What’s been bothering you about nutrition? Have a question you need answered?
Found a great healthy recipe?
What is a CiCo?
All that and more on today's megathread!
What’s been bothering you about nutrition? Have a question you need answered?
Found a great healthy recipe?
What is a CiCo?
All that and more on today's megathread!
Have any of you tried intermittent fasting and does it really work? The only diet plan I've had success with is low carb but I wasn't very happy because I missed baking bread, pasta, and other comfort foods for me my husband. It's not that I can't go without carbs for a day or a meal, but to cut it out indefinitely is a real bummer. I'm an omnivore who loves pretty much any vegetable. Right now I'm eating a delicious sweet potato & black bean curry with tofu and coconut milk. It rocks your ass off.
I lost 20 pounds one summer in highschool because I inadvertently discovered intermittent fasting. I'd start my day with this trader joes chiabatta bread thing, then drink coffee and not eat till dinner.
It worked in some form.
a couple of years back I lost around 65lbs in around a semester doing IF and calorie restriction. my eating habits became sort of disordered, so that's something important to note. my disordered eating had a lot more to do with mental health issues than what my diet of choice tho. I liked IF because for me it's easier to just not eat when you're fasted than you just had a meal, especially if you're stuck at home for whatever reason. if I have a meal there's a greater chance I'll get something sweet after or snack after a couple of hours, whereas if I simply not eat I can willpower fasting until when I planned my meal.
there have also been some studies that claim IF is really, really good for your overall health and longevity, so that's also a plus.
Yes, I had a lot of disordered eating in my late teens and early twenties. It wasn't intermittent fasting so much as just plain starving myself and the occasional binge session. I'm in a lot healthier place now, mentally speaking. I don't think I'll go back to that extreme. Looking back, it was very mentally taxing to be so hard on myself all the time. I don't have the willpower to hate myself that much anymore, if that makes sense. I've grown soft, inside and outside!
yeah, my weight loss was definitely powered by self-hatred, as was your experience with disordered eating :agony:
if you think your mental health is in check i'd highly advise trying IF out and, if you enjoyed it, not only doing it for dieting but for the rest of your life for health reasons
I'm doing IF right now.
Disclaimer - There's a ton reading out there for those interested, but not much research. Or at least research that agrees. Also, like most studies regarding food, you aren't going to easily find the sponsors of current research around the topic. My point is - if you're talking to (whom you believe is) a real person on the internet who has tried it, in my experience the feedback is pretty positive. But if you read around on the internet you'll get the vague sense that cutting back on your calories is bad, and you should keep buying - er - we mean, you should keep eating a "balanced" diet.
So with that out of the way, I can say that so far I've enjoyed the experience. I feel less bloated throughout my day, and I have a little more energy during the afternoon slump than I normally do. I have lost about 3 pounds since I started last week, and I'm hopefully that trend will continue. My biggest challenge is that I had to figure when to have my calorie intake window. A lot of "research" says you should do early intake - like 8am to 2pm; but I just couldn't get that to work. Partially because I have dinner eaters in my house and I usually give in and eat with them, but also because I like to drink on the weekends. And if I tried to restrict my calorie intake after 2pm on Saturday night, I would start drinking around 7-8pm and then be so hungry that I would snack and just go waaay over my calorie budget for like 3 days. Now I'm pushing my window back. I don't eat until 1pm, and I try to cutoff the food by 7pm. It's working better, and I don't go crazy snacking when having an evening beer.
Just my two cents. Don't be afraid to try different things to see what works best for you. I think the most important thing for seeing results is just to be consistent. Give your body the 16 hour break and let the rest happen on it's own.
Thanks for your reply. Do you also work out? And if so, do you time your workouts during the eating window or fasting window? Or does it not matter? I prefer to workout in the mornings but like you I would rather eat later in the day than have to go without after 3pm.
I am getting into a workout routine, and I like to workout early as well. I've only done it once during this stretch, but I worked out at 9am and was able to hold off until 2pm on breaking the fast. It wasn't too bad.