Intermitent Fasting

[Erokamisama]

Hello community, 

I just received my Fitbit and I love it! It is awesome. 

So yeah, I am here today to share about my personal experience about weight loss/ nutrition. 

I am in my mid twenties and I have been overweight all my life but it's been a year now that I am doing my best to lose weight. 

I went from 220 lbs to 200 lbs in one year. I know I could ve done better but it's still a win for me. 

Basically how did I do? 

Intermittent Fasting is my solution. IF is not a diet, it is a eating schedule. Basically you eat the same amount of food as usual but in a different period of time. 

For my part, I eat my lunch at noon and then I eat supper by 8PM. Till noon of the day after I don't consume any calories, all I do is drink water. During your sleep you are fasting which is helping since it's not mentally difficult for you. 

Okay, but the fundamentals of losing weight is calories in vs calories out so even if you change your eating schedule make sure you eat in a calorie deficit because without a deficit you will never lose weight. 

BE CAREFUL: Do not make that deficit gap too wide because then your body will think you are starving and you do not want that. 

So yeah, I may not be the best to write english texts so if you are interested in that technique then look up online for intermittent fasting. 

WARNING: Intermittent fasting is not for everyone, if you have health issues please consult a specialist before trying it out. Because not eating for 16 hours straight can be very hard for some people and can be deadly for others. 

I do not intend to scare you but health is not a joking matter. There is no shortcut in weight loss, you have to do it properly through hard work and commitment. 

Peace out. 

[Dominique]

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@Erokamisama wrote:

Basically you eat the same amount of food as usual but in a different period of time. 

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Welcome to the community, @Erokamisama! It’s great you’ve found an approach that works for you. I’ll comment that if the "same amount of food as usual" is what allowed you to maintain your initial weight of 220 lbs, you would have never lost 20 pounds (if your activity remained the same). You lost 20 pounds because you were able to create the caloric deficit needed to lose 20 pounds. I like the chart in this other topic, as it sums it up pretty well IMO.

[Baltoscott]

@Erokamisama —thanks for posting.  As you say, IF is not a diet, it is an eating schedule.  It don’t practice it, but I do schedule my meals, and I restrict eating to 4x/day.  The schedule eliminates snacking and mindless eating.  Those seem to be the main reasons it leads to reduced calorie consumption and weight loss.

[Erokamisama]

I totally agree. Planning also make the adventure easier! 🙂 And the fitbit is here to remind me that I have a responsibility to look up to. (I don't even know if I can say that) 

[DanielleinDC]

My issue with that is many experts say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but this has you not eating until later in the day. It doesn't seem to make sense to me. What's the difference if you eat during regular hours or during a restricted window of time?

That said, I try to avoid eating after 8:00 at night, although I'm not always successful, especially if I get home late from a fitness class.

[Erokamisama]

I cannot explain it to you since I do not have the knowledge or the words. 

From what I understood it's that breakfast is just a misconception. What it really is is a break of your fast. 

Just check this out, it is really interesting! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj0BCSm24y8&t=142s)

And I am not here to promote IF, all I say it's that it is the way I do things. 

Maybe you can try it out for a while, if you like it stay with that if not just go back to your old habits. 

I hope this answers your questions. 

[Dominique]

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@Erokamisama wrote:

Just check this out, it is really interesting! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj0BCSm24y8&t=142s) 

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OK, some unknown guy with no credentials making wild claims in his YouTube videos doesn’t constitute scientific evidence that his claims hold true.

There’s no question IF can work for fat loss for some people,  but it’s definitely not the only way, nor the best way for everyone.

[Erokamisama]

Okay first of all I never said it was the only way to lose weight, nor said it was the best way to. 

I only said that it worked for me and I decided to share.

I am sorry for trying to help people out there. Feels like I offended someone for mentioning it. 

[Dominique]

I don’t mean to diss IF. It’s just that if you want to convince people of its benefits, it’s better to include an evidence-based / science-based justification rather than a video by some random guy taken off YouTube.

Here is a detailed article on the subject taken from PubMed: Intermittent fasting and human metabolic health. As the authors say, it’s not a meta-analysis, but it does examine many different studies on fasting. It’s longish and not necessarily an easy read, but its conclusions are based on scientific evidence. 

[Concord]

I'm not doing the exact program you speak of, but what I am very religious about is the 14 hour rule, that is, allowing 14 hours of uninterrupted digestion between the last meal of the day and the first meal of the following day. It has worked miracles for me. I always had a bad habit of grabbing something in front of the TV late at night (say 10:00 pm) and then being an early riser, I would whip up breakfast at 6:30 am. No more of that.

[Erokamisama]

I am happy to read that 🙂 Keep up the good work fam