I have reached my first goal and want to focus on my body composition (lose a little more fat). I have started researching intermittent fasting and it seems like a very safe way to encourage the body to burn more fat, level blood sugar spikes, and lower insulin levels. I really like that you don't have to be eating a certain diet to take advantage of the benefits it has to offer. I am currently listening to the book "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore.

Have any of you tried this or are doing it long term after having WLS? Can you share your experiences? Thank you!!!

Ok, Apple1, if you don't want to decrease your food.. and are just aiming for eating everything during an 8 hour window.. I don't see how that's a problem. It's hitting the goals that's important to me. I don't care what time you eat.

I guess I hear "fasting", and it sounds like going a day without food, which we don't want to do during the first 9 months or a year.

As for calorie consumption.. The 90+ year old Okinawans of Japan are eating around 1100 calories a day, and maintaining well on that... but they are also well under 5 feet tall and ninety!

Maintenance for one person will be fasting for another. While you are losing weight, keep your calories down. When you stop losing for at least 6-8 weeks, then you know your calories and metabolism have aligned. Was it because of calorie creep, or is that your new normal at a reduced calorie load?

Since I haven't reached maintenance, myself, most of these ideas are conjecture. My hope is the basic metabolic needs will stay up at least to 1600 calories, so there has to be a distinct uptick in consumption to GET THE WEIGHT LOSS TO STOP. This means that you reach goal without any extra special dieting plan, and when there, you increase how much you are eating until you stop losing and/or start regaining. There should be a sweet spot someplace. Stick around your sweet spot, and like Jess said, when the scale gets a bit stubborn, then bring in some of these fasting techniques.

But if the fasting technique is just telling you when to eat, and not how much.. then that could be undertaken any time as long as it doesn't interfere with reaching nutrition goals.

22 minutes ago, Berry78 said:

But if the fasting technique is just telling you when to eat, and not how much.. then that could be undertaken any time as long as it doesn't interfere with reaching nutrition goals.

Yes, this is what I mean. The 8/16 fast is simply restricting your eating to a 8 hour window and you fast for the next 16 hours.

Please explain what IF is. What does a day look like? Thanks

15 minutes ago, dreamynow said:

Please explain what IF is. What does a day look like? Thanks

For me the only difference in a days eating would be that all of my meals would be consumed between 12-8pm. Google Dr. Jason Fung for more information or just intermittent fasting.

I copied the information below from this article found here:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-intermittent-fasting#section1

intermittent fasting is currently one of the world's most popular health and fitness trends.

It involves alternating cycles of fasting and eating.

Many studies show that this can cause weight loss, improve metabolic health, protect against disease and perhaps help you live longer (1, 2).

This article explains what intermittent fasting is, and why you should care.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting.

It does not say anything about which foods to eat, but rather when you should eat them.

There are several different intermittent fasting methods, all of which split the day or week into eating periods and fasting periods.

Most people already "fast" every day, while they sleep. Intermittent fasting can be as simple as extending that fast a little longer.

You can do this by skipping breakfast, eating your first meal at noon and your last meal at 8 pm.

Then you're technically fasting for 16 hours every day, and restricting your eating to an 8-hour eating window. This is the most popular form of intermittent fasting, known as the 16/8 method.

Despite what you may think, intermittent fasting is actually fairly easy to do. Many people report feeling better and having more energy during a fast.

Hunger is usually not that big of an issue, although it can be a problem in the beginning, while your body is getting used to not eating for extended periods of time.

No food is allowed during the fasting period, but you can drink water, coffee, tea and other non-caloric beverages.

Some forms of intermittent fasting allow small amounts of low-calorie foods during the fasting period.

Taking supplements is generally allowed while fasting, as long as there are no calories in them.

Why Fast?

Humans have actually been fasting for thousands of years.

Sometimes it was done out of necessity, when there simply wasn't any food available.

In other instances, it was done for religious reasons. Various religions, including Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, mandate some form of fasting.

Humans and other animals also often instinctively fast when sick.

Clearly, there is nothing "unnatural" about fasting, and our bodies are very well equipped to handle extended periods of not eating.

All sorts of processes in the body change when we don't eat for a while, in order to allow our bodies to thrive during a period of famine. It has to do with hormones, genes and important cellular repair processes (3).

When fasted, we get significant reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as a drastic increase in human growth hormone (4, 5).

Many people do intermittent fasting in order to lose weight, as it is a very simple and effective way to restrict calories and burn fat (6, 7, 8).

Others do it for the metabolic health benefits, as it can improve various different risk factors and health markers (1).

There is also some evidence that intermittent fasting can help you live longer. Studies in rodents show that it can extend lifespan as effectively as calorie restriction (9, 10).

Some research also suggests that it can help protect against diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and others (11, 12).

Other people simply like the convenience of intermittent fasting.

It is an effective "life hack" that makes your life simpler, while improving your health at the same time. The fewer meals you need to plan for, the simpler your life will be.

Not having to eat 3-4+ times per day (with the preparation and cleaning involved) also saves time. A lot of it.

BOTTOM LINE:Humans are well adapted to fasting from time to time. Modern research shows that it has benefits for weight loss, metabolic health, disease prevention and may even help you live longer.

Intermittent fasting basically means fasting for a time period every day, the length of the feeding versus fasting window varies but typically it means consuming your calories in an 8 hour window say between 10am and 6pm. Some people extend that fast and "feed" during a smaller window say 11-4.

5/2 is another version where you eat as normal five days and the other two are "fast" days and you eat maybe 1/4 your normal calories, but the other type doesn't involve a change in caloric intake.

