Anyone Fasting?

[wdfifteen]

I read about intermittent fasting as a way to get healthier - maybe - I think the jury is still out on that.
But I think it has other benefits. After eating my own cooking every meal for a year I'm bored with food. Cooking all the time was fun at first and I cooked up some good stuff, but I got bored and descended into too much quick and easy comfort food and even that is getting boring. Not eating at all for a day helps sharpen my interest in food.
With not having to go to work, I've lost a lot of my self discipline. Making myself not eat for 24 hours is character strengthening. At the end of the day I feel better just because I did it.

[Rick Lee]

I had started fasting after Xmas, but my work schedule, when out in the field, does not allow planning or healthy eating. So I have just cut it down to two meals per day. When I have to go out in the field, I have breakfast and dinner with no snacking at all in between. I drink only water all day, coffee in the morning, liquor at night, never soda or milk, sometimes PowerAde. When I'm working at home for the day, I skip breakfast, make a no carb lunch and Mrs. Lee usually cooks up a healthy Chinese dinner. It's making me drop some weight.

[JonT]

not fasting but thinking about trying carnivore for a month. Ive tried fasting and the most difficult time for me is the last few hours before bed time.

[Rick Lee]

I did keto for a while and shed the pounds quickly. I got tired of eggs and cheese after a while. I didn't cheat all.

[Evans, Marv]

My wife & I have been doing intermittent fasting since around April. We eat between the hours of noon and 8:00 PM. I've dropped around five to eight pounds. Doesn't sound like much but starting out at 175/177 & going down to 168/172 is quite a lot for me. I'm basically trying it to see if I can get rid of some visceral fat I'd accumulated by eating a bit of calorie rich foods over a period of time. Something I'd never experienced before. Also I learned I'm prediabetic and am interested to see if I can lower my A1c to normal range. I started out with 6.6 & last test was 6.2. We''re adapting to it. My main problem is trying to eat less for the first meal of the day. I'm not overly hungry until then, & then stuff myself resulting in being full right up to the meal at six or so in the evening. I'm not interested much in snacks (maybe some nuts or slice of cheese) and my ocassional pre bedtime glass of scotch is out. I'm not much of a drinker, but haven't had anything alcoholic since last April. My energy level is the same. My wife experienced a low energy time in the afternoons before, & that has surprisingly disappeared since she started intermittent fasting. We'll try it for whatever time we want & maybe will establish it as our normal eating routine.

[Superman]

I am Catholic. We sometimes fast from Ash Wednesday to Easter, a period of several weeks. Fasting involves getting some substance in the morning and perhaps a snack for lunch, and then a reasonable meal for dinner. By "reasonable" I mean modest and simple. Enough to minimally but adequately fuel the body, and nothing extravagantly tasty. You know....perhaps rice and a piece of meat and some vegetable. Prayer is involved. Most if not all the major religions recommend fasting.

Setting aside the spiritual benefits, which can be substantial and powerful, fasting does two things:

1) Eating less is actually good for our bodies. Even aside from keeping our weight down, eating less promotes better body activities. Our immune system improves, for example. When we are sick, eating less is recommended for recovery. Researchers say that every organism they have studied lives longer the less it eats. Energy increases.

2) Eating less is good for our powers of self-control. Instead of being enslaved by our own appetites and selfishness, we gain control over ourselves through fasting. We move a sometimes unconscious and unexamined habit upward into the conscious mind. We take control over something that had been controlling us. At the end of the experience, we have a greater sense of our personal power.

[flatbutt]

Not fasting per se but I often fit in a "fasting" work out. I take a vigorous cycle work out before eating to try and hit the fat stores. I don't think it's working.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I read about intermittent fasting as a way to get healthier - maybe - I think the jury is still out on that.
But I think it has other benefits. After eating my own cooking every meal for a year I'm bored with food. Cooking all the time was fun at first and I cooked up some good stuff, but I got bored and descended into too much quick and easy comfort food and even that is getting boring. Not eating at all for a day helps sharpen my interest in food.
With not having to go to work, I've lost a lot of my self discipline. Making myself not eat for 24 hours is character strengthening. At the end of the day I feel better just because I did it.

Before covid, I was fasting 1-3 days per week. Sometimes I was fasting only for 24 hours. I usually shot for 36hrs (dinner, no food the following day, then breakfast of the third day). I've done 48 and 60. Once you get your head around it, it's really not that hard. I was able to run and cycle while fasting no different than when I wasn't fasting. I managed to slowly lose weight while fasting too. And yes, after no eating for 24-36 hours, food is better (You've got to resist the urge to gorge when you break).

Since covid, fasting has mostly stopped. I have a couple/few times and very sporadically. I want to get back into it, but it's been more difficult.

There are health benefits as well (other than losing weight) with virtually no downsides (assuming you don't have a condition that might require more specific monitoring or procedures).

[masraum]

Originally Posted by JonT

not fasting but thinking about trying carnivore for a month. Ive tried fasting and the most difficult time for me is the last few hours before bed time.

