So, I've been trying to get info about this, but no hard and fast rules, it seems. It appears that you can choose whether you want to fast all day or part of the day, and the number of days a week a person does this is up to him/her. Anway, it seems like a good way to cut calories.

I'm one of those people who don't get hungry until about noon, so I might be able to do it. I'm thinking I'll probably be good to do it from 10:00 pm to 5:00 pm, if I can hold out that long, lol. I think that my body loses weight best when I throw curveballs at it. So, I'm thinking maybe I'll fast a couple of days a week (low carbing on those days, too), and normal low carb the rest of the time.

All that being said, there are many ways to fast. Are there any hard and fast rules about what you're allowed while you're in fast mode? For example, if I want to drink coffee with Splenda, is that allowed, or is it nothing but water? I'm thinking that IFers don't want to drink anything with calories while fasting (so cream definitely is out ), but does coffee's less than 1 calorie count, too?

Seems to me that one of the danger with doing it too often would run the risk of your body kicking into starvation mode, so maybe twice a week (M and F) would be good? Or should I do it more often for it to be effective? Can I plan to work out on those days, or do those of you who IF find that it affects your exercise ability?

I've thought of fasting for religious reasons in the past, but I've never had the gumption to do it. I'm almost sold on this idea, but if I'm going to go to the trouble, I want to do it right instead of wasting my time, KWIM?

Here is the link to the thread on this site:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=373911

TFS! I haven't had the chance to look yet, but my first glance tells me I've got reading for days.

I'm just going to toss this out there -- make of it what you will. Some people have had very bad experiences from IF but they do not write about it often in the forums. I haven't (haven't done it, don't intend to and remember that is one of the behaviors that so many of us had that helped us get up to a very high weight), but I have read where others have. That info is usually found only in journals.

Thanks for the tip. It sounds like one of those things that a person needs to know what they're doing to avoid malnutrition or throwing themselves into starvation mode, but something to consider.

I know that people can fast safely if they do it the right way (i.e. Jews, Christians and Muslims for religious purposes), which is why I want as much information as I can before I give it a whirl. As I've said, I've thought about fasting in the past for religious reasons, but I've never been able to get up the nerve.

And I know that Muslims must fast for Ramadan (no food or drink during daylight hours; they IF during that month ), and I've never heard of it killing anyone. Now, whether or not IF will help me lose any weight, who knows? It may be one of those things that vary. I can totally see having a negative IF experience for a variety of reasons. I do want to see the total picture before I make any decisions, so maybe I'll do some more Googling.

We've also had people have really positive experiences too. Lowering blood sugar, breaking stalls, etc.

I think it's something you might want to try and just see how it works out for you. It's not a reflection on you if it doesn't work for you.

I personally have been pretty much a failure at it.

I have had a wonderful experience on it so far.

I began gaining weight after losing 30 lbs on Atkins. I love the food choices on Atkins and I avoid the bars and shakes etc. I do not believe in meal replacement items. I remained faithful to the diet and ate my 3-4 square meals a day plus snacks. Actually, I inlisted the aid of chromium because I read how it had helped many people with insulin resistance.It was after using chromium that I began to gain weight.I blame the chromium because I gave it 6 weeks to work. I began to gain then and I continued gaining after I quit using it. Afterwards,I spent 2 years tweaking my diet making sure that I remained low carb and healthy. Before it was all over, I gained the 30 lbs that I had lost plus2 extra lbs. Then I read in Protein Power that even though you may be a full-grown adult, you can activate human growth hormone by exercising on an empty stomach. In connection to this it is imperative to avoid food especially carbs for 1 hour following exercise. I thought "No way could I do that."However, I read as much as I could and found that this is true.At least from what I have researched this is indeed a fact. Then I read something on IF. Again, that is something that I could not imagine doing since I have been eating like a pig for so long. Yet, in retrospect, I did indeed eat this way as a kid. I ate this way because that is how I wanted to eat. I didn't spend hours being hungry and craving food or junk like other kids. As a matter of fact, I envied them for their ability to eat so well. My sisters and I were quite skinny. My parents even took us to the doctor regarding our girth...or lack of it. The doctor said that we were healthy and not to worry about it.

