Intermittent Fasting / Cleansing anyone?

I had posted up about this on a couple of threads and I was surprised at how many people wanted to learn more. So, I thought I would start a thread where you can get some general information and ask any questions you may have. I should start off by telling you all that I'm a Sports Nutritionist specializing in aggressive weight loss, increased energy and healthy aging and I promote clean eating but I'm not a fascist about it.:D

To learn a bit more about IF, start with this 5 minute read... http://ow.ly/UNJAM

IF for weight loss is VERY popular. To maximize your results, I recommend the 6:1 or 5:2 protocols combined with healthy choices. I lost 23 lbs during my first 30 days by following 6:1 in conjunction with healthy meals. I should add that I also used an IF "program in a box" that I order online but IF can be followed without ordering such a program, you just need a bit more planning. One of the best parts about IF is how it makes your body more "forgiving" during those times of "indulgence". For cruisers, I see this as a MAJOR benefit...;)

My typical eating day looks like this...

• 8am - Wake up (I choose not to eat yet... just have my coffee and some water)
  
• 1pm - First meal... Protein/Carb/Fats... as low cal as possible but nothing processed (For me, it's one of my ordered meals... 240 cal)
  
• 3pm - Snack (apple slices w. cinnamon or some kind of fruit or veggie)
  
• 5pm - Lunch...protein/carb/fats (chicken salad or crab salad, etc...400-600 cal)
  
• 6:30pm - Snack (raw veg & hummus, etc)
  
• 8pm - Final meal, Protein/carb/fats (for me, one of my ordered meals...240 cal)
  

The snacks are optional but the meals are not. It's important to get your nutrients through the week because your body needs them in order to get the benefits of a fast day. Without all that nutrition, the fast day is not nearly as effective.

Food choices come down to common sense... the healthier your choices, the more effective your experience will be.

Done correctly intermittent fasting has its benefits , however the amout of calories you listed above anyone would loose weight no matter when they ate.

Just over a thousand calories is a starvation diet for many and the weight will not stay off.

I do agree with the intermittent eating but folks need to take in a few more calories.

Bottom line for overweight people is to eat less and move more , get rid of the processed food , simple carbs and sugar .

Done correctly intermittent fasting has its benefits , however the amout of calories you listed above anyone would loose weight no matter when they ate.

Just over a thousand calories is a starvation diet for many and the weight will not stay off.

 

I do agree with the intermittent eating but folks need to take in a few more calories.

 

Bottom line for overweight people is to eat less and move more , get rid of the processed food , simple carbs and sugar .

This type of diet will actually make you gain weight.

This type of diet will actually make you gain weight.

Intermittent eating of following a health diet and moving more? Sorry I'm not sure the one your talking about.

Also let me clarify, I don't think intermittent eating should be a lifestyle but can be used at time to help shed a few pounds and get you back on track after a binge

These are just my opinion as someone who has struggled with weight and have been very successful over the last ten years keeping it off by eating well and moving more.

Intermittent eating of following a health diet and moving more? Sorry I'm not sure the one your talking about.

I'm talking about the 1000 calorie diet. All those carbs will convert to sugar then to fat.

I'm talking about the 1000 calorie diet. All those carbs will convert to sugar then to fat.

I totally agree. There is just no magical way of loosing except lifestyle change .

Going to add my experience even though I know talking diets is like talking religion, mostly because there has been so much bad/conflicting nutrition advice, and many people are not up to date on the science. (I've shared this info before and had people just flat out say "I refuse to believe this", so people are also used to thinking with their emotions, not their brains, about diet.)

I was an obese child of a morbidly obese father. I always had a ravenous appetite, which prevented any diet from really working for me, including lowcarb, which should in theory flatten out the craving issues because of the better blood sugar control. I couldn't get past the *hunger*.

