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.