Hello, IFers! I have been doing some reading on IF and have decided to give it a try. I am trying to get into the 160s and am having trouble. I am hoping that intermittent fasting will jump start me. Yesterday I ate between 12pm-7pm. Today I also started eating around 12pm and we will see how it goes. I already had dinner, and am not hungry for a snack. I do get very hungry about 10am, but I know that if I start eating at that time, I will have to end eating earlier, and I also get very hungry around 3:30-4:30pm. So, I have been pushing off eating my first meal until around noon. I drink tea and water until then. So far, the mornings have been my only trouble spot.

At this point, I can't see IF as being sustainable for me long-term. However, it's too soon to judge, so we shall see. I weigh in on Fridays, so it will be interesting to see if there has been a change in my weight.

Good luck, everyone!

May I suggest if the hunger is becoming a distraction in the morning taking a brief walk. A workout is better, but I am assuming you are probably at work at 10 am and dont have the freedom to do a real workout. I find it holds off the hunger quite well.

Weight loss initially in IF may not happen. It is possible when you first shrink the window to struggle a bit with keeping your calories lower.

Wow you've been IFing for all of one day and you don't see it as sustainable? :D

Give it 2 weeks minimum. After a month you won't be hungry before noon.

Then again, IF is not for everyone so it might not work for you.

As for weight loss - everyone must remember that IF does nothing to alter the energy equation. Calories still matter.

I have been reading the Alternet Day Diet by Dr. Johnson. He makes a point
that going 36 hours without food triggers some changes that don't happen with just a 20 hour fast. And I do seem to do a whole lot better when I do
his program than when I am just doing a 19 to 20 hour fast each day.

guac I get a bit hungry around 10:30 AM. That's when I have a cup of coffee with a splash of milk and 4g sugar. The warmth and slightly sweet taste tricks me into thinking I'm having a snack. I'm usually set until 1 or so by that point. If you're a coffee drinker maybe that will help?

EDIT JohnP, thanks for the advice a few posts ago!

Similar to ennay and indiblue, I also do a morning workout and then, around 10:30am, drink my second cup of coffee for the day. It holds me over awhile until 12pm or so. Also, I wake up around 6am everyday - so I have a pretty long time to work through. Pure water also helps immensely.

I know it may sound like I'm jumping the gun - I haven't been doing this longer than 2 weeks - but in that short period of time, I really feel my mood, energy, health, has stabilized.

Seems silly because how could simply not eating for a longer period of time have this effect? I dunno - it does influence my hormones.... that I am absolutely positive of. I hope it is sustainable!

I also have found that moving, and having that cup of coffee/beverage really make a huge difference. Whether's its the distraction or getting your heart pumping, I don't know, but it works. Also playing with the eating window until it works is important, especially if you're someone who is a grazer. I never ate in the morning, so late afternoons, before my window opens, have been my challenge, so that coffee and exercise are just the ticket. (I usually grab my dogs and head for a romp in the fields - I have the privilege of working at home)

Unna, I don't think you're jumping the gun. You're having great results and no one makes it in the long run without working out the challenges early on. I'm only a little ways in and already feel much better, and am learning how to handle hurdles. That's why we're all here.

I do find this simpler, more flexible and more natural than anything else so far. Have had success with it in the past, hoping to make it more permanent this time. While I am thinking quite a bit about the results and the process, I'm definitely not thinking that much about food. That, in and of itself, is a huge step forward for me.

Still here, and it's 10:30am and I am eating a yogurt. The hunger just got to be too much. The problem is, I don't know if I will be able to completely stop eating by 4 or 5pm, when the family is eating dinner at 5:30-6:00pm.

Also, I am going out of town for a weekend retreat where they serve meals at set times 3x per day - well, actually 4x if you count their late night snacks/desserts. I can skip the snacks, but the meals are a different story. I don't like all of the food they serve, so I don't eat much at any given meal - I eat a moderate amount at each meal. If I skip one of the meals in order to eat within a window, I surely will be starving and indulge in the 4th late night meal junk food fest! So, I think I will stop trying IF until I return to my normally scheduled programming.

To be clear, I am still eating on my food plan, it is just a question of when I eat.

I never try to not eat dinner with the family (except on my yoga nights because yoga on a full stomach is **** on earth). My window is arranged around my family dinner. If I was single my window would be 12-5.