What I ended up trying was a combination of intermittent fasting AND low-carb. I only ate (eat) within a 5-6 hour window each day, I did NOT restrict calories, and ate lowcarb till I was full (proteins, LOTS of fats, veggies, nuts, cheese, a little chocolate, etc; all of it 'real' food, much of it cooked at home, including lots of red meat). I did this under the supervision of a doctor at Duke (who later asked me to speak in front of his weight loss group). The first few weeks were a little rough; but after that, like magic, my formerly out of control (all my life) appetite because 'normalized', and I stopped constantly obsessing about food. And the weight started coming off, to the tune of 75lbs, which I have kept off now well in excess of the typical five-year failure rate.

So yes, there WAS a solution like magic--my problem was a totally skewed appetite, and intermittent fasting was the magic bullet. After I 'fixed' the appetite problem, weight loss followed.

If my experience sounds like you (you can't get your hunger under control), you may want to give it a shot, as the lower FREQUENCY of meals means fewer blood sugar ups and downs, and less false hunger/cravings. (Did you know that your stomach growling actually signals the final processing of the last meal you ate? Most of us are cramming down more food while our stomachs are still working on the last meal.)

If you believe deep in your heart that your body goes into starvation mode if you skip ONE meal, or that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I'd urge you to challenge your beliefs and do some research.

And here is the single most important piece of advice I can give you if you DO decide to research: When you are digging down to scary-sounding studies, dig all the way down and see if the studies were based on MICE. If they were, you can bet the mice were fed a nasty, high-carb 'rat chow' that causes all sorts of problems and skews the results of those studies badly.

http://www.mercola.com/infographics/intermittent-fasting.htm

What you eat is as important as when you eat it.

I think you misunderstood what I wrote.

I neve said your body goes into starvation mode from skipping one meal. What I said was a 1,000 calorie a day diet is considered a starvation diet. I assume you ate at least a 1,000 calories if you had no restrictions ?

I also said that intermittent eating is good after an eating binge , it helps to reset you from the constant eating...( the binge)

I agree with the getting past the hunger, the more often you eat the more hunger you you feel or at least for me. Also people offten confuse hunger for thirst so it's important to keep hydrated.

Hight proitine, complex carb and healthy fats as well as moving more is the healthy way to live.

Sorry, I didn't think you said those things, I am responding to the inevitable posts to follow. :)(Fasting freaks some people out and there are certain predictable reactions.)

Since you asked, during my loss phase I didn't calorie count, but I ate a lot of fats (e.g., salmon sauced with homemade hollandaise, half an avocado, lots of macadamia nuts, cream based soups), and I'm sure my calorie count was quite high.

I wasn't critiquing your approach, although generally I'm not a fan of low-calorie, I was just offering an intermittent fasting success story. I get slightly aggressive about it because I've had the arguments about it many times. :)

All is good, no offense taken in any way.

Done correctly intermittent fasting has its benefits , however the amout of calories you listed above anyone would loose weight no matter when they ate.

Just over a thousand calories is a starvation diet for many and the weight will not stay off.

 

I do agree with the intermittent eating but folks need to take in a few more calories.

 

Bottom line for overweight people is to eat less and move more , get rid of the processed food , simple carbs and sugar .

Yes...low calorie diets will cause anyone to lose weight. However the goal should never be to lose "weight"... it should be to lose "fat".

It is a common misconception that if you lose weight too quickly, you'll gain it all back. It's not how fast you lose the weight... it's what weight did you lose...muscle or fat?

Before explaining, you need to first understand one very simple rule. I call it the rule of "muscle appetite". Muscle burns calories...a lot of them. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Remember that as you read on.

When most people lose weight, they lose a combination of muscle and fat and unfortunately, that ratio is usually 50/50. The result is someone who feels GREAT since they are lighter, move around easier, fit into clothes a little better, etc., but their metabolism is slower than before. Think about that... they now burn calories SLOWER than they did before their weight loss. Now, they find that they have to be careful when they indulge as it seems to hit the hips a lot faster than before...that's because it does.

