5 ms·

I've been giving intermittent fasting a try and it's been quite amazing to me to realize how I've always equated the slightest feeling of hunger with the idea t

I've been giving intermittent fasting a try and it's been quite amazing to me to realize how I've always equated the slightest feeling of hunger with the idea that "I must eat, I'm starving!". I think this is pretty common. With some willpower and practice, I can now eat nothing but a single bowl of cereal in a 24hr period, including 60m of hard exercise, without anything remotely like hunger pangs. It takes getting used to not constantly rewarding the thought of food with food. It's sort of a drastic measure, but the only one that has enabled me to lose real weight - plus there are purported health benefits: http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-benefits-of-occasional-fasting-20121116 http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-benefits-of-occasion...

benten10 11y ago
You can do even better than a bowl of cereal. Eat something fatty, and even eating a little will significantly reduce your hunger. These days fatty food, such as cheese and creamy yogurt have been a staple of my diet: I can go by for a lot longer without eating much that way. The fruit-fat-nuts diet is _completely_ doable (of course, I eat 'normal' food too, for a more balanced diet, but only in the weekends, etc.)
- CompelTechnic 11y ago
  I cannot find full fat yogurt in any of my local grocery stores. Is "low fat" as good as it gets? Seems like the low-fat diet craze of the recent past, and the current greek yogurt phenomenon, mean that "zero fat" and "low fat" are the only two options.
  - jokamoto 11y ago
    Not sure if it qualifies as "full fat" per se, but Noosa brand yogurt has roughly twice the fat content of most Greek yogurts I've tried (seems to really help texture/flavor as well).
  - ashark 11y ago
    2% Fage is usually the best I can find. The low fat ones are marketing BS—loaded with sugar so they don't taste like nothing. Unfortunately that's very nearly the only thing available at most stores. Misleading advertising/labelling defeats good food yet again.
  - ashmud 11y ago
    Stonyfield and Fage make full fat yogurts, for example. I do not remember seeing any at the grocery chain giants, though. More specialized groceries (e.g., Whole Foods, some "ethnic" stores) may carry a full fat yogurt. http://www.stonyfield.com/products/yogurt/smooth-creamy/whole-milk-plain http://www.stonyfield.com/products/yogurt/smooth-creamy/whol... http://usa.fage.eu/product/fage-total-7-oz http://usa.fage.eu/product/fage-total-7-oz
  - benten10 11y ago
    Assuming you shop at U.S supermarkets, you can _usually_ find full-fats, but they are almost always the store brand. There are very limited flavor options with full-fat though. Ohh, what I'd give for full(even extra!) fat yogurt with not a lot of sugar. : ( The best yogurt I have had, by far, far, is Juju Dhau, from Nepal. It's so heavy and creamy, it feels like a meal in itself. Hey investors, ya hear me? Juju dhau might be the next Chobani! http://tasteofnepal.blogspot.com/2012/02/juju-dhau-king-of-yogurt-from-bhaktapur.html http://tasteofnepal.blogspot.com/2012/02/juju-dhau-king-of-y...
    - kaybe 11y ago
      How about making yoghurt yourself? It's not that hard.
      - clock_tower 11y ago
        Merchandising it on a large scale would be... But you probably mean making it for personal use. I'm not the original poster, but I'm going to have to look into that.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    Every grocery store I've seen carries multiple brands of yogurts (usually in all of strained -- Greek, skyr, etc. -- non-strained, and drinkable), not labelled low- or no-fat that are full-fat. (At least one brands labels them as something like 4% fat, which is a low-seeming number, but is actually full fat.)
  - brational 11y ago
    Are you not in a major metro area? When I lived in rural missouri (40k city) I still found multiple brands of full fat (and not just plain flavor).
  - tremendo 11y ago
    Fage, Straus, Maple Hill, Voskos all sell full-fat yogurt, and Trader Joe's sells one under their own brand. Maple Hill's is not strained and made with milk form grass-fed cows.
  - el_benhameen 11y ago
    Try making your own yogurt. It's not quite as easy as buying it, but it's still a very simple process. You can make it with whatever fat content you'd like (and less sugar, which was the big draw for me), and it's really remarkably good. A decent yogurt maker will set you back maybe 20 or 25 bucks: http://amzn.com/B000EX16RY http://amzn.com/B000EX16RY
