[Closed] Intermittent fasting - is it all about weight loss?

For training, there's a fair bit of talk about fasted riding. In my experience it does help build endurance and help you ride longer without taking on fuel. But don't overdo it, because it can really deplete your glycogen stores which at least for me, can lead to over-eating to compensate. Fasted rides should be short.

Intermittent fasting e.g. the 5:2 diet, that's not the same thing - that's about weight loss and possibly improving insulin response.

I do some fasted runs, and try to limit fuel intake on some runs to train for that.

I was thinking of the 5:2 thing and some claims about insulin response (is that something I may benefit from or is it about reducing / managing hunger pangs better when trying to lose wieght) but also about cells celansing (like detox).

Autophagy

I've been IF for longer than I can remember (since not long after Martin Berkhan first started writing about it, probably a decade). I began by missing breakfast and now do all my eating in a window from about 6pm-10pm.

Honestly no idea if it benefits my training or not, I just find it convenient these days 🙂 . Certainly its not all about weight loss or I'd have dwindled away to nothing by now!

It's suggested there are benefits in 'fasting' by eating dinner early (5.30-6pm) then not eating until at least late morning the next day. Can't remember what the benefits are though other than helping with weight loss 🙂

Autophagy if you do it long enough and definitely helps give your system a rest from eating.

So I get a flatter gut, less bloating etc.

It's a great thing to do if it suits.

It's nowhere near as hard as you think if you can get up and go on a coffee.

Interested.

What are peoples experiences of hot drinks with milk? Does this break the fast, or not? I've seen conflicting answers...

Autophagy
I’ve been doing a 16 hour (pretty much daily) fast for about 5 years now since I moved to an ancestral diet. Sometimes I have bulletproof style coffee although Paul Jaminet (Perfect health diet) now thinks that eating fats stops the autophagy (but still supports weight loss).
In these COVID days autophagy has to be pretty desirable. Jaminet’s opinion is that 16 hours is optimum. For me that means no food after 8pm. No booze either strictly. Then eat at 12-1 next day.
Suits me.
I most often ride “fasted” and tip up at the end.
Well, I did, but have now been off for 7 months due to a spinal disc herniation.
Wish I’d read Stu McGills “Back Mechanic” years ago. Could perhaps have avoided it.

I reckon eating breakfast, lunch and no dinner (or evening booze) may be more optimal - but very anti social.

What are peoples experiences of hot drinks with milk? Does this break the fast, or not?

Yeah this breaks the fast mate. The milk is carbs see? You can have coffee/tea etc, but with no milk, and no sugar.

Never done IF. But have done a couple of four-day fasts. No idea why, just to see if I could. I remember going on a bike ride and coming back through the city I could literally smell each and every takeaway. It was maddening!

The one obvious benefit is getting to bore the tits off everyone you meet with tales of your awesomeness.

I fast between meals.

The OP has just realised he's gonna need a different username for 16 hrs a day

Good luck teasing out the actual benefits from the bampottery and pseudoscience that surrounds fasting.

The Horizon program about intermittent fasting presented by Michael Mosley mentioned other benefits such as reduced risk of heart issues but it's so long since I've seen it I forget the details and evidence presented.

reduced cholesterol from 7 to 4.5, reduced blood pressure from high to normal - am very happy to (statistically) live an extra few years for that

The one obvious benefit is getting to bore the tits off everyone you meet with tales of your awesomeness.

isn't the definition of a bore something like someone who posts on a thread they have no interest in to say how boring the thread is?

Good luck teasing out the actual benefits from the bampottery and pseudoscience that surrounds fasting.

^^ This

There's so much nonsense out there, not to mention very conflicting reports in the science literature. It's great for fasting glucose, but terrible for cardiac fibrosis. Good for cholesterol, bad for losing muscle mass etc etc. The jury is most definitely still out.

because it can really deplete your glycogen stores which at least for me, can lead to over-eating to compensate

Also this.

I did intermittent fasting for about a year. I wanted to lose a bit of fat weight to get me faster on the bike. I don't do it religiously these days, but I do it occasionally.

Weirdly, the whole thing taught me that I can control my hunger (empty stomach grumbling feeling) pretty easily - I can go for 16 hours including some riding without batting an eyelid, particularly if I'm busy. It's much harder (for me) to control the carb / sugar cravings that I get in an evening, and intermittent fasting almost makes that worse because I probably do need some extra calories in the evenings if I've fasted, and carbs are an easy way to get that.

I seemed to lose proportionally more muscle than fat meaning I got a bit lighter but if anything I think it slowed me down on the bike (This may be related to the above point about necking loads of carbs in the evening). I was not overweight to begin with, though, and people with more fat to lose may benefit more.

It also taught me to love black coffee, which I now understand to be inarguably superior to milky coffee.

My non-medical opinion is that, by all means, do it for a bit of weight loss if you like, but don't expect to live longer or get faster. But you just might up your coffee snob quotient.

Yesterday (completely coincidentally) we had our dinner before 6pm, so after reading the information above I thought I'd give it a try.

Child woke up early (6:10 am) which I thought would make things tricky, but a couple of black coffee's and I took the dog out, then walked her to school and went on an 8km run. I felt fine, albeit a bit tired but they may be because I was still tired from yesterday's run, difficult to tell. Getting through to 10am for some porridge was easy enough.

I thnk I'll probably do it once a week on the basis above, aiming to lose a couple of pounds and also see if it reduces bloating.

Weight loss and if it's not been mentioned. Maintaining the weight loss.

The one obvious benefit is getting to bore the tits off everyone you meet with tales of your awesomeness.

