Extended Intermittent Fasting

(astrahsburg) #1

I believe I heard Dr. Jason Fung mention in passing that they don’t recommend Intermittent fasting for an extended period of time. I am just curious because this has been my primary method to success for the last 10+ months, but I’m wondering if there is something I should be looking out for.

#2

How long would be an extended period of time? And I’m not saying you heard wrong, I’m just surprised that he would say that. I’ve been watching his videos and interviews on YouTube lately and it sounds like IF’ing is his normal gig, not just a now and then thing.

(astrahsburg) #3

I was surprised by it to, and it was said more in passing with no specific time defining “extended period”. I was just curious if anyone else had any more insight to this. I personally don’t feel there has been any detriment to my efforts personally.

#4

I’ve read Dr. Fung’s book and listened/watched everything I can find from him and I know he’s mentioned this in passing and I would say that given what he’s said at other times, he recommends against fasting in general for anyone with low bodyfat percentage and the possible complications from undereating/undernourishing that could result from IF over an extended period of time.

I’ve personally experienced the undereating aspect from IF and now started thinking of it as a fasting/feasting with the caveat that it’s not an excuse to overeat, just that it’s important to not undereat after an IF window. Note: I went from averaging 2,000+ calories per day to 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day with IF which even though I wasn’t hungry was just too low for me.

(charlson.melissa) #5

My friend is doing the Intensive Dietary Management class and there was something in there about not doing daily 24 hr fasting (20:4 is what this meant to me) When she asked for clarification Megan Ramos said your body will adjust to whatever fasting you’re doing as it seeks homeostasis. It’s best to switch it up and have feasting and fasting days with less of a pattern to keep your body guessing.

(johnp71) #6

Hmm that’s interesting to hear. My wife has been doing IF for several weeks and now has totally stalled on her weight loss. By any chance did your friend read that on the IDM website or was this a part of her class? I wonder if that’s my wife’s problem is her body has just adjusted to eating so much less.

(charlson.melissa) #7

It was info from the class. Try having your wife change things up. My friend and I were doing 20:4 everyday but are doing a 48 hr this week and then normal eating for a couple days before re evaluating how we feel, what we prefer as far as fasting and moving forward.

(astrahsburg) #8

This is very interesting. and I think I could correlate with my own n+1. I didn’t think I was really changing things up when my stalls ended (last 2 plateaus were nearly 2 months long). But maybe they were caused because of too much consistent intermittent fasting. After dropping below 200 a couple of weeks ago, I have stalled again. I decided day before yesterday to go ahead and try my first extended fast. I had 10 days left before final weigh in in Feb 3, and I was hoping to make my goal weight of 187 which would be 100lbs down from Jan 4th last year. I’m currently less than 10lbs away and I figure a 10 day fast will easily get me there.

My intention is to take a break from the intermittent fasting once I reach 187 anyway, so this is a good peice of information to learn.

(Mark) #9

I’ll be rooting for you keep us updated

#10

I thought daily IF was a good idea and have heard a lot of folks doing 16-8. Maybe it’s not so good?

(charlson.melissa) #11

I think it’s ok if it works for you. Just know if you plateau that a change might help break the stall.

(astrahsburg) #12

I was incorrect on my end date, there are now 10 days left to go, I’m 5lbs down, and 8 left to go. If I drop 1lb a day, I will beat my goal by 2lbs :slight_smile: My only fasting risk right now is my wife keeps wanting McDonalds and Taco Bell, and it smells so frigin good! Yesterday was day 3 and I did go ahead and have some bone broth with a tbls of butter and coconut oil. It was kinda funny though. While I did enjoy it, after a few sips in, I no longer really wanted it.

One thing that I didn’t expect though is that my blood sugar is up over the last day or so. Saturday and Sunday it was sub 5.0, and Yesterday today is around 6.1. I did just put in a pretty intense workout on the trainer, so we will see if that brings the sugars down in a couple hours.

(astrahsburg) #13

FYI, I made my goal! It took a good 14day fast and some extra work at the end, but I pulled it off. 100lbs in 13 months. 1/3 of my body weight obliterated! Changing up the fasting method helped tremendously. The 14 day fast was interrupted a little bit with a bite of my wifes food here and there along with a couple of meals on day 6 and 7.

(Stephanie Hanson) #14

Congrats!!!

(Maria) #15

In one of the fasting podcasts with Megan, she specifically says if you do fasting without enough feeding at some point your body will start to conserve and your metabolism will slow way down. She gave an example… if when you do eat you are only eating around 700 calories there is not enough difference compared to the fasting days. So your body will start to conserve its energy assuming that it’s going to have restricted calories all the time. We will actually be more successful if when we do feed we have more calories. Another words fast but then refuel, restricted eating all the time is problematic.
Hopefully I am making this all clear? If not, u can listen to the podcasts where only Megan is on. It was one of those between 2-6.

(Alicia Warren) #16

My understanding of what Megan Ramos and Jason Fung say about the duration of fasts, is that switching around is good. If you do 16:8 or one meal a day your body gets in that rhythm and after a few weeks there are no further benefits, you reach a plateau. So if that happens to you, they reckon try some longer fasts, but definitely eat well between fasts. There is definitely a big difference in fasts less than 2 days and longer ones (like 2-7 days). Personally I haven’t managed more than 2 days, getting to day 3 is hard for me.

People expect instant results during and after a fast, but it’s not like that. the weight loss that occurs from fasting is not due to the lack of calories and that’s why it’s not instant. The weight loss happens more gradually because the fasting lowers baseline insulin, and then the lower baseline insulin helps with less hunger and less storage of incoming fuel.