need clarification re:IF/ICR

[MakeHayNotStraw]

Been dabbling with this for a while now - intermittently intermittent fasting, if you will - since I say Eat, Fast, Live Longer (or whatever it was called). Also doing loads of research which tbh has made it all clear as mud.

Anyway, it seems that there are loads of benefits to IF or ICR, and although I don't really need to lose a load of weight I would like to live longer and avoid alzheimers/cancer/etc as much as it seems to suggest I could.

Buuuuut, there is also a lot of other research (on phone so can't link but a google gets you there quickly, there's a paleo for women blog that outlines it all really well) that suggests that it could actually be harmful for pre-menupausal women to fast as our bodies and brains react differently to the stress of starvation.

So can someone please give me a definitive answer?! Should women IF or not, and if not, how else can we get the health benefits that men would get through the IF method?

Hmm, I hear the tumbleweed...!

Come and read the opening post on the big 5:2 thread and follow the links
also there is a hints and tips thread with links to research.

IF is NOT starvation - that is a myth put about by the food industry

Thank you - although there seem to be a load of 5:2 posts so I'm not sure which one you mean!
This is the main link about the effects on women, and it's just confusing me horribly. I've drawn the distinction between iF (longer periods of fasting, typically 18 hours plus) and ICR, the 500 cals per day idea, because there is also lack of clarity about whether the calories need to be in one meal to maximise the fast time or whether they can be spread over the day.....

Aargh!

:-)
Here is the current thread
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/big_slim_whatever_weight_loss_club/1596292-5-2-Diet-Thread-Part-Six-Nows-the-time-to-de-lurk-and-chat-with-us
The splendid thing about this approach is that we are all finding our own way.
You fit your 500 calories around when your body likes it
you fit your days around your timetable
the number of days fits around what you want to achieve
and because none of us are actually "giving up" any foods or drinks
we can stop and start and tweak whenever we like

the diet book and meeting industry is going to really hate us soon as we are wrecking their business models!