Intermittent Fasting and healthy eating

asajj

I have a question, perhaps a silly one. During the fasting period, what do you drink? Just water or nothing or occasional coffee and tea are ok?

pollypenny

asajj wrote: »

I have a question, perhaps a silly one. During the fasting period, what do you drink? Just water or nothing or occasional coffee and tea are ok?

Oh, you can drink anything you like: just consider it as part of your 500/600 calories.

I have three coffees in the morning, with a splash of milk, loads of water through the day and the odd herb tea if I fancy it.

Warning, there can be an initial problem with constipation until the body gets used to the new eating pattern, so keep hydrated.

System

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.

It's great for people that it works for but for everyone else I expect it isn't too pleasant.

FBaby

asajj wrote: »

I have a question, perhaps a silly one. During the fasting period, what do you drink? Just water or nothing or occasional coffee and tea are ok?

I drink quite a few cups of tea with milk, so do get calories in this way anyway.

FBaby

It's great for people that it works for but for everyone else I expect it isn't too pleasant.

It works for people like me who find that the less they eat, the less they crave food.

Most people I speak to say that if they don't eat for longer than 4 or 5 hours, they get ravenous and then start to feel faint. I do find that I get hungry at the beginning but then not much more than I do when I eat more, but then it really has the opposite effect and I have never felt faint for not eating for 12h or more. I don't know whether everyone would be the same if they tried longer or whether it is a fact that we are just all different and indeed, for many, or the majority, it is indeed the case that their blood sugar doesn't regulate as well and they need to eat more often.

System

FBaby wrote: »

It works for people like me who find that the less they eat, the less they crave food.

Most people I speak to say that if they don't eat for longer than 4 or 5 hours, they get ravenous and then start to feel faint. I do find that I get hungry at the beginning but then not much more than I do when I eat more, but then it really has the opposite effect and I have never felt faint for not eating for 12h or more. I don't know whether everyone would be the same if they tried longer or whether it is a fact that we are just all different and indeed, for many, or the majority, it is indeed the case that their blood sugar doesn't regulate as well and they need to eat more often.

I have found the same. I only know other 5:2ers from forums - in real life I do not know a single person that could manage it/has managed to do it successfully. It just seems many people cannot get by on the 500-600 calorie limit but would not struggle so much on a daily deficit regime.

That is why I find it great and it defines my personal approach to food.

pollypenny

Walcott wrote: »

It's great for people that it works for but for everyone else I expect it isn't too pleasant.

Initially the fast days seemed hard, but we've both got used to not eating until 1pm, after evening meal around 6.30.

We've both got far more energy, since we've learned to eat when we needed to, not from habit or boredom.

asajj

I used to follow Sara Solomon for exercise and she is a big fan of IF and fasts 20 hours and eat 4 but she eats pretty much everything. Like pizza etc. She is very fit though and above my league, it is sort of her job to keep fit and sell it.

I did follow a low GI diet coupled with 3-4 days gym routine 5-6 years ago and lost a lot of weight. I didn't put all of it back but I'm nowhere as thin and want to lose some. This time, however, I won't have the option to exercise 3-4 days a week nor will have the energy. I'm like some others, ok not to eat for a long period of time. I did fast for religious reasons before too although not anymore. So I'm somewhat used to it.

At the moment, I stay with family so not really have my own orderly life, will give this a go as it has been something in my mind for a long time. Nice to hear it works well for some.