  - meej 11y ago
    I can't eat nonfat dairy because it triggers my lactose intolerance. It drives me crazy to know that full-fat Greek style yogurt exists but none of my local stores stock it. The best I have found is 2%, and even then the pickings are slim. That said, my local Safeway does stock 4% Darigold cottage cheese.
- ashmud 11y ago
  I find that eating something with fat and protein does a better job than fat alone. On days when I add in a mozzarella cheese, I feel satiated much longer than a fruit+nut bar alone (also have a tablespoon of coconut oil in my coffee).
sopooneo 11y ago
I am interested in trying this, but if I don't eat breakfast, I am sometimes so light headed by 11:00am that I am literally almost falling over and my brain doesn't function. Any advice or articles you'd recommend?
- rob_61 11y ago
  Here is the best summary I've seen on IF... http://antranik.org/intermittent-fasting/ http://antranik.org/intermittent-fasting/ btw, I've been practicing IF for 2+ years and love it.
- pc86 11y ago
  IF is by definition just about constraining your food intake to a certain window of time. Most people do this later in the day out of necessity or habit (e.g. 2-7), but there's no reason your window couldn't be 6-10. The downside is that you are much more likely to cheat if you do this, because now you have to go all afternoon and evening without eating, and then go to sleep. Psychologically it's much easier to wake up and be able to say "only 6 more hours to eat" and go to bed a few hours after your last meal than it is to eat your last meal, have 12 waking hours left, then try to go to sleep with a grumbling belly. Edit: A lot of people practice IF without even realizing it. The most popular form (mentioned in rob_61's linked article) is 16/8. If you don't eat until lunch and don't do a late dinner, it's very likely you fall in the 16/8 window.
- andy_ppp 11y ago
  How much water have you had? Eat something fatty and high in protein. Your body never enters fat burning mode - as you get used to fasting once per week this process will get easier, like anything really.
- ksk 11y ago
  Have you tried gradually increasing the fasting window over time?
- vinceguidry 11y ago
  I've done IF and lost 40 lbs with it. My advice is to eat something really small, and see what the smallest breakfast you can get away with is. After a month or so, try stopping breakfast and see how you make out then. My understanding is that the gut and vagus nerve are very sensitive to disruptions, any changes in routine have large initial perceived effects, until a new equilibrium is established. I think this mechanism is why diets are so faddish and people think they have food allergies when they actually don't. So, mitigate the worst of the symptoms, be willing to accept some temporary discomfort, and iterate towards a better diet over time.
ljk 11y ago
> * I've been giving intermittent fasting a try and it's been quite amazing to me to realize how I've always equated the slightest feeling of hunger with the idea that "I must eat, I'm starving!". I think this is pretty common.* Not as extreme, but recently started to eat less for lunch(before: eating out, burger/sandwich + fries + drink, etc, now: homemade food, fruits) and already I don't get the afternoon snooze, and haven't needed coffee in a long time! also haven't been to any fast food restaurants or had soda in a few months, hopefully I can break the one-year mark!
- benten10 11y ago
  I have a fun story to share about how I created a soda-disgust in myself! In college at one point, I was drinking soda almost every day. It was bad for me and I knew it, but couldn't help. So one day, I froze a bottle of some soda, and then let it thaw, sipping it after. It was the nastiest, sweetest, most awful-headaching thing I've ever put in my mouth. Having discovered what soda 'really' was, I stopped drinking it. I drink it maybe once in a year at most, but that's about it.
  - Drdrdrq 11y ago
    When you say soda, what do you mean? Coca Cola?
    - benten10 11y ago
      coke, sprite, Fanta aka 'orange soda', whatever you want. The sweet corn syrup thaws first since it's got higher melting point than water, and it tastes nasty!
mtreis86 11y ago
It was not until I started a ketogenic diet, that I learned the difference between hungry and thirsty. The signals are very very similar, at least for me.

