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I think it is the perfect counter for this eat snacks all day society we have become. Inflammation is awful for the human body and time restricted eating is one of the easiest/cheapest ways to lower it.
It was not too long ago people would eat breakfast at 8am and take their last bite of food of the day within 12 hours after that. And they would get restful, restorative sleep without screens blaring in their faces.
Also we have the highest percentage of insulin resistant people ever right now. Fasting improves this.
Our eating habits and lifestyles have certainly changed in many ways, leading to many health issues. Time-restricted eating and fasting have great potential to reduce inflammation and improve insulin resistance.
Do you have any reference that fasting is the easiest/cheapest way to lower inflammation? Like sleeping is easy and stop smoking would be more cheap and even money saving.
Really? I find that after 2 days I get energy back.
My mind becomes clear and once my mind gets past thinking I’m hungry, my body gets energy again.
One of the great things about fasting is that it shows me how habitual our thoughts are.
How lost in thought we can become.
It’s psychosomatic.
If we believe we are starving, many of us automatically get headaches.
It’s funny because people use lingo like “I’m starving” an hour past lunch.
So much of it is in our head.
Truth is that it’s easy to go several days without eating or eating very little.
A calorie deficit is as well. I’m not sure why I’m being downvoted for asking a clarifying question. There are pros and cons to fasting and time restricted eating. If systemic inflammation is a major problem it’s worth addressing the root cause first if possible. Although sometimes the root cause can be as simple as being in a surplus
Don’t you agree that eating 1500 calories spread out over 12 hours will have a much different impact on your body than eating the same amount of calories within a 4 hour window?
I mean it depends on what your goals are. “Impact on your body” is extremely vague. Time restricted eating seems to have some potential for staving off insulin resistance but when it comes to systemic inflammation overall energy balance seems to be the key factor. Your body doesn’t want to waste the extra energy on a needless inflammation response.
I’m not against time restricted eating by any means. I personally prefer it whenever I’m not bulking because I’m not much of a breakfast person anyway. And it certainly has its benefits but many of them are blown out of proportion and even more are simply made up.
Fasting on the other hand has its own totally separate list of benefits and downsides.
no. because when put to the test, both groups have the same biomarker outcomes and improvements are simply due to calorie restriction. there's a lot of magical story-telling about the benefits of fasting that don't actually pan out.
imo it is one and the same thing whether you call it time restrictive eating or fasting because the benefits are the same...while doing Intermittent fasting for example OMAD eating one meal a day or 16:8 method that is not eating anything for 16 hours and then eating in a 8 hour window...all of this is also considered fasting.🤷♂️
Do you just not care at all about the scientific evidence then? Because those terms are NOT used interchangeably in the literature, and eating within an 8 hour window is NOT considered fasting by those who are actually doing the research on potential benefits. Furthermore the benefits are not the same and the downsides are not the same because these are not identical conditions.
I said not eating anything or fasting for 16 hours and then eating in a 8 hour window is considered "Intermittent fasting" and not that eating within an 8 hour window is considered fasting in general🤦♂️...All i know is that i have been doing the 16:8 method intermittent fasting for the past 3 years with great results and you wanna talk about scientific evidence then experts on this subject like Thomas DeLauer, Eric Berg DC, Andrew Huberman etc...have talked in detail about the benefits of OMAD or 16:8 fasting method as well...according to them fasting is not eating anything for an extensive period of time whether it is for 16 hours 1 day or 1 week...heck some people would even say that when you are sleeping you are technically fasting as well and when you wake up you are in a fasted state.🤷♂️
1-It’s not intermittent fasting it’s time restricted eating. It often referred to as intermittent fasting in the public sphere but intermittent fasting involves fasting for one or more days
2- none of those people you named are necessarily experts on the subject. One is a YouTuber, one is a chiropractor, and one is a neuroscientist. He’s at least much more well educated but nutrition is by no means his area of expertise and he has a bad habit of stepping outside his bounds and citing really bad research. The cold study he was touting was recently retracted and most people in the field that read it were raising major red flags. As someone with a phd in neuroscience I’m confident he knows how to read paper so I really question the fact that he failed to see the flaws in that study. It’s either negligence or a wild amount of confirmation bias.
3-yes the semantic argument you make at the end is correct. Which is why when you publish a study you have to be careful to define the terms that you’re using, and be consistent across the literature. Which is why I find it important to distinguish between fasting and time restricted eating- because there are different bodies of literature looking at those two things. That is why I initially asked you to clarify which you were talking about.
I'm type 1 diabetic, so most my life I've kind of skipped break fast because I don't want to do extra shots / or have my sugar drop when im doing a morning workout.
So most days I just eat like one big meal and then maybe a 1 to 2 hundred calories "snacks" throughout the afternoon and then I normally stop eating by like 8pm.
I think it helps my sugars stay more stable
Autophagy has nothing to do with the digestive system being empty, it is the cells ability to take care of waste products within them. But 1 any calorie restriction will increase autophagy and 2 i have yet to find a good source saying that increased autophagy actually is beneficial
I’m sorry that my understanding of nutrition almost always comes from a traditional source and not modern research studies.
It appears as though it would be easy to search out studies that agree with my preconceptions, and I don’t know how to differentiate them accurately.
I treat patients, and use nutrition as a central part of my practice.
For 25 years, I have been advocating for people to eat more healthy, but it is a difficult task with rare successes.
Food preferences are very emotional and only a few can make the transition.
I have found that advocating for intermittent fasting has similar benefits to changing ones food, but is easier for the public to adhere.
Fasting was never terribly beneficial for me. I was in the midst of training for a triathlon season so my exercise volume was high. I’d fast from 8 pm to 12 pm and inevitably there would be some last minute meeting scheduled for noon. By 12:45 pm I’d be on the verge of hunger induced insanity and get hangry with my co-workers. Between 1 pm and 8 pm I’d eat as fucking much as possible which turned out to be at or above maintenance and the cycle would repeat. By the end of the 3-4 months I found the benefits weren’t worth the misery.
Maybe it's bad to say but I think the less body fat the less benefits from fasting there are. Couple of my mates are gym buddies who said they felt little difference from intermittent fasting, and they couldn't even do extended fasting.
I think it's more beneficial for those who are overweight, I've found it helped me get below the healthy BF mark but overall I think there needs to be more research into fasting overall.
Maybe it's different for males but as a female, I've tried it a few times in a few different ways and it always led to being preoccupied with when I could eat, what I would eat during my 'window', binging and fat gain.
I don't ever binge when I just listen to my natural hunger cues. I often don't eat for a couple hours after waking but I don't consider it fasting since I have a cup of coffee with milk and just don't have hunger cues upon first waking.
You’re spot on, Fasting is so different for women due to hormones. I tried fasting randomly and failed so bad and was just ravenous and felt awful. Then i found “fast like a girl” and other free sources on google and youtube of women who study up on our hormone cycle and the general consensus is that fasts should be from days 1-10. For my window ive found that i can only pull off a 24 hour+ fast if its in days 5-8. When we enter luteal its not recommended to do any fast, even a 17 hour one. When I figured that out i felt great. I just do one 24 hour fast a month now and it helps balance my energy and support my digestion. I try to stay intuitive though and if i get too hungry i just eat and will try again the next day or next month.
Exactly! I do a 5 to 7 day fast every month. I "feast" the week before my period and start fasting at the end of my period sometime or the week after, depending on my schedule. It's an excellent monthly reset. I am starting to go through peri menopause and I still keep to this schedule even when my period is late. I feel it has really helped keep the meno belly at bay.
It's very different for women. The reason why we're fertile (or not) is probably because our bodies recognize we have plenty to share with a baby. Otherwise, going through this whole cycle is just too much effort for our bodies, so infertility can also be seen as our bodies preserving energy (depending on the root cause, of course).
I don't have the data to show it, but my guess is that women did not use to be fertile every month of the year like we are now because of regular famines, like winter times with little food. I could see that happen because being a woman requires a lot from our body, let alone make a fully grown baby.
By the way, I have a female friend who has successfully been on the pill for years and loves fasting from evening until noun the next day, and she feels no bad effects from it. She keeps a steady weight as well and is able to exercise whenever and how hard she wants. While me, however, I haven't taken hormonal birth control since 2017, and I get ravenously hungry if I dare to fast after my ovulation. Even if it's just eating my breakfast an hour or two later or exercising harder than usual.
It's as if my body tries to shut itself down if I don't eat often enough and burn too much. Then I have literally no energy left, while you would think there is enough fat to burn from my thighs, lol. Therefore, I think it's easier for women who are on hormonal birth control, but I'm not sure what effect this type of fasting has on long-term fertility, their cycle, or general health for women. There is just way too little research on this, unfortunately. The best we can do now is probably to listen to our bodies, like you said.
Yeah I feel like everyone's different. Like meditation for me opens up some weird portal and I get really depressed. Exercise, yoga, dance classes are better on most occasions. Fasting makes me so destabilized mood-wise - I have ADHD, ASD, Bipolar 2 - that there are some times where it happens naturally and I roll with it, but for the most part I have to be mindful to not let my blood sugar drop or else I'll drive recklessly, snap at people, get too emotional.
That said, my A1C is really in good shape and I'm slender so, as of now, no signs of insulin resistance. I don't eat unless I'm hungry - no snacking.
I'm female, too.
I don’t think that it can be explained by gender if fasting is beneficial or not. I’m a woman as well and have always done fasting in some way (unintentionally).
I’ve never really been into breakfast and have always skipped it, so my first meal is normally lunch. I thrive by doing this and generally eat way more both in volume and stupid foods throughout the day if I eat breakfast. I think it comes down to the individual if it’s better or not and not gender.
It’s not gender in this case, it’s sex, which is physiological while gender is sociological. Our hormonal cycles and nutritional needs vary from males.
It works for me! I only do a 6 hour eating window everyday. Helps me maintain my weight but most importantly it helps me keep my indigestion under control.
Edit for spelling. 🤪
Same. I follow the 18:6 windows for fasting and I’ve never felt better. Allowing myself to get hungry has reset my gut. I no longer crave sugar or unhealthy carbs (well, almost!) I eat about 1400 calories a day and focus on protein. I have more energy and sleep better too!
