* I only eat one meal a day (supper). It's usually a very large meal, very high in lean protein.
* I avoid sugars and starches of all kinds and minimize other carbs (fruit, root veg, grains).
* After eating, I do 30 minutes on the treadmill.
For a middle-aged woman (a category which finds it particularly hard to lose weight) this has worked rather well. I can eat as much meat, (non-root) veg, dairy and soy as I want and I just keep losing weight.
My understanding of intermittent fasting is that it can encourage "garbage collection" of the body pruning the dead/sickly cells. Weight loss/gain is still driven by calories in/out.
> Intermittent fasting may make little difference to weight loss.
My personal experience is quite the opposite. In fact, this is the first time I have heard anybody claim that intermittent fasting, when done correctly, does not make you lose weight. Sounds like a study done by people who sell weight-loss drugs or meals.
Intermittent fasting is one of the more reliable ways to lose weight.
Personal experience says otherwise. Low carb/slow carb diet plus fasting 100% did it for me. 40 lbs gone, and have kept it off even while backing off of the initial rigidity. Everything in moderation, especially alcohol. Beer is a huge carb load, so that had to go entirely. Pasta as well. Potatoes too. Sure, I have a couple fries (or chippies for the BBC crew), but it’s all about those being scarce. It’s actually pretty easy to intermittent fast. Eat dinner and be done before 8pm and have lunch around 1pm the next day. Have coffee or tea in the morning.
What really accelerated weight loss for me was extremely rigid ketogenesis. Felt amazingly sharp and dialed in every morning, slept well, shredded pounds.
I am sure it's personal, but when I fast 24 hours (once per week), the next two days I look for less food, to the point that I can skip lunch without noticing.
The big deal for me is not eating stuff with flour (starch?) or sugar.
I already eat healthy, although I switched from chicken to a full protein tofu that's low on calories and that has been a blessing for protein intake (along with egg white). I can eat 60g of protein at lunch in about 350 calories.
That gives me everything I need for the gym.
My snack is apple with a teaspoon of pure pistachio butter, which calms down my desire for sweets (I love pistachio)
What made the most difference for me was strength training a few times per week. I do circuit training classes where you spend 6 minutes per station. I didn't change my diet that much, and I really didn't lose much weight. But the muscle displaced the fat and I'm slimmer and look better.
It's hilarious that people describe their anecdotal experience of being in a calorie deficit as a proof that "intermittent fasting works".
This was never the question, but whether intermittent fasting brings additional weight loss benefits as compared to calorie deficit with frequent meals.
My anecdotal experience from 20y of bodybuilding and doing ~3 cuts a year: for cutting, I tried IF, 6 meals a day, low fat, low carb, high fat true keto, balanced... everything works. And works equally well - this is backed by numerous studies. The only difference is the impact on health parameters (different will get worse on low fat vs high fat), satiety, and how easy it is for someone to sustain the diet and stay in a deficit. This will depend on the lifestyle and personal preferences. So my preferred way to cut is high protein, low carb, essential fats, a ton of fiber. When building muscle I go high everything but balanced.
Anything else and more is sectarianism and people bragging about their choices not having verified their true claimed efficacy or benefits.
That was never the question or point. It was that’s it’s easier to adhere to intermittent fasting and consume less calories. So if you simply did a study comparing intermittent fasting vs general calorie restriction and didn’t control for calories then intermittent fasting would win. Controlling for calories completely misses the point
In a couple of days ~2 billion people world-wide will begin intermittent fasting, done from dawn to sunset, for a month, which is one of the components of the month of Ramadan. Nobody does this to lose weight, or even changes their diet, yet everyone loses some weight. 5lb is typical. Most people who fast Ramadan also gain it back afterward because they didn't make any changes to their diet, which points to the effectiveness of intermittent fasting to lose weight.
There is one difference between Ramadan fasting and modern intermittent fasting: Ramadan fasts are 'dry' fasts no water is imbibed and the alimentary canal stays completely unstimulated for long periods of time.
This is how all dieting works. Specific techniques in isolation rarely have a huge impact, but that doesn't actually matter.