benten10 11y ago

You can do even better than a bowl of cereal. Eat something fatty, and even eating a little will significantly reduce your hunger. These days fatty food, such as cheese and creamy yogurt have been a staple of my diet: I can go by for a lot longer without eating much that way. The fruit-fat-nuts diet is _completely_ doable (of course, I eat 'normal' food too, for a more balanced diet, but only in the weekends, etc.)

CompelTechnic 11y ago
I cannot find full fat yogurt in any of my local grocery stores. Is "low fat" as good as it gets? Seems like the low-fat diet craze of the recent past, and the current greek yogurt phenomenon, mean that "zero fat" and "low fat" are the only two options.
- jokamoto 11y ago
  Not sure if it qualifies as "full fat" per se, but Noosa brand yogurt has roughly twice the fat content of most Greek yogurts I've tried (seems to really help texture/flavor as well).
- ashark 11y ago
  2% Fage is usually the best I can find. The low fat ones are marketing BS—loaded with sugar so they don't taste like nothing. Unfortunately that's very nearly the only thing available at most stores. Misleading advertising/labelling defeats good food yet again.
- ashmud 11y ago
  Stonyfield and Fage make full fat yogurts, for example. I do not remember seeing any at the grocery chain giants, though. More specialized groceries (e.g., Whole Foods, some "ethnic" stores) may carry a full fat yogurt. http://www.stonyfield.com/products/yogurt/smooth-creamy/whole-milk-plain http://www.stonyfield.com/products/yogurt/smooth-creamy/whol... http://usa.fage.eu/product/fage-total-7-oz http://usa.fage.eu/product/fage-total-7-oz
- benten10 11y ago
  Assuming you shop at U.S supermarkets, you can _usually_ find full-fats, but they are almost always the store brand. There are very limited flavor options with full-fat though. Ohh, what I'd give for full(even extra!) fat yogurt with not a lot of sugar. : ( The best yogurt I have had, by far, far, is Juju Dhau, from Nepal. It's so heavy and creamy, it feels like a meal in itself. Hey investors, ya hear me? Juju dhau might be the next Chobani! http://tasteofnepal.blogspot.com/2012/02/juju-dhau-king-of-yogurt-from-bhaktapur.html http://tasteofnepal.blogspot.com/2012/02/juju-dhau-king-of-y...
  - kaybe 11y ago
    How about making yoghurt yourself? It's not that hard.
    - clock_tower 11y ago
      Merchandising it on a large scale would be... But you probably mean making it for personal use. I'm not the original poster, but I'm going to have to look into that.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  Every grocery store I've seen carries multiple brands of yogurts (usually in all of strained -- Greek, skyr, etc. -- non-strained, and drinkable), not labelled low- or no-fat that are full-fat. (At least one brands labels them as something like 4% fat, which is a low-seeming number, but is actually full fat.)
- brational 11y ago
  Are you not in a major metro area? When I lived in rural missouri (40k city) I still found multiple brands of full fat (and not just plain flavor).
- tremendo 11y ago
  Fage, Straus, Maple Hill, Voskos all sell full-fat yogurt, and Trader Joe's sells one under their own brand. Maple Hill's is not strained and made with milk form grass-fed cows.
- el_benhameen 11y ago
  Try making your own yogurt. It's not quite as easy as buying it, but it's still a very simple process. You can make it with whatever fat content you'd like (and less sugar, which was the big draw for me), and it's really remarkably good. A decent yogurt maker will set you back maybe 20 or 25 bucks: http://amzn.com/B000EX16RY http://amzn.com/B000EX16RY
- meej 11y ago
  I can't eat nonfat dairy because it triggers my lactose intolerance. It drives me crazy to know that full-fat Greek style yogurt exists but none of my local stores stock it. The best I have found is 2%, and even then the pickings are slim. That said, my local Safeway does stock 4% Darigold cottage cheese.
ashmud 11y ago
I find that eating something with fat and protein does a better job than fat alone. On days when I add in a mozzarella cheese, I feel satiated much longer than a fruit+nut bar alone (also have a tablespoon of coconut oil in my coffee).

