Intermittent fasting people- how’d you get started?

[Hilltopmom]

How did you get started on IF?

We do keto and I start my morning with coffee with cream and coconut oil (in winter) at 5:30. At 8:30 at work I eat my breakfast (eggs usually). I already rarely eat after dinner at 5-6:00 pm ish. 

I’m interested in trying IF but how do you even get started? I’d need to cut out my morning coffee “meal” and my school egg breakfast. I feel like I’d be keeling over before my lunch break at work at 11:30.

Do you eat a huge lunch then? I only have about 15 minutes to eat (teacher) lunch, on a good day. I usually scarf down a salad with meat and cheese on it then snack on almonds or a yogurt when my kids leave school.

Help me wrap my brain around this 🙂 thanks!

oh- I’d take a good website or book recommendation too, thanks!

 

[Ditto]

I started by just ending my eating for the day by 4 at the latest.   I used to eat breakfast but have found the earlier in the day I start eating, the hungrier I am.   Slowly I started moving morning eating to at least 10 am.  I drink water and black coffee before then.   The more rules there are, the worse I do.  I also don't follow any one plan because it just sets me up for failure.  I keep "rules" super loose and allow for set-backs and non-perfection.  Right now my "plan" is that I eat from 10-4.    Ideally I finish eating by 3, but that isn't always possible.    This way of eating really works for me, which I admit kind of surprises me!  

[jemsmom]

You'll feel hungry at first. After awhile (it was ~4-5 days for me), your body will figure out there's no food coming in the morning anymore and will stop sending out those hunger signals. I assume you're on winter break, so now's a great time to start. Your body should have adjusted by the time school starts back up.

Also, drink water and stay active during your morning fast, to keep yourself distracted.

[shawthorne44]

I love IF.    I learned that I need to be fat-adapted first.   So, three weeks + in Keto.   Then I slowly narrowed the eating window.   So, same things as before only I started earlier than I ended later.    Eventually most days I was down to morning caffeine, one big perfect meal around 10am and then a snack as needed later.  A huge side-benefit was that my one big perfect meal was accidentally very clean.   The accidentally anti-inflammatory diet made a huge improvement on my sinuses.    I've had problems with my sinuses for as long as I can remember.   Always just on the verge of a sinus infection.    But, all of sudden my sinuses started to clear!    
 

[DreamerGirl]

DH and I intermittent fast from 11 am to 7 pm. 

We eat two, nutrient dense, balanced as much as possible meals at that time. 

DH can do black coffee, so he does it. I cannot so my first and only cup of coffee is at 11 am. But I hydrate a lot with just water during that time.

I also try to finish my workout or walk before that. 

Some days I am hungry by 10 am, so I try to drink water and if I cannot I cave in.

We both eat around 1200 calories most days. 

Our meals consist of mostly vegetables and fish or chicken, rarely red meat, flatbreads, soup almost every day, nuts, fruits, a cup of rice, yogurt.

We also have cheat days once every 14 days, we take a weekend off.
 

[lewelma]

I do 12-8pm. I just did it cold turkey --one day I just quit eating until noon. I read that it would take one month to adapt, and that was just about true for me. I was hungry and grumbly stomach for four weeks so expect it and know it will eventually pass.

I drink tea with almond milk (20cal) in the mornings, I don't feel some need to reach perfection as I hate black tea. At lunch I eat a regular sized meal. I actually find that I fill up very fast at that meal and can't make it bigger. I then eat another meal at 3 and at 6, and snack a bit till 7 or 8pm. 

[alisoncooks]

I started about a year ago. I haven’t lost a ton — about 10 pounds — but I haven’t been careful about what I eat, just when. 

I eat from 11-7. I get up at 7:30, and I exercise around 8. I just drink lots and lots of water to tide me over! Around 11 I have  coffee or tea. Lunch around 12:30. With the hot drink before lunch, I’m not tempted to eat a huge amount . (Sometimes I even just have cereal for lunch…) Dinner at 5:30 or 6. 

Sometimes, on weekends or if I’m traveling, I do eat breakfast. Or if I’m having a day where hunger feels more like nausea. 

[HS Mom in NC]

On most days I stop eating by 8pm at the latest and break my fast around noon with lunch. I drink 3 cups of hot green tea between 7am and 11am. It's straight tea-no sweeteners, no dairy or dairy/fat substitutes.

