3 ms·

I've been thinking about it to give a boost to my weight loss after this long winter. I have a couple of questions if you have a moment, do you feel energized

by vfc1 7y ago

I've been thinking about it to give a boost to my weight loss after this long winter. I have a couple of questions if you have a moment, do you feel energized in terms of work in the morning, or feel a bit slugish? If it goes away the lack of productivity, how long does it take to go away? And do you feel hungry in the late morning at first, how long until you don't feel hungry anymore? For what I heard so far, intermittent fasting is a great tool in the arsenal, but it's not more important than food choices so I haven't given it a go so far. Thanks for any insight on your experience, kind regards.

arcticbull 7y ago
> I have a couple of questions if you have a moment, do you feel energized in terms of work in the morning, or feel a bit slugish? No energy issues, it doesn't bother me. I drink coffee as a pick me up so I'm probably not the right person to address the morning without case :P Fasting for longer periods causes a big rise in noradrenaline, but I seriously doubt you'd hit that on an 18:6. The idea being if you were out in the wild and ran out of food, your body's natural response wouldn't be to 'get tired and fall down', you'd die quickly. Evolutionarily you'd want to have as much energy and drive as possible. Not eating triggers that. > If it goes away the lack of productivity, how long does it take to go away? And do you feel hungry in the late morning at first, how long until you don't feel hungry anymore? I stopped eating breakfast ages ago but when I adjust my eating schedule it takes a couple of days, not more. > For what I heard so far, intermittent fasting is a great tool in the arsenal, but it's not more important than food choices so I haven't given it a go so far. I was being a bit hyperbolic. What I meant was that insulin triggers a bunch of processes which cause blood sugar to be stored as fat and actively prevents the use of fat in your energy metabolism. It takes a while for the level to go down long enough for you to start burning fat, as you've got a lot of energy stored as glycogen to go through first. Eating small doses of high glycemic index food often keeps your insulin level up and actively stops you from losing weight. If you're snacking on candy all day you'll never lose weight. On the other hand if you eat some candy for 1 hour a day and fast for 23, you probably would. There's a huge range in between these two extremes. As the saying goes, you can't outrun a bad diet. > Thanks for any insight on your experience, kind regards. Any time. I find this stuff super interesting.
glangdale 7y ago
Not parent poster, but I have done the same thing for a long time. I tried 5:2 and 16:8 (the former refers to days, the latter hours, of course). I find that the long fast (8pm to about noon the next day) is almost undetectable (it helps that I enjoy espresso; some might find it horrible or too acid on an empty stomach). 5:2, on the other hand, was bad for productivity as I would spend the low-cal days thinking about food. I dropped from about 110kg to 94kg (disclosure: also training a lot of BJJ, weights, etc) mostly by IF'ing. I ate ice cream and all sorts of fun stuff the whole time (not tons of treats, but it wasn't a 'hair shirt' diet). Average weight loss was about 50g per day (averaging closer to 70-100 initially, then dropping off). Weighing in every day and putting it in a spreadsheet helped. I found it way easier to focus on "food hours" vs "food choices". Honestly imo some 0imes you're just going to have pizza or a burger or ice cream or something. If you can eat clean and healthy 100% of the time, good on you, but it's hard to stick to that day-in, day-out for months, and I know plenty of 'clean eaters' who eat way too much 'clean food' and/or cheat and/or give up and are as a result fat. IF with noon-8pm as a feeding window and a focus on hours not Magic Food Choices also allows you to largely behave like a normal person socially unless your life revolves around social breakfasts (which would be cool, I guess, but not that typical).
- azinman2 7y ago
  My doctor just recommended to me to do the slow carb diet. She says it’s the most reliable way for her patients to lose weight in a healthy way. The good thing about it is there’s a mandatory cheat day once a week, so you can eat all the ice cream / burgers you want (within reason) on that day. Makes it more palpable. Today is day 1 for me... hardest thing will he meal planning for the other 6 days....
  - glangdale 7y ago
    Cheat days are good. I had 1/week coinciding with team meal and Friday night take-out (still on a 16:8 pattern, but food selection was essentially a free-fire zone). I'm not sure if they are effective because of all the broscience about "not permanently resetting your body into famine mode" or because they allow you to stay sane over a long diet and actually stick to it, but either way...
wtmt 7y ago
Not the GP, but it's quite easy to get used to not having breakfast. Any sluggishness you may observe (you may not either) would usually be temporary. Intermittent fasting allows one to have (almost) zero calorie beverages, like water, black tea, herbal tea, black coffee, etc., without any sugar. If you feel hungry initially, just have one or two of these until your next meal to adjust. Just keep in mind that hunger pangs in the morning will usually return if you have start having breakfast anytime for a few days. The body usually goes with how it's been treated. As always, this is not professional medical advice. Please take care while experimenting.