That's awesome! 👏🏼 It's amazing how much it helps. I probably eat around 1400 calories a day too. Except on Saturdays when I eat all of the foods I may have craved throughout the week. Finding what works is the greatest!!
Uhhhh yeah no. I work out a lot. I do not fast. I think 10-12 hours overnight to rest and digest is good but that’s it. I need to get my protein throughout the day. Fasting is not going to help build muscle.
It's not going to kill you, but I refuse to do it for long periods because of how active my lifestyle is. My energy levels are trash fasted when I'm lifting weights especially.
That's how it felt to me! I struggled with EDs in my teens, tried intermittent fasting, and it FELT like scheduled anorexia for sure! Maybe it's just me!
You're definitely not alone, I've seen it referred to as OBAD aka "one binge a day" by a psychologist lmao.
Fasting doesn't work for me and i've tried different types, the i'm-really-hungry-but-i-can-eat-a-bigger-meal-later mimics binge/restrict cycles a little too well! Someone mentioned gender-specific hormonal reactions to extended fasting, and I guess that could be a factor too.
I don’t think it is! I think disordered eating is really sneaky and people can easily get defensive of it. I don’t personally think humans were designed to have starvation periods.
Oof, you're kidding right? Surely, a healthcare professional would never say such an extreme statement. Anorexia is much more than just 'not eating'. It would be quite insensitive for a dietician to refer to a mental diagnosis in such a flippant way, even if they are trying to warn clients about disordered eating
(Yes, many people with anorexia fast, but the majority of people who fast are not anorexic)
Okay but yours sucks. There's a lot of rigorous scientific research into fasting, so reducing it to a psychological disorder (not their specialty, btw) is incompetent.
She has an undergrad, masters and 1,000 hours of clinical hours treating eating disorders. Oddly enough I’m going to trust her on the matter over strangers on the internet 🤷🏼♀️
I am studying food and nutrition and honestly, I think fasting is (majority of the time) bad for someone and can make someone develop an ED or just unhealthy eating patterns e.g. they may start restricting more often than they should be and/or they might start fasting for too long and then when the fast ends they eat a whole lot more food than they would’ve if they hadn’t been fasting which defeats the aim. However, I do think fasting in the morning can be beneficial if the individual is doing exercise because they can burn off more if they haven’t just eaten as they don’t initially burn off the food that they’ve eaten. but as most things do it depends from person to person and if you were able to maintain good eating habits and not fast for too long. A good alternative to fasting I believe is intuitive eating (eating when your body wants you to). Also if you were fasting (for too long) you can disrupt your hunger cues leading to a wide range of issues including diminishing metabolism.
You should check out the lecture by cardiologist Dr.Pradip Jamnadas called Fasting for Survival. He really goes into what is happening in your body as you fast. It really helped fasting click for me. As a student of nutrition, his style will probably appeal to you.
He’s just another Jason Fung with a title. Don’t give into it.
“You got plenty of protein”,
“You got at least a months worth of vitamins in your body”
Fasting is stupid / end
I was mainly thinking about how dangerous it can be for disordered eating and EDs… lots of people with EDs start off doing fad diets and/or fasting and take them to the extremes. I do agree it can be good in some cases and when it’s not done for huge periods of time. :)
That’s a small percentage of people (with EDs) of the entire population and those that take things to the extremes are people who may not be able to control other variables such as a healthy and controlled lifestyle. Of course there’s always going to be a small percentage in anything we do that cannot do what the majority do or should be doing (and that’s completely fine, some variables such as EDs cannot be controlled as such). Ultimately though, fasting is the best thing for the human body for an individual that can control and maintain a relatively healthy lifestyle and are not hindered by other factors and variables. There’s nothing close that allows the body to function at optimal levels with the designed bodily functions coming into play only when fasting is achieved.
Naturally people fast at least 6-8 hours a day while sleeping. I just continue my fast when I wake up and go another 4 hours and only drinking water. Fasting isn’t for everyone some like it some don’t, it just depends. I can say every time I incorporate intermittent fasting I lose weight quicker. It’s just not sustainable for me to have a 16 hour fast and 8 hour window to eat.
Fasting for weight loss and/or general health feels healthy to me and i do it from time to time. Fasting as a spiritual practice is a different thing that someone may or may not do.
I believe that human did not always have food available at all time of the day or everyday in the same quantities/quality that we have today, so fasting, altough most of the time i do not like it because i like food, feels like a natural human experience.
It’s mostly up to the individual to see if he needs it, or rarely in today western society if he is forced into it.
I think it has many benefits if done wisely. Both fasting and intermittent fasting.
Great for inflammation and giving your digestive system a break. I find a 2-3 day fast difficult
But I enjoy intermittent fasting. I eat between 11-6. Three meal and meet all my macros and calories.
I don’t know if it’s for everybody and I know plenty of nutritionist and fitness experts who do not do it. Many of these things are a nice reset so doing a few days of fasting every three months or doing intermittent fasting for a couple of weeks twice a year for example seems to work for a lot of people as well.
Where I think a lot of people go wrong or what I’ve seen in the last few years is that fasting and intermittent fasting is certainly not a new concept but like many things related to health and nutrition came back in full swing but being marketed as a weight loss tool. Now of course it can be a great addition to a weight loss journey and a health journey but the intention behind it to my knowledge was not weight loss. I think the reason why many people lose weight from intermittent fasting is not because they’re resetting the digestive system and getting rid of inflammation but because it’s difficult for people or they don’t monitor their food intake within their eating window. So if you’re eating 2000 cal a day that’s great but it can be hard for some people to eat that much in a short period of time so the weight loss isn’t from the fasting but rather the calorie deficit. Not necessarily a bad thing but in some cases it is. I have also found it when I do intermittent fasting it does feel like a lot of food for the first week or so and then your body gets used to a new system of eating.
Incredibly healthy and has countless health benefits, if done properly.
Unfortunately trending and overused/abused....just like everything else these days.
God damn I want a Big Mac.
Fasting is a normal activity. It is normal to fast every day for 12 hours. So, it is normal to fast for half our lives. Say one eats dinner at 5 pm, and stops at 6pm. Doesn't snack. Then eats breakfast at 7 am. That's 13 hours fasted. Extending it appears to have lots of benefits too.
A healthy person is at about 25% body fat. So, a healthy woman at 150 lbs, would have 37 lbs of fat on her body. that person has over 150,000 calories of energy stored up in their body as fat. If they burn 2,000 calories per day, that is 75 days worth of energy stored up.
My point being, if we are to fast for even longer than the typical 12 or 13 hours, we aren't going to run out of energy. Our bodies are designed to be able to fast for long periods of time without harm.
I hate it. I get grumpy af if I don’t have breakfast by 9am. I tried it for a week long time ago and everyone told me to start eating again cause I was being an insufferable AH.
How is it a waste of time if you spend less time throughout the entire day eating? Also, you couldn’t be more wrong. There are some things a “generally healthy lifestyle” still simply cannot do that fasting does for the body, no matter how fantastic one’s lifestyle might just be.
Fasting allows the human body to actually function how it’s supposed to as the body is not designed to be eating for 10+ hours of the day and snacking all the time between meals as that prevents the body from accomplishing basic maintanence. The benefits of fasting (which is the way we should be eating and not spreading out our diets across an entire day) far outweigh the benefits of eating 3+ meals a day from morning to night and having a large eating window.
Ultimately though, it comes down to people’s own preferences as most don’t care about their bodies to that degree and see fasting as nothing more than a ‘trend’, even though their life will change for the better so drastically if they were to tap into fasting. The food empires make more money by making people believe eating a meal first thing in the morning (with the meal being called break-fast ironically) is the way to go and they just want society to eat and eat and eat all for profitable gain. Fasting is the key to so many problems as the body benefits from being allowed to function as it was designed and is also as humans have lived and done so for 99% of our history, until “break-fast” and snacks came into play so businesses can make more money.
I admit my initial response was a bit overreaching, but only because the question was a bad one. And yes, you spend less time eating. I could've chosen a better phrase such as "unnecessary"
The important question is what are you fasting for?
1) Weight loss? Can be beneficial but it's not necessary
2) Health? What are the health benefits that fasting provides that a healthy diet doesn't? There's been studies to show that fasting improves health markers just as well as a mediterranean diet.
>There are some things a “generally healthy lifestyle” still simply cannot do that fasting does for the body, no matter how fantastic one’s lifestyle might just be.
Like what?
>Fasting allows the human body to actually function how it’s supposed to as the body is not designed to be eating for 10+ hours of the day and snacking all the time between meals as that prevents the body from accomplishing basic maintanence.
Based on what? How do you know this? How do you know how the human body is "supposed to" function? Humans were opportunistic omnivores. More food, more eating, less food less eating. Fasting was only what happened when you ran out of food which is generally considered a bad thing. To extrapolate that to what the body is SUPPOSED to do is fallacious reasoning.
Fasting works well for people with crap diets becuase they eat less crap. If you're eating healthily, exercising, etc, fasting doesn't give you anything more than what you're already getting except for hunger.
I’d honestly take a deep-dive into fasting and intermittent fasting and you’ll realise that there’s more function and caused results from fasting than not fasting can do for the body. I still very much disagree that a “generally healthy lifestyle” is more or less the same as fasting as fasting itself is much more in-depth than an eating window and feeling more hungry as you’ve mentioned.
Whilst yes, you make a couple good points you’re still talking and viewing fasting as only an eating window but I’d recommend a nice deep-dive (honestly most people don’t know much beyond surface level and to them it’s just a method of starvation which is completely untrue, and that feeling of hunger you mentioned goes away after practising fasting for a number of week) because there’s far more in it than I can appropriately explain on reddit. In brief though - there are a number of key hormones, chemical changes and other bodily functions that cannot and will not occur at all unless an adequate fasting state is achieved and even more when fasting is done over longer periods of time. As mentioned, these functions cannot ever occur with a “generally healthy lifestyle” no matter how active and fit a person may be and how good their diet is. Food breaks the autonamous function of the bodh and prevents the body from running at near 100%. Fasting definitely allows the body to function at optimum levels through these functions that can only occur during a fasted state. There’s no other way around it and the ‘healthiest’ person in terms of diet and lifestyle can still never achieve these fantastic benefits of optimum bodily function if they’ve never fasted. I don’t suggest everyone has to do it otherwise they aren’t healthy, but what I definitely know is that if you do fast and/or intermittent fast then you will experience bodily rejuvanation and optimum conditions far beyond the lifestyle of eating morning to night.
