Intermittent fasting experience: both effective and mustaschian

[Radagast]

Well if there are two thinks I love it's capsaicin and ginger (plus salt, I learned when I fixed our sewer pipe and officially became a brown noser). Plus I usually drink liquids all morning. I've been spiking the ol coffee with cinnamon, maybe it's time to add capsaicin too :D

[Bateaux]

If losing weight isn't saving you money why the hell would you do it?  Never understood the diet (industry).

[Sorinth]

So intermittent fasting versus breakfast? I have always read "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and "eat breakfast for health and optimal weight" and yadda yadda. But I only eat breakfast for that reason. I honestly do not feel hungry in the morning, and I have enough fat to cushion me through a 1-month famine and still be a healthy body weight, which I reckon is two weeks longer than necessary. I can easily concentrate my meals in the noon-8:00 pm region, or probably even 3-7 areawith minimal effort. After reading this thread I ate nothing from 8:00 pm to 12:30 and did not feel any strain. But there is about a 100% chance I will be hungry at some point between 4 and 9 regardless of what I ate earlier in the day.

So... intermittent fasting vs. breakfast?

I'm pretty sure most of the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" comes from breakfast cereal companies trying to push their products.

I'm much like you, simply not hungry in the mornings so it's very rare that I'll eat breakfast. If you're not hungry then don't eat.

Strangely I love all breakfast foods, so I quite often have those foods for supper.

[Cycling Stache]

Thanks for starting this thread.  I never really considered fasting, and a lot it makes sense at least in theory.  For the first time in years, I went maybe 16 hours without eating (I typically eat every 3 hours during the day) and realized that it didn't kill me and didn't feel that bad.  I was kind of surprised.

I do a lot of exercise, and I can see the limits of this where you need the additional energy for a hard bike ride, for example.  But the fat does seem sufficient to power you along in an aerobic state without too much issue.  I'm intrigued enough to try it for a month or so.

For the record, I've always been focused on the basic calorie in calorie out analysis.  But the point about fasting that makes sense to me is that our bodies evolved to handle food scarcity (or at least irregular consumption), so the body shouldn't struggle at all to tap fat as stored energy when no food is available, which is the entire point of fat anyway.

[Radagast]

A lot of things have been said about nutrition for years that are based on nothing...as in almost *everything* that’s ever been said for years about nutrition is based on nothing.

I'll agree with that. The only consistent advice has been exercise=yes and eat lots of vegetables especially green leafy ones. So I consider all other advice to be at least 80% full of shit.

But skipping breakfast and lunch saves time and money, so that makes it seem like a worthy experiment. Also, when I say it like that,

I'm pretty sure most of the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" comes from breakfast cereal companies trying to push their products.

I realize that things that save time and money are generally good for you and bad for people who make money off you, so maybe this will be effective!

[wbranch]

So intermittent fasting versus breakfast? I have always read "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and "eat breakfast for health and optimal weight" and yadda yadda. But I only eat breakfast for that reason. I honestly do not feel hungry in the morning, and I have enough fat to cushion me through a 1-month famine and still be a healthy body weight, which I reckon is two weeks longer than necessary. I can easily concentrate my meals in the noon-8:00 pm region, or probably even 3-7 areawith minimal effort. After reading this thread I ate nothing from 8:00 pm to 12:30 and did not feel any strain. But there is about a 100% chance I will be hungry at some point between 4 and 9 regardless of what I ate earlier in the day.

So... intermittent fasting vs. breakfast?

I'm pretty sure most of the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" comes from breakfast cereal companies trying to push their products.

I'm much like you, simply not hungry in the mornings so it's very rare that I'll eat breakfast. If you're not hungry then don't eat.

Strangely I love all breakfast foods, so I quite often have those foods for supper.

The John Kellogg founder of Kellogg's cereal also thought eating cereal for breakfast would keep people from masturbating and desiring sex.
Edward Bernays was also involved with bacon and eggs for breakfast food.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations_campaigns_of_Edward_Bernays

It is all lies!

[BluePhoenix75]

Ha!! Just started doing IF a couple of weeks ago and my second thought was - my portion of the food budget should be going down now!

[GrumpyPenguin]

Just thought I'd chime in with my experience.  I was overweight and wanted to do something about it. I started IF, eating during an 8 hour window during the day (usually 11AM-7PM), ate healthier foods (eat food, not too much, mostly plants --no other specific restrictions), and exercised daily (ran 30 minutes every day).  I lost about 40 lbs in 8 months (around 5 lbs a month average). 

Oh, and since I have a huge sweet-tooth, I ate a CRAP-TON of fruit during this process. Like 2 apples and 3 oranges a day, sometimes...

Now I'm lean, feel great, and still run every day.  I have maintained my current weight for about 6 months now.  I don't IF anymore, but I never eat after 8PM.