Intermittent fasting

Veganite

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I have heard good things about intermittent fasting. Anyone here have any experience with this?

It's supposed to slow the aging process, as well as lower your risk for cardiovascular disease, and also improve your quality of sleep. It also has weight loss and weight maintenance benefits from what I've read. I have my weight where I want it, but the other benefits seem worthwhile.

I was thinking about trying a 12 hour window to start. I've heard of some people narrowing that down to 8-9 hours per day, but that seems a bit extreme. I don't want to fall calorie deficient. I don't like eating if I'm not hungry. You'd really have to boost your calorie dense food intake.

If anyone has any experience with this I'd love to hear about it.
 
My bf tried to convince me to start intermittent fasting because he was really hooked on the idea. So I looked deeper into it and
1) I tried going for it but I couldn't keep up with the diet, I was either too hungry or too tired.
2) I read that it is bad for women in the long term, I will try to find the link to the article that stated it.
3) There are so many types of intermittent fasting to me it was just confusing.
4) I personally it is not for everyone because of how drastic it is in the beginning.
5) There is a lot of debate on the diet on different forums and articles (I know I know the debate nowadays is about everything like even the benefits of veganism) but I just don't feel convinced.
I would recommend you try it and see if you like it/can keep up with the diet and your work/lifestyle.
I hope it helps.
 
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@Susanne A.

Thank you for your input, and welcome to the forum!

I am currently doing a 10/24 intermittent window now. I will reduce that down to 9 hours soon, which is a low as I will go. We'll see how this goes. So far so good.

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OMG I don't think I'll be able to try this. Ive heard good things about it also but I feel like to me personally it wouldn't work, since I have a really really fast metabolism and I get hungry really fast. I also eat very large amounts of foods lol
 
Fasting in general is the one thing noted in research to add years to life across all species. I have attached a study below. Dr. Valter Longo has a good book called the Longevity Diet with tons of research behind it. He is not 100% plant based but close. It is a good read. I have found the easiest is the 16-8 time restricted feeding. Fast for 16 hours and eat all your normal calories to 8 hours. You will likely decrease your caloric intake about 300 calories per day per the studies. Good luck.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5388543/
 
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It’s been a while since I’ve been on the forum. I was working 70 hours a week for a while. I have been intermittent fasting for over a year now.
Go for it!!! Benefits take a bit to become noticeable but when you look back you realize how good you feel.
The only reason people don’t intermittent fast anymore is food abundance and habit.
 
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It has been a while since we've seen you on the forum. It's great to have you back!! That's a pretty demanding workweek. I used to work long hours like that when I was a chef. Anyhow, thanks for your advice. It's the kind of input I was hoping for...firsthand experience.

So I just started on Sunday with a 9/24 interval, after completing a 5 day water fast to kick start things. I did the water fast as a sort of cleanse. It was awesome, and I feel terrific! It sort of reset things for me.

I see some people tend to completely fast even one day a week, as well as an 8/24 for the other 6 days. There seems to be many ways to go about this. I'm not trying to lose anymore weight these days, but I do want to maintain what I have lost. Since going vegan I've been up and down like a yo-yo. It's frustrating because even my snacks are healthy.

Sticking to whole foods has helped, greatly, to keep my weight down, but I still need to be careful. I'm just one of those people that can put weight on by looking at pizza. So I do think this fasting system should benefit me as well, with any luck. It will prevent me from snacking at night, which I don't do a lot, but I do indulge, occasionally. Usually, only fruit and sometimes nuts or seeds, but that all adds up quite easily for me.

So far so good. The water fast was humbling, and a good way for me to start. It just helped give me a little more discipline. My worst enemy are food cravings...not hunger. Again, the water fast sort of reset things. I wish I could've done a 10 day fast, but I had too many commitments to continue. It just wouldn't have been convenient.

I do exercise, minimally, and would like to return to a more vigorous workout routine someday. Sadly, I injured my back quite badly back in 2000. Plus years of meat & dairy eating, abuse, I developed a lot of bone degeneration, which made matters a lot worse. It's greatly helped since going vegan, but my back is far from 100 percent.

Well, don't be a stranger. Good to see you back!


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This just in...
news article in the NYT about a research study.
Not sure if the study is completely relevant in that they had both groups eat the same number of calories each day. but it does sort of kill the premise that the time of the meals affects weight loss.

Not my experience!
When limit my eating window, like from 9am to no later than 6pm, my weight loss really gets jump started, and I lost faster than eating the same amount of food stretched out
I'll believe the research from Dr Greger, as well as everyone I know who's done it!