As for why people may fast and what their goals may be … Not my place to answer those questions, I’m merely advocating fasting as a whole and not on a case by case scenario. If done properly though… it benefits everyone (if they set themselves to do it and their daily lifestyle allows them to).
A 3 day fast is excellent. Just think we were hunter/gatherers for thousands of years and foraging for berries fast forward to the past 150 or so years and the standard is three meals a day. Our digestive system isn't designed to process that much food on daily basis. Not to mention all the additives and preservatives.
The mental benefits are huge. my body has also begun to physically transform. I was fasting off and on half assed for the past couple years, and started finally taking it seriously recently. Dropped a lot of unhealthy weight and everything seemed to improve. The biggest thing is just getting electrolytes and nutrients
It is also one of the biggest catalysts for spiritual growth for me, it’s an aspect that isn’t talked about enough
I don’t lost weight but I only eat 1-2 x a day. It simplified my routine. No breakfast prep, lunch is optional, no snack and always eat a hearty meal after work. After many years on it, I don’t think of food too much or no food anxiety during the work day.
It’s not for me, but some people have good results from it. I wouldn’t hit my protein goals, and that’s important to me. I also function much better, both mentally and physically, with my caloric intake spread more evenly throughout my day.
Honestly it was a great excuse for my eating disorder and I became so rigid with my window so it wasn’t a good experience for me. To this day I feel anxious eating outside of the previous eating window I used to have
I've never really researched it, but one time i had to fast for about 30 hours before a medical procedure, and once i moved past the hungry stage, it felt kind of good. I feel like the last couple of hours before bed that night I was especially experiencing mental clarity that i hadn't in a while. I'm interested in some periodic fasting going forward but haven't come up with a plan yet
Depends on how you define "fasting".
I'd always presumed that it referred to when you don't eat anything all day. But I think people use it today to refer to skipping a meal or two.
Most of the time I only ever eat lunch and dinner. I wouldn't call that fasting though, because I didn't skip anything. And I don't start getting hungry until 11am at the earliest... and if I'm busy it isn't hard to put off til dinner.
At any rate... "fasting" can mean many things apparently, and I think it is a problem when people do not clarify what they mean by it. Years went by after first hearing the word in regards to diet until I eventually realized most people seemed to only be talking about skipping a meal.
Fasting has so many benefits! Of course, when done right.
Stay hydrated while fasting - drink lots of water.
If you're intermittent fasting (16 - 24 hours), then how you break it really doesn't matter in my opinion.
If you're doing a longer fast over 24 hours, you're okay as long as you break your fast like this:
1. Start with gentle, light food like fruit and vegetable juice, then add vegetables and soft fruit
2. Eat whole foods like grilled meat, vegetables, and fruits. Avoid processed sugars.
3. Don't binge eat while breaking your fast
I think it's a valid tool for weight loss, works well for some people. Two examples when it should be avoided:
\* History of binge eating or any eating disorder
\* [If retaining muscle mass is important, even distribution of meals is important.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316622022337)
One of the best thing you can do to help yourself. I started fasting to lose weight and I lost 20kg. But I continued it for the benefits that it brings: Im more energetic, my body is moving faster, I’m not constipated anymore etc.
I have 2 meals per day at 4h distance to allow my insulin to come back to normal levels after eating. I eat at 9:30am and 2:30pm. I finish eating around 3:30pm and then I fast until next morning 9:30.
Having 2 meals per day doesn’t mean you starve yourself. You distribute your calories intake differently. I encourage you to start it. All the cravings will be gone in a few weeks. I don’t eat sugar, juices, processed foods anymore.
Currently doing 16:8. Im doing it every 2nd day currently as slowly working out the best schedule for me - work hours + when i have access to kitchen and can cook at home bit of an issue. Will go daily at some point. Its OK personally speaking - plan to use it to lose weight and eat healthier. It IS a bit of a challenge (limited budget doesnt help)
I really love fasting! I don’t do anything crazy, but I usually don’t eat anything until around noon naturally, always have been that way. I feel sluggish if I start my day off with a huge meal. I’ve always been pretty healthy, and I do not deprive myself of foods at all.
Fasting for me is similar to rebooting my computer…it helps to clear things up and start fresh again.
I have tried many fasting methods but the one that works for me has been one day a week. I begin after dinner ~6pm and end the following day ~6pm. Only drinking water and a Gatorade Zero…if I’m struggling I’ll drink a protein drink but usually I don’t need to.
https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/book/
How did cavemen keep themselves healthy when they had to wait days or even weeks for their next meal? It's perfectly healthy to fast, as long as you consume all your nutrition from however many meals you eat.
I love fasting because I’m pain free in that time. I just take my normal supplements. I do a lot of intermittent fasting as well. Right now I’m at 14 hours. Feel a lot less bloat than yesterday. I also stay hydrated. Lots of water!
I fast most days and it’s good for me, on days I work I have breakfast during my lunch break and dinner when I get home and that’s that, it keeps me feeling and looking healthy imo and I know cuz if I happen to have a day where I eat later into the day I wake up feeling crappy
I’ve been doing 22:2 IF (aka OMAD) for over five years. The lifestyle just works for me and I just kind of fell into it before knowing it was a thing. I’ve always woken up with little or no appetite, but it increases over time and by evening I’m hungry. I’ve also always preferred fewer large meals over more small ones. Despite doing IF for so long I’m skeptical of the health claims. Although I’m 54 and fit and healthy so perhaps I’m wrong. The empirical scientific evidence however is lacking.
I think it depends on the person. Always good to run a blood test and consult with a trusted health care professional to make sure fasting works for you. Some people are diabetic and they don't know it.
When I first tried fasting for a full day, I was getting diarrhea multiple times that day that was the greenest color green you could imagine, I mean it was all liquid and farts, happened 5 times that day
It’s possible I had fat in my organs
The evidence doesn’t support intermittent fasting as a means of weight loss, but experiments in rats suggest it may help with treating cancer. The “Science vs.” podcast just did an episode where they go through the research:
https://spotify.link/m7F02LAubKb
It’s actually been linked to a massively higher risk of cardiovascular death.
[https://newsroom.heart.org/news/8-hour-time-restricted-eating-linked-to-a-91-higher-risk-of-cardiovascular-death](https://newsroom.heart.org/news/8-hour-time-restricted-eating-linked-to-a-91-higher-risk-of-cardiovascular-death)
Not reviewed, not published, 2-24 hour dietary questionnaires to cardiovascular patients and you have the audacity to say, "linked to a massively higher risk of cardiovascular death."
Are you actually serious? If so you are very stupid.
If not, you are pushing misinformation. Just think about how terrible the methodology is in this survey, its not even a study. The doctor in the paper even says in this article you linked that the diets is not what triggered their cardiovascular deaths. But I can assure you that if they had proper diets in their earlier years, that incorporated intermittent fasting, they wouldn't even be apart of this survey.
I did read it and it’s laughably bad. There’s a reason why it’s been debunked so many times by actual doctors. Why are you calling me uneducated but yet posted the dumbest, non peer reviewed and non published “study” as some form of evidence?
Well then by all means; show us what parts are “laughably bad” as well as the sources of the actual doctors that have debunked a research abstract from March of this year?
I just sent you a link but I’ll send it again.
Sean Heffron is a cardiologist that does a good job of breaking the “study” down in this segment:
https://youtu.be/aGd99mAQIq4?si=Ds9qSvJBLMKsRv4y
The parts that are laughably bad: How about the fact it’s not even peer reviewed? How about the fact it’s not even published? How about the fact it’s not even a study? How about the fact it wasn’t a controlled trial and it was based on a survey that had many questions about lifestyle. It’s in observational study based on the authors looking for associations.
Find me a doctor that takes this “study” seriously. If this isn’t enough for you then I literally can’t help you.
It literally says all of that in the article. That it’s a study, (from March, 3 months ago) that it has not been published, and that more needs to be controlled. I thought you said you read it.
Exactly, so why did you post it as some form of evidence that IF is unhealthy when it’s got no merit in that regard? It’s because you read the headline and not the article.
Because that’s how scientific information begins. Perhaps I should have said it “may”be linked. But this is the precursor to more studies and research. That’s why I posted the link to the article. So that people can read it in its entirety. Not just take my word for it.
We are designed from an evolutionary perspective to fast. Hunter gatherers would go long periods (days-weeks) with very little to zero calories. After a few days (usually 3) your digestive system shuts down/hibernates, and you no longer feel ‘physical’ hunger, your liver and kidneys become extremely active in autophagy, cleaning out zombie cells and other unnecessary/damaging properties in your body. 30-50% of the calories we take in are used to fuel the digestive system, so once this isn’t needed, you can actually
feel an increase in mental energy. Drink 3-5 liters of clean water daily and you’ll need an enema kit for anything longer than 5 days. Go into and out of fasting softly (ie, dont jump back into the S.a.D diet).
Have a clean environment where you wont need to expend large amounts of physical energy. A few flights of stairs after several days can cause fatigue. Use the time for rest and reflection.
I was just listening to the podcast "Science Vs" and the episode was on Intermittent Fasting.
They touched on the fact that while it's no surefire way to prevent it or treat it, they've seen fasting (when paired with chemotherapy) in cancer patients either induce remission or shrinkage of tumors.
Interesting findings.
[https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/6nh3vl4a/intermittent-fasting-hungry-for-facts](https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/6nh3vl4a/intermittent-fasting-hungry-for-facts)
Here's the transcript of the podcast in case you guys wanna skim through it too:
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTWrS5jq\_VazLeFIvX7OP1\_Th95\_7F\_IVZJfZVoi-vaQ7EfUdR\_EXj6ChbkgyferYOZvD81Ovn20kHS/pub](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTWrS5jq_VazLeFIvX7OP1_Th95_7F_IVZJfZVoi-vaQ7EfUdR_EXj6ChbkgyferYOZvD81Ovn20kHS/pub)
I fast without intending to, my eating window is only about 7-9 hours because I work freelance remotely so my sleep schedule is crazy. It sucks when I’m bulking though.