Reflecting on my youth made me realize that I probably could do this and become even healthier for it. Afterall, IF is ketogenic especially when combined with our menu. In the beginning I implemented IF slowly so that I didn't wear out from doing it.I just began eating breakfast later each day until I was able to go until 2:00 without breaking my fast. I also began adding coconut oil and/or MCT oil to my morning coffee. The added fats and oils have contributed to increased mental clarity throughout the my day. I realize that ketones do indeed provide a better quality of energy as opposed to carbohydrates. Ketones stick with you longer and go further when it comes to energy producing. I don't look at fasting as caloric restricting. I look at it as ketone producing so using some fats during the fasting period.

So, that all said, I begin my fast at around 6:00 PM after dinner. I do not eat my next meal until around 20 hours later ( give or take ).Sometimes, depending on my schedule, my fast is longer. Sometimes, I will break up my fast by having breakfast in the morning and not eat again until supper time that night. One thing certain, I have not had more than 2 meals a day since April 2007.A sample of my meals would be a steak, sliced avocado, collard greens and a glass of V8 juice.I might have fruit topped with sour cream for dessert. I ate till my heart's content.I ate this way because I was patterning how earlier cultures did this. They gorged themselves because they had no idea when their next meal would come. Then they would go for lengthy periods of time without eating. So my intention was to eat as much as I could within a 4 hour window. Interesting, I really didn't eat that much in the long run. Once I broke my fast with a big meal, I was not hungry for the remainder of the day. Although I do eat a small dinner at night, I could easily go without dinner. There have also been times when I considered myself hungry and began to eat only to immediately lose my appetite. So I listened to my body and did not eat. I did not lose weight rapidly but I did lose weight...I lost nearly all of the weight that I gained with very little effort. I am going to insist that I have bloodwork done because I want to know what my numbers are, especially my glucose. My mom and 2 other siblings are diabetic. I eat quite diffeerently from them and I want to see if my diet made a difference.That difference will be included in my stats.

I would like to highlight the fact that I constructed this in a way that would work for me. I do not obsess over a strict schedule but I take fasting seriously. I have not suffered from insulin spikes, I have not been ill and I did not develop an eating disorder.

Thanks for the feedabck black57. I'm getting an intuitive nudge that I could try this now and I've been reading up on it, but I'm confused about a few things. My intention is to eat only LC food during the eating window (not "anything I want"). So I'll stick basically to how I've been eating so far. I'll have coffee with cream or coconut oil in the morning, plus herbal teas or water during the day. I really like eating a complete cooked meal, meat with 1 or 2 cooked veggies (small portions), maybe a salad or a little cheese. I'm very uncomfortable fasting for 24 hours, but I can so easily do 18 hours with a 6-hour window for eating (I probably wouldn't eat during that whole time; just giving myself 6 hours because my schedule is sometimes erratic).

I've been frustrated because my weight loss isn't proceeding, and when I go to very low carb/zero carb just eating meat and fat I don't feel great and it doesn't have any effect on my weight loss anyway. I really want to do this so I can continue losing weight on LC rather than just staying in the same place, and other things I've tried haven't had the "jump-start" effect.

I've just started trying this, and so far I don't feel ravenously hungry when it's time to eat my meal; sometimes a little hungrier than usual, so I try to have something ready to take the edge off, hard-boiled egg or a small salad.

Eat according to your hunger...not your desire to lose weight. I believe that my body has become more comunicative. Or perhaps it is me who has improved communicating with my body.

I'm right there with you, Sylvie. Thanks for the info, black57. It was the kind of helpful info I need. I know that there are no guarantees that this will/will not work, but I look at it this way. Atkins doesn't do it for some people, and it does for others. I know low fat doesn't work for me, but I've known people to lose and keep off weight eating that way. What have I really got to lose by trying?

My concern with this has been the fear of my body feeding off of itself, which does happen with very low calorie diets. I'm sensing that it's going to be something similar to what I've been doing all my life. I have never been a breakfast person. I can remember hiding bowls of oatmeal in the morning, because I just didn't want to fight with mom or dad about eating. But I wasn't hungry.