That's mostly due to habit more than anything else.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

My wife & I have been doing intermittent fasting since around April. We eat between the hours of noon and 8:00 PM. I've dropped around five to eight pounds. Doesn't sound like much but starting out at 175/177 & going down to 168/172 is quite a lot for me. I'm basically trying it to see if I can get rid of some visceral fat I'd accumulated by eating a bit of calorie rich foods over a period of time. Something I'd never experienced before. Also I learned I'm prediabetic and am interested to see if I can lower my A1c to normal range. I started out with 6.6 & last test was 6.2. We''re adapting to it. My main problem is trying to eat less for the first meal of the day. I'm not overly hungry until then, & then stuff myself resulting in being full right up to the meal at six or so in the evening. I'm not interested much in snacks (maybe some nuts or slice of cheese) and my ocassional pre bedtime glass of scotch is out. I'm not much of a drinker, but haven't had anything alcoholic since last April. My energy level is the same. My wife experienced a low energy time in the afternoons before, & that has surprisingly disappeared since she started intermittent fasting. We'll try it for whatever time we want & maybe will establish it as our normal eating routine.

This endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes and obesity used to have a great website full of blog type entries on fasting. The website has changed and the data is either harder to find or no longer free. But he's a big proponent of fasting for diabetes treatment and says that it can cure diabetes or catch folks that are prediabetic.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/successful-reversal-of-type-2-diabetes-inspired-by-dr-jason-fung

[Seahawk]

Do a search on Prolonged Nighttime fasting:

https://drhealthbenefits.com/diet-fitness/eating-diets/benefits-of-overnight-fasting

I no longer eat after 6pm and have my first meal the next day at 10 to 11am.

[Superman]

My schedule is similar to Seahawk's.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Superman

My schedule is similar to Seahawk's.

I more or less fell into the routine the last nine months and began to feel great...I then started to wonder why.

I get up and do some form or AARP exercise every morning from 0700 to 0830. This includes lots of stretching, which people from miles around can hear as my joints and ligaments pop like mortar rounds.

I actually watch "Family Feud" episodes the entire time. Three and done. I DVR them like you read about.

I get ready for my company briefings that go from 0900 to 1030 or so.

I eat after that.

I feel, and I might add shamelessly, look great.

Pat, you have got to work out. Pot cream enabled me to do so and it changed everything.

[RANDY P]

I love fasting, eat one basic meal a day- sometimes skip 2-4 days just when I feel like it.

rjp

[Superman]

I just don't feel hungry in the morning until about 10:30 or so. Like you, between meetings. It is 10:49 and I just put a ham/cheese/english muffin sandwich in the oven. That might take me to dinner, or I might have a small snack in the interim. Then I eat as much as I want for dinner (tacos tonight!), but this is a reasonable volume. Dinner comes fairly early, usually by 6:00 or 6:30 at the latest. If you think about it, 6:00pm to 10:30 am is 16.5 hours. I don't eat sugar. Not really at all. In fact, I don't eat fruit either. Meat, starch, fat, vegetables. I used to be 5'9" and now I probably exaggerate when I say I am 5'8". About 165 lbs. Eating is just not a recreation for me. I like food, and we fix good stuff in this house. But eating is not an addiction. I am fortunate in this regard. I know people who would like to moderate their eating and sugar intake, but struggle. Sugar is a powerful addiction, it seems.

[livi]

Coincidently I have been looking into fasting, keto, low carb diets for the last months and was really fixing to go ahead when I stumbled upon a youtube channel called BBQ Pit Boys that cured me.

[Evans, Marv]

Markus, I'll make it a point to stay away from that channel. Sup brings up a real point with sugar being a powerful addiction. I have a real sweet tooth. Ocassionally I allow myself to eat something sweet - donut, cookie, ice cream bar, and love it. I find afterwards I get an uncomfortable feeling. The best way I can describe it is the hispanic word "osco," which is a bit hard to define but generally means a negative, uncomfortable, not quite sick feeling. One thing we've found out with intermittent fastiing is that the use of certain foods (mostly breakfast related) has gone way down. We've very much reduced buying, eating, & stocking a lot of foods like flour, pancake mix, syrup, eggs, bacon & ham (sigh), milk, bread, sugar, jams, and a lot of other associated things. Once in a great while, I'll make buttermilk pancakes & bacon for lunch when I get the strong itch, but that's about it.

[stevej37]

I haven't been fasting...but since retiring, I find I like the biggest meal of the day at lunch time.
Then at dinner hour, just a small meal so that I don't sleep on a full belly.
I'm always ready for breakfast then too...instead of just eating because it's time to.

The other important thing for me is 'portion control' So easy to get in a bad habit of overeating.

[cabmandone]

My first thought when reading the title was "damn! has Lent come around already?"... My dad does the whole fasting thing. Seems to like it. I don't know if the fact that he's 80 and on no daily medication is the result of his fasting or not.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Pat, you have got to work out. Pot cream enabled me to do so and it changed everything.

I do work out. I think it was the cortisone shot that allows me to. It's been six weeks and I feel like I'm getting stronger. Most people gain weight on steroids but I've lost 6 pounds because I can exercise now. I no longer avoid moving.

I posted my morning routine here a week or so ago. It's changed a little since then. I spend 20 minutes in the hot tub. The doc said heat helps the arthritis in my back and hips. I do some leg stretches and then ride the recumbent stationary bike for 4 miles (that thing has been a Godsend!), then do my stretching and strength routine - back and lower body is body weight only stuff (kinda like Pilates). I have to be really careful with my lower back and hips. Upper body is with weights. I go for reps not weight. Then four more miles on the bike.
My attitude has changed. For a long time I resented it, telling myself "I never had to do this s**t before arggg!" I couldn't wait to get it over with. It didn't help that every move I made hurt. After the cortisone I can just letting the zen feeling flow, like in long distance running. It takes as long as it takes. Sometimes I even feel the old endorphin rush.
So yeah, I'm with you on working out and I do it every day. Maybe I could use some good pot cream. The stuff I've tried may as well be vaseline.