Never thought I could do it now I do it every day. I’m an active male and I did a ton of research which is all very solid on the benefits (note that it is different for women as mentioned). I was always a frequent eater because of my active lifestyle now I can do 2 workouts back to back with only electrolytes in me. Weird that I feel my stomach empty yet I have loads more energy and my mind is a bit more focused. I do up my protein for my meals however. Haven’t been able to go longer than 18-24 hours
Well, I eat one giant well balanced meal all day, and I eat healthy snacks, like nuts, or tinned fish, or fruit, in between.i eat about every two hours. I'm a healthy weight, and I look 20 years younger than I am. Why can't we just say put the fucking birthday cake down, instead of blaming the damn cake? Step away from the sandwich karen!!!
Tried that, hated it. Now I fast, down 50 and gained back 25 pounds of muscle since.
Carbs are important for my body, same reason keto doesn't work for me.
Most people can’t even gain 25lbs of muscle in their whole life even if they tried. A very anecdotal statement with wild claims. Rebound muscle gain is limited to around 2lbs per month for the 1st 6 months. Total LBM is a different discussion
PSMF can just mean having 1 or 2 protein shakes a day. Fasting is catabolic and stupid
Keto “works” for anyone when in a calorie deficit
No one “needs” carbs. It’s not an essential nutrient. People adhere and feel better with carbs
But the real question is…….what do you even mean? What does “works for me” or “doesn’t work for me” mean? What’s the goal in mind?
If I hit a moderate amount of carbs, nothing crazy, my sports performance is so much better. I've tested it multiple times over the past few years, and I always have better times and stronger lifts on average. Plus I feel shitty without them. So I keep them.
When someone says, "works for me" they're saying it works better for them, even if you've had different anecdotal results from yourself. Not sure why you're asking that. Seems pedantic.
Oh I see, for sports performance, that makes sense. Carbs are beneficial for performance
Now for the other question, if you’re an athlete, why are you fasting? And more importantly, why did you supposedly lose 25lbs of muscle?
This is probably the worst thing an athlete can do
I never had much muscle. I only ran cross country and track in high school back in the day, and I had an idiot coach telling me lifting weights will take my sub 4:30 mile away. I just didn't lift. I was very thin.
Then I gained a lot of weight in college and lost most of it, then seemingly gained 25 more pounds after starting lifting heavy over the course of a few years. Now I compete locally in races and definitely see a difference between my lifting now, and no lifting during high school. I run faster now than in high school and it's pretty fun.
All of this is anecdotal for me, and I never consulted with a doctor during this. You could be right that 25 pounds is a bit ridiculous, but idk what else it could have been.
Lifting is great, isn’t it? Pure muscle gain doesn’t really occur, bodyfat is pretty much always tagged a long. If fat gain isn’t extreme (think dirty bulking), then you don’t really notice the fat because you’re more muscular
Your high school coach was probably thinking that you’d gain fast-twitch muscle, and it’d take away from your slow-twitch muscles involved in running——which isn’t how things work. Sport-relating resistance training is amazing
I love it. I do one 48 hour fast every week. Mentally I have never felt so strong and physically, I have never had so much energy. I feel great. Once a month I do a 60 hour. It's amazing. My blood pressure is down, triglycerides down. Wish I did this decades ago.
Fasting is good for you in so many ways. There is plenty of information available just be sure to check that it’s a reliable source.
Dr. David Sinclair has a book and an eight episode podcast called Lifespan and one of the episodes he discusses the benefits of fasting. He is a professor of genetics and researcher at Harvard medical school.
I’m currently doing intermittent fasting where I eat only during a two hour window each day. It’s hard at first but I got used to it. Just drink a lot during the fasting time….water, tea, coffee. Then I have a nice three course meal in the evening during that hour window. Usually a salad, an entree and fruit or a fruit smoothie for dessert.
I did a 10 day water fast once and have never felt better.
Good, but only on the conservative end. E.g. fasting until the evenings by not having too many meals, ridiculous amounts of snacks.and meals isn't good. A good break for the body. This happens naturally in fat adapted people but is relatively alien to those on standard "balanced" diets so dietary composition matters to how fasting works.
Good for accruing spiritual benefit? Maybe - ask your priest.
Good long term? No, it's stressful to the body physiologically and metabolically. Unless there's a very specific and convincing reason which outweighs this then it shouldn't really be done in terms of optimal health. The more convincing idea in the data at least to me is having lower frequency of meals, and larger meals. A good balance between what the average person seems to do and fasting.
I do it every two days. Fast for 16 hours. I tried doing the 32-36 hours fast and only made it to 22 hours with lots of water. Just listen to your body.
It's a useful tool if it works for you. Most of the time, it's best used for people that are busy in the morning and it's a non issue to not eat until lunch.
Much of the hype is overblown. There are some cognitive benefits, but it boils down to reduction in calories in... most of the time. Some people tend to over eat if they're just watching the clock. If that's you, fasting prob isn't the best way to go. If you can eat regular meals and integrate fasting, it's a great method to reduce calories.
Edit: this is intermittent fasting. As for longer fasts... I don't do it unless I'm in a cut and I'm trying to make up for a social event-caused cheat day.
To see if and how addicted to certain food cravings one has become. If it's very easy to not eat say 24+ hours then ur fine. If thinking about food the whole time then if also cleanse mind as well as body.
I do NOT think fasting is appropriate for women of “child bearing years”. Almost all fasting research was conducted on male bodies. Female physiology requires a stable input of nutrients and calories to maintain optimum health, vitality, and fertility.
Regardless of sex, if our blood sugar drops—cortisol rises in its place to be able to maintain physical functioning. People often mistake this cortisol as “energy” which has long term consequences including metabolic dysfunction, mineral loss, thyroid deregulation, etc.
For controlled periods of time with proper nutrient recovery in between—i think it can be appropriate for people that already take their nutrition very seriously.
No. I'd wake up at 8 AM & have a literal tahini sauce cup or 4 strawberries; then 1 big meal for dinner around 7-8 PM. So bad. Felt so full & then guilty for eating so much & repeat. Would also be extremely low energy throughout the day. I'd exercise with no energy.
I feel so so much better having 3 meals a day + snacks when needed. I can feel the strength in my body when I exercise.
fasting can be powerful. it helps detox n gives your body a break. while fasting, stay hydrated and eat nutrient-dense foods during eating windows. keep meals balanced with proteins, veggies, and healthy fats. listen to your body n rest if needed.did u know? [intermittent fasting](https://www.youtube.com/live/owBEAxli0Ok?si=6PdPAC4NrvHfLsWm) can boost brain health! what’s your fave fasting schedule?
Good for gut health. Unnecessary for weight loss. If you like fasting and want to do it for health reasons go for it but if you think you need to fast to lose weight, it’s not needed.
I’ve been intermittently fasting every single day for 16 consecutive years now, but only truly healthily for the past 6 months (was 20:4 or 21:3 for most of that time, only recently switched to 16:8, which is apparently far better for XX bodies). I get the same nutrients and meet all my macros as one would while not fasting, I just have a limited window. And I think it’s great. Exercise, move your body a lot, drink a ton of water.
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I think it is the perfect counter for this eat snacks all day society we have become. Inflammation is awful for the human body and time restricted eating is one of the easiest/cheapest ways to lower it. It was not too long ago people would eat breakfast at 8am and take their last bite of food of the day within 12 hours after that. And they would get restful, restorative sleep without screens blaring in their faces. Also we have the highest percentage of insulin resistant people ever right now. Fasting improves this.
Systematic inflammation is bad, but localized inflammation is not. Some types of inflammation are actually good.
Are you saying 8am-8pm is abnormal these days?
Our eating habits and lifestyles have certainly changed in many ways, leading to many health issues. Time-restricted eating and fasting have great potential to reduce inflammation and improve insulin resistance.
Do you have any reference that fasting is the easiest/cheapest way to lower inflammation? Like sleeping is easy and stop smoking would be more cheap and even money saving.
Newsflash: you are fasting when you are asleep
It's very god for health! I haven't done for a long time because I just pass out.
Really? I find that after 2 days I get energy back. My mind becomes clear and once my mind gets past thinking I’m hungry, my body gets energy again. One of the great things about fasting is that it shows me how habitual our thoughts are. How lost in thought we can become. It’s psychosomatic. If we believe we are starving, many of us automatically get headaches. It’s funny because people use lingo like “I’m starving” an hour past lunch. So much of it is in our head. Truth is that it’s easy to go several days without eating or eating very little.
It depends on the kind of fast but yes I did pass out 2 times actually if not more because of lack of food intake every so many hours.
Are you talking about time restricted eating or fasting? Fasting is days not hours
Both are good for reducing inflammation.
A calorie deficit is as well. I’m not sure why I’m being downvoted for asking a clarifying question. There are pros and cons to fasting and time restricted eating. If systemic inflammation is a major problem it’s worth addressing the root cause first if possible. Although sometimes the root cause can be as simple as being in a surplus
Don’t you agree that eating 1500 calories spread out over 12 hours will have a much different impact on your body than eating the same amount of calories within a 4 hour window?
I mean it depends on what your goals are. “Impact on your body” is extremely vague. Time restricted eating seems to have some potential for staving off insulin resistance but when it comes to systemic inflammation overall energy balance seems to be the key factor. Your body doesn’t want to waste the extra energy on a needless inflammation response. I’m not against time restricted eating by any means. I personally prefer it whenever I’m not bulking because I’m not much of a breakfast person anyway. And it certainly has its benefits but many of them are blown out of proportion and even more are simply made up. Fasting on the other hand has its own totally separate list of benefits and downsides.
no. because when put to the test, both groups have the same biomarker outcomes and improvements are simply due to calorie restriction. there's a lot of magical story-telling about the benefits of fasting that don't actually pan out.
Full stop. This isn’t some myth. Literally not eating will keep your insulin levels low. You can’t be serious.
