Being fat and attempting I.F

#1

Hi All!
I am a fat person who is trying keto. I have tried keto before and had some luck (but then took vacation, etc etc)…
Well im back at it and have gotten some great advice from people on this site, and everyones nice :slight_smile:
I have a few questions about IF…I want to incorporate it into my keto life BUT:

  • Is 12-8 eating window OK? (my schedule is crazy)
  • Is doing it 4 days a week OK? (schedule…)
  • Do I eat two big meals or 3 normal ones? Was thinking of one at noon, one at 3, and one at 7ish?
  • Can I have a drink during fasting time? (No carb/sugar, whiskey or vodka)

THANK YOU!!!

(Aimee Moisa) #2

I have only had a little experience with IF in the 9 or 10 weeks I have been on keto but I have experienced and read that you can do whatever you want, there are no rulebooks, starting out do what you need to continue feeling healthy. I.E. If you feel icky stop what you are doing and do something else. There are lots of ideas out there on how to do IF “properly” but the people I respect say just do what works for you. My favorite quote is, “You do you!” :slight_smile:

(Aimee Moisa) #3

Now that I got that outta the way, how you fast is dependent on your objectives. So, technically, what you want to achieve creates the “rulebook” for you. If you want to keep insulin down super low, don’t eat or drink anything, just water. If you want to keep it low but not in the Nether, non-carb foods can be OK. If you just want to do it ‘cause everyone else is doing it, just up your fat and don’ t eat when you arent hungry. These are just very minimal ideas to let you see that “it depends” is a common answer. Others with more experience will fill in with deets. :slight_smile:

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #4

I do IF and skip one meal. I do this I will soon skip 2 and then may do more like 36 hours. There is the concept called Time Restricted Eating which is another name for IF and can be applied to 3 meals a day as well.

Limit the time window that you eat. So for me consider 3 meals 7:30 am, noon and 5:30 pm. My window is about 10 hours. I don’t snack between meals and I eat to satiety. It has taken a few days and may take others longer to get where:

  • you can feel full and stop eating
  • don’t get hungry between meals (I’m not fully there)

The concept is to let insulin pulse into your system when you eat but to not have it flowing all the time. That was my problem.

Make sure that your meals have the right proportion of macro and when starting out they should have 70% or better calories as fat. Don’t limit calories. Eat till you are satisfied. This can be hard for some people and I have eased my self into this over several weeks.

Then extend this to 2 meals a day then one. IF you don’t snack your insulin will start to flow more naturally and your body will learn to burn fat.

If you skip a meal or two you may not need salt but I have beef bullion cubes ready in case. I drink black coffee and tea and have nothing else.

I hope this helps some.

(Aimee Moisa) #5

If fat adapted people (ideally) only eat when hungry, and eating means you are having a meal, how do you define “between meals” and “snacks”? This is something that has always confused me. If I am eating I am having a meal, whether it is 100 calories or 1000. What defines this so-called snack I am not supposed to be having “between meals”? (Serious question, not one of my usual sarcastic comments.)

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #6

So I am just entering fat adaptation, like just this week. On a typical day I am limiting my eating events to 3 or less. And trying to be complete in 30 minutes. So meals are bigger than snacks. My eating events are meals in my mind.

I’m still hungry more than I want to be but that is starting to fade. The concept that I am following is to not have insulin pulse more than 3 times a day in a <12 hour window. And my windows have been mostly 10 1/2 hours so that is even better for reducing the flow of insulin.

#7

I’ll eat when I get seriously physically hungry, no matter the time. And preferable it’s a ‘meal’. No wonder my IF’ing does not follow a specific time frame.

An arbitrary difference between ‘snack’ and ‘meal’ to me. A meal, I sit down to eat and use utensils. A snack, I’m standing and eat with my hands.

These days however, I rarely snack - want to keep insulin at bay as long as possible.

(Brian) #8

For me, eating a meal at noon would mean I really would not be hungry at 3. I don’t eat snacks. I eat meals. Generally, I eat breakfast around 7:30am and supper around 4:30pm. It can vary a little on both. I’m used to that and if I’ve eaten a decent breakfast, I am totally fine to go until supper with nothing other than water in between.

I know some seem to need to eat more often. And some are fine with one meal a day. I wouldn’t argue with any about what works for them. Eating meals too close together doesn’t seem to set well with me.

#9

  • it’s all good so it is to yourself that you need to ask. You have to find what works for you and your schedule so you can eat until satisfied and not eat unless hungry. For ex I experimented with 19:5 and I hated it because after 4-5h I wasn’t hungry. If you’re just beginning you could also wait until adaptation, just to make it easy for yourself.

  • yes

  • that depends on your hunger, but between noon and 7 I would only eat snacks whenever hungry, and by snack I mean eating only fat. These snacks are super-useful if you have a rigid schedule and happen to get untimely hungry, and they don’t raise insulin.

  • yes