10:30-6:30 is an 8 hour window which is the window leangains recommends for women. Not saying its the right window, just saying it is a variation that is often done.

If you want to do a shorter window, some people can do it cold turkey, other people work their way into it. So it is 10:30 today. Tomorrow make it later. Nothing says you have to go straight to 5 hours.

Personally I have 2 windows. The 5 hour window of 2-7 and the longer window of 11-7 (which may mean 12-7 or 1 - 7 or 1:30 -7). Most days I do 2-7. Some days I dont - either because the hunger is not going away with other methods or because I have a lunch date. But I dont cut off my evening eating early because of it. (except on yoga days which is either 2-5 or 12-5)

Family dinner that I prepare is sacred. To skip that WOULD be unsustainable. And also would not be healthy for my family because I know on nights I am not eating with them I am more likely to just toss together something simple that they like. Pizza anyone?

Are you eating more at the meals you are eating or are you merely trying to drop a meal? Initially ADD calories to your other meals. Make the transition to time frame first. One of the things I like about IF is I really really really DO like the sensation of being full, not just "satisfied" no matter how many times people said I wasnt supposed to. I love that my lunch now is BIG. Somedays I have 1000 calories for lunch. I like it! No more 300 calorie meals.

MTA: and when you break your fast, BREAK your fast. Dont nibble something small to tide you over to "meal time". Eat the meal you would have eaten at the time you intended to eat. The whole MEAL.

Ennay, I agree completely. The reason I love Intermittent Fasting is because it works with my lifestyle. I'm a foodie and a cook and what I enjoy about this is that I get to eat a wonderful meal with my family.

Guacamole, you may need to play with your eating window, or perhaps try something like Eat-stop-Eat instead of Fast 5.

I'm trying each of them to see which one works best for me. This is supposed to make things easier for you, not more difficult (once you get through the tummy rumbles, and get used to it).

Checking in after a couple weeks of NROLW.

I'm IFing on most days. I overate a few days in a row around Christmas and didn't open my window yesterday until almost 3 PM. I just wasn't hungry after all that food.

But today, after a lifting session last night at 5 PM and lower calories yesterday, I woke up starving. Not hunger pains, but an intense crying out for food. Thanks to IF, I was able to distinguish between the body's craving fuel versus slight hunger. I listened to my body and had a glass of milk and half a banana at 8:30 AM. It's now 10:30 AM and I'm about to eat some eggs.

It's interesting. I could run 1+ hour early mornings with almost nothing in my stomach except for 150 cals of banana and pb and not be hungry until 1 PM. But lifting last night and consuming 1400 calories yesterday left me genuinely craving fuel this morning.

I'm trying to time my weekly calories so I eat less on non-WO days and more on WO days. I've allowed myself to get off-schedule due to the holidays, which made me less hungry yesterday and starving this morning. Anyway, I'm aiming to time it better starting today so I can keep up IF.

Indiblue - Sounds like you're making great strides. You may prefer the Eat Stop Eat method to the daily window. You still get to eat every day, but on your non fasting days you can eat what you want when you want it, so if you were to keep these days light and healthy, it would not interfere with your work-outs. Worth a try for a week or two. You will notice that you will continue to tell the difference between real hunger and slight hunger.
Worth a try. I'm still playing with both ways until I settle into something that will be more permanent.

The beauty of IF is that it can be tailored to an individual's wants and needs.

Hi everyone.

I have just joined Three Fat Chicks after finding this thread on intermittent fasting through google. A couple of years ago I lost 26kg through calorie counting and exercise but have started to gain the weight back (about 8kg so far). I can't seem to go back to calorie counting for some reason (there is a mental block there) so I started googling other options for me.

I am trying the two 24hour fasting periods a week. I am hoping it will allow me to control my food as opposed to it controlling me (and allowing me to understand when i am hungry compared to bored/stressed etc which feels like hungry to me).

Looking forward to sharing and learning from the journey of others in this thread.

Italianne thanks for the tip about ESE! I'm only used to daily fasting, which I enjoy, but has been difficult if I don't time my low-calorie days correctly. Do your 24-hour fasts occur on the same days each week? Or does it vary? I have yet to try a 24-hour fast, but I'd like to. I work from home so it would admittedly be easier to do than if I was in an office, surrounded by food, having to explain why I'm not eating lunch, etc.