Then you get the extremes where you are fasting for a day or more. But that is not the typical application of "intermittent" fasting. Thats just plain old fasting.

There is some research (positive) on twitter re IF i would spell it out. Posted by bariatric surgeons. Im chicken to try it.

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6 hours ago, jess9395 said:

Then you get the extremes where you are fasting for a day or more. But that is not the typical application of "intermittent" fasting. Thats just plain old fasting.

I would really like to try some of the slightly longer fasts of 24-48 hours. I will hold off on those until I am able to consume more calories. I have gotten to the point where I can eat close to 1300 on Sunday's when I run for longer distances 4-5 miles. Most days my calories fall some where in the 1000-1200 range.

59 minutes ago, reallyrosy said:

There is some research (positive) on twitter re IF i would spell it out. Posted by bariatric surgeons. Im chicken to try it.

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Dr. Fung has used IF and longer fasting protocols to reverse type 2 diabetes and help patients reach a normal weight. There really isn't any harm that I have read, as long as you are able to consume the normal amount of calories during the eating window.

Disclaimer: This is not from personal experience, but research I have done. Check with your doctor before starting anything like this if you have any medical condition that requires you to take medications.

http://www.smartbrief.com/branded/2C5FF2EC-2736-4FC0-9968-00A78AB57148/28DF0AA6-1B0E-4B3F-87F0-9C31751657AA

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This is what i meant

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Sorry but as a lab tech I still have to disagree that this is a good idea. You need your body to get use to running efficiently, this means spreading out caloric and nutrient intake over the course of the day. If you do intermittent fasting your body kicks into starvation mode and will store any caloric intake it can when you do eat. If your are storing calories you are then counter productive to weight loss. What professional body builders do is some what different as they also incorporate what is called drying out be for a competition. They basically dehydrate themselves as well to shed excess fluid. Again if your body has not been conditioned over time to do this it is not a good idea. For long term results you have to train your body to run efficiently, that would mean a steady intake of fluids and clean calories and protein over the course of the day. intermittent only leads to yo yoing and on and off starvation mode which will yield no long term benefits. You have to train your body to be efficient for years not days.

1 hour ago, reallyrosy said:

http://www.smartbrief.com/branded/2C5FF2EC-2736-4FC0-9968-00A78AB57148/28DF0AA6-1B0E-4B3F-87F0-9C31751657AA

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Thanks for posting the link. The book I am listening to has also mentioned an increase in metabolism during fasting, which is the exact opposite of what many people will tell you. We always hear the myth that eating many times a day keeps the metabolism high, but this is just not found to be true at all in research studies.

50 minutes ago, Waler said:

Sorry but as a lab tech I still have to disagree that this is a good idea. You need your body to get use to running efficiently, this means spreading out caloric and nutrient intake over the course of the day. If you do intermittent fasting your body kicks into starvation mode and will store any caloric intake it can when you do eat. If your are storing calories you are then counter productive to weight loss. What professional body builders do is some what different as they also incorporate what is called drying out be for a competition. They basically dehydrate themselves as well to shed excess Fluid. Again if your body has not been conditioned over time to do this it is not a good idea. For long term results you have to train your body to run efficiently, that would mean a steady intake of fluids and clean calories and Protein over the course of the day. intermittent only leads to yo yoing and on and off starvation mode which will yield no long term benefits. You have to train your body to be efficient for years not days.

I am sorry but everything you have written here is false. We store calories until we need them no matter when we eat. The difference is when we have a regular fast period of say 16 hours daily, our body is better able to use that stored energy. You really need to do some more research into this topic.

Our bodies are designed to fast and humans have done this for centuries.

Hello Apple1! First I'd like to thank you for opening up this discusion. I understand the health benefits of IF but im not understanding the 5:2 or the 16:8! What I understand IF to be, & please correct me if Im wrong, is no eating from your last meal of the day till your first meal the next day. Like a 12 hour window of no eating. For example; if my last meal was @ 6pm then my next meal will not be until 6am the next day! Is that somewhat how IF works? Please break it down for me!
Im only 3 mos post op & agree I should wait till I reach my goal weight but Im really interested in learning more about IF from those who have actually tried it!

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Dr. Fung is kinda "late" to the fasting show and based his work on that of previous doctors such as Dr. Walter Longo and Dr. Krista Varady.

But before Dr. Varady came Dr. Johnson who wrote the original Alternate Day Diet book. I've actually spoken to him through emails when I was doing ADF with caloric restriction. We discussed the disruption of circadian rhythms that can occur especially in women as a result of fasting/caloric restrictions.

I did ADF with caloric control/low carb while I was undergoing chemo/radiation/surgery. I had an over 60% reduction in tumor size (very atypical for my kind of cancer). The onc could not believe it. I also had fewer side effects than some of the women who went through treatment at the same time.

Here is Dr. Varady's book.

Here is Dr. Johnson's book.

You might find them interesting to read. Dr. Longo's work is really very very compelling. Also, he's a long distance runner and vegetarian (or vegan) if I remember correctly? I have planned to do the 5:2 or maybe ADF after reaching maintenance as a way of controlling insulin and regain.

I used to blog about, but haven't updated it in a long time. There are some good articles there. It's called Fast Days/Healing Days. I'd started doing JUDDD about 4 months before cancer dx and had started this blog. (Johnson's Up Day Down Day Diet), coincidentally, a few months later 5:2 hit the UK and went crazy. That's a good book too btw--as is Dr. Moseley's 800cal diet for diabetes (new book).

Edited October 27, 20178 yr by FluffyChix