sopooneo 11y ago

I am interested in trying this, but if I don't eat breakfast, I am sometimes so light headed by 11:00am that I am literally almost falling over and my brain doesn't function. Any advice or articles you'd recommend?

rob_61 11y ago
Here is the best summary I've seen on IF... http://antranik.org/intermittent-fasting/ http://antranik.org/intermittent-fasting/ btw, I've been practicing IF for 2+ years and love it.
pc86 11y ago
IF is by definition just about constraining your food intake to a certain window of time. Most people do this later in the day out of necessity or habit (e.g. 2-7), but there's no reason your window couldn't be 6-10. The downside is that you are much more likely to cheat if you do this, because now you have to go all afternoon and evening without eating, and then go to sleep. Psychologically it's much easier to wake up and be able to say "only 6 more hours to eat" and go to bed a few hours after your last meal than it is to eat your last meal, have 12 waking hours left, then try to go to sleep with a grumbling belly. Edit: A lot of people practice IF without even realizing it. The most popular form (mentioned in rob_61's linked article) is 16/8. If you don't eat until lunch and don't do a late dinner, it's very likely you fall in the 16/8 window.
andy_ppp 11y ago
How much water have you had? Eat something fatty and high in protein. Your body never enters fat burning mode - as you get used to fasting once per week this process will get easier, like anything really.
ksk 11y ago
Have you tried gradually increasing the fasting window over time?
vinceguidry 11y ago
I've done IF and lost 40 lbs with it. My advice is to eat something really small, and see what the smallest breakfast you can get away with is. After a month or so, try stopping breakfast and see how you make out then. My understanding is that the gut and vagus nerve are very sensitive to disruptions, any changes in routine have large initial perceived effects, until a new equilibrium is established. I think this mechanism is why diets are so faddish and people think they have food allergies when they actually don't. So, mitigate the worst of the symptoms, be willing to accept some temporary discomfort, and iterate towards a better diet over time.

ljk 11y ago

> * I've been giving intermittent fasting a try and it's been quite amazing to me to realize how I've always equated the slightest feeling of hunger with the idea that "I must eat, I'm starving!". I think this is pretty common.* Not as extreme, but recently started to eat less for lunch(before: eating out, burger/sandwich + fries + drink, etc, now: homemade food, fruits) and already I don't get the afternoon snooze, and haven't needed coffee in a long time! also haven't been to any fast food restaurants or had soda in a few months, hopefully I can break the one-year mark!

benten10 11y ago
I have a fun story to share about how I created a soda-disgust in myself! In college at one point, I was drinking soda almost every day. It was bad for me and I knew it, but couldn't help. So one day, I froze a bottle of some soda, and then let it thaw, sipping it after. It was the nastiest, sweetest, most awful-headaching thing I've ever put in my mouth. Having discovered what soda 'really' was, I stopped drinking it. I drink it maybe once in a year at most, but that's about it.
- Drdrdrq 11y ago
  When you say soda, what do you mean? Coca Cola?
  - benten10 11y ago
    coke, sprite, Fanta aka 'orange soda', whatever you want. The sweet corn syrup thaws first since it's got higher melting point than water, and it tastes nasty!

mtreis86 11y ago

It was not until I started a ketogenic diet, that I learned the difference between hungry and thirsty. The signals are very very similar, at least for me.