by vfc1 7y ago

arcticbull 7y ago

> I have a couple of questions if you have a moment, do you feel energized in terms of work in the morning, or feel a bit slugish? No energy issues, it doesn't bother me. I drink coffee as a pick me up so I'm probably not the right person to address the morning without case :P Fasting for longer periods causes a big rise in noradrenaline, but I seriously doubt you'd hit that on an 18:6. The idea being if you were out in the wild and ran out of food, your body's natural response wouldn't be to 'get tired and fall down', you'd die quickly. Evolutionarily you'd want to have as much energy and drive as possible. Not eating triggers that. > If it goes away the lack of productivity, how long does it take to go away? And do you feel hungry in the late morning at first, how long until you don't feel hungry anymore? I stopped eating breakfast ages ago but when I adjust my eating schedule it takes a couple of days, not more. > For what I heard so far, intermittent fasting is a great tool in the arsenal, but it's not more important than food choices so I haven't given it a go so far. I was being a bit hyperbolic. What I meant was that insulin triggers a bunch of processes which cause blood sugar to be stored as fat and actively prevents the use of fat in your energy metabolism. It takes a while for the level to go down long enough for you to start burning fat, as you've got a lot of energy stored as glycogen to go through first. Eating small doses of high glycemic index food often keeps your insulin level up and actively stops you from losing weight. If you're snacking on candy all day you'll never lose weight. On the other hand if you eat some candy for 1 hour a day and fast for 23, you probably would. There's a huge range in between these two extremes. As the saying goes, you can't outrun a bad diet. > Thanks for any insight on your experience, kind regards. Any time. I find this stuff super interesting.

glangdale 7y ago

Not parent poster, but I have done the same thing for a long time. I tried 5:2 and 16:8 (the former refers to days, the latter hours, of course). I find that the long fast (8pm to about noon the next day) is almost undetectable (it helps that I enjoy espresso; some might find it horrible or too acid on an empty stomach). 5:2, on the other hand, was bad for productivity as I would spend the low-cal days thinking about food. I dropped from about 110kg to 94kg (disclosure: also training a lot of BJJ, weights, etc) mostly by IF'ing. I ate ice cream and all sorts of fun stuff the whole time (not tons of treats, but it wasn't a 'hair shirt' diet). Average weight loss was about 50g per day (averaging closer to 70-100 initially, then dropping off). Weighing in every day and putting it in a spreadsheet helped. I found it way easier to focus on "food hours" vs "food choices". Honestly imo some 0imes you're just going to have pizza or a burger or ice cream or something. If you can eat clean and healthy 100% of the time, good on you, but it's hard to stick to that day-in, day-out for months, and I know plenty of 'clean eaters' who eat way too much 'clean food' and/or cheat and/or give up and are as a result fat. IF with noon-8pm as a feeding window and a focus on hours not Magic Food Choices also allows you to largely behave like a normal person socially unless your life revolves around social breakfasts (which would be cool, I guess, but not that typical).

azinman2 7y ago
My doctor just recommended to me to do the slow carb diet. She says it’s the most reliable way for her patients to lose weight in a healthy way. The good thing about it is there’s a mandatory cheat day once a week, so you can eat all the ice cream / burgers you want (within reason) on that day. Makes it more palpable. Today is day 1 for me... hardest thing will he meal planning for the other 6 days....
- glangdale 7y ago
  Cheat days are good. I had 1/week coinciding with team meal and Friday night take-out (still on a 16:8 pattern, but food selection was essentially a free-fire zone). I'm not sure if they are effective because of all the broscience about "not permanently resetting your body into famine mode" or because they allow you to stay sane over a long diet and actually stick to it, but either way...

wtmt 7y ago

Not the GP, but it's quite easy to get used to not having breakfast. Any sluggishness you may observe (you may not either) would usually be temporary. Intermittent fasting allows one to have (almost) zero calorie beverages, like water, black tea, herbal tea, black coffee, etc., without any sugar. If you feel hungry initially, just have one or two of these until your next meal to adjust. Just keep in mind that hunger pangs in the morning will usually return if you have start having breakfast anytime for a few days. The body usually goes with how it's been treated. As always, this is not professional medical advice. Please take care while experimenting.