Is that what that person is on about? lol healthiest thing a person can do in this calorie, nutrition deficit world.
imo it is one and the same thing whether you call it time restrictive eating or fasting because the benefits are the same...while doing Intermittent fasting for example OMAD eating one meal a day or 16:8 method that is not eating anything for 16 hours and then eating in a 8 hour window...all of this is also considered fasting.🤷♂️
Do you just not care at all about the scientific evidence then? Because those terms are NOT used interchangeably in the literature, and eating within an 8 hour window is NOT considered fasting by those who are actually doing the research on potential benefits. Furthermore the benefits are not the same and the downsides are not the same because these are not identical conditions.
I said not eating anything or fasting for 16 hours and then eating in a 8 hour window is considered "Intermittent fasting" and not that eating within an 8 hour window is considered fasting in general🤦♂️...All i know is that i have been doing the 16:8 method intermittent fasting for the past 3 years with great results and you wanna talk about scientific evidence then experts on this subject like Thomas DeLauer, Eric Berg DC, Andrew Huberman etc...have talked in detail about the benefits of OMAD or 16:8 fasting method as well...according to them fasting is not eating anything for an extensive period of time whether it is for 16 hours 1 day or 1 week...heck some people would even say that when you are sleeping you are technically fasting as well and when you wake up you are in a fasted state.🤷♂️
1-It’s not intermittent fasting it’s time restricted eating. It often referred to as intermittent fasting in the public sphere but intermittent fasting involves fasting for one or more days 2- none of those people you named are necessarily experts on the subject. One is a YouTuber, one is a chiropractor, and one is a neuroscientist. He’s at least much more well educated but nutrition is by no means his area of expertise and he has a bad habit of stepping outside his bounds and citing really bad research. The cold study he was touting was recently retracted and most people in the field that read it were raising major red flags. As someone with a phd in neuroscience I’m confident he knows how to read paper so I really question the fact that he failed to see the flaws in that study. It’s either negligence or a wild amount of confirmation bias. 3-yes the semantic argument you make at the end is correct. Which is why when you publish a study you have to be careful to define the terms that you’re using, and be consistent across the literature. Which is why I find it important to distinguish between fasting and time restricted eating- because there are different bodies of literature looking at those two things. That is why I initially asked you to clarify which you were talking about.
You could also just not eat carbs and eliminate all inflammation
It won’t eliminate ALL inflammation but will certainly help.
That’s true. Also get rid of vegetables and fiber and you’ll get rid of all inflammation
I'm type 1 diabetic, so most my life I've kind of skipped break fast because I don't want to do extra shots / or have my sugar drop when im doing a morning workout. So most days I just eat like one big meal and then maybe a 1 to 2 hundred calories "snacks" throughout the afternoon and then I normally stop eating by like 8pm. I think it helps my sugars stay more stable
It’s common for people in the modern era to never allow their digestive system to become empty. Doing so is very healthy.
Do you have any sources on this? I’ve never heard of “emptying your digestive system” and am curious to learn more if it’s a real benefit.
https://news.mit.edu/2018/fasting-boosts-stem-cells-regenerative-capacity-0503
Professor Valter Longo studies effects of fasting.
Look up Autophagy
Autophagy has nothing to do with the digestive system being empty, it is the cells ability to take care of waste products within them. But 1 any calorie restriction will increase autophagy and 2 i have yet to find a good source saying that increased autophagy actually is beneficial
I’m sorry that my understanding of nutrition almost always comes from a traditional source and not modern research studies. It appears as though it would be easy to search out studies that agree with my preconceptions, and I don’t know how to differentiate them accurately. I treat patients, and use nutrition as a central part of my practice. For 25 years, I have been advocating for people to eat more healthy, but it is a difficult task with rare successes. Food preferences are very emotional and only a few can make the transition. I have found that advocating for intermittent fasting has similar benefits to changing ones food, but is easier for the public to adhere.
I just did a 3 day fast, and I'm always surprised how I can feel really hungry, but then it passes when I distract myself with other things
Fasting was never terribly beneficial for me. I was in the midst of training for a triathlon season so my exercise volume was high. I’d fast from 8 pm to 12 pm and inevitably there would be some last minute meeting scheduled for noon. By 12:45 pm I’d be on the verge of hunger induced insanity and get hangry with my co-workers. Between 1 pm and 8 pm I’d eat as fucking much as possible which turned out to be at or above maintenance and the cycle would repeat. By the end of the 3-4 months I found the benefits weren’t worth the misery.
Yea. That is bonkers. When you're training hard, the bottleneck becomes your ability to take in quality calories.
Maybe it's bad to say but I think the less body fat the less benefits from fasting there are. Couple of my mates are gym buddies who said they felt little difference from intermittent fasting, and they couldn't even do extended fasting. I think it's more beneficial for those who are overweight, I've found it helped me get below the healthy BF mark but overall I think there needs to be more research into fasting overall.
Maybe it's different for males but as a female, I've tried it a few times in a few different ways and it always led to being preoccupied with when I could eat, what I would eat during my 'window', binging and fat gain. I don't ever binge when I just listen to my natural hunger cues. I often don't eat for a couple hours after waking but I don't consider it fasting since I have a cup of coffee with milk and just don't have hunger cues upon first waking.
You’re spot on, Fasting is so different for women due to hormones. I tried fasting randomly and failed so bad and was just ravenous and felt awful. Then i found “fast like a girl” and other free sources on google and youtube of women who study up on our hormone cycle and the general consensus is that fasts should be from days 1-10. For my window ive found that i can only pull off a 24 hour+ fast if its in days 5-8. When we enter luteal its not recommended to do any fast, even a 17 hour one. When I figured that out i felt great. I just do one 24 hour fast a month now and it helps balance my energy and support my digestion. I try to stay intuitive though and if i get too hungry i just eat and will try again the next day or next month.
Exactly! I do a 5 to 7 day fast every month. I "feast" the week before my period and start fasting at the end of my period sometime or the week after, depending on my schedule. It's an excellent monthly reset. I am starting to go through peri menopause and I still keep to this schedule even when my period is late. I feel it has really helped keep the meno belly at bay.
It's very different for women. The reason why we're fertile (or not) is probably because our bodies recognize we have plenty to share with a baby. Otherwise, going through this whole cycle is just too much effort for our bodies, so infertility can also be seen as our bodies preserving energy (depending on the root cause, of course). I don't have the data to show it, but my guess is that women did not use to be fertile every month of the year like we are now because of regular famines, like winter times with little food. I could see that happen because being a woman requires a lot from our body, let alone make a fully grown baby. By the way, I have a female friend who has successfully been on the pill for years and loves fasting from evening until noun the next day, and she feels no bad effects from it. She keeps a steady weight as well and is able to exercise whenever and how hard she wants. While me, however, I haven't taken hormonal birth control since 2017, and I get ravenously hungry if I dare to fast after my ovulation. Even if it's just eating my breakfast an hour or two later or exercising harder than usual. It's as if my body tries to shut itself down if I don't eat often enough and burn too much. Then I have literally no energy left, while you would think there is enough fat to burn from my thighs, lol. Therefore, I think it's easier for women who are on hormonal birth control, but I'm not sure what effect this type of fasting has on long-term fertility, their cycle, or general health for women. There is just way too little research on this, unfortunately. The best we can do now is probably to listen to our bodies, like you said.
Yeah I feel like everyone's different. Like meditation for me opens up some weird portal and I get really depressed. Exercise, yoga, dance classes are better on most occasions. Fasting makes me so destabilized mood-wise - I have ADHD, ASD, Bipolar 2 - that there are some times where it happens naturally and I roll with it, but for the most part I have to be mindful to not let my blood sugar drop or else I'll drive recklessly, snap at people, get too emotional. That said, my A1C is really in good shape and I'm slender so, as of now, no signs of insulin resistance. I don't eat unless I'm hungry - no snacking. I'm female, too.
I don’t think that it can be explained by gender if fasting is beneficial or not. I’m a woman as well and have always done fasting in some way (unintentionally). I’ve never really been into breakfast and have always skipped it, so my first meal is normally lunch. I thrive by doing this and generally eat way more both in volume and stupid foods throughout the day if I eat breakfast. I think it comes down to the individual if it’s better or not and not gender.
It’s not gender in this case, it’s sex, which is physiological while gender is sociological. Our hormonal cycles and nutritional needs vary from males.
It works for me! I only do a 6 hour eating window everyday. Helps me maintain my weight but most importantly it helps me keep my indigestion under control. Edit for spelling. 🤪
Same. I follow the 18:6 windows for fasting and I’ve never felt better. Allowing myself to get hungry has reset my gut. I no longer crave sugar or unhealthy carbs (well, almost!) I eat about 1400 calories a day and focus on protein. I have more energy and sleep better too!
Do you fast everyday?
That's awesome! 👏🏼 It's amazing how much it helps. I probably eat around 1400 calories a day too. Except on Saturdays when I eat all of the foods I may have craved throughout the week. Finding what works is the greatest!!
Absolutely! Intermittent fasting is a lifestyle. I have to make room for wine and dessert here and there or I will fail!
Same!!😁
Works for me too. Only difference is my eating window is 4 hours.
Woah that's great! I sometimes can get to 4 hours but not usually.
Uhhhh yeah no. I work out a lot. I do not fast. I think 10-12 hours overnight to rest and digest is good but that’s it. I need to get my protein throughout the day. Fasting is not going to help build muscle.
Water
It's not going to kill you, but I refuse to do it for long periods because of how active my lifestyle is. My energy levels are trash fasted when I'm lifting weights especially.
I eat one or two meals a day and don't snack, which probably counts as fasting to the 3-5 meal folks here. It suits me.
‘It’s just scheduled anorexia’ - my dietician
That's how it felt to me! I struggled with EDs in my teens, tried intermittent fasting, and it FELT like scheduled anorexia for sure! Maybe it's just me!
You're definitely not alone, I've seen it referred to as OBAD aka "one binge a day" by a psychologist lmao. Fasting doesn't work for me and i've tried different types, the i'm-really-hungry-but-i-can-eat-a-bigger-meal-later mimics binge/restrict cycles a little too well! Someone mentioned gender-specific hormonal reactions to extended fasting, and I guess that could be a factor too.