This is the rebound effect but understand that it has nothing to do with how many calories or how fast you dropped your weight, it has to do with how much nutrition you sacrificed in your efforts to lose weight... how much muscle you lost. Here is a real life example...

Amy and Rhonda are twins and each of them was about 30lbs overweight. They both had the same nutrient goals to satisfy (Protein, carbs, fats, fibre, etc). Amy used an average daily caloric intake of 1500 calories to hit her targets. Rhonda managed to hit her targets on only 1150 calories. After 60 days, Amy had lost 18lbs (3lbs of water, 13lbs of fat and 2lbs of muscle). Rhonda lost 33lbs (3lbs water, 28lbs of fat and 2lbs of muscle). Both maintained muscle but Rhonda lost much more fat.

The key is in the nutrients...not the calories.

This type of diet will actually make you gain weight.

How so? You mean fat

I'm talking about the 1000 calorie diet. All those carbs will convert to sugar then to fat.

You are correct that carbs eventually convert to fat. However, your body has an order to follow. It must first use the carbs to satisfy muscle needs (muscles are like holding tanks for carbs which they use for energy), then it ships a bunch up to your brain since carbs are your brain food. Once all needs are satisfied, anything left over, is converted to fat.

I assure you, 75g of carbs in a day are ALL used up well before the "convert to fat" stage.

Here's a great tip though... try to consume your carbs before 4 or 5pm since most people wind down after that time and expend little energy. Carbs consumed in the evening often are not needed by the body and are stored as fat.

I think you misunderstood what I wrote.

 

I neve said your body goes into starvation mode from skipping one meal. What I said was a 1,000 calorie a day diet is considered a starvation diet. I assume you ate at least a 1,000 calories if you had no restrictions ?

 

I also said that intermittent eating is good after an eating binge , it helps to reset you from the constant eating...( the binge)

 

I agree with the getting past the hunger, the more often you eat the more hunger you you feel or at least for me. Also people offten confuse hunger for thirst so it's important to keep hydrated.

 

Hight proitine, complex carb and healthy fats as well as moving more is the healthy way to live.

"Starvation" as used here, actually refers to the lack of nutrients and not a lack of calories. So, an 1100 calorie day that contains enough protein/carbs/fats is not classified as starvation. I can show you people on Weight Watchers who would be classified as on a starvation diet. Not to take anything away from WW... I actually like their message... they just need to tweak it somewhat.

Going to add my experience even though I know talking diets is like talking religion, mostly because there has been so much bad/conflicting nutrition advice, and many people are not up to date on the science. (I've shared this info before and had people just flat out say "I refuse to believe this", so people are also used to thinking with their emotions, not their brains, about diet.)

 

I was an obese child of a morbidly obese father. I always had a ravenous appetite, which prevented any diet from really working for me, including lowcarb, which should in theory flatten out the craving issues because of the better blood sugar control. I couldn't get past the *hunger*.

 

What I ended up trying was a combination of intermittent fasting AND low-carb. I only ate (eat) within a 5-6 hour window each day, I did NOT restrict calories, and ate lowcarb till I was full (proteins, LOTS of fats, veggies, nuts, cheese, a little chocolate, etc; all of it 'real' food, much of it cooked at home, including lots of red meat). I did this under the supervision of a doctor at Duke (who later asked me to speak in front of his weight loss group). The first few weeks were a little rough; but after that, like magic, my formerly out of control (all my life) appetite because 'normalized', and I stopped constantly obsessing about food. And the weight started coming off, to the tune of 75lbs, which I have kept off now well in excess of the typical five-year failure rate.

 

So yes, there WAS a solution like magic--my problem was a totally skewed appetite, and intermittent fasting was the magic bullet. After I 'fixed' the appetite problem, weight loss followed.