Thanks again for pointing me in this direction. I'll read up a little more about ESE :)

This is fairly predictable result. I'd suggest again you look into the leangains method for working out based upon your goals. NROL is too high of volume and when you combine volume + intensity you will need fuel. High intensity and low volume are better for your stated recomp goals. It is possible for a short period you could get a bit of recomp with NROL and eating close to maintinence calories but the bottom line is that losing fat and gaining muscle are two competeing biological processes.

Leangains method and Ultimate Diet 2.0 are the only two programs I know of that will do what you want.

I don't see how Eat Stop Eat will change anything.

Indiblue - You should definitely try different things, especially if you have training goals. It seemed to me that you wanted to increase your calories on work-out days, which is why I suggested Eat Stop Eat. I'm not a "work-out" expert, nor do I "train" so I don't worry about pre-work out/ post work-out stuff. I also find that "programs" and schedules don't work for me, but that's just me. What I love about IF is the flexibility.

I'm trying to get thinner, and IF has worked beautifully for me in the past. My goal is to make it a permanent change, so I'm checking out what is sustainable for me.

Look into all the programs, and you will not only find one that works for your training goals, but one that you will be able to live with. Good luck! Let us know how you make out.

Leangains is what I'm doing now, and have been since April. My window is from 1 PM- 8PM. I'm lifting around 5 PM each day.

I'm really working to educate myself more on the fat/muscle processes. I misstated my goals earlier: it's to reduce body fat, so I'm eating at a deficit (though aiming for .8g protein/1lb bw). I'm *generally* hitting 1400 on NWO days and 1600 on WO days. Though I lifted again this evening and am not hungry at all tonight after 1300. If I'm very hungry tomorrow morning well before my window opens, I'll eat.

Honestly a lot of this is trial and error for me right now. NROLW may not get me where I want to be in terms of body recomp, we'll see. The health/strength rewards will be sufficient to make it worthwhile. I can reassess if I'm not meeting other goals.

Sorry I'm kind of hijacking this thread... hope this is somewhat worthwhile to others who are in similar positions. It definitely is helpful to me, so many thanks :)

I've been playing around with IF a bit the past few days, and it's going well so far. When I lift, I lift heavy, but I'm much more focused on distance running. Is this a recipe for badness or disaster?

I am a natural IF'er. Developed it in college when i was at my lowest weight ever in my adult life (130). I didn't know at that time the name of this, but it worked wonderfully.

Now i go and come from it cause sometimes i'm just too hungry in the morning, so i keep 2-3 weeks eating 6x/day. Normally my eating window is 4 hours, i eat from 4pm - 8pm. or 5pm - 9pm. I do eat all my calories in no more than 2 meals.

I lift weights, heavy ... but i don't want to build more mucle, i was doing so during the last 2 years, i was so worried about my lean mass .. but after my bf% check, i found that my lean mass is more than the total weight i want to have, so i try to preserve as much as i can, but not worried to lose like 15 or 20 pounds of muscle.

I think it is extremely worthwhile to others.

What I meant was the leangains style of LIFTING. Here is the basic idea:

High intensity (heavy weights) and low volume is the best way to maintain your muscle and keep things in check diet wise.

If you just want to maintain your muscle and shed some fat than eating at a deficit every day is fine. If you want to add in a few more calories on a lifting day you can but it is not necessary. The key is to lose weight slowly and lift heavy (but with low volume). [EDIT] - I mean specifically for you - since you don't have a lot of fat to lose and you've been training for some time. For someone else reading this with a lot of weight to lose who is new to training things are totally different.

NROL is not high volume but it is not low volume either. Again I don't think it's a big deal for you at this point but the lower your body fat gets the more difficult it will be to keep up the intensity of the NROL workouts and the harder you push to maintain them the more you'll increase cortisol and ultimately you'll lose muscle along with fat.

I'd suggest reading this article.

I'm a distance runner, although my distances have been kinda short lately, but I have not had it negatively affect my running. I actually have my hardest runs in my most fasted state (the morning after my shortest window days) and have had no problem. I did have one longer run struggle, but I honestly dont know if it was related to IF or the fact that I decided to run 10 miles in an area where you pretty much are going up seriously steep hills over and over and over and over on legs that were pretty tired already. I'm pretty sure I would have burned out anyway and when I came out of the hills I was able to keep a reasonable pace home so I dont think it was a bonk, just DONE.

