Research Shows Intermittent Fasting Works for Weight Loss:
Intermittent fasting can produce clinically significant weight loss as well as improve metabolic health in individuals with obesity, according to a new study review led by University of Illinois Chicago researchers.
"We noted that intermittent fasting is not better than regular dieting; both produce the same amount of weight loss and similar changes in blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation," said Krista Varady, professor of nutrition at the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences and author of "Cardiometabolic Benefits of Intermittent Fasting."
According to the analysis published in the Annual Review of Nutrition, all forms of fasting reviewed produced mild to moderate weight loss, 1%-8% from baseline weight, which represents results that are similar to that of more traditional, calorie-restrictive diets. Intermittent fasting regimens may also benefit health by decreasing blood pressure and insulin resistance, and in some cases, cholesterol and triglyceride levels are also lowered. Other health benefits, such as improved appetite regulation and positive changes in the gut microbiome, have also been demonstrated.
The review looked at over 25 research studies involving three types of intermittent fasting:
- Alternate day fasting, which typically involves a feast day alternated with a fast day where 500 calories are consumed in one meal.
- 5:2 diet, a modified version of alternate day fasting that involves five feast days and two fast days per week.
- Time-restricted eating, which confines eating to a specified number of hours per day, usually four to 10 hours, with no calorie restrictions during the eating period.
[...] "People love intermittent fasting because it's easy. People need to find diets that they can stick to long term. It's definitely effective for weight loss and it's gained popularity because there are no special foods or apps necessary. You can also combine it with other diets, like Keto," Varady said.
Varady has recently been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant to study time-restricted eating for 12 months to see if it works long term.
Journal Reference:
Krista A. Varady, Sofia Cienfuegos, Mark Ezpeleta, et al. Cardiometabolic Benefits of Intermittent Fasting, (DOI: 10.1146/annurev-nutr-052020-041327)
(Score: 4, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday January 04 2022, @06:16PM (6 children)
20/4 IF worked well for me. I took off 60 pounds to get to my 2020 goal weight and kept more than half off long term (>1 year)
Caveats:
1. If you're prone to binge eating, this can make that worse.
2. It's tempting to stack IF+Keto. This made me drop weight like a stone, but it's significantly more difficult than IF or Keto alone. Doing this I developed electrolyte issues manifested as muscle cramping that caused me to stop.
3. The headaches stop after the first couple of days.
16/8 IF non-keto appears to be a good maintenance strategy for me. It took a while to figure that out.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Tuesday January 04 2022, @06:26PM
ketoaid [google.com].
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @07:09PM
brawndo [drinkdrakes.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:47PM
16/8 works for me. I had gained a few extra kilos over the past decade. Tried various things, none worked. Then I figured I was snacking all day long - broke that habit and switched to a 16:8 routine. 5 kg (about 10 lbs) in 4 months. Slow and steady loss is what you want, not a crash (because then it all comes back).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:54PM (2 children)
What does the terminology mean? 20/4 is 20 hours not eating (I assume), but what does the 4 mean? Is it 20 hours off, then you have a meal, then 4 hours later you eat again, then repeat? Or does the 4 mean you can eat anytime during the 4 and the 20 is the important number to keep in mind? How much gets eaten during the "on" times, 2000 calories (or 1800)?
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday January 05 2022, @03:54AM (1 child)
Sorry about the ambiguity. 20:4 means I fast for 20 hours and a 4-hour eating window. In practice that means I wait until 4:00 p.m. to eat and stop before 8:00. 18/6 or 16/8 are other common IF schedules. Another term you might here is OMAD, one meal a day.
I tried eating every other day, a 24:24 schedule, but I had a lot of trouble sleeping on fasting days. My body seems to want to sleep with a full but not too full tummy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @03:33PM
Thank you.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @07:00PM (6 children)
We managed to shame a significant portion of the smoking population into stopping, because social pressure works.
But the whole "body positivity" movement is designed to let morbidly obese people feel good about their unhealthy lifestyle. And you're evil scum if you point out that they're propagating an unhealthy lifestyle among fatties, reducing the pressure to address the problem.
And with so many fat-cat politicians, we won't see a junk food tax or a sugar tax.
The problem will eventually be self-correcting as they die younger (or can't make positivity videos because they're riding a mobility scooter and find themselves increasingly on peopleofwalmart).
Because obesity kills, fat dumb fucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @07:04PM
Inflation and unemployment could take care of it. Make it so that fatties can't even afford rice and beans.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @07:08PM
You will see a meat tax instead.
Because humans fed carbs and starved of proteins, grow stupid and docile; IOW, perfect voters.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @07:13PM (1 child)
What are you talking about?! The voluptuous American figure is a sign of God's bounty for being the greatest nation on Earth. Bar none.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday January 04 2022, @07:43PM
I'm not saying that being obese is good. I am saying that the opposite of that is at least equally unhealthy. Once upon a time being a little on the large side was a good thing. Sure, it's good to be a healthy weight. That's not what the media or peers, push people towards, though. Especially, girls.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:37PM (1 child)
Why is it necessary to shame people? Where's the evidence that shaming people was responsible for getting people to quit smoking? There's a difference between society viewing a behavior as unattractive versus shaming individuals for that behavior. Besides, there were many other factors. Holding tobacco companies accountable for their products and disinformation certainly helped. The availability of treatments to help people reduce their nicotine dependency and make quitting easier was also helpful. There are also regulations that make it somewhat inconvenient to smoke in public places. I'm just not convinced that shaming made a meaningful difference.
If anything, shaming seems to be more about the insecurities of the person doing the shaming than actually promoting positive changes. Smoking and obesity are definitely harmful, but the reasons people engage in harmful behaviors are often linked with mental health issues. One example is that people smoke or overeat as a mechanism to cope with stress. Shaming can actually exacerbate those mental health issues and make the problem worse. When people feel the need to shame others, it makes me wonder what they're insecure about and what their own personal issues are.
None of this means we have to pretend obesity is healthy. It's extremely unhealthy, and we absolutely should tell the truth about it. But there's a big difference between being honest about the dangers of obesity versus shaming people for being obese.
You complain about body positivity, but the intentions are good. Like I said, obesity is often linked to mental health issues. Body positivity is about trying to promote better mental health, which is absolutely a good thing. The problem is that there still has to be meaningful change. It's not helpful to pretend that something is healthy when it clearly isn't. Promoting better mental health is absolutely a good thing, but people also need to