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Fasting - Anyone Tried It?


David

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The title of the thread says it all really. Anyone tried it? Gotten results from doing so? Either physical or psychological? 

I'm embarking on a 16 hour fast for the next few weeks to see how I get on. I've done some 12 hour ones before, but will give the 16 hour ones a bash.

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I started doing it, almost by accident, over the last year or so. Typically going from dinner to lunch, so around 15 hours. I can't say I've seen any massive impacts from it, but has helped keep some weight off for sure. One interesting thing is that sometimes I do have breakfast, around 9ish, on some days and I still find myself feeling as hungry around lunchtime as I do when I fast.

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6 minutes ago, Shy Dad said:

Can you keep us updated on how it goes @David. It's something I've been considering myself recently and I'd like to see how it's benefiting you before I do something drastic like changing my routines.

How did you find 12 hours?

I found 12 hours pretty easy, as I was spending around 7-8 of them sleeping, but thus far 16 hours is proving tougher. I usually don't get my evening meal until around 7-8pm due to work commitments and then find myself fasting until like 12pm the next day. 

I'm finding that hard, but will try to stick with it for this week at least.

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I've had it recommended to me several times - one friend is currently doing the 2-5 diet, where you fast two days of the week (non-consecutively) and eat normally the rest. Says it's worked for him.

Obviously, the caveat is that every person works differently, so it may just be a case of trial-and-error. Thinking of giving it a go.

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I started doing it about 10 years ago, basically because I was skint and needed to save money. I used to get up for work at 7am, and go all day until about 8pm without eating anything(I used to drink gallons of water, though), then not eat again until the following evening. 

Although it was hard work mentally(mainly having to sit and watch work-mates eating), physically I wasn't an issue. Of course I felt hungry, but not to the extent I was going to pass out or anything. From there I basically kept it going on and off to this day, and even now while I may have a breakfast and maybe the odd snack, I still don't eat a meal between breakfast and tea at 8pm ish.

When I was more active, in the days before my disability, I stayed at a healthy weight(in my opinion) of about 12-13 stone on my 6ft frame. Now my mobility is gone, keeping my weight at what I'm happy with is a nightmare, no matter how much I fast or not.

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17 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

Exactly what it supposed to do? Obviously you'll lose weight but is there another aim?

I think he was making the same caveat I was, that some regimens don't necessarily work for some people as they do others. I know that's not helpful in itself, but it's more to point out that it does have an effect, that it's not just some baseless fad. He did say he had a bit more energy too, though, after a few weeks.

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I’ve done it to some degree for years, although it wasn’t a conscious effort or choice. I’m just a bit weird and only really eat one meal a day. Sometimes I’ll have a snack here or there but I never eat breakfast. Just never feel hungry in the mornings. And I usually work from 5:30am until 1:30pm and very rarely eat anything at work either. I’ll have a biggish dinner around 5 or 6pm, sometimes a snack later on, and that does me. I’ve always been like it. But I’m 5’6” and never go above 10st so maybe I don’t need so much fuel or something. Although my wife’s even smaller and eats like a lion so fuck knows.

My sister does intermittent fasting quite often though but she’s always been into all sorts of mad fitness and diet stuff. It changes all the time. She said she actually feels more energetic and sharper mentally when she’s fasting, which sounds odd to me but I’ve never done it myself so can’t knock it. I guess it works differently for everyone. 

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Every now and again (once a month or so) ill fast for 24 hours. Only started doing it as a guy I worked with did it every Thursday and highly recommended it. Not really noticed any results from it (to be honest I'm not doing it regularly enough to warrant results i imagine) but it does feel pretty good knowing you can get your body to do it. A bit like taking cold showers i guess for me. More of a mental than physical benefit. 

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On 6/9/2021 at 12:53 PM, Carbomb said:

I've had it recommended to me several times - one friend is currently doing the 2-5 diet, where you fast two days of the week (non-consecutively) and eat normally the rest. Says it's worked for him.

Obviously, the caveat is that every person works differently, so it may just be a case of trial-and-error. Thinking of giving it a go.

Me and my wife did 2-5 for a couple of months last year. First few times are hard but you get used to it. I lost about 10lbs I reckon, maybe a tad more, we also sacked off all treats at the same time but I’m not that into sweets so it wasn’t such a big deal for me. The other thing I noticed was being able to concentrate better and feeling focussed for much longer periods of time. 

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I know people who did the 5:2 diet, they generally put the weight back on after and felt unhealthy during. They didn't eat healthy enough during the 5 days, and just ate as they usually did then fasted on the 2 days so they lost weight. You need to eat well to make sure you feel okay those other 2 days. Because they didn't eat healthy during it they picked up no real good habits and when they finished they just went back to normal. Some may be happy sticking on the 5:2 diet forever, but most won't.  However this is an issue with plenty of diets rather than this one specifically, people think they have now lost 2 st so they can pig out or stop exercising and go back to normal forgetting that's how they became overweight in the first place and that 2st is back on within a year or 2. 

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