There has been some good stuff on fasted marathon training. Some of the benefits on training the body to transition to fat burning at higher efforts and with less noticeable transition (i.e. fatigue rather than BONK).

I havent decided what I will do on race day, probably I will fuel for the races and go back to IF the day after. I dont have any really long races for several months though.

MTA: Once I get back to really long runs I will probably carry emergency carbs just in case, but I normally dont fuel midrun before 16-18 miles anyway so it will be more a matter of what i eat the night before I think

Callahan What distances are you running? I'm not a distance runner like ennay... not at all :) I was able to run up to 45-55 minutes in a fasted state without any problem. When I got closer to 1 hour or more I always ate 150 calories (peanut butter and banana) before running. Not sure if it was psychological or not but I can tell a difference in my 10ks when I eat something small versus when I run in a fasted state.

John thanks for the article. If I understand Lyle correctly, he would advocate doing high volume days of NROL (which are usually the first few workouts of each "stage")-- what he would deem as metabolic weight training-- with 2 sets of lower volume/high intensity heavy sets preceding it. The lower volume/higher intensity NROL WOs (the later parts of each stage) could be done on their own. Is that the takeaway?

Sort of. He would say that if you want to do metabolic workouts you also need to do heavy (intense) lifting.

The main benefit of metabolic workout is the higher calorie burn and burning off glycogen to promote fat oxidation.

Intermittent fasting essentially takes care of the glycogen burn off - so you could skip metabolic workouts all together if you want.

Most people need fuel to keep up the intensity of a higher volume workout thus why your hunger was predictible.

In my opinion you're better off using your diet to create the deficit and sticking with lower volume high intensity routines but some people enjoy the higher volume type of workouts - but I would suggest more calories on these days to prevent muscle catabolism.

The above is making it more complicated than it needs to be. The take away for me would simply be that if you don't want to lose muscle you need to keep the weights on the bar. If your lifts are going up or staying the same you're not losing muscle.

I just have to say I have never experienced significant muscle catabolism even when losing 60 lbs with only running and occasional yoga as my exercise. I actually ended up with 2-3 lbs more lean mass. I will grant that some of the increase I saw in lean body mass during that time may have been my muscles increasing blood and glycogen storage capacity and not tissue.

There are a myriad of factors but primaryly with adequate protein you're not going to have a lot of muscle loss (or any) if you don't have a lot of muscle in the first place, until you get quite lean. By lean I mean under 15% for men and under 20% for women is where you start fighting hormones.

In your case - if you didn't have muscle loss you must have dieted intelligently, plus you worked your leg muscles so you kept them. Your upper body didn't have a lot of muscle (I assume), so not a lot to lose. Then of course there is the question of how your body fat was measured. Short of a dexa scan every measurement method has a fairly large margin of error.

In the case of Indiblue she has been working out for a while as I understand it so she probably has more muscle to lose plus while I haven't seen any pictures of her naked I have to assume at her height and weight she is approaching the 20% BF mark at which point it becomes a bit more difficult to lose fat while retaining all your muscle.

Agreed! .

I have a fair bit of upper body mass..I am not built like a runner AT ALL. And it comes on fast when I train. If I had any desire for it I would be better off picking lifting as my target sport. But yeah I think I got down to maybe 19% bodyfat at the lowest point.

And - sorry - when you said something about longer sessions....there are a few people on 3FC who have repeatedly claimed proof that the very act of marathon training catabolizes muscle and I'm a bit sensitive to it.

Although protein is one of my concerns with IF. I am really having a harder time getting as much as I used to . There is just only so much meat I want to eat at one sitting and I cant eat eggs. I use protein shakes from time to time but I'm not really hungry enough to want to add calories right now.

Right now it isnt really an issue I dont think. I'm doing enough to maintain mass I think and frankly I could handle it if I lost a few lbs of muscle right now, although I dont see that happening. I wont be in a build phase until later in the year.

Hi everyone.

I started IF a couple of weeks ago with some nice results. I wasn't really following it with the holidays but today I started back. This week I'm going to try eat stop eat to see how it fits fo me. I just downloaded the ebook but haven't read it yet.