I usually eat 2 very nutritionally dense meals and if I snack, I have a cup of unsweetened coconut milk and an avocado or a handful of unsalted nuts, usually almonds between lunch and dinner.  I try to consume coconut milk and an avocado at least 5 days a week. I usually have some dark chocolate immediately after dinner. I drink a lot of water in the afternoons and early evenings.

I usually drink 1-3 cups of hot camomile or other caffeinated herbal tea between dinner and 9pm. Again, straight tea; no sweeteners, no fat or fat substitutes.

[BeachGal]

If you are interested in learning about the science, Satchin Panda is a researcher who studies time restricted eating which is similar to intermittent fasting. Valter Longo is another but his research tends to center more around the benefits of longer fasts. You can find YouTube videos of them where they talk about their work. They each have written books also.

Other sources that discuss the research and also the practical aspects that you might find helpful are the Jason Fung and Diet Doctor websites. Fung has a few books as well. Both are very good.

Besides food, early morning light, ideally from the outdoors, also has an effect on metabolism. Satchin studies this as well. Northwestern University just published some similar findings that back up Satchin’s research.

[AngelaGT]

I decided to IF for the cellular autophagy (cellular detox) rather than weight loss.  I also follow a very low carb diet, moderate to high fat to reduce inflammation in my body.  I highly encourage you to watch Dr. Berg on YouTube.  He has a huge amount of information on healthy keto and IF.  I also read quite a few books on the subject before jumping on the bandwagon.  The science makes sense to me.  I work 9-5 Monday through Thursday.  I start my day around noon with a liquid probiotic and then a green smoothy with seaweeds, ginseng, mushrooms, collagen, protein powder, and all the other powdered blended supplements that I feel necessary.  Between clients (I am a therapist) I usually eat a thermos of a veggie, protein and fat soup or stew.  I try to eat a smaller snack around 5:30/6 when I arrive home.  I have lost some weight, but I am becoming more mindful of my eating habits and working to improve them.  Jason Fung is definitely an expert in the field of IF. 

[Hilltopmom]

Thanks all. I definitely get nausea when hungry, so that I’d need to overcome. Thinking I’ll try starting over Feb break so I have time to research.

[alisoncooks]

1 hour ago, Hilltopmom said:

Thanks all. I definitely get nausea when hungry, so that I’d need to overcome. Thinking I’ll try starting over Feb break so I have time to research.

I have with this, too (nausea). I find that the days I exercise, I feel less nauseated. Probably because I automatically drink more water? Idk. If I’m just sitting around, I tend to feel hungry/sick. 

[ktgrok]

FYI if doing for weight loss coffee with a splash of cream is generally okay - several people have tested ketones/glucose/etc afer that and the consensus was that it didn't cause any spikes that would "mess up" the fast. YMMV.  If you could push breakfast to 9am and finish around 5pm or so that's a pretty good window. 

Edited December 31, 2021 by ktgrok

[Lady Marmalade]

I would suggest that instead of going all in right off the bat, pick a time of day that you can successfully modify and start there. If you regularly go without breakfast, start with making that an every day thing instead of occasional.  If you think it would be easier to modify the end of the day- no eating past 6 or 7, for example- start there. 

I started with breakfast.  I would regularly just have a couple of cups of coffee and then when I saw it was later than I'd thought, would skip breakfast and wait for lunch.  So I just made that a permanent thing.  Once I learned that what I was doing was part of IF, I added the end of the day.  No eating past 7pm was fairly easy as I would turn in for the day fairly early.  My window of eating was between 1-7 every day.  I followed this for two years pretty faithfully, allowing for days off for holidays and special occasions.  I lost 45 pounds over that time.

I still mostly follow this plan, though my window is a little larger.  I work at 5am and it's super easy for me to just drink coffee until noon while I work, and then I eat lunch after work.  But there are days where I am really hungry in the morning, so I eat breakfast and I don't feel badly about it.  My body needs it and tells me so.  There are days I don't follow the window at all- and I mean AT ALL.  But I'm so much more fit and healthy and I feel so much better all the time. 

[mathnerd]

I do it for the autophagy and the hormonal benefits as I don't have much more than a couple of pounds to lose. I started 16:8 fasting by cutting out my breakfast and very soon I was able to push it to 18:6 and 20:4 fasting. After a few months, I added in a 24 hour fast once a week when I was scheduled to be away from home one day a week by just skipping my meals when I was away. I have since done the "36 hour monk fasts" and a few 48 hour fasts. But, my baseline is 20:4 these days with a 24 hour fast added on the weekends.