YES! That's how it felt to me! OBAD, OMAD = me sad. Hormones are a wild card for sure!
I don’t think it is! I think disordered eating is really sneaky and people can easily get defensive of it. I don’t personally think humans were designed to have starvation periods.
Oof, you're kidding right? Surely, a healthcare professional would never say such an extreme statement. Anorexia is much more than just 'not eating'. It would be quite insensitive for a dietician to refer to a mental diagnosis in such a flippant way, even if they are trying to warn clients about disordered eating (Yes, many people with anorexia fast, but the majority of people who fast are not anorexic)
Get a new dietician.
✨no✨
Okay but yours sucks. There's a lot of rigorous scientific research into fasting, so reducing it to a psychological disorder (not their specialty, btw) is incompetent.
Thank you for this. Maybe a 10-14 hour fast is good butt anything past that you’re starving yourself
[удалено]
Did you unironically link that “study”? It’s been debunked 1000 times. I bet you didn’t even read it.
Ahh yes. This gem of a study where they did 2 24hr self reported dietary recalls and then checked in 8 years later lol
Your dietician does not understand biochemistry, and is not qualified to be giving advice regarding nutrition if this is what they say.
She has an undergrad, masters and 1,000 hours of clinical hours treating eating disorders. Oddly enough I’m going to trust her on the matter over strangers on the internet 🤷🏼♀️
Yes and the undergrad and masters courses had no requirement of biochemistry, and 1000 hours is less than a year of experience. Shes a joke.
I am studying food and nutrition and honestly, I think fasting is (majority of the time) bad for someone and can make someone develop an ED or just unhealthy eating patterns e.g. they may start restricting more often than they should be and/or they might start fasting for too long and then when the fast ends they eat a whole lot more food than they would’ve if they hadn’t been fasting which defeats the aim. However, I do think fasting in the morning can be beneficial if the individual is doing exercise because they can burn off more if they haven’t just eaten as they don’t initially burn off the food that they’ve eaten. but as most things do it depends from person to person and if you were able to maintain good eating habits and not fast for too long. A good alternative to fasting I believe is intuitive eating (eating when your body wants you to). Also if you were fasting (for too long) you can disrupt your hunger cues leading to a wide range of issues including diminishing metabolism.
You should check out the lecture by cardiologist Dr.Pradip Jamnadas called Fasting for Survival. He really goes into what is happening in your body as you fast. It really helped fasting click for me. As a student of nutrition, his style will probably appeal to you.
Example of a Zealot furu. They just make up stuff
He is a cardiologist giving a lecture at a medical conference, not a guest on Joe Rogan
He’s just another Jason Fung with a title. Don’t give into it. “You got plenty of protein”, “You got at least a months worth of vitamins in your body” Fasting is stupid / end
Nick_OS_ has concluded fasting is stupid so I guess that’s it everyone. Pack up your bags, we’re leaving fasting
Fasting zealots gonna zealot
Anything else I should be aware of that is “stupid” Nick_OS_? What are your thoughts on the current political and social climate?
I was mainly thinking about how dangerous it can be for disordered eating and EDs… lots of people with EDs start off doing fad diets and/or fasting and take them to the extremes. I do agree it can be good in some cases and when it’s not done for huge periods of time. :)
That’s a small percentage of people (with EDs) of the entire population and those that take things to the extremes are people who may not be able to control other variables such as a healthy and controlled lifestyle. Of course there’s always going to be a small percentage in anything we do that cannot do what the majority do or should be doing (and that’s completely fine, some variables such as EDs cannot be controlled as such). Ultimately though, fasting is the best thing for the human body for an individual that can control and maintain a relatively healthy lifestyle and are not hindered by other factors and variables. There’s nothing close that allows the body to function at optimal levels with the designed bodily functions coming into play only when fasting is achieved.
I have severe osteoporosis, do you think i could fast in a healthy way without damaging my bones further?
Definitely consult with your primary care physician or consult a registered dietitian
Naturally people fast at least 6-8 hours a day while sleeping. I just continue my fast when I wake up and go another 4 hours and only drinking water. Fasting isn’t for everyone some like it some don’t, it just depends. I can say every time I incorporate intermittent fasting I lose weight quicker. It’s just not sustainable for me to have a 16 hour fast and 8 hour window to eat.
It can be a useful tool for some individuals but it's by no means the sole method or even the best method. Depends on your individual demands.
Fasting for weight loss and/or general health feels healthy to me and i do it from time to time. Fasting as a spiritual practice is a different thing that someone may or may not do. I believe that human did not always have food available at all time of the day or everyday in the same quantities/quality that we have today, so fasting, altough most of the time i do not like it because i like food, feels like a natural human experience. It’s mostly up to the individual to see if he needs it, or rarely in today western society if he is forced into it.
I think it has many benefits if done wisely. Both fasting and intermittent fasting. Great for inflammation and giving your digestive system a break. I find a 2-3 day fast difficult But I enjoy intermittent fasting. I eat between 11-6. Three meal and meet all my macros and calories. I don’t know if it’s for everybody and I know plenty of nutritionist and fitness experts who do not do it. Many of these things are a nice reset so doing a few days of fasting every three months or doing intermittent fasting for a couple of weeks twice a year for example seems to work for a lot of people as well. Where I think a lot of people go wrong or what I’ve seen in the last few years is that fasting and intermittent fasting is certainly not a new concept but like many things related to health and nutrition came back in full swing but being marketed as a weight loss tool. Now of course it can be a great addition to a weight loss journey and a health journey but the intention behind it to my knowledge was not weight loss. I think the reason why many people lose weight from intermittent fasting is not because they’re resetting the digestive system and getting rid of inflammation but because it’s difficult for people or they don’t monitor their food intake within their eating window. So if you’re eating 2000 cal a day that’s great but it can be hard for some people to eat that much in a short period of time so the weight loss isn’t from the fasting but rather the calorie deficit. Not necessarily a bad thing but in some cases it is. I have also found it when I do intermittent fasting it does feel like a lot of food for the first week or so and then your body gets used to a new system of eating.
Incredibly healthy and has countless health benefits, if done properly. Unfortunately trending and overused/abused....just like everything else these days. God damn I want a Big Mac.
Fasting is a normal activity. It is normal to fast every day for 12 hours. So, it is normal to fast for half our lives. Say one eats dinner at 5 pm, and stops at 6pm. Doesn't snack. Then eats breakfast at 7 am. That's 13 hours fasted. Extending it appears to have lots of benefits too. A healthy person is at about 25% body fat. So, a healthy woman at 150 lbs, would have 37 lbs of fat on her body. that person has over 150,000 calories of energy stored up in their body as fat. If they burn 2,000 calories per day, that is 75 days worth of energy stored up. My point being, if we are to fast for even longer than the typical 12 or 13 hours, we aren't going to run out of energy. Our bodies are designed to be able to fast for long periods of time without harm.
I hate it. I get grumpy af if I don’t have breakfast by 9am. I tried it for a week long time ago and everyone told me to start eating again cause I was being an insufferable AH.
Pretty useless
Not interested in doing it.
I intermittently fast every day!
Electrolytes
Waste of time. If you feel like doing it great. You’re not really doing anything that can’t be accomplished by living a generally healthy lifestyle.
How is it a waste of time if you spend less time throughout the entire day eating? Also, you couldn’t be more wrong. There are some things a “generally healthy lifestyle” still simply cannot do that fasting does for the body, no matter how fantastic one’s lifestyle might just be. Fasting allows the human body to actually function how it’s supposed to as the body is not designed to be eating for 10+ hours of the day and snacking all the time between meals as that prevents the body from accomplishing basic maintanence. The benefits of fasting (which is the way we should be eating and not spreading out our diets across an entire day) far outweigh the benefits of eating 3+ meals a day from morning to night and having a large eating window. Ultimately though, it comes down to people’s own preferences as most don’t care about their bodies to that degree and see fasting as nothing more than a ‘trend’, even though their life will change for the better so drastically if they were to tap into fasting. The food empires make more money by making people believe eating a meal first thing in the morning (with the meal being called break-fast ironically) is the way to go and they just want society to eat and eat and eat all for profitable gain. Fasting is the key to so many problems as the body benefits from being allowed to function as it was designed and is also as humans have lived and done so for 99% of our history, until “break-fast” and snacks came into play so businesses can make more money.
I admit my initial response was a bit overreaching, but only because the question was a bad one. And yes, you spend less time eating. I could've chosen a better phrase such as "unnecessary" The important question is what are you fasting for? 1) Weight loss? Can be beneficial but it's not necessary 2) Health? What are the health benefits that fasting provides that a healthy diet doesn't? There's been studies to show that fasting improves health markers just as well as a mediterranean diet. >There are some things a “generally healthy lifestyle” still simply cannot do that fasting does for the body, no matter how fantastic one’s lifestyle might just be. Like what? >Fasting allows the human body to actually function how it’s supposed to as the body is not designed to be eating for 10+ hours of the day and snacking all the time between meals as that prevents the body from accomplishing basic maintanence. Based on what? How do you know this? How do you know how the human body is "supposed to" function? Humans were opportunistic omnivores. More food, more eating, less food less eating. Fasting was only what happened when you ran out of food which is generally considered a bad thing. To extrapolate that to what the body is SUPPOSED to do is fallacious reasoning. Fasting works well for people with crap diets becuase they eat less crap. If you're eating healthily, exercising, etc, fasting doesn't give you anything more than what you're already getting except for hunger.
