Intermittent Fasting is miserable

[Slowontheup]

Why would you spend half your waking hours feeling dizzy and sick with zero energy.

opt out of breakfast, the best meal of the day.

or, opt for a life that couldn't include eating dinner in a restaurant.

I don't get it but every health thing says to do it. Does it actually work (I don't need to lose weight anyway just health driven)

how long until it's bearable?

I'm a fan and have been using this method for a couple of years now. I break out on holidays and special occasions, and when I meet friends etc, it's no big deal. I'm not obsessive about it.

For me it's not for weight loss, it's to keep myself within BMI limits as I'm post meno and prone to gaining very easily. I also find it a great discipline, and honestly - I like rules! My window is 11.30 to 19.30 but I often start later and finish earlier, or some other window as long as it's 8 hours.

I just have breakfast and dinner. Maybe a greek yog and fruit about 3 or 4pm. Never hungry. Honestly, and I don't just have a lettuce leaf and a cucumber slice either!

Adjust it to suit yourself and lifestyle! I tried it a couple of summers ago for two weeks or so, was a bit grim. So I adjusted it to suit my lifestyle. After having evening meal about 8pm, no more food until at least 8am. That’s 12 hours, long enough to fast imo. I’ve stuck to this and my weight is steady. My takeaway from this is that snacking in the evening is not at all good. I just don’t do it now, and don’t want to either. Good luck op!

Why is breakfast the best meal of the day? And breakgast is literally that. Breaking the fast. You can have it at 10am. You don't need to have it at 7am.

I can't stomach food too soon after riding so it's pretty easy for me.

Brunch and then a few small snacks and then something more substantial around 5pm works for me.

If I am going out I'll just eat dinner 🤷🏻‍♀️I don't get weird about not IF for a day here and there

I like it, but I've not been a breakfast eater for many years! Don't generally eat after 7.30pm and usually got straight to lunch at 12noon, by which time I'm defo ready for something.

How is this IF. Isn't this just eating whilst awake?

Who eats over a period if more than 12 hours? Jeez. Do some people just eat every waking moment? No wonder they struggle with their weight.

@Womanofcustard I agree completely that the best thing about the 16/8 for me is the total lack of desire for snacking after my last meal around 7pm. It's just become habit or something, I don't know why, but it's bloody great whatever it is!

I feel better. Less sluggish, I think. I like going to bed not feeling full and waiting a few hours for breakfast isn't a bother.

But I only do 16ish hours fasting most days - sometimes a bit more or less - so it's not prolonged.

I love it. I say this kindly, but you need to see a GP if you feel weak and with zero energy if you stop eating at 8pm and resume at noon the next day. And of course you can eat at a restaurant; just don't pig out, although you could pig out now and then if you really have to. You do come across as a bit of a misery, moaning about something you haven't tried. Onward and upward!

Is this a 'blood sugar issue ' a recognised condition though?

I become extremely nauseous and utterly crash out if I go too long without food. Likely history of anorexia, but no diabetes that I know of!

Me too. I’ve been up since 8 and not eaten yet just a coffee so far. I’ll have soup and toast followed by a banana in a bit then dinner about 6.
I do think if you’re not a big breakfast person it’s the ideal diet

Is this a 'blood sugar issue ' a recognised condition though?

Insulin resistance?
And probably quite a lot of people are prediabetic without realising.

Maybe your fasting window is too long? I did find it took me a while to build up my tolerance and some days I'll shorten it or lengthen it by an hour or two depending on how I feel.

It works really well for me - it's not always easy and you still need will power but once I'm in the swing of it I find it so much more achievable - and sustainable - than any other diet plan I've ever done. And it manages my weight so much better too.

Plus, my waking-up-groginess has all but vanished, which I hadn't expected but has genuinely changed my life. It used to take me at least an hour of feeling like I had cotton wool in my head no matter how much sleep I'd had - and now that's gone. As I have 2 small children that's been invaluable.

It may just not be for you OP. It's not supposed to be super hard after a period of adjustment.

For me I found it to be completely natural. I don't need breakfast. I feel much more energetic and alert and I don't get hungry until the afternoon. It changed my life. Previously, as soon as I had breakfast I was constantly thinking what to eat next and was hungry 24/7. Now I eat at 1 or 2pm and don't think of food all the time. It also means I get up and get stuff done without thinking when or where to source lunch that fills me up but isn't too calorific. I just eat a salad and sandwich at 1, followed by a coffee and a biscuit.

Of course humans don't need "upf snacks"! We don't need Mumsnet, either!

I was the sort of person who woke up every morning and my first thought was food, I couldn't function till I had eaten breakfast and if I had to skip it the odd time like if I was having blood tests or needed to fast for surgery I would have felt ill and faint.

Now I can barrel on till 2pm or later on tea or coffee, am much more productive and focussed and never feel that faint and weak feeling I used to get in the mornings.

I don't actually think one coffee, even with milk, means you aren't fasting. I do have a coffee in the morning with a bit of milk. I doesn't affect my appetite and I doubt I don't get the benefits of IF.

