Intermittent Fasting and healthy eating

fairy_lights

FBaby wrote: »

I am starving at 11am when I've had breakfast before! It seems that the moment I have food, my brain is asking for more. If I don't, it shuts down and I don't want any.

Yep same here, If I eat breakfast I become a ravenous food monster by mid-morning, and end up eating much more over the course of the day.

pollypenny

OP, read the 5:2 thread.

I am a big fan of intermittent fasting. I read Michael Mosley's book from cover to cover. OH and I began using the recipes in the book and fasting two days a week. That was the end of April.

He has lost 3 st with another to go. I've lost 23lbs and have been maintaining for six weeks.

We have found that our attitudes to food, as well as our appetites, have changed completely.

urbanlegend11

benten69 wrote: »

That in itself is not a good idea. It's well proven that you should eat several small meals throughout the day rather then 2 or 3 big ones. Look at any professional athlete who had a nutritionist to tell them what to eat. You'll never see them skipping breakfast in order to have 2 large meals instead and for good reason.

It has no been proven that this is a myth. You do not need to eat small meals throughout the day.

urbanlegend11

FBaby wrote: »

ha ha, I didn't know it has an official name! This is what I've done for some time and definitely what works for me. The less I eat, the less I crave food. Most of the advice (including proper medical advice) is that to have a balance diet, one should eat a proper breakfast.

I am not challenging the expert advice but it just doesn't work for ME. I feel much more alert and perform better, physically and mentally, when I don't have anything in my stomach, and that is a fact for ME.

I remember reading an article from a GP in the states who was trying to demonstrate that the idea that our body needs to eat regularly was a fallacy and that our body could regulate intake of food for much longer.

People have told me that they can't skip breakfast or go that long without eating because their blood sugar go down. My MIL in diabetic, so I asked if I could use her machine and got some strips. I tested three times a day for a week and my blood sugar was perfectly stable around 6, that included an hour after eating, or when I hadn't eaten for 10 hours and even after a 10k run (without eating before).

One thing is sure, if I feel as good as I do and have been able to run half marathon distance breaking my record, I must be fine so will continue with it.

Excellent ! Ive ran a half marathon 16 hours fasted before and usually always train in the gym fasted.

urbanlegend11

pollypenny wrote: »

OP, read the 5:2 thread.

I am a big fan of intermittent fasting. I read Michael Mosley's book from cover to cover. OH and I began using the recipes in the book and fasting two days a week. That was the end of April.

He has lost 3 st with another to go. I've lost 23lbs and have been maintaining for six weeks.

We have found that our attitudes to food, as well as our appetites, have changed completely.

Yes totally. Your body learns to understand when its hungry not just when you think you should be eating.

urbanlegend11

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I do time restricted eating too.

I started it to lose weight after an injury made me immobile for a long time, everyone around me was recommending it, and it was fabulous for that. Made the whole dieting thing so much easier when you don't have to deal with all day hunger any more.

And I've stuck with it because I found starting eating mid-day made my morning brain much sharper (which is when I do all my creative stuff) with less time-wasting on food. I'm up and I'm out and I'm focused without any kind of mid-morning slump.

It's also really nice, as a former anorexic turned occasional binge-eater, to be liberated from the endless 24hr food cycle.
For the last couple of years, since I've been doing IF, I actually feel like I'm the one in control now and it's like a burden has been lifted at last. I only have to think about food for a few hours a day now. The rest of the day is a complete break from all that.

It sounds like you are using IF to you're advantage. You are in control. How liberating !

FBaby

It's refreshing to read I'm not the only one as everyone around me think my way is odd and unhealthy. My view is that if it makes me feel good and keeping the weight down, it has to be right for me. Now I know others feel the same!

I understand what you mean QS about feeling liberated. I have never enjoyed eating my main meal so much because although I don't have to feel guilty about how much calories I ingest since it will amount for most of my day's intake. I had never realised how much I ate with a sense of guilt over me before and how much it took away the enjoyment of the meal.

System

FBaby wrote: »

It's refreshing to read I'm not the only one as everyone around me think my way is odd and unhealthy.

Me too! I get fed up of peoples uneducated views on this topic.

5:2 liberates the mind of preconceived notions of food/diet. To other people one meal of 600 calories a day is unnatural. To me eating for the sake of eating at meal times just because society has labelled and marketed it that was is unnatural.

fireblade28

I always felt it to be somewhat overrated. Some people make IF to be something that it isn't. It does work but so does just reducing calories.

pollypenny

fireblade28 wrote: »

I always felt it to be somewhat overrated. Some people make IF to be something that it isn't. It does work but so does just reducing calories.

Mainly the above but it gives greater control of insulin, too.