Oh yes I bore anyone that makes the mistake of asking / complimenting me on my 3.5 stone weight loss and the fact I am keeping it off. 🤣

fadda

Interested.

What are peoples experiences of hot drinks with milk? Does this break the fast, or not? I’ve seen conflicting answers…

It does technically but if it gets you through the fast it's not the end of the world. Just avoid it when you can and over time cut it back. I switched to having a dash of unsweetened almond milk instead of cows milk for the times I cannot resist coffee.

I can't give up coffee completely, I like it too much besides I get wicked caffeine withdrawal headaches.

I regularly go from 8pm in an evening to 12:30pm the following day with only a black tea with sugar and I can assure you no miraculous weight loss has occurred for me - ever

I try to do 16:8, so 16 hours fasted from 9pm to 1pm next day during the week, then also weekends unless I'm riding. I'll drink black coffee, water or green tea usually.

I keep saying I'll try fasting for 24-48hrs but never manage it.

Not for weight loss, but the supposed health benefits including autophagy, glucose and insulin (metabolic) regulation, but also to control hunger and limit my meals to 2 per day.

I've never really lost weight doing IF alone, but I have lost weight/body fat (and improved inflammatory and CVD markers) by combining with a low carb/higher fat & protein diet (not Keto), and feel loads better for it. Much more endurance on the bike for longer rides too but that's a personal choice that might not be for everyone.

I find this kind of thing quite manageable unless I am exercising. Above a certain level, my appetite is driven right up - presumably this is an adaptation to to doing more exercise. It was the worst when doing strength training though so perhaps it's driven by metabolism and muscle building etc.

I'm in no way doing any IF but I do usually do a fasted run on a Friday morning which could be anywhere between 9-22 miles depending on what I'm training for. The first time I did one it was quite a shock at about 7 miles when I couldn't seem to run in a straight line and thought it probably wasn't a good idea to try it again. However, I did and it now doesn't seem to phase me or make me feel weak etc. Perhaps my body has adapted to the fact it knows there is no extra fuel going in and can utilise internal stores to get me through. I do try and fuel properly once I finish though to aid recovery, as it takes longer as you get older. I figure if I can manage to run say a 20+ miler on no food first thing (6am) then a marathon with a decent breaky and proper fuelling is going to be no problem in terms of bonking or feeling weak.

I know nothing of IF, only what I have experienced this week, due to Covid.
Basically havent eaten since Monday until tonight, combination of complete loss of taste and wild vertigo which leaves me holding on to the floor for support to avoid falling off it.
What I can tell you is that , after the hunger pangs wear off, I dont feel much different for the lack of food at all. Yes ,Ive lost probably half a stone to a stone, but I dont feel extraordinarily affected by it.
Compare this to when I work afternoon shifts, where my last meal will be at about 11pm, then nothing before gym at 11am or so then nothing unless I grab a sarnie in the car, until break time. I can regularly feel as if Ive just been poisoned , complete energy crash maybe 45 mins in, cold sweats, shallow breaths, rapid weak pulse, basically feel like youre having a cardiac event, but only when working this shift. Hot weather makes it far far worse. Now Ill be interested to see if Im quite as bad next time I go to the gym having pushed the fasting further than I have for years.

Intermittent fasting is a calorie consumption strategy useful when you are restricting calories. This is due to shifting calories from breakfast to dinner(usually) enables you to have a big dinner that makes you feel full instead of getting cravings at night. Takes about 2 weeks to get used to it.

Say if your target is 1800 calories, you could split up your meals in 3x600 (breakfast, lunch, dinner) or do 1x600(lunch) and 1x1200 (Dinner).

Intermittent fasting is a calorie consumption strategy useful when you are restricting calories. This is due to shifting calories from breakfast to dinner(usually) enables you to have a big dinner that makes you feel full instead of getting cravings at night. Takes about 2 weeks to get used to it.

Say if your target is 1800 calories, you could split up your meals in 3×600 (breakfast, lunch, dinner) or do 1×600(lunch) and 1×1200 (Dinner).

thats pretty much how i see it. i read all the martin berkhan 'leangains' stuff about health benefits back in the day and got into it, taking BCAA before workouts and the like. i dropped 2 and three-guarter stone over 6 months whilst still working out, became really lean (14 stone down to 11 and a quarter at 5'10:), but it was more just to see how far i could push it rather than wanting to stay that way, i became too lean really.

over the last few years i just decided that the effort and dedication needed was greater than my enjoyment of life so ive settled on a happy medium.
basically now its just 'skipping breakfast' with that missed breakfast then becoming lunch. so nowt to eat from say 8pm to 1pm next day, then cereal and a protein shake for lunch. i do still drink white coffee tho throughout the day so its not yer actual IF but just calorie restriction/timing (as per baboonz post ^^^).
i still prefer training fasted, whether thats weights or cardio, i just feel sharper.
for some reason if ive eaten beforehand (even if a few hours before) then i feel 'splodgy'.

I regularly go from 8pm in an evening to 12:30pm the following day with only a black tea with sugar and I can assure you no miraculous weight loss has occurred for me – ever

That’s cos you’ve got to cut calories or increase burning of em.

I may be a bit sceptical that a calorie is worth more or less depending on the time it’s eaten.

Getting you body accustomed to using it’s other energy sources then yes, whether there’s a benefit in this, dunno.

I’m also not sure relying on coffee to keep you going during long fasting is also the greatest when you could be eating a healthier snack.

I suppose learning to correctly fuel for what you plan to do is my personal take on I.F.

A lot of eating is habit as opposed to actual body needs.

So in answer to the O.P’s question no,yes,maybe 🙂