[jendiet]

ok, I usually fast ALL day drinking v8, green tea, or almond milk...throughout the day.

But fast 5 requires that you do not eat anything until 5 pm. I do this naturally sometimes when I go to bed really late and wake up around lunch time...but today I woke up at my usual 7 am...and oh my gosh...7 am until 5 pm seems like forever...

someone posted about it and I tried it, but I have to say I don't like it as much....and yesterday I was burning fat (ketones positive) but today while I am water fasting...no burning ketones!

it might be my body adjusting. I do feel lighter...and hunger is really just annoying at this point...it doesn't make me feel panicked or anything.

I took a nap too.

has anybody used this?

[jendiet]

I was wrong...I checked my urine when it was concentrated..and boo yeah! I am burning fat honey. I got plenty of fat strores to use up so heck yeah!

so i made it through the first day...it actually wasn't that bad. I broke the fast with some almonds and prunes. Then I had a cup of almond milk, and 2 small eggrolls.

I have to say I feel really good.

I know I could keep eating from 5-10pm, but I"m full...I guess I will eat again when I make dinner...I do like this..and I can eat dinner with my family.

i probably will alternate with ADF and Fast-5.

man, I wish more people on here would give me feedback, but it's probably all negative so...just as well.

when I fasted in 2001--people were incredulous...but it worked..and I looked good!

[mandalinn82]

I was going to respond to your original post, but I wasn't really sure what the question was.

I have not seen any long term research that indicates fasting is useful for weight loss, and I've seen a lot of anecdotal evidence that it isn't. That being said, if a plan is working for you and has your doctor's support, continue it.

Most of the posters here are focused more on sustainable, long-term patterns of healthy eating to fuel more activities of daily life. I don't know that fasting intermittently falls into that category, necessarily, because you aren't providing your body with a consistent, quality influx of fuel.

[jendiet]

ok, I see. Well I guess I won't find support here. So I am not going to bother. Thanks for your honest opinion!

[Duckyjane]

I am doing Fast 5 and I love it. I feel great and have lost a little weight so far. (I just started last week)
I am shocked at how little I want to eat at 5 and how quickly I get full.
I feel more "well" than I have in a long time.

[jendiet]

Ducky that is me. I actually was afraid to do fast 5 yesterday because I had an appointment and I woke up hungry. ( i did the fast 5 the day b4) I was debating whether I should just juice fast, and I ended up doing the fast 5 anyways...I was put under alot of stress from my appt...

and it really helped...that I wasn't supposed to go eat until 5 pm. It helped me work through my emotions and not use food. When it finally came 5 pm. I was hungry from somatic hunger.

I ate 3 small meals within my 5 hour window yesterday. And I felt so good.
I keep saying this, I can't believe how easy it is to fast until 5pm. When normally when I am eating, I can't go 4 hours without the shakes, low blood sugar and headaches.

I REALLY do believe the key is resensitizing your body to it's circulating insulin so that your body will relearn how to use it's own stores for energy. I honestly believe that is the reason I am not panicked to eat like before. It is because my body is using it's own stores. Whereas, if your body is not responding to insulin sufficiently YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU ARE STARVING. Because your body thinks you are. Because of the high assault of insulin on the cells from blood sugar spikes, your cells say "um, we're through taking that abuse," and they shut their "doors"

here is an article by a Dr.

Reversing insulin resistance is really a matter of understanding insulin’s role in the body. Insulin allows glucose to travel from the bloodstream into the cells, where it is used for cell functioning. When we eat foods high in refined carbohydrates, insulin levels surge to remove the sugar from the blood and get it into your cells. This mechanism works very well for the most part. But if insulin spikes too often from a diet rich in the high-carb foods that trigger insulin secretion, your cells respond by decreasing the reactivity and number of insulin receptors on their surfaces. Eventually, this prevents glucose from getting into your cells, leading to high blood sugar and depriving your cells of the energy they need to function. This is why many women with insulin resistance experience carbohydrate cravings, fatigue and weight-gain — their cells are literally starving for energy, even when plenty of glucose is available in the blood. Down the road, your body’s capacity to generate insulin appropriately becomes depleted, and the result is type 2 diabetes

here's another one:

Insulin resistance is the condition in which normal amounts of insulin are inadequate to produce a normal insulin response from fat, muscle and liver cells. Insulin resistance in fat cells results in hydrolysis of stored triglycerides, which elevates free fatty acids in the blood plasma. Insulin resistance in muscle reduces glucose uptake whereas insulin resistance in liver reduces glucose storage, with both effects serving to elevate blood glucose. High plasma levels of insulin and glucose due to insulin resistance often lead to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

The participants were told to fast every second day for 20 hours. Each fasting period started at 10 PM and ended at 6 PM the following day. The study lasted for two weeks, giving a total of seven fasting periods. The subjects were told to eat as they normally would, except for two days before insulin measurements when they had to eat 250 grams of carbohydrates per day.