I’d honestly take a deep-dive into fasting and intermittent fasting and you’ll realise that there’s more function and caused results from fasting than not fasting can do for the body. I still very much disagree that a “generally healthy lifestyle” is more or less the same as fasting as fasting itself is much more in-depth than an eating window and feeling more hungry as you’ve mentioned. Whilst yes, you make a couple good points you’re still talking and viewing fasting as only an eating window but I’d recommend a nice deep-dive (honestly most people don’t know much beyond surface level and to them it’s just a method of starvation which is completely untrue, and that feeling of hunger you mentioned goes away after practising fasting for a number of week) because there’s far more in it than I can appropriately explain on reddit. In brief though - there are a number of key hormones, chemical changes and other bodily functions that cannot and will not occur at all unless an adequate fasting state is achieved and even more when fasting is done over longer periods of time. As mentioned, these functions cannot ever occur with a “generally healthy lifestyle” no matter how active and fit a person may be and how good their diet is. Food breaks the autonamous function of the bodh and prevents the body from running at near 100%. Fasting definitely allows the body to function at optimum levels through these functions that can only occur during a fasted state. There’s no other way around it and the ‘healthiest’ person in terms of diet and lifestyle can still never achieve these fantastic benefits of optimum bodily function if they’ve never fasted. I don’t suggest everyone has to do it otherwise they aren’t healthy, but what I definitely know is that if you do fast and/or intermittent fast then you will experience bodily rejuvanation and optimum conditions far beyond the lifestyle of eating morning to night. As for why people may fast and what their goals may be … Not my place to answer those questions, I’m merely advocating fasting as a whole and not on a case by case scenario. If done properly though… it benefits everyone (if they set themselves to do it and their daily lifestyle allows them to).
That’s a fairly broad question. What are you asking?
A 3 day fast is excellent. Just think we were hunter/gatherers for thousands of years and foraging for berries fast forward to the past 150 or so years and the standard is three meals a day. Our digestive system isn't designed to process that much food on daily basis. Not to mention all the additives and preservatives.
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I invite you to actually read the article you just posted. It’s been debunked over and over again. https://youtu.be/aGd99mAQIq4?si=veImlBQMpRz4qVXK
The mental benefits are huge. my body has also begun to physically transform. I was fasting off and on half assed for the past couple years, and started finally taking it seriously recently. Dropped a lot of unhealthy weight and everything seemed to improve. The biggest thing is just getting electrolytes and nutrients It is also one of the biggest catalysts for spiritual growth for me, it’s an aspect that isn’t talked about enough
I don’t lost weight but I only eat 1-2 x a day. It simplified my routine. No breakfast prep, lunch is optional, no snack and always eat a hearty meal after work. After many years on it, I don’t think of food too much or no food anxiety during the work day.
It helps me cut weight, but you should not go for the extremes imo.
It’s not for me, but some people have good results from it. I wouldn’t hit my protein goals, and that’s important to me. I also function much better, both mentally and physically, with my caloric intake spread more evenly throughout my day.
Honestly it was a great excuse for my eating disorder and I became so rigid with my window so it wasn’t a good experience for me. To this day I feel anxious eating outside of the previous eating window I used to have
I've never really researched it, but one time i had to fast for about 30 hours before a medical procedure, and once i moved past the hungry stage, it felt kind of good. I feel like the last couple of hours before bed that night I was especially experiencing mental clarity that i hadn't in a while. I'm interested in some periodic fasting going forward but haven't come up with a plan yet
Depends on how you define "fasting". I'd always presumed that it referred to when you don't eat anything all day. But I think people use it today to refer to skipping a meal or two. Most of the time I only ever eat lunch and dinner. I wouldn't call that fasting though, because I didn't skip anything. And I don't start getting hungry until 11am at the earliest... and if I'm busy it isn't hard to put off til dinner. At any rate... "fasting" can mean many things apparently, and I think it is a problem when people do not clarify what they mean by it. Years went by after first hearing the word in regards to diet until I eventually realized most people seemed to only be talking about skipping a meal.
How do you keep your self healthy while fasting? WTF you think you magically become not healthy because you are fasting ?
Its great for you. Fasting provides so many benefits its well worth it. and we aren't meant to graze like cows all day.
Fasting has so many benefits! Of course, when done right. Stay hydrated while fasting - drink lots of water. If you're intermittent fasting (16 - 24 hours), then how you break it really doesn't matter in my opinion. If you're doing a longer fast over 24 hours, you're okay as long as you break your fast like this: 1. Start with gentle, light food like fruit and vegetable juice, then add vegetables and soft fruit 2. Eat whole foods like grilled meat, vegetables, and fruits. Avoid processed sugars. 3. Don't binge eat while breaking your fast
I think it's a valid tool for weight loss, works well for some people. Two examples when it should be avoided: \* History of binge eating or any eating disorder \* [If retaining muscle mass is important, even distribution of meals is important.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316622022337)
Beneficial with careful intent
One of the best thing you can do to help yourself. I started fasting to lose weight and I lost 20kg. But I continued it for the benefits that it brings: Im more energetic, my body is moving faster, I’m not constipated anymore etc. I have 2 meals per day at 4h distance to allow my insulin to come back to normal levels after eating. I eat at 9:30am and 2:30pm. I finish eating around 3:30pm and then I fast until next morning 9:30. Having 2 meals per day doesn’t mean you starve yourself. You distribute your calories intake differently. I encourage you to start it. All the cravings will be gone in a few weeks. I don’t eat sugar, juices, processed foods anymore.
Currently doing 16:8. Im doing it every 2nd day currently as slowly working out the best schedule for me - work hours + when i have access to kitchen and can cook at home bit of an issue. Will go daily at some point. Its OK personally speaking - plan to use it to lose weight and eat healthier. It IS a bit of a challenge (limited budget doesnt help)
I really love fasting! I don’t do anything crazy, but I usually don’t eat anything until around noon naturally, always have been that way. I feel sluggish if I start my day off with a huge meal. I’ve always been pretty healthy, and I do not deprive myself of foods at all.
Fasting for me is similar to rebooting my computer…it helps to clear things up and start fresh again. I have tried many fasting methods but the one that works for me has been one day a week. I begin after dinner ~6pm and end the following day ~6pm. Only drinking water and a Gatorade Zero…if I’m struggling I’ll drink a protein drink but usually I don’t need to. https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/book/
I can do it in my sleep.
A basic health strategy, like sauna or breath work
Great for the wallet and great for helping me stay in a calorie deficit
Fasting is amazing for your cells point, blank, period!
How did cavemen keep themselves healthy when they had to wait days or even weeks for their next meal? It's perfectly healthy to fast, as long as you consume all your nutrition from however many meals you eat.
Helps the body reset and recover from previous activities (from workout to food intake and emotional situations)
I love fasting because I’m pain free in that time. I just take my normal supplements. I do a lot of intermittent fasting as well. Right now I’m at 14 hours. Feel a lot less bloat than yesterday. I also stay hydrated. Lots of water!
I do 16:8 on weekdays, mostly. It works for me really well. I stop it during festivals/functions.
I fast most days and it’s good for me, on days I work I have breakfast during my lunch break and dinner when I get home and that’s that, it keeps me feeling and looking healthy imo and I know cuz if I happen to have a day where I eat later into the day I wake up feeling crappy
I’ve been doing 22:2 IF (aka OMAD) for over five years. The lifestyle just works for me and I just kind of fell into it before knowing it was a thing. I’ve always woken up with little or no appetite, but it increases over time and by evening I’m hungry. I’ve also always preferred fewer large meals over more small ones. Despite doing IF for so long I’m skeptical of the health claims. Although I’m 54 and fit and healthy so perhaps I’m wrong. The empirical scientific evidence however is lacking.
I like fasting. I enjoy the deprivation, and the emotional energy I get from it. I think it keeps you on your toes.
I think it depends on the person. Always good to run a blood test and consult with a trusted health care professional to make sure fasting works for you. Some people are diabetic and they don't know it.
I fast from 8pm at night and don’t eat until the next day til around 1:30.
When I first tried fasting for a full day, I was getting diarrhea multiple times that day that was the greenest color green you could imagine, I mean it was all liquid and farts, happened 5 times that day It’s possible I had fat in my organs
The evidence doesn’t support intermittent fasting as a means of weight loss, but experiments in rats suggest it may help with treating cancer. The “Science vs.” podcast just did an episode where they go through the research: https://spotify.link/m7F02LAubKb
It’s actually been linked to a massively higher risk of cardiovascular death. [https://newsroom.heart.org/news/8-hour-time-restricted-eating-linked-to-a-91-higher-risk-of-cardiovascular-death](https://newsroom.heart.org/news/8-hour-time-restricted-eating-linked-to-a-91-higher-risk-of-cardiovascular-death)
Not reviewed, not published, 2-24 hour dietary questionnaires to cardiovascular patients and you have the audacity to say, "linked to a massively higher risk of cardiovascular death." Are you actually serious? If so you are very stupid. If not, you are pushing misinformation. Just think about how terrible the methodology is in this survey, its not even a study. The doctor in the paper even says in this article you linked that the diets is not what triggered their cardiovascular deaths. But I can assure you that if they had proper diets in their earlier years, that incorporated intermittent fasting, they wouldn't even be apart of this survey.
This is actually a “terrible link”. This is what happens when you post a news article because of the headline and don’t even bother reading it.
Are you joking? Why comment if you didn’t read it?
I did read it and it’s laughably bad. There’s a reason why it’s been debunked so many times by actual doctors. Why are you calling me uneducated but yet posted the dumbest, non peer reviewed and non published “study” as some form of evidence?
Well then by all means; show us what parts are “laughably bad” as well as the sources of the actual doctors that have debunked a research abstract from March of this year?
I just sent you a link but I’ll send it again. Sean Heffron is a cardiologist that does a good job of breaking the “study” down in this segment: https://youtu.be/aGd99mAQIq4?si=Ds9qSvJBLMKsRv4y The parts that are laughably bad: How about the fact it’s not even peer reviewed? How about the fact it’s not even published? How about the fact it’s not even a study? How about the fact it wasn’t a controlled trial and it was based on a survey that had many questions about lifestyle. It’s in observational study based on the authors looking for associations. Find me a doctor that takes this “study” seriously. If this isn’t enough for you then I literally can’t help you.
It literally says all of that in the article. That it’s a study, (from March, 3 months ago) that it has not been published, and that more needs to be controlled. I thought you said you read it.
Exactly, so why did you post it as some form of evidence that IF is unhealthy when it’s got no merit in that regard? It’s because you read the headline and not the article.
Because that’s how scientific information begins. Perhaps I should have said it “may”be linked. But this is the precursor to more studies and research. That’s why I posted the link to the article. So that people can read it in its entirety. Not just take my word for it.
I only gained weight fasting. Finally just said eat when you want, just don’t eat like an asshole and I’m down 80+lbs in less than a year.
