A new animal fasting study

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7453516.stm

Yes, its just one of the many benefits those of us who practice intermittent fasting know well. The enhanced physical health, mental focus and energy give us an advantage in our life without undue sacrifice.

Major mini-goal met!

I posted this in Milestones, but I have successfully made it into the 180s. (Three days in a row, before I would call it official.)

This is the lowest I've weighed in my adult life, aside from once in the 1990s, when taking rx diet pills.

This is the least I've weighed even on innumerable Atkins/Lowcarb attempts.

I could not have done this without IF. It was the key to getting my appetite under control.

IF really is great for appetite control, isn't it? It's easier than trying to limit calories all day, that's for sure.

Heya... I just wanted to drop by since it has been ages since I visited an IF thread. I stopped for a while due to emotional eating issues (yes, I know I really need to deal with that) but I have been IFing for a while now and I really feel so much better again. Just saying hi and I will be around this thread more too.

hi everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been trying to do IF (Fast 5) for about a month and a half. I've had a hard time sticking to it - some days I don't even think about food until late in the afternoon, but other days I'm just hungry all the time. I'm a SAHD; on days when I'm not with the kids, fasting is a breeze, but when I have to take care of them my energy plummets. If I have an empty stomach I find myself on a very short fuse. Some days I eat just to keep myself from yelling at them. I spend a lot of time sitting around conserving my energy. It's funny because when I do trapeze (not with the kids) I don't feel hungry at all.

It's nice to hear that so many people can get on fasting autopilot, but... how do you get there?

What are you eating? Are you eating enough? How much sleep are you getting?

You can see details for a couple days in my journal, though I'm a bit slack about counting quantities. I generally eat until I'm not hungry, but there are times when I can't figure out what would hit the spot. I get very specific hunger sometimes and occasionally I can't find anything that will satisfy it. Also, sometimes I get so many interruptions and delays (I'm a SAHD) that it takes me 7 or 8 hours to eat as much as I really wanted to.

I'm maybe a little short on sleep, but not a lot.

I think some of the focus or in the moment clarity of mind when fasting occurs because the right side of the brain becomes more dominant and attention to detail and senses are sharper. It may be a food finding adaptation or a state attainable in other ways. I just read an interesting article about a brain scientist that had a stroke affecting the left side of her brain and she explains how the two halves control our perceptions of reality. It is fascinating:http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=5226183&page=2

I started out by skipping breakfast and drinking plenty of water....eating two meals a day....then CAD type meal...balanced with protein, fat, carb, etc... At first I get headaches if I haven't done it for a while...and I definitely have to stay away from artifical sweeteners or otherwise I am hungry all day long....can't use those unless I am eating something with it....

Hope you find the right mix for you...

TJ

Yesterday I had a dental appointment so I skipped breakfast then I went shopping. About noon I got quite hyngry and was still starving after about 1PM while walking around town. I stopped at a dollar store and bought a bag of pumpkin seeds from China, these are similar to sunflower kernels but not as heavy-- those and some water lasted me till dinner at 6PM and I feel fine this morning and I didn't gain any weight.

When at home if I get extremely famished I have coffee with a little cream and coconut oil-- that really does the trick without any of the side effects eating solid foods can cause. I also used this trick when I had to do a full 2 day fast before a GI optical exam.

Hey Mama Lu thx for the links, some good reading there.

BF

What's CAD?

This weekend everyone else was sick, and I ate all day so I wouldn't be distracted by hunger. Yesterday I had no problem fasting till about 3PM, and was reasonably satisfied by around 8.

Today, however, I was starving in the morning and had a small plum-like fruit from a nearby tree, a couple egg yolks, macademia nuts and coconut yogurt for breakfast.

I seem to be developing two different kinds of hunger: One just means I haven't eaten in a while, but I don't feel like I need to do anything about it. The other means I'm STARVING.

That's the way it has been with me-- yesterday I awoke hungry and it lasted all day so I ate early. I did both biking and weights the day before-- I also had a protein shake. I am doing the same workouts today so ill see how I go tomorrow.

If I am out during the day shopping I can usually pass by the free food samples handed out even though I sometimes feel like eating them. Often I feel famished an hour or two before dinner, but when the time finally comes I am not that hungry.

Yesterday's stats (Mon.):
000g carb
000g prot
000g fat
0000 calories

water

Total weight change = -3.79 Bowling Balls = 243 sticks of butter .... gone!!!
...............remaining = -1.52 Bowling Balls = 097 sticks of butter

Day 416 (of IF 72hrs/12hrs
Weight change rates follow:
-0.06 = lbs/day (0.2 buttersticks/day)
-0.40 = lbs/wk (1.6 buttersitcks/wk)
-01.7 = lbs/mo (6.9 buttersticks/mo)
r2=0.444 (linear regression coefficient)

feel ok, slept ok