AIBU to think Intermittent Fasting is a gimmick?

[NeedToChangeName]

I know a few people who swear by Intermittent Fasting and make a big deal of only eating between 12 noon and 8pm

To me, this just sounds like (1) skip breakfast and (2) no snacks after dinner

AIBU?

It worked amazingly for me. I lost the 2.5 stone that I have always struggled with and kept it off, still eat this way now.
I’ve never bloated anymore, don’t feel like I’m depriving myself, my skin cleared up (acne) and I feel generally great.

I don’t quite get it. I have a similar eating window naturally, just not the same hours. I eat roughly between 10am and 6pm. I tend to skip breakfast but get hungry mid-morning then I don’t usually eat after dinner. I generally eat mid-morning, light lunch then dinner.
I’m pretty average sized, just within a normal bmi range but squishy in the middle. No magic

It’s just calorie deficit by another name - no more, no less - all the benefits people describe would happen in any other calorie deficit too. I don’t know why people think it’s some magical thing, it’s literally the same as any other diet!

Also read that it’s good for digestion ….the stomach and intestines don’t like being constantly bombarded with snacks.

It's the opposite of good for my digestion. It gave me constipation so I had to stop it. It didn't really make me lose weight anyway, maybe because it wasn't that big a change for me - I never do post-dinner snacking anyway, so all I was doing differently skipping breakfast.

This is why IF doesn't work for me.

I'm up at 4 and walk 5.8k at 5am because my dd is a swimmer.

So I have overnight oats at 6.30am because my job is very busy sometimes and on my feet and I've been known to not get lunch until 1.30/2pm.

The problem with not eating breakfast then is I have to grab some biscuits because my blood sugar is so low I'm shaking and can't concentrate.

I try not to eat past 6pm but that relies on me getting dinner or time to make dinner and take it with me because ds also trains every evening too.

I'm guessing IF is also very dependent on lifestyle and activity?

@aloofflooty you would just change your hours so you eat at say 6am, then have an 8 hour window yo eat so up to 4pm?
No dinner

Well, there's no way I'm just going to stop eating dinner for the rest of my days 🤣

6-4 is actually 10 hours, 6-2 is the 8 hour "window" which is ridiculous. The idea of doing a 10 hour shift then not eating anything when I get home is laughable.

Glad you posted this. I was irritated by OP too

Eating 3 times a day or more regularly is a much more modern concept than the necessity of regular fasting that we evolved with. Early man right until the agricultural revolution (which, in terms of our evolution, is 'the start until quite recently') fasted regularly, as most wild animals do, certainly at some times of the year.

We are evolved to fast. We are not evolved to 'Pop down to Asda because I've not eaten for 2 hours and I'm dying for some biscuits'

If you are doing IF then the only things you are supposed to have outside the 8 hour eating window is water/black coffee/black or herbal tea. Soya milk will start to raise your blood sugar.
Obviously do what works for you but just letting you know in case you weren’t aware.

I love a cup of tea in the morning but have got used to black coffee since doing IF. That first cup of tea is lovely!

I understand what the OP means…. She isn’t saying that the process is a gimmick she’s saying that packaging it and selling it as “ A THING” is a gimmick. “ I know let’s call it 16:8 or 5:2 …. That will look good in the Daily Mail when I’m flogging my next book” kind of way. I’ve done both of those by the way and I’ve read the science and was persuaded as I’ve been persuaded by all the other science that has been trotted out eg “ the benefits of eating breakfast” and “why low fat is the bees knees”. I sometimes skip breakfast and if I work out in the morning I don’t feel hungry til lunch. I personally just see it as a way of reducing my overall calories. If you wake up starving then skipping breakfast is probably not for you but something else probably is.

They don't seem to actually have worked that out yet. Other schools of thought advise a tiny bit of milk in tea/coffee doesn't make any difference

It works for a lot of people but I hated it. I exercise early in the morning and couldn't go for hours with no food. I tried it for two months and lost a little weight but that was more because I was consuming fewer calories than the timing. I continued to watch calories while resuming my small breakfast and continued to lose weight. I never snack after dinner anyway. Each to their own.

Agree that it is just the packaging and marketing that is a gimmick.

All you are doing is eating less, whichever flavour of intermittent fasting you choose. Which, surprise surprise, results in weight loss.

You still have to eat healthily though, not fast food.

I didn't. I did the 5:2 for a year or so and lost tonnes of weight, notwithstanding the fact I ate like a hog the rest of the time.

I didn’t realise that IF was now about “eating in an 8 hour window”. The original Michael Moseley documentary was about restricting calories on two days and eating what you like on five wasn’t it? When did it all change?

I don’t eat after I’ve had my dinner at 6 anyway. Would my two Weetabix at 7-ish in the morning really be so awful for me? Plus the zillion cups of morning tea?

I think it might be easier to stick to if you aren't eating lots of sugar/empty carbs in your 8 hours.
I'm new to IF but have attempted it in the past and got all weak and faint because my body was used to having cereal or toast and biscuits with sweet coffee in the morning. Since I've cut out most sugar I find I'm not starving in the morning and don't need food first thing to get over the shakiness of having blood sugar dip.
I don't think I could do it if I still felt like I needed sugar.
That aside, I think it works for weight loss because you are eating less food. But it makes sense to me that our bodies might need a break from constant digestion.
I don't think I'm doing this strictly because I do have a little bit of cream in my coffee in the morning but if it's keeping me out of the biscuit tin then I'm all for it.

I went to a nutritionist years ago. The protocol was to eat regularly, with snacks which would be something like 1/2 apple 6 & Nuts, a last snack shortly before bedtime which incorporated protein.
So the diet was
No nightshade veg
No tea coffee or alcohol
No dairy or derivatives
No wheat
Lost loads of weight.
Now trying this diet as the above is restrictive though I have tried to do it again
While not being to rigid, but sadly not losing much, so may be due to the menopause (or that glass of wine 😅) the 16 8 is working for me pleased to see the weight coming off, though I've always eaten breakfast, and always very healthy, and concerned about the need to maintain consistent blood sugar levels, which prevents the impulse to snack on usually high carb/sugar food.

@PuppyMonkey

There are two different methods… the 5:2 where you restrict your calories heavily on 2 days and the 16:8 where you restrict your calories for the 8 hour window and fast the rest of the time and potentially do that daily.

What do people drink when on the 12-8 routine? The thing that would bother me is not having my morning coffee!

You still have to eat healthily though, not fast food.

The beauty of the fasting “diets” is that you can eat anything you want. You are just using a strategy to facilitate eating less of it.

As long as you are in overall calorie deficit at the end of the day, or week, you will lose weight.

I'm exactly the same and yet a stone overweight!

No, you're not reducing your calories. Your other meals will get bigger with no breakfast.
You can still snack with IF, just within a certain time window.

I'm exactly the same and yet a stone overweight!

I managed to get to two stone overweight just eating between 6 and 8 in the evening. The problem was I was eating (and drinking) too much in those two hours.

There is no magic to it. If you stuff your face between 12 and 8 or on the five days you aren’t fasting on the 5:2, you will gain weight.

There is no magic to a fasting diet. The results come form eating less overall than you normally would.

How does IF work if you go to the gym at 5am and do a hard workout- burning 500 calories? The fitness people say have a protein shake/breakfast afterwards but if IF hours are 11am-7pm then do I just not eat? I’m not trying to provoke anything just genuinely interested as I want to try it!!😎