 

If my experience sounds like you (you can't get your hunger under control), you may want to give it a shot, as the lower FREQUENCY of meals means fewer blood sugar ups and downs, and less false hunger/cravings. (Did you know that your stomach growling actually signals the final processing of the last meal you ate? Most of us are cramming down more food while our stomachs are still working on the last meal.)

 

If you believe deep in your heart that your body goes into starvation mode if you skip ONE meal, or that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I'd urge you to challenge your beliefs and do some research.

 

And here is the single most important piece of advice I can give you if you DO decide to research: When you are digging down to scary-sounding studies, dig all the way down and see if the studies were based on MICE. If they were, you can bet the mice were fed a nasty, high-carb 'rat chow' that causes all sorts of problems and skews the results of those studies badly.

 

http://www.mercola.com/infographics/intermittent-fasting.htm

 

What you eat is as important as when you eat it.

Great testimonial. More and more human studies are being done on IF and so far the findings have been extremely positive. I'm happy that you've found IF... it's a wonderful protocol. Congratulations on hitting your goals!

I guess I'll also chime and say that I think everyone should be doing weight/resistance training, ESPECIALLY OLDER FOLKS WHO ARE LOSING MUSCLE MASS, and that it should be more important than clocking miles on the treadmill. Here's a good podcast on the topic:

http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/whats-sarcopenia-and-what-can-you-do-about-it/

I guess I'll also chime and say that I think everyone should be doing weight/resistance training, ESPECIALLY OLDER FOLKS WHO ARE LOSING MUSCLE MASS, and that it should be more important than clocking miles on the treadmill. Here's a good podcast on the topic:

 

http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/whats-sarcopenia-and-what-can-you-do-about-it/

I couldn't agree more. 20 minutes of resistance training will do more than an hour on a treadmill.... Cardio is for the heart... not burning fat.

We've seen a huge increase in the number of people 55+ that are buying protein to increase their intake and help stave off sarcopenia. Glad to see.

"Starvation" as used here, actually refers to the lack of nutrients and not a lack of calories. So, an 1100 calorie day that contains enough protein/carbs/fats is not classified as starvation. I can show you people on Weight Watchers who would be classified as on a starvation diet. Not to take anything away from WW... I actually like their message... they just need to tweak it somewhat.

Okay I'm getting it.

My doctor had mentioned this too me some years ago and I never really looked into it.

I've pretty much kept my weight off but I wouldn't mind dropping 10 lbs for my cruise in Feb.....can it be done by Feb?

Can I get your help on this? I would start tomorrow as I'm sitting here eating a whole wheat English muffin with a tbl fresh ground peanutbutter & 1/2 a banana ... Would you consider this a good meal? I don't do many simple carbs in general

So my goal would be not to eat after 6:30 pm tonight and then not to eat until 10:30 am tomorrow ....16 hours off ...8 hours on ?

Okay I'm getting it.

My doctor had mentioned this too me some years ago and I never really looked into it.

I've pretty much kept my weight off but I wouldn't mind dropping 10 lbs for my cruise in Feb.....can it be done by Feb?

 

Can I get your help on this? I would start tomorrow as I'm sitting here eating a whole wheat English muffin with a tbl fresh ground peanutbutter & 1/2 a banana ... Would you consider this a good meal? I don't do many simple carbs in general

 

So my goal would be not to eat after 6:30 pm tonight and then not to eat until 10:30 am tomorrow ....16 hours off ...8 hours on ?

10 pounds in basically two . Can be done but won't stay off after the cruise.

Okay I'm getting it.

My doctor had mentioned this too me some years ago and I never really looked into it.

I've pretty much kept my weight off but I wouldn't mind dropping 10 lbs for my cruise in Feb.....can it be done by Feb?

 

Can I get your help on this? I would start tomorrow as I'm sitting here eating a whole wheat English muffin with a tbl fresh ground peanutbutter & 1/2 a banana ... Would you consider this a good meal? I don't do many simple carbs in general

 

So my goal would be not to eat after 6:30 pm tonight and then not to eat until 10:30 am tomorrow ....16 hours off ...8 hours on ?