I'm just curious as to what type of workouts I should do? I am normally very active and an avide gym goer except for the last few months ( I basically stopped doing any typ of workouts since September ).
I don't have a gym membership just some hand weights. And I was going to get back into running. Any suggestions?

The best exercise is one you enjoy or at least don't hate so you do it on a regular basis.

AMEN

And one that doesn't hurt you :D

meh....that's debatable

Worst pulled muscle I've had in the last couple years I got while SLEEPING. Seriously. I rolled over funny and pulled my serratus anterior and couldnt do anything for almost a week and couldnt lift heavy for a month.

Well, I was thinking along the lines of: don't pick running if you have bad knees, bad hips, bad back, etc.....depending on your particular situation.

I have bad knees and a bad back.. running has helped them both. I say dont live in fear. "They" say eating twice a day is bad for you.

Has anyone had trouble eating enough ? I am stuffed from lunch which wasnt all that big (large bowl of split pea soup with lots of ham, tortilla chips and an apple). Not just not hungry, repulsed by food stuffed.

Only problem is yesterday was a low cal day too both days < 1000 and I have an enormous burn for the last 2 days. That usually comes back to bite me either in a workout or more likely a binge.

God this is so weird. I'm usually the person who cant FATHOM surviving on under 2K calories.

I have a race on Saturday so I need to be able to fuel up a little bit by this weekend. Thursday should be my fuel day, I may need to try and open up the window if it doesnt force itself upon me tomorrow.

I'm going to keep the window open a little longer tonight. I really need the protein.

I don't think anyone would argue in favor of exercise that you know will harm you. If running helps bad knees then that's not harming you. If kickboxing exacerbates pain and deterioration of a hip joint (like it does for me) then it's probably wise to avoid it.

Anyway, Proatthis if you've been active and going to the gym for a long time then you know what to do. Strength training a few times a week and a bit of cardio (even just walking) on most days. IF doesn't call for any sort of special exercise regimen. :)

Yes, of course, if you know for sure. And that it cant be worked around if it is your passion

But...15 years ago when my first back injury occurred (just above the coccyx ) I was told what was then standard care at the time. NO impact exercises ever again. Very limited exercises. Limited range of motion. etc. Wear back support. All stuff that is NOW considered erroneous and they know you need to move it to heal.

Same with my knee, I was in a car accident in 7th grade and told the cartilage in my knee was too damaged to ever allow impact exercise.

Both back and knee are strengthened by building up the supporting muscles, not by letting them erode.

Arthritic knees up until recently were a sure fire "dont run" diagnosis. Now....not so much. I know several ultra runners who got in to running and found it improved their arthritis so much they dont dare stop.

So I have a tendency to take "you shouldnt do X" because of an injury with a grain of salt and a personal experiment of 1. My last back injury (L4/L5 - stupid icy stairs) I was told no yoga, no rowing and no (serious) cycling because of the forward bending. And yet both yoga and rowing have been key in my recovery (I hate cycling anyway). I faffed around with PT for my back for 18 months before deciding to listen to my gut and in 6 weeks I made strides I hadnt made in over a year. My PT goes to my gym and winced every morning he saw me row.

I have injured myself running. I will probably do so again. But it is my passion and frankly less injurious than the alternative depression. I do have to do things other runners dont. I have exercises I will do for life as support for my injured areas. Which means a minimum of Xtraining that other runners dont deal with.

I'm just saying if it is your passion. If it is what will keep you DOING than in most cases there is a way, and if there isnt make sure the reason isnt just an excuse, or "they say".

It's great that you were able to continue your passion.
When my PT told me no more high impact exercise--I was thrilled!!!

Cool story, ennay! Awesome you were able to heal yourself with running.


One of the things I've realized recently I love about IF is how it can quickly restore me after a very off-plan day. I've had times where I eat way too much food, way too much sodium, or a lot of processed junk that really messes me up the next morning.

Without IF I would eat breakfast normally, though I wasn't hungry, and probably continue on a salty, carby snacky day triggered from the night before.

Instead, I sip water and a cup of coffee throughout the morning, get rid of some bloat, get distance from my cravings, and eat when I'm genuinely hungry late in the afternoon. Love it.

I wish. I have heard of others that have this "problem".