Any framework that causes an overwieght person to genuinely pay attention to what they eat will have a weight loss impact, because all you have to do to lose weight is eat less. The wide variety of dieting techniques are a good thing because it maximizes the likelihood that any individual will find a framework that induces them to pay attention to their eating habits.
I've gone through many weight loss cycles using various techniques including OMAD. Eating once a day changes your relationship with food, and disrupting that relationship is a thousand times more important than whatever obscure biological processes the fitness gurus suppose are in play.
How do people that do this exercise? are they mostly sedentary?
I mostly ride bikes for exercise and need fuel at least every hour on a ride or else I will bonk out. My output is 500kcal/hour based on power meter, a 4 hour ride would be 2000kcal, it's not doable without some food intake.
There are two kinds of IF: a skipping a meal kind, when you only eat during a 6-8 hour window and it's easy to fit a 4 hour bike ride in there or a skipping a day kind, when you don't eat every third/fourth day, then you can use the fasting day to do a recovery ride or even rest.
This study is measuring the wrong thing. Any diet that restricts calories will cause weight loss, that's just physics not biology. So long as the person strictly sticks to that diet it will work.
Strategies like intermittent fasting or diets that moderate what you eat rather than quantity are focused on the later aspect "strictly sticking to that diet". Because being strict is not sustainable, will power is limited and inconsistent, so wasting it on strategies that are hard to stick to is both futile and a waste of will power. Changing what and when you eat accounts for biology instead of just physics, because those variables have a huge impact on satiety.
The study has a minimum interval of 4 weeks, which does not take much will power. Not to mention the psychological impact of being part of a study.
Imo what many discussions on IF miss is that one of the most challenging aspects in dieting, including in studies/interventions, is adherence rates. You can make a lot of different diets that are more healthy and/or have lower calories than a baseline diet of somebody and lead to losing weight, but the biggest challenge is how one adheres to them.
My experience with IF is that it makes it easier to schedule meals as well as to deal with whatever insatiety feelings come from reducing calories, and this made it easier for me to stay with IF diet than with other diets. I have read research where adherence is significantly higher in IF groups, other where it is lower. Essentially, adherence is firstmost about what works for a specific person. If the diet logistics don't work for you personally, it matters little what statistics say. The point (of any diet for weight loss/management) is always to reduce/control calories intake.
Most of the studies they looked at did not use the most robust methods and included small numbers of people, making it difficult to work out the true effects.
Not a good sign for a meta study. When you average garbage you still get garbage.
As for my personal experience, I looked at scientific papers 5 years ago (no, intermittent fasting isn’t some new social media fad). The consensus back then was that it only slightly increases the speed at which one loses weight, but it helps significantly with adherence to a diet.
This was a game changer for me too. With just attempts to control my caloric deficit I failed because I ended up snacking. With intermittent fasting (the strict variant of only eating once after work in my case) I simply had no appetite from the morning until my meal. I also didn’t have cravings before sleep.
At some point, we as a society are going to come to grips with the fact that only like 5% of the population is capable of actually losing and maintaining weight-loss.
The rest is just all new "fad diets" that cycle every 3 years as people go through the cycle of trying them, seeing results, failing to maintain them "forever" (which is what they'd have to do), and then putting the weight back on.
Every single diet has this problem (Even GLP-1s from what I have seen). The human body seems to have some mechanism by which it attempts to maintain it's current weight. But we all continue to be incredibly prone to "this new fad diet actually works!"
24 comments
[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 56.3 ms ] thread8 hours is not a short window. I'm pretty sure Golden Corral will kick you out somewhere around hour #3.
* I only eat one meal a day (supper). It's usually a very large meal, very high in lean protein.
* I avoid sugars and starches of all kinds and minimize other carbs (fruit, root veg, grains).
* After eating, I do 30 minutes on the treadmill.
For a middle-aged woman (a category which finds it particularly hard to lose weight) this has worked rather well. I can eat as much meat, (non-root) veg, dairy and soy as I want and I just keep losing weight.
So no, calorie restriction isn't the 'only way'.
My personal experience is quite the opposite. In fact, this is the first time I have heard anybody claim that intermittent fasting, when done correctly, does not make you lose weight. Sounds like a study done by people who sell weight-loss drugs or meals.
Intermittent fasting is one of the more reliable ways to lose weight.