Only when I became an adult and was encouraged to eat breakfast as part of a weight-loss deal did I start eating breakfast. I actually started gaining back then, but I was also partying/drinking quite often (college), so it could have been either or both.

I've been reading enough about this to see that if I IF for 16-19 hours daily, I can get all the nutrients I'll need during my 'window'. I still don't know enough about the science behind it, lol, but I'll study as I do this. Anyhoo, I think I'll give this a 3-4 week trial run, and as long as I'm fastidious about getting all my nutrients, I've really got nothing left to lose.

I found a website with a free Fast-5 electronic book, can anyone tell me if this is a good source for info?

I've only been fasting for a few weeks, but I'm liking it a lot. I started out fasting a few weeks ago. Before that I was doing South Beach, and really liking the food, and losing weight at a rate I was comfortable with, but I felt like it was so much work. Anytime I went anywhere I had to think -- how long will it be, will I need to eat, what can I bring, will it need to be refrigerated . . . Also, on SB I noticed that my appetite was decreasing and sometimes it seemed like work to make myself eat a snack. I read about IF and decided to try for 1 day -- the day after Thanksgiving, and was surprised how easy it was. Now I'm hooked.

I do a 4-5 hour eating window on Monday through Friday. I eat something small on the way home from work each day (usually between 5:30 and 6:30) usually a handful of nuts, and then start making dinner. The nuts/cheese take the edge off my hunger to the point that I can make dinner without wanting to raid the fridge for everything in it. Then I make something nice with lots of veggies and some fat and protein. Last night, for example, I had roasted fennel, some bacon, and some brussel sprouts and white asparagus chopped up fine and cooked in the bacon grease like hashbrowns -- super yummy, tonight is going to be a big "taco salad" with beef and lentils, guacamole, salsa, fresh veggies, yogurt (instead of sour cream) and cheese. Sometimes I'll find that I'm still hungry a few hours later and I'll have a slice of cheese before bed.

On weekends I am more casual -- I'll often eat lunch, especially if I'm doing something social that involves lunch, or recently we've been skiing a lot in the afternoons so I eat both before and afterwards. I've still go the IF "habit" of not grazing, though

I know that IF isn't about calories, but I also can see that I'm eating way less calories and way healthier. For one thing almost everything I eat is now homemade, since I'm not grabbing junk food at work, or eating the kids snacks (I'm a teacher). I also don't graze all day. Even if I do something fatty like the bacon with dinner yesterday, it's still far less than I ate pre-South Beach.

Dr.Eades was all gung-ho for IF for a while but then backed off. He had a good plan for getting a 24 hour fast, you eat til (for example) 5pm one day & then the next day you start eating after 5pm & eat as desired til 5pm the next day. That way you got a full 24 hour fast every 48 hours, but ate every day. I think it would be too hard for me, I do better not eating til later.
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...-better-health/

On one of the links referenced on the IF site (can't recall which) there was something about how digestion is hard on the body, and so through IF you let the body have more energy for other repair/healing processes. I have problems with inflammation, and sometimes it seems when I eat more often that I have more problems with inflammation, joint and muscle pain, etc., though I'm just guessing there's a connection. I have read that sometimes fasting for periods is advised for people with arthritis, so I'm wondering if IF can be helpful for those prone to inflammation. Anyone have experience with that?

Digestion in itself is not stressful. What is stressful on the body is eating before the digestive process is complete. IF, or any kind of fasting allows the body to completely digest each meal before another meal slows the gears already in motion. IMHO, this explains why I have to defecate within 2 hours after I break my fast.

Eating causes processes that cause oxidation. Essentially that's how we turn food into energy at some level. In the process it creates free radicals and stuff. So eating less often theoretically would cause less oxidation.

Also, there was something about certain types of stress actually being good for the body, like creating heat-shock proteins. It is thought that the stress of occasional fasting might do something similar.

There have been some interesting studies on people celebrating Ramadan and religious fasters and others. Plus people caught in famines seem to live a long time too, if they survive the famine.

As far as what to eat when practicing IF, I personally would stick to my low carb diet. The theory is you can eat higher carb and your body will deal with it ok, but to me it'd be nasty because high carb makes me hungry. I don't need extra cues to eat.