Fasting,Intermittent Fasting ideas,books,lifestyles?

[MMX]

I have been hearing about Fasting from various folks.

The other day I read Geoff Neuperts ABS 365 book which not only has fasting but very specific eating to maintain a low BF %. That is not appealing to me so I started looking at other options.

Another one is the Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler and again for my lifestyle it is a bit restricting.

Then I saw on another forum about a book called Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon. Reading this one now and it is pretty fascinating and without nearly the restrictions. I will update this as I read more and possibly test this out.

[Ros]

Another day, another diet trend! :-)

Good luck to anyone who can maintain regular fasting long term - I know I couldn't even do it short term.

[GJEC]

I tried it and for a while thought it was good. Then I fell ill and had to revert to eating regular meals.

I feel better on that.

I just eat no crap now, trying (apart from wholemeal bread) to eat stuff as nature intended.

Obviously I'm 58 so my training density is no longer what it was, but in a strange way I feel better for it. Training had become a monster that required constant feeding.

I now do less and eat less yet my trousers still fit ...



Gary

[meguro]

I fast every night between when I go to bed and when I rise. I usually break the fast with a cup of coffee and a muffin. For the past 5 days I've broken fast with eggs, sausage, a croissant and some jam.

[Ros]

Jul 15, 2014 3:09:06 GMT -5 GJEC said:

I just eat no crap now, trying (apart from wholemeal bread) to eat stuff as nature intended.

Why would nature produce grain if the intention wasn't for us to make flour out of it, huh?

[Ros]

Jul 15, 2014 9:56:37 GMT -5 meguro said:

I fast every night between when I go to bed and when I rise.

I joyfully go to bed at night, happy in the knowledge that I can commence eating when I wake up. True.

[curlbroscience]

I still skip a meal from time-to-time depending on my previous days consumption. Usually it's just breakfast if we ate heavy the night before (cheat meal) or lunch if I am at work and too busy to consume food. I think I fill in the gaps when we do sit down. The hardest part of a purposeful 18 hour fast is making the right choices when you decide to eat. Generally very easy on a Monday, starting Sunday evening when you go to sleep. 8 hours asleep, 10 hours working commuting and running errands. That's why I went on the experiment to see if I am eating enough to support my activity level.

[MMX]

Well I have never been good at this either. The thing I really liked about Eat Stop Eat is that he is very practical. He advises only 1-2 days a week at most and it is really skipping 2 meals(say you eat dinner tues then you skip till wed dinner). He advises against trying to "speed" it up with more and really wants people to start with just one day. Also he makes no diet restrictions. He does advise to eat a healthier diet and not fast food and high calorie junk as that won't help you.

This is also not a "diet" it is a lifestyle change.

[MMX]

Review from a Doctor that posts on the dragondoor.com forums.

kbforum.dragondoor.com/nutrition-forum/133340-eat-stop-eat-9.html#post547236

Do you need to buy and read the book? Maybe.

No. Not if you just want to know how to do his version of intermittent fasting. That's simple: Eat everyday, but eat healthy and clean. Fast for 24 hours one or two times a week, eating no food and ingesting no Calories, but drinking coffee, tea, water. Start your fast whenever you want, say after your supper, and eat nothing until the same time the next day, say supper time. No reason to be rigid about it, 23 hours is ok if that's how if fits in with your schedule. After the fast pretend you never fasted; don't celebrate by eating a lot. Otherwise, just eat like you're used to eating, or clean it up a bit.

The fast is as simple as skipping breakfast and lunch twice a week!

Your plan should include resistance training. Exercise such as kettlebell training for an hour is fine while fasting.

Yes. If you really want to know the ins and outs of intermittent fasting the book is very much worth buying and reading. If you want to understand why and not just how buy and read the book.

Could it be better? Sure, but couldn't just about everything be improved.

I've read a lot of diet books and a lot of nutrition books. A lot of them are interesting. A lot of the ones which are interesting are wrong and/or unhelpful in the long run or contain merely dressed up and unfounded conjecture. Some have plans which are unsustainable or needlessly complex or stupid. This book is certainly interesting. His plan is very simple. What he says doesn't come across as stupid nor does it appear to be unfounded conjecture. I don't know if it's wrong or unhelpful.

I like the author's attitude and think you will. I very much like his largely successful attempts to demonstrate the problems with most "diets" and establish the most fundamental, bedrock principles of weight loss. I like that he doesn't seem to go too far with his claims or conjecture. I like how he comes across and how he writes and presents his material. To me, his presentation is neither too much nor too little.

[Ros]

Jul 15, 2014 15:52:53 GMT -5 MMX said:

Some have plans which are unsustainable...