Body weight and body fat did not change during the experiment. Fasting (after an 8-hour overnight fast) plasma glucose and plasma insulin concentrations were also similar before and after the intermittent fasting experiment.

However, an increased insulin action on glucose uptake was noticed after the IF period. In other words, when the participants had gone through their two-week intermittent fasting experiment, their insulin was more effective in telling cells to take up glucose from blood. Increased inhibition of lipolysis, the breakdown of fat stored in fat cells, was also noticed.

Even though both of these – more glucose taken from blood and less breaking down of fat – may seem like negative things at first glance, they are important functions of insulin. An increase in these means improved insulin sensitivity. When insulin fails to do these things, that's when there's a problem.

After each 20-hour fasting period, the amount of circulating adiponectin was increased by 37% on average. Plasma adiponectin is positively correlated with insulin sensitivity, which explains the increased insulin action noticed after the IF period.

Conclusion

After two weeks of intermittent fasting, body weight, body fat percentage and muscle energy stores were unchanged in a group of eight healthy men. Insulin levels were unchanged, but insulin activity increased (a similar effect to that of green tea, black tea & oolong tea).

The fact that the participants lost no weight means that the improvement in insulin sensitivity is not due to a restriction in calories but the fasting periods themselves. This lends support to the idea that periodical fasting is beneficial for insulin sensitivity. Time to hear the inner caveman's call?

[keep in mind the study was done on healthy individuals and only for two weeks]

here is a insulin/fat burning connection:

Higher production of insulin, not only results in more fat being stored, it also prompts less fat to be burned. Since blood glucose is available in overabundance when you eat too much carbohydrate, the body shifts to sugar-burning rather than fat-burning. The result is more stored fat and less fat-burning.

here is yet another take on this:

The researchers conducting the study suggest that fasting before exercise may be particularly beneficial to obese people, who are already insulin resistant. The in crease glycogen breakdown that occurs in the absence of a preworkout meal will stimulate increased muscle glycogen synthesis, since there's a feedback mechanism in muscle that relays low glycogen messages and also turns on the muscle enzyme that controls glycogen synthesis. The study confirms a practice that some bodybuilders favor: training in the morning before eating. Bodybuilders do this to maximize fat burning, since liver glycogen stores are relatively low at that time and the body will tap into fat stores faster than if you eat.

and yet another:

EXCESS INSULIN AND WEIGHT GAIN:■Many people produce so much insulin that their bodies are unable to absorb it all. As a result they end up with excess insulin in their blood streams.
■Excess insulin in response to a meal converts protein, glucose, and dietary fat to stored fat. ■Excess insulin removes fat from the blood and transports it into fat cells.
■Excess insulin forces the body to burn carbohydrates for energy instead of stored fat.
■Elevated insulin levels inhibit the release and utilization of stored body fat for energy.
■Elevated insulin converts and stores excess glucose as fat.
■Elevated insulin can be caused by too many carbohydrates in a meal and not enough protein, essential fats, and fiber.
■Too big of a meal can elevate insulin.

You cannot maximize fat burning with elevated levels of insulin; it's that simple. Even if you exercise rigidly, elevated insulin levels will not maximize fat burning. Even worse, elevated insulin levels will stimulate your body to store fat. Remember, this entire response is primarily the result of eating too many carbohydrates and not enough protein, fat, and fiber as part of your meal.


Anyways, that is why I think this is such a good plan for people who like me get minimal results from regular dieting and exercising. We can lose weight with these methods, but first we have to turn the insulin switch down.

I think when we try to diet with the insulin raging--it's like trying put a bandaid on a gushing artery. won't work.

I am a nursing major. I have worked through 2 eating disorders, and my family is prone to weight gain. At first glance, it seems like the fast 5 is another expression of an eating disorder--however, it seems to control my need to binge and my cravings for food when not hungry (somatic)

With that said, I believe in intermittent fasting. I do not fast except for religious purposes, and I do alternate with regular days of eating. This is to keep my body guessing (calorie shifting). Any time I start losing weight the pattern in my calories in is dramatic shifts. I could eat 2200 one day and 1350 the next 2500 the next and 1200 the next. I would start losing weight with ease.

so I think intermittent fasting also uses the principal of calorie shifting.