The best way to ease into it is by getting our bodies to use our fat deposits for energy rather than glucose from constant eating and it takes a while for that switch to happen and once it does, it gets easier to go on longer fasts. Start out with 16:8 and if it is too much, scale back to 14:10 fasting. You are allowed black coffee and black tea and if you get used to the taste, then you could start off the morning with black coffee. You will find that your body adjusts soon, that when you think you are hungry you are most probably thirsty and there are a lot of support groups and literature online to learn from. It is very important to not get dehydrated or an electrolyte imbalance, so you need to supplement with electrolytes during longer fasts.

[TexasProud]

So could you do like 4am to noon?

[BeachGal]

4 hours ago, TexasProud said:

So could you do like 4am to noon?

Absolutely. That would be a healthy window. Add some outdoor light and it”s even healthier. Eating earlier and stopping later, before 5 pm or so, prevents an increase in c-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker for inflammation. Satchin Panda discusses this in one of his interviews with Rhonda Patrick.

[BeachGal]

If anyone is interested, here are some links to Rhonda Patrick’s articles and interviews that discuss fasting (including intermittent), time-restricted eating/fasting, metabolic switching, Circadian rhythm and eating/light exposure’s effect on metabolism, and breast cancer prevention and time restricted eating. These are all researchers.

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/topics/fasting

Mark Mattson’s interview discussing the health benefits of metabolic switching:

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/mark-mattson

Another source that discusses intermittent fasting is Ben Bikman’s book Why We Get Sick which explains the (widespread and insidious) damage caused by too much circulating insulin. Eating too often and eating foods that spike insulin will do this. Most Americans have some degree of insulin resistance, but it’s not difficult to improve and is well worth doing to prevent health problems.

Bikman advises Jason Fung, who is very pro-intermittent fasting, about insulin issues. He also has information on YouTube.

[Corraleno]

@BeachGal I've heard Rhonda Patrick say that if you are doing IF for the metabolic and autophagy benefits, then anything other than water "starts the clock." She says that if it's processed by the liver, then it counts as food, and that includes coffee and tea. Obviously that's very different from the keto approach to weight loss. I've watched several of her interviews with Satchin Panda, and he nods along when she says this, but I haven't found any talks or interviews where Panda himself explains it. Do you know of any videos, or better yet actual studies, confirming that anything but water will "start the clock"?

[BeachGal]

1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

@BeachGal I've heard Rhonda Patrick say that if you are doing IF for the metabolic and autophagy benefits, then anything other than water "starts the clock." She says that if it's processed by the liver, then it counts as food, and that includes coffee and tea. Obviously that's very different from the keto approach to weight loss. I've watched several of her interviews with Satchin Panda, and he nods along when she says this, but I haven't found any talks or interviews where Panda himself explains it. Do you know of any videos, or better yet actual studies, confirming that anything but water will "start the clock"?

Caffeine can start the liver clocks but can also induce autophagy in mice. So, the jury still seems to be out as far as a definitive answer. Check out this page and click on #5 Coffee and time-restricted eating. It’ll take you to Rhonda’s summary where she has linked studies.

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/topics/time-restricted-eating

If you’re interested in fasting and autophagy, Thomas Seyfried and Valter Longo are two researchers worth checking out. Both work with cancer patients and Longo is also studying fasting and MS and other diseases. Seyfried believes that getting cancer patients’ ratio of blood glucose to blood ketones, called the Glucose Ketone Index (GKI), as close to 1.0 or below is when very therapeutic autophagy occurs, when junky, inflammatory cellular debris gets cleaned up or consumed by the body. Longo found that about a 4-day fast had similar effects and that upon refeeding, the spine sprouted new stem cells — as many as 40%! — that could then be used to rebuild the body. It’s a way to renew the body. Longo also found that eating a specific diet, called the fast-mimicking diet (FMD), had slightly less robust but similar results. Patients are more likely to eat a FMD than fast for four days, though.

[ScoutTN]

I usually do 18:6, but only a couple times a week.
I love, love breakfast. 
I am diabetic and sometimes have to juggle medication when fasting, so I like to be home with access to blood glucose testing, not out and around.