Just wanted to share how I've managed to do IF given that I never thought I could. It is offered as input to your thinking processes hoping it can provide you some help.
First, I enjoy eating and will eat just about anything. When I tried reducing how much I ate I would be hangry (hungry & angry) very quickly. I'm a grazer. I fit into overweight but not obese weight categories and I carry my excess well. When I saw the benefits of fasting or IF I was convinced it would be "hell sans meals" for me but beneficial. Sound familiar?
I now eat last about 10PM and my next meal is 3 - 4PM and I may start pushing that out. I like to bike (25 - 50 miles/day during season which ended early December last year) and I found I can bike those distances without noticeable performance changes... and I bike before any caloric intake! But I'm definitely hungry afterwards Based on my life experiences, I no way thought I could do IF in the form I am doing now. I'm still not sure I could do a multi-day fast... but I really should try.
Here are some of my thoughts:
- Once I start eating, it becomes harder to control. My goal is to push out when I start eating so that I don't have to fight control issues.
- When I started I did not ease into it. Day one I pushed the first eat time to 3PM'ish. YMMV
- Not eating after I wake makes it easier to continue not eating. I couldn't do this by stopping to eat at noon until the next morning.
- Later into the fast period I do feel hungry but it seems easier to control. I might be more hungry then than craving.
- If I get a strong urge to eat later in the fast , doing something helps me get through it. Things like walking the dog, chores, outside activities, trips to town and the like. I sorta plan my day so that I have activities during the later fast time. Today I'll be off to the library.
- When I get an urge to eat, often a glass of water puts it to rest for a while.
- I don't make myself suffer during the eating periods. I try to eat healthy but I do not want that time to be miserable.
- I started this at the end of the biking season when I was better adapted. Had I started this before the season I'm not sure I would be able to do so. I'd have been too much dependent on sugar fuels and not so much ketones enabled.
- I currently do this Monday - Friday when my wife is gone. I find it easy when she is gone and harder when she, or others are around. Eating is such a social thing.
- I'm not perfect, the rules are not fixed, close is better than not at all. So if I can't sleep at 11:00, a handful of nuts doesn't make me feel guilty or bad about myself.
Hopefully that provides some hope for those pondering the hell that one envisions one would feel during IF. For me it is not hell and I find it somewhat mentally satisfying.
BTW... I have been able to keep my winter weight 15-20 lbs less than normal and am about 5 lbs up from my biking low for last year. It has been a LONG time since I've been this low weight in February. I'm pleased.
Intermittent Fasting ... my input
Re: Intermittent Fasting ... my input
Congrats, Nick. That is amazing and certainly beneficial to your health. FWIW, I'm guessing cold turkey wouldn't be possible for those who are truly insulin resistant. Out of curiosity, do you have any glycemic markers (fasting glucose, insulin, A1c) from before and after? My guess is that your number are currently superb.
Re: Intermittent Fasting ... my input
No markers yet and probably not until mid this year. Prior to fasting, even with lots of biking miles, my cholesterol and triglycerides tends to stay higher than I want. Not so much that the Dr hounds me about statins these days. Before the guidance changed, they had me try statins but I respond poorly to them. Now that the statin guidance changed, the Dr doesn't bug me about them. For me I'm thinking I need less grains, less carbs, more fat, more vegetables (I even tried vegetarian for 1.5 years with only a 20% cholesterol drop).
Re: Intermittent Fasting ... my input
Great write-up Nick. A lot of this rings very true for me as well.Nick wrote:Just wanted to share how I've managed to do IF given that I never thought I could. It is offered as input to your thinking processes hoping it can provide you some help.
- I enjoy eating, so I try to eat healthy but I do not want that time to be miserable.
- I can be a grazer so in early days it was essential to get rid of the grazing food in the house.
- Once I start eating, it can be hard to stop. Finding the right size portion was difficult initially. Now I get a "full feeling" with much less food than before.
- Not eating after I wake makes it easier to continue not eating. I start eating around noon and stop around 6pm.
- When I get an urge to eat, often a glass of water puts it to rest for a while.
- I do strict IF Monday - Friday. It is a bit harder to do on weekends with family / social commitments, etc. Close is better than not at all.
One other thing I have discovered is that an out-of-whack first meal in terms of glycemic index can really throw things off. If I am out to lunch and end up with something much more "carby" than usual I am ravenous at 4pm and then end up over-eating at dinner. Drinking extra water may or may not work depending on how far-off the meal was in terms of carbs.
Thanks for sharing.
Re: Intermittent Fasting ... my input
One more thing ... don't read books on diet and healthy eating late in the fast. It makes you hungry and makes you think of food
Harrison said " I start eating around noon and stop around 6pm." you have more self control than I. Hats off to you!
Harrison said " I start eating around noon and stop around 6pm." you have more self control than I. Hats off to you!
Re: Intermittent Fasting ... my input
Way to go Nick, kudos! If you stumbled on this forum, you're probably looking to improve your long term health outcome, especially as it relates to cognitive disease. I believe it will really come down to focus and supreme mental commitment in the face of hunger, reduced calorific intake, awkward food-social occasions, peer pressure, etc. I had to make a complete inversion from "living to eat > eating to live". Once you mentally change your outlook on food (profile/qty) as CRITICAL to your health vs. pure pleasure, you are on the path to LONG TERM sustenance. This is really about a lasting, long term dietary/health shift change since this disease starts very early for E4's. And IMHO, it's all correlated by your mortality outlook. I have several friends with certain metabolic syndrome, but when you talk to them, they are apathetic about mortality...why? Very simple, they're not shocked/freightened into survival action. My mom has AD, my dad has PD (and his sister died of AD), but E4 was THE trigger! I feel like I have a bullseye on my back, and unless I make a radical shift in lifestyle and MINDSET, this same outcome most likely awaits. I am going to fight like hell to postpone/avoid. Survival is the ultimate motivator.Nick wrote:Just wanted to share how I've managed to do IF given that I never thought I could. For me it is not hell and I find it somewhat mentally satisfying. BTW... I have been able to keep my winter weight 15-20 lbs less than normal and am about 5 lbs up from my biking low for last year. It has been a LONG time since I've been this low weight in February. I'm pleased.
MAC
E3/E4-59/MALE
E3/E4-59/MALE