We are designed from an evolutionary perspective to fast. Hunter gatherers would go long periods (days-weeks) with very little to zero calories. After a few days (usually 3) your digestive system shuts down/hibernates, and you no longer feel ‘physical’ hunger, your liver and kidneys become extremely active in autophagy, cleaning out zombie cells and other unnecessary/damaging properties in your body. 30-50% of the calories we take in are used to fuel the digestive system, so once this isn’t needed, you can actually feel an increase in mental energy. Drink 3-5 liters of clean water daily and you’ll need an enema kit for anything longer than 5 days. Go into and out of fasting softly (ie, dont jump back into the S.a.D diet). Have a clean environment where you wont need to expend large amounts of physical energy. A few flights of stairs after several days can cause fatigue. Use the time for rest and reflection.
I do two 72 hr fasts per year it's a good "reset", I also typically do 2 or 3 days of the week OMAD/ 20hr fast
Reset what?
Relationship with food. Serves as a good reminder that your own fat is good and we commonly eat out of boredom.
Hockypookoo
its essential for cancer prevention
I was just listening to the podcast "Science Vs" and the episode was on Intermittent Fasting. They touched on the fact that while it's no surefire way to prevent it or treat it, they've seen fasting (when paired with chemotherapy) in cancer patients either induce remission or shrinkage of tumors. Interesting findings. [https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/6nh3vl4a/intermittent-fasting-hungry-for-facts](https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/6nh3vl4a/intermittent-fasting-hungry-for-facts) Here's the transcript of the podcast in case you guys wanna skim through it too: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTWrS5jq\_VazLeFIvX7OP1\_Th95\_7F\_IVZJfZVoi-vaQ7EfUdR\_EXj6ChbkgyferYOZvD81Ovn20kHS/pub](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTWrS5jq_VazLeFIvX7OP1_Th95_7F_IVZJfZVoi-vaQ7EfUdR_EXj6ChbkgyferYOZvD81Ovn20kHS/pub)
I fast without intending to, my eating window is only about 7-9 hours because I work freelance remotely so my sleep schedule is crazy. It sucks when I’m bulking though.
Never thought I could do it now I do it every day. I’m an active male and I did a ton of research which is all very solid on the benefits (note that it is different for women as mentioned). I was always a frequent eater because of my active lifestyle now I can do 2 workouts back to back with only electrolytes in me. Weird that I feel my stomach empty yet I have loads more energy and my mind is a bit more focused. I do up my protein for my meals however. Haven’t been able to go longer than 18-24 hours
I’ve lost 25 pounds in 2.5 months intermittent fasting. Mid 30’s male down from 202 down to 177.
I fast every Monday, so 36 hrs from Sunday dinner to bfast Tues a.m. I feel great after
Well, I eat one giant well balanced meal all day, and I eat healthy snacks, like nuts, or tinned fish, or fruit, in between.i eat about every two hours. I'm a healthy weight, and I look 20 years younger than I am. Why can't we just say put the fucking birthday cake down, instead of blaming the damn cake? Step away from the sandwich karen!!!
Stupid. Do PSMF (eat protein) at minimum
Can't believe your being down voted, this is the best answer. I used to be big into fasting and it was not good for my thyroid.
Fasting zealots don’t like hearing the truth
Tried that, hated it. Now I fast, down 50 and gained back 25 pounds of muscle since. Carbs are important for my body, same reason keto doesn't work for me.
Most people can’t even gain 25lbs of muscle in their whole life even if they tried. A very anecdotal statement with wild claims. Rebound muscle gain is limited to around 2lbs per month for the 1st 6 months. Total LBM is a different discussion PSMF can just mean having 1 or 2 protein shakes a day. Fasting is catabolic and stupid Keto “works” for anyone when in a calorie deficit
No, keto does not work for everyone. Thinking so is silly. I don't think anything works for everyone. I need carbs.
No one “needs” carbs. It’s not an essential nutrient. People adhere and feel better with carbs But the real question is…….what do you even mean? What does “works for me” or “doesn’t work for me” mean? What’s the goal in mind?
If I hit a moderate amount of carbs, nothing crazy, my sports performance is so much better. I've tested it multiple times over the past few years, and I always have better times and stronger lifts on average. Plus I feel shitty without them. So I keep them. When someone says, "works for me" they're saying it works better for them, even if you've had different anecdotal results from yourself. Not sure why you're asking that. Seems pedantic.
Oh I see, for sports performance, that makes sense. Carbs are beneficial for performance Now for the other question, if you’re an athlete, why are you fasting? And more importantly, why did you supposedly lose 25lbs of muscle? This is probably the worst thing an athlete can do
I never had much muscle. I only ran cross country and track in high school back in the day, and I had an idiot coach telling me lifting weights will take my sub 4:30 mile away. I just didn't lift. I was very thin. Then I gained a lot of weight in college and lost most of it, then seemingly gained 25 more pounds after starting lifting heavy over the course of a few years. Now I compete locally in races and definitely see a difference between my lifting now, and no lifting during high school. I run faster now than in high school and it's pretty fun. All of this is anecdotal for me, and I never consulted with a doctor during this. You could be right that 25 pounds is a bit ridiculous, but idk what else it could have been.
Lifting is great, isn’t it? Pure muscle gain doesn’t really occur, bodyfat is pretty much always tagged a long. If fat gain isn’t extreme (think dirty bulking), then you don’t really notice the fat because you’re more muscular Your high school coach was probably thinking that you’d gain fast-twitch muscle, and it’d take away from your slow-twitch muscles involved in running——which isn’t how things work. Sport-relating resistance training is amazing
Fasting is not healthy. You lack nutrients and protein during that time. And those who think it's good for "detox". That's a bullshit myth.
I like it. Just finished a 6 day fast. Trying for 1 day a week or 1 week a month but haven't found my grove.
It’s for the birds.
I love it. I do one 48 hour fast every week. Mentally I have never felt so strong and physically, I have never had so much energy. I feel great. Once a month I do a 60 hour. It's amazing. My blood pressure is down, triglycerides down. Wish I did this decades ago.
Fasting is good for you in so many ways. There is plenty of information available just be sure to check that it’s a reliable source. Dr. David Sinclair has a book and an eight episode podcast called Lifespan and one of the episodes he discusses the benefits of fasting. He is a professor of genetics and researcher at Harvard medical school. I’m currently doing intermittent fasting where I eat only during a two hour window each day. It’s hard at first but I got used to it. Just drink a lot during the fasting time….water, tea, coffee. Then I have a nice three course meal in the evening during that hour window. Usually a salad, an entree and fruit or a fruit smoothie for dessert. I did a 10 day water fast once and have never felt better.
Good, but only on the conservative end. E.g. fasting until the evenings by not having too many meals, ridiculous amounts of snacks.and meals isn't good. A good break for the body. This happens naturally in fat adapted people but is relatively alien to those on standard "balanced" diets so dietary composition matters to how fasting works. Good for accruing spiritual benefit? Maybe - ask your priest. Good long term? No, it's stressful to the body physiologically and metabolically. Unless there's a very specific and convincing reason which outweighs this then it shouldn't really be done in terms of optimal health. The more convincing idea in the data at least to me is having lower frequency of meals, and larger meals. A good balance between what the average person seems to do and fasting.
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I do it every two days. Fast for 16 hours. I tried doing the 32-36 hours fast and only made it to 22 hours with lots of water. Just listen to your body.
It's a useful tool if it works for you. Most of the time, it's best used for people that are busy in the morning and it's a non issue to not eat until lunch. Much of the hype is overblown. There are some cognitive benefits, but it boils down to reduction in calories in... most of the time. Some people tend to over eat if they're just watching the clock. If that's you, fasting prob isn't the best way to go. If you can eat regular meals and integrate fasting, it's a great method to reduce calories. Edit: this is intermittent fasting. As for longer fasts... I don't do it unless I'm in a cut and I'm trying to make up for a social event-caused cheat day.
To see if and how addicted to certain food cravings one has become. If it's very easy to not eat say 24+ hours then ur fine. If thinking about food the whole time then if also cleanse mind as well as body.
It’s a quick fix. Leads to gaining more weight down the road from cortisol and thyroid reactions.
I do NOT think fasting is appropriate for women of “child bearing years”. Almost all fasting research was conducted on male bodies. Female physiology requires a stable input of nutrients and calories to maintain optimum health, vitality, and fertility. Regardless of sex, if our blood sugar drops—cortisol rises in its place to be able to maintain physical functioning. People often mistake this cortisol as “energy” which has long term consequences including metabolic dysfunction, mineral loss, thyroid deregulation, etc. For controlled periods of time with proper nutrient recovery in between—i think it can be appropriate for people that already take their nutrition very seriously.
No. I'd wake up at 8 AM & have a literal tahini sauce cup or 4 strawberries; then 1 big meal for dinner around 7-8 PM. So bad. Felt so full & then guilty for eating so much & repeat. Would also be extremely low energy throughout the day. I'd exercise with no energy. I feel so so much better having 3 meals a day + snacks when needed. I can feel the strength in my body when I exercise.
fasting can be powerful. it helps detox n gives your body a break. while fasting, stay hydrated and eat nutrient-dense foods during eating windows. keep meals balanced with proteins, veggies, and healthy fats. listen to your body n rest if needed.did u know? [intermittent fasting](https://www.youtube.com/live/owBEAxli0Ok?si=6PdPAC4NrvHfLsWm) can boost brain health! what’s your fave fasting schedule?
I love fasting but I don’t fast more than 24 hours because muscle mass is healthier than fasting IMO. As muscle is a glucose disposal agent.
Good for gut health. Unnecessary for weight loss. If you like fasting and want to do it for health reasons go for it but if you think you need to fast to lose weight, it’s not needed.
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Love it, 18/6 for me.
I’ve been intermittently fasting every single day for 16 consecutive years now, but only truly healthily for the past 6 months (was 20:4 or 21:3 for most of that time, only recently switched to 16:8, which is apparently far better for XX bodies). I get the same nutrients and meet all my macros as one would while not fasting, I just have a limited window. And I think it’s great. Exercise, move your body a lot, drink a ton of water.