It can easily be done by February. Understand though, this is not a protocol that allows you to eat poorly (magic bullet). It still requires you to maintain a healthy diet BUT allows you more freedom to roam in moderation. It also protects you from "rebounding" depending on your protein intake.

The last 10 lbs is always the hardest and there is actually a reason for that. Email me and I'll help you with some suggestions... jeff@wellnessniagara.com

OP, do you do the 6:1 or 5:2 IF routine because based on your typical daily consumption, it looks like you do 16:8? How do you plan on eating while on your cruise?

OP, do you do the 6:1 or 5:2 IF routine because based on your typical daily consumption, it looks like you do 16:8? How do you plan on eating while on your cruise?

I guess technically, I do 16:8 AND 6:1 at same time. The 16:8 part is really not intentional... I just don't like to eat in AM. Works out perfectly I guess.

On the ship, I will enjoy myself. I will have a shake for breakfast EVERY DAY as we bring our magic bullet with us. I will eat lunch and dinner no differently than the rest of the guests. I may even have breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday and have my shake as a nutritional boost.

Once the cruise is done, I'll resume as I am now. I'm of the opinion that you have to roll with life. When the holidays come around, you have to be able to enjoy, weekends...enjoy, birthdays...enjoy...the point is, life is going to happen so to live a lifestyle that doesn't allow the freedoms we deserve is sabotaging yourself.

Life is for loving... In moderation.

I guess technically, I do 16:8 AND 6:1 at same time. The 16:8 part is really not intentional... I just don't like to eat in AM. Works out perfectly I guess.

 

On the ship, I will enjoy myself. I will have a shake for breakfast EVERY DAY as we bring our magic bullet with us. I will eat lunch and dinner no differently than the rest of the guests. I may even have breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday and have my shake as a nutritional boost.

 

Once the cruise is done, I'll resume as I am now. I'm of the opinion that you have to roll with life. When the holidays come around, you have to be able to enjoy, weekends...enjoy, birthdays...enjoy...the point is, life is going to happen so to live a lifestyle that doesn't allow the freedoms we deserve is sabotaging yourself.

 

Life is for loving... In moderation.

Amen to that! Balance is definitely key. If you don't mind me asking, how much BF did you lose?

Amen to that! Balance is definitely key. If you don't mind me asking, how much BF did you lose?

I wish I knew an exact number!!! Unfortunately, I don't have access to the same devices that a bunch of my colleagues do. I can only offer a rough educated guess. Of my initial 23lbs lost, approximately 15 would be fat, 5 would be water and due to my limited time training, 3lbs of muscle.

This is ONLY based on comparing numbers to those who have been properly measured but I'm thinking they're fairly accurate.

I'm guessing you follow IF??? May I ask how you like it?

I don't do IF (normally) - I think I have a mental block when it comes to food (I always think I will die if I miss a meal :) ) but..

About three years ago I went on the 17 day diet with my husband (low carbs to start with additional carbs introduced slowly over a period of time) A diet that is tough to follow at first because of the very low carbs but also because I don't eat fish, which makes it difficult to have variety in the first cycle of the diet. After we hit out goal weight, my husband has maintained his weight with IF. He usually eats no food throughout the day and will get the majority of his calories from 5 - 8 pm (sometimes eats a light salad or yogurt at lunch) Me on the other hand, well... I have slowly gained 11 lbs back over the last two years. I would like to blame it on lots of things (working from home now, one vacation after another etc) but the reality is my diet hasn't been the greatest. Your post, combined with my husband's continued success, has me thinking that this could be something that I should try so I started on Monday. I basically eat from noon to 8 - I don't limit food groups (no carbs for example) but I eat clean (no processed food) and try to eat my vegs :)