It's worked very well for me but then I naturally wasn't that bothered about breakfast so I just slightly extended it.

I find the less I eat, the less hungry I am but if I was to have breakfast I would eat much more across the day.

The dizziness and hunger might be linked to what you are eating affecting your blood sugar levels. I've noticed if I have high sugar/carb or processed foods then I'm much hungrier the next morning. If I ignore it and push through it disappears.

When I have done IF, I have still had my cup of coffee in the morning...with a splash of milk and sweetener. If I didn't I would have a banging headache. I still count it as fasting.

It's not for me, I eat 3 meals and a snack or two. I gain weight when I'm being a pig, not because I don't do IF.

I can push breakfast back on weekends when I'm having a lazy morning but not when I'm at work. I also can't have porridge on work mornings either or I'm ravenous by 10am. I can eat it at weekends usually before my long run to give me that energy.

Every human is different, I wouldn't get hung up on fasting if it's not right for you. If it makes you miserable and you are more likely to binge then it's pointless.

OP, I don't get it either - fasting is not for me. I'm most baffled by people's reports of mental clarity while fasting as I have the opposite. I can't concentrate on work if my body isn't fuelled. I was in a rush at the weekend and didn't end up eating til nearly 2pm and honestly didn't feel safe to drive! It's no good for me.

I was on the low-carb threads here years ago and slowly the subject of fasting crept into them (it's all in separate topics now). All the talk of how long posters could go without food drove me off them, it became a thing to go for longer and longer with no food at all.

Well, I have a history of eating disorders. The posts on here about people going 24/36 + hours without food feel terrifying to me. It seems like so many women eat so very, very little and that surviving off a tiny amount of food is considered imperative for menopausal women, except then that extends to peri-menopausal women; the goal posts are forever shifting.

When I was growing up, trying to last without food for as long as possible was a danger sign; now it's become part of wellness culture and is supposed to be so healthy. I remind myself that I personally need to prioritise bone health and building muscle over depriving my body of food for long periods. I recognise my own history of disordered eating affects how I read the posts - and the way I'm drawn to them like a moth to a flame reminds me that however hard I work on recovery, I'll always be fascinated by threads like these, like pressing on a bruise. It is scary though to read Mumsnet sometimes; you come away thinking that an adult woman should eat a tiny number of calories and very infrequently.

Most of the research on IF was
done on men (and sedentary middle aged pre diabetic men at that).

You have to be more careful as a women and it really is an individual thing. Obviously most people fast overnight anyway. And it’s a good thing not to eat your evening meal late or snack in the evening. So it’s about finding your own schedule. I don’t call it IF.

I probably don’t eat between 7.30pm and 8.30am. I don’t call it fasting though. I have an active job and exercise lots. Exercising fasted is bad for women (spikes cortisol). If you have a desk job and don’t like breakfast then that can also work.

Personally, I wouldn’t hit my protein targets if I didn’t eat breakfast. Sometimes I have 2 breakfasts! But works for me to be active and fuel that activity rather than deny food and be inactive.

Very good post. I worry that all this talk of IF (and the ridiculous calorie counting on here) fuels eating disorders. It’s not healthy to be obsessive over food or deny our body fuel.

You are correct to prioritise building muscle (and we actually need sufficient calories to do that) and bone density. The threads about calorie counting for menopausal women on here are shocking.

Respectfully though I don't agree. I eat the same amount of calories (possibly more actually) than I ate before I started IM, I just eat those calories in a smaller window of time rather than spread out over 12-14 hours. So, before I would have started eating at 7.30am and maybe had my last bit of food at 9.30/10 pm so 14-15 hours of an eating window.

Now I eat a lot of good, much more protein and less refined carbs and sugar and just eat it all within 8 hours. I have more energy, more muscle mass and get sick less often. I really has been transformative for me.

Very valid point about the research done on men, not women. Just before or during my period I just need to eat more and at the beginning of IF it was much more difficult to fast during that time as I got so hungry. I got used to it now, but despite being overweight I do think my body needs more/different food during that time and it is important to listen.

Also with IF (or any weight loss?) every time a few pounds fell off me (it happened in intervals, i.e. no visible change for 3 weeks and then all of a sudden I had to wear my belt tighter?, I would be so incredibly hungry nothing I ate could satisfy me. I read something about the body trying to get back to the previous weight, even though my body does not need as much weight, but it was programmed to make up for it a million years ago or something to that effect. I resorted to a big portion of chicken shish from my local turkish restaurent and protein on end for a few days (usually 1-2 weeks) for it to subside. I found it quite difficult to not eat all the calories again of the weight I had lost. I was so hungry some nights in bed, even though I had decent meals. I would still IF during that time as I still felt it lessened my cravings.

I don't calorie count and I'm not obsessed with what I eat, on the contrary I used to obsess about what I ate because I found it hard to control my sugar intake. Doing 16:8 has got rid of my cravings, I eat what I want but I eat more mindfully and prefer protein rich foods, and just generally more health y food overall, just because you fast for a period every day does not automatically mean you are obsessing about or controlling your food intake, I just don't think about food until lunchtime rolls around, that's very freeing