if people go off for a day. What happens when you go back on? How long do you wait again?

If you go back a little in the thread, some of us have laid out how we fast...
I have a 5-6 hour window 6 days a week. Window is from about 8:30am-2:00pm roughly. I have one day a week where I eat whenever and above my calorie needs (that is a hard thing to determine). Basically I just go with the flow that day...I open my window as usual and it's open until 2 pm the next day. There is quite a bit of variation here. There is surely room to experiment. Google *retired dieter, *leangains, *fast 5, *eat stop eat and you will get a feel for how people do this thing called IF.

That would work fine.

Doesn't matter. It seems at this time you do not understand the point of intermittent fasting. The point is to simplify your life and make losing weight easier. Don't over think it. Calories dictate fat gain or loss, not when you eat.

I find it likely there are additional health benefits but at this time we don't know if there are and what time period of fasting would be necessary to take advantage of them and even if we knew for sure a day or two here and there would make no difference.

I'm really hitting a groove with the IF now! I feel so good about it! Down another .5 lb today. I was worried that waiting until later in the day to start eating was going to be a problem, but it's not! Today I actually felt a little giddy about it, like I was finally in charge of the food. Had a lean turkey and swiss sandwich (310 cal) for "breakfast" and I'm about to have a salad with avocado and Vital Choice sardines in olive oil for lunch, at least an hour before Pilates (or I won't be able to do my roll-ups!), and I have chard and brown rice planned for dinner.

Just signed up for the Eat-Stop-Eat book package, so I plan to read that this weekend. I did a little reading on one of the websites someone mentioned much earlier in the thread. It talked about fat burn occuring between 12 and 18 hours after the last meal. Also, fasted cardio was mentioned, to ramp up fat burn during those times. I'm very interested to learn more about that. I've heard about it before, when I was participating in Tom Venuto's forum a couple years ago, but no one really went into the details of it. I guess I'm ready to learn more about it now.

Has anyone on this forum put together a comprehensive list of IF resources? I'd do it, but I don't know what they all are.

Awww, day 3 of back on the wagon and I do love how easy it is to get back in the groove.

Never fails to amaze me at how simple a thing it is to get back into the routine. I've mentioned before that my usual window is from 4p-10p, and today my body was already climatized to that again. Got my first real 'pay attention to me' hunger pain at 3:45pm, just like clockwork.

And since I get up at 4 am and am at work at 5am, that means I worked an 11 hour shift before really getting hungry.

Awww, I do love IF.

If you're referring to the leangains website he calls the time between 12 and 18 hours the golden period for burning stubborn fat. Before you're even done digesting a meal your body begins using fat for fuel. Most people will never get to the point where they need to worry about truly stubborn fat. For example - as a man I need to get down to around 10% BF before stubborn fat becomes an issue.

John, do you mean all the fat on my body isn't stubborn fat? WTH?! It sure behaves like it's stubborn!

Are you an engineer?

You know... I like how much this simplifies things! There have been so many times in my life when I've eaten because "OMG it's LUNCHTIME!!" Now I go about my day without even thinking about it. When I hit my eating window in the evening I'm not even that hungry! Amazing.

Last night I went way over on calories, carbs and the eating window. Paid for it with a 2.5lb gain. Today didn't feel like eating till nearly 3, then I quit eating by 6, short calories by 550. Thought I was going to be okay with that, but by 9, massive hunger! Made up for the calories short, plus 200, went over some on carbs too, and finally just quit eating at 10. I'm going to bed now so I don't eat any more.

I'm feeling hormonal carb cravings coming on. Don't want to cave! And I'm actually feeling hungry. Mind over appetite...I am back on track AS OF NOW!!!

Thanks to those of you who have continued to indulge my questions about exercising during a fasted state. One more: is it detrimental to consume protein no sooner than 4-5 hours after strength training? My workouts are around 10 AM-12 PM and I don't open my window until between 3-4 PM. My aim is losing 5-10 vanity pounds and retaining muscle. I've perused LeanGains and other sites briefly without finding the answer, since Martin and others of course are focused on building muscle, which to my understanding does require a PWO serving of protein sooner after lifting. Anyone come across this?

Take the following in the spirit it is intended - to help. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk but I don't know how else to say it. You have a problem.

To be more specific, you don't sound like you're in control of your diet. How many calories are you eating? What kind of carbs are you consuming? Until you're conpletely 100% in control you should be avoiding all starches and processed sugar. This means the vast majority of your carbs should be coming from vegtables and fruits.

Have you had your leptin levels looked at? Leptin is the major hormone that controls hunger and someone your size should have a lot of leptin in your system. If you're really feeling hungry than it's because you're eating the wrong foods or some thing is hormonally screwed up.

If you can't just say "no" when you hit your caloric limit you should just be on a low carb diet. It's not like you're 10 pounds from your goal weight. Some people can't consume carbs in moderation.

Again, I apologize for how this sounds but it's the truth and I think you're intelligent enough to know it.

In the context of trying to gain muscle (or retain as much muscle as possible while dieting) consuming no protein for 4-5 hours after strength training is a bad idea. The reason is that strength training is catabolic and your body then stays in the state for 4-5 hours.

In your specific case - if your lifts are not going down (meaning you're getting weaker) than you're not losing muscle. A lot of this depends on how much muscle you have to lose. The more you have, the easier it is to lose.

If you're paranoid about losing muscle, like me, you can just have a bigger window. Martin only reccomends a 14-16 fasting period for women based on the results of his clients and what works best. Keep in mind his clients tend to be very experienced weight lifters with quite a bit more muscle than your average person due to years of weight training.