That's intermittant fasting in a nutshell for me, I'm afraid.

I feel the need to almost constantly eat (and if I'm not eating, I'm thinking about food), so high volume, low calorie (i.e. lots of veg!), and some will power works as a lifestyle change for me.

Many people in the Western world consume far too many calories for a variety of complex reasons. Getting them to make lifestyle changes is difficult for a variety of complex reasons. If intermittant fasting works for some, then great. Unfortunately, I imagine that for many, it's likely to go the way of most diets or planned lifestyle changes and get binned after a few days/weeks. Dietary lifestyle changes are hard, especially when we have all kinds of internal and external reward systems set up for calorie dense food.

But hey, that's in general. I hope it works for you MMX (and you don't miss breakfast and lunch too much, twice a week - god, I'm hungry just typing that)!

[meguro]

I was reading a back issue of Time magazine over the weekend. The cover story was fat. The upshot, it's not fat that is the problem in diets, it is sugar ( carbs). Old news now, but with regard to fasting, I noticed that fat heavy food, like the roast pig knuckle, potatoes and beer I had the other day gave me a sense of satiety that I could very well skip a meal or two. So, if you must fast, don't carbo load. Pile on the bacon before hand.

[Ros]

Jul 16, 2014 2:20:08 GMT -5 meguro said:

I was reading a back issue of Time magazine over the weekend. The cover story was fat. The upshot, it's not fat that is the problem in diets, it is sugar ( carbs). Old news now, but with regard to fasting, I noticed that fat heavy food, like the roast pig knuckle, potatoes and beer I had the other day gave me a sense of satiety that I could very well skip a meal or two. So, if you must fast, don't carbo load. Pile on the bacon before hand.

I truly don't believe that carbohydrates are the problem with diets (I notice that your fat heavy meal also contained carb heavy spuds! .

Most of the staple food in developing countries is carb rich - rice, maize, cassava, potatoes, barley, taro - and the populace tend not to be overweight until Western fast food becomes abundant; hmmm, some connection, possibly?

[meguro]

Jul 16, 2014 2:43:09 GMT -5 Ros said:

Jul 16, 2014 2:20:08 GMT -5 meguro said:

I was reading a back issue of Time magazine over the weekend. The cover story was fat. The upshot, it's not fat that is the problem in diets, it is sugar ( carbs). Old news now, but with regard to fasting, I noticed that fat heavy food, like the roast pig knuckle, potatoes and beer I had the other day gave me a sense of satiety that I could very well skip a meal or two. So, if you must fast, don't carbo load. Pile on the bacon before hand.

I truly don't believe that carbohydrates are the problem with diets (I notice that your fat heavy meal also contained carb heavy spuds! .

Most of the staple food in developing countries is carb rich - rice, maize, cassava, potatoes, barley, taro - and the populace tend not to be overweight until Western fast food becomes abundant; hmmm, some connection, possibly?

Yes, some spuds, but not all. A little goes a long way. If I had a platter of spuds, or bread or cake, I'd be hungry much sooner. I don't recall the scant science mentioned in the Time article, something about carbohydrates being converted to fat while making the body feel undernourished and thus wanting to eat more. Maybe not all sugars but HFCS? My regular diet does contain rice, spuds, bread, etc. but little in the way of sodas, fruit juices. But that pork knuckle, man oh man, will keep you feeling full a long time. I need a nap just thinking about it.

[Ros]

Jul 16, 2014 3:08:25 GMT -5 meguro said:

I don't recall the scant science mentioned in the Time article, something about carbohydrates being converted to fat while making the body feel undernourished and thus wanting to eat more. Maybe not all sugars but HFCS? My regular diet does contain rice, spuds, bread, etc. but little in the way of sodas, fruit juices. But that pork knuckle, man oh man, will keep you feeling full a long time. I need a nap just thinking about it.

Carbs are only converted to fat if you consume more calories than you burn - the body would rather use it for energy than convert it to fat. I agree about sodas and fruit juices; sodas and fruit juices = high sugar content = high calorie content with no satiation = best avoided, in my book!

[MMX]

In the book Eat,Stop,Eat he notes the problem is in our civilized world there is too much food available. It is easy to eat. Since it is easy to eat it is easy to eat too many calories. He points no fingers at any food. He does suggest to not eat junk though and expect to lose weight.

ROS. Yes I too tend to eat little snacks all day. In my experiments with trying to go longer I found if I drank some water the cravings would go away.

So in short I am interested in this version of Fasting as it is flexible compared to other solutions I have read. I am down to 195lbs @6' tall and less than 33" waist so I am close. If I did this for a few months to accelerate the fat burn that would be great.