What really accelerated weight loss for me was extremely rigid ketogenesis. Felt amazingly sharp and dialed in every morning, slept well, shredded pounds.
That being said, it is an extraordinarily difficult way losing weight and probably is not sustainable long term.
The big deal for me is not eating stuff with flour (starch?) or sugar.
I already eat healthy, although I switched from chicken to a full protein tofu that's low on calories and that has been a blessing for protein intake (along with egg white). I can eat 60g of protein at lunch in about 350 calories.
That gives me everything I need for the gym.
My snack is apple with a teaspoon of pure pistachio butter, which calms down my desire for sweets (I love pistachio)
My anecdotal experience from 20y of bodybuilding and doing ~3 cuts a year: for cutting, I tried IF, 6 meals a day, low fat, low carb, high fat true keto, balanced... everything works. And works equally well - this is backed by numerous studies. The only difference is the impact on health parameters (different will get worse on low fat vs high fat), satiety, and how easy it is for someone to sustain the diet and stay in a deficit. This will depend on the lifestyle and personal preferences. So my preferred way to cut is high protein, low carb, essential fats, a ton of fiber. When building muscle I go high everything but balanced.
Anything else and more is sectarianism and people bragging about their choices not having verified their true claimed efficacy or benefits.
There is one difference between Ramadan fasting and modern intermittent fasting: Ramadan fasts are 'dry' fasts no water is imbibed and the alimentary canal stays completely unstimulated for long periods of time.
The main benefits of intermittent fasting are not in weight loss, but:
- Give your bowels the time to run the "cleaning program" (rumbling) - Reduce inflammation
Any framework that causes an overwieght person to genuinely pay attention to what they eat will have a weight loss impact, because all you have to do to lose weight is eat less. The wide variety of dieting techniques are a good thing because it maximizes the likelihood that any individual will find a framework that induces them to pay attention to their eating habits.
I've gone through many weight loss cycles using various techniques including OMAD. Eating once a day changes your relationship with food, and disrupting that relationship is a thousand times more important than whatever obscure biological processes the fitness gurus suppose are in play.
Also, assertions in support of consumption should be reviewed to make sure it's not put forward into media and study by consumptionists.
I mostly ride bikes for exercise and need fuel at least every hour on a ride or else I will bonk out. My output is 500kcal/hour based on power meter, a 4 hour ride would be 2000kcal, it's not doable without some food intake.
Strategies like intermittent fasting or diets that moderate what you eat rather than quantity are focused on the later aspect "strictly sticking to that diet". Because being strict is not sustainable, will power is limited and inconsistent, so wasting it on strategies that are hard to stick to is both futile and a waste of will power. Changing what and when you eat accounts for biology instead of just physics, because those variables have a huge impact on satiety.
The study has a minimum interval of 4 weeks, which does not take much will power. Not to mention the psychological impact of being part of a study.
My experience with IF is that it makes it easier to schedule meals as well as to deal with whatever insatiety feelings come from reducing calories, and this made it easier for me to stay with IF diet than with other diets. I have read research where adherence is significantly higher in IF groups, other where it is lower. Essentially, adherence is firstmost about what works for a specific person. If the diet logistics don't work for you personally, it matters little what statistics say. The point (of any diet for weight loss/management) is always to reduce/control calories intake.
Not a good sign for a meta study. When you average garbage you still get garbage.
As for my personal experience, I looked at scientific papers 5 years ago (no, intermittent fasting isn’t some new social media fad). The consensus back then was that it only slightly increases the speed at which one loses weight, but it helps significantly with adherence to a diet. This was a game changer for me too. With just attempts to control my caloric deficit I failed because I ended up snacking. With intermittent fasting (the strict variant of only eating once after work in my case) I simply had no appetite from the morning until my meal. I also didn’t have cravings before sleep.
The rest is just all new "fad diets" that cycle every 3 years as people go through the cycle of trying them, seeing results, failing to maintain them "forever" (which is what they'd have to do), and then putting the weight back on.
Every single diet has this problem (Even GLP-1s from what I have seen). The human body seems to have some mechanism by which it attempts to maintain it's current weight. But we all continue to be incredibly prone to "this new fad diet actually works!"