Intermittent Fasting Help

fasting
(grace) #1

Cannot stay on IF for more than a week. I’ve been on ketogenic lifestyle since 10/2019. My total weight loss fluctuates between 5-7 pounds, and has been the same for 3 months. I try IF usually 16:8 or 18:6.

(Kristen Ann) #2

How long have you been IFing?

#3

Odd thing about fasting it a mental thing I fast but have my entire life all people do just think you eat at 6 wake up shower get dressed it know 7 that’s 13 hours of fasting if you wait till 10 am to have bullet proof coffee there 16 hrs fasting and you did your liver a favor too boot fasting truly easy just allow you body to adept baby steps

(grace) #4

I have been trying to IF for about 3 months. I’ll last about 10 days, get off the cycle and then it takes me about 10 days to get back to IF.

#5

IF happened naturally for me - I did 18/6 because I simply wasnt hungry in the mornings. It started about 3 months into keto.
THEN, I got the keto rash really badly and was suffering with this tremendously. Hard to imagine how torturous itching can become- keeping me awake at night and just all over my body from neck to knees. Although always sure that I wanted to stay keto, add to this a case of sinusitis and I was off IF. I just couldn’t do it.
So at the moment I am just ketoing on - 2-3 meals a day. I seem to need breakfast at about 9 or 10, and sometimes I have pork rinds at night as a snack. I have not been on the scale since I stopped IF. I suspect once I have gotten over these obstacles, I will IF again.
I just met a gal who has been eating keto for one year and she told me she lost about 10 kilos in a whole year. She did not seem in such a rush either - she was happy. When I think of how the scale was creeping ever higher before keto, and now it is creeping ever lower- I think I am in a good place. If I want the weight loss to quicken up, IF is there and waiting for me to resume. I will when I am ready. Right now I just wish I would stop itching.

(bulkbiker) #6

How are you doing it?
Just water for a period then eating or?

I find coffee with cream greatly eases any hunger pangs I may have in the morning and enables not eating until early afternoon at the earliest.

#7

I don’t try. If hungry, I eat. I eat big, not snacks, I have a meal.

Increasingly I find myself not being hungry, either for breakfast or for lunch, or even both.

I just flow with it. I allow my body to send me signals, and I satisfy them. I think the trick - for me - is to not snack at all and to eat big when hungry.

#8

If you can’t do it, don’t do it. I never forced IF, it came to me naturally but my diet matters very much. I almost always do IF on any diet but my eating window usually diminishes if I eat less carbs.

What is your problem? Hunger? Try to eat more then or choose more satiating food if you are adamant about doing IF. When I did OMAD for a little while (it was promising as 2 meals were too much for me but not the right method in the end), I could do it even with much carbs, I just needed a big meal and I ate my food even if I got satiated (it didn’t necessarily sit well with me despite I am very used to eating a lot after reaching satiation). I prefer if I just eat when I want and stop when I want. On a good diet it’s still IF (it’s usually IF anyway but carbs easily cause chaos in my life and I want fat-loss too).

So I think you need to change your diet somehow. It’s carbs for me but it may be something totally different in your case…

If you had a way bigger eating window before, do it gradually, maybe? Many people do that. And many of us simply skip a meal when we aren’t hungry around that time anymore… You can use crutches too, for a while, many people drink coffee with some fat or heavy cream instead of real fasting…

(grace) #9

Hi. Interesting. The creamer wouldn’t break the fast? When I do stay on 18/6 or 16/8 fast, I’m not really hungry but eat about 1200-1500 calories, a lot of water, no snack, 2 meals; then I get really hungry about day 12, eat anywhere from 2200-2800 calories and it takes awhile to get back.

(grace) #10

3 months. Thank you for reaching out!

#11

If you can’t eat enough on IF, that’s easily becomes a problem. I need to make sure I eat at least 1500-1600 kcal (and sometimes more). If I can’t do that on a small eating window (like, 1 hour, it’s doable but not always easy), I use a bigger window, that’s better than forcing it.
6-8 hour is huge, you probably have some decent chance if use other food, drink many of your calories, eat when satiated if that’s doable and okay for you… Unfortunately, sometimes we eat too much in a bigger window and almost inevitably eat too little on a smaller one, I had that with TMAD/OMAD and I changed my diet in the end.

But 11 days are fine, it’s 3 for me… You can do IF for a while, having a higher calorie day (I regularly have one, not planned, it just happens but my eating window often gets bigger then) and continue your IF… You should lose and get other benefits this way too.

(bulkbiker) #12

Cream not creamer… proper double cream.

(grace) #13

I meant cream. Sorry. I just thought anything but water, black coffee and tea breaks the fast unless you’re saying coffee with cream in between meals is holding you over?

(bulkbiker) #14

If you are doing IF every day then I don’t see 10 ml of cream per 400ml mug of coffee doing too much harm…

For me I see it as a small crutch that helps… plus it makes coffee nicer…

#15

It might actually break the fast. Fasting is all about insulin. Anything that makes insulin secretion breaks the fast. Thats why I think maybe coconut oil is better.

#16

If I fast, it’s water, plain tea, black coffee, definitely not carbs and calories BUT I only like cream in my coffee, it helps nothing. If I am hungry, I still need to eat. So I don’t sacrifice anything important.
It’s not true fasting but very very close to it and if the amount is tiny, probably all benefits are there… I always saw people being unsure about it and I didn’t care because I won’t use cream and fat anyway.
But it helps many people and it’s better than eating more. Its effect on insulin is tiny so if it helps, it’s good enough for many people. If their goal is fat-loss, it’s clearly worth it if some slightly fatty coffee makes meal skipping way easier.

Many of us do some woe not in the “true”, “clean”, “pure” or whatever way. It doesn’t mean we are wrong. We just get enough benefits without giving up something that is too important for us. Maybe it’s just a crutch in the very beginning…
If we consume calories, we easily may interfere with autophagy but if it’s very tiny, mostly fat or we are close to our eating window, it’s not that bad, at least many of us think so. It’s still not advisable unless one needs it for an easier fasting. So it’s not “okay, do it if you want, it doesn’t matter if you eat some fat/cream in your fasting window”, it’s a help if it’s too hard without it.

(bulkbiker) #17

Thinking about and even smelling food can prompt insulin secretion though so…?

#18

Breaking a fast from an autophagy standpoint, yes. Breaking it in a way that really matters otherwise… no, not really.

#19

If you’re getting results when you do fast and making sure you’re getting in a good amount I wouldn’t worry about it. 2200-2800 calories really isn’t a lot. You SHOULD have higher calorie bursts like that. Keeps the metabolism guessing. You don’t want your metabolism to “adapt” and slow down. I did just that do myself from a ton of fasting both IF and water fasting. Was never hungry, felt awesome. Still paying for it now! Keep things changing all the time!

#20

@MarkGossage
listen to youtube- Dr Berry tells you what is forbidden while fasting- because it breaks the fast.
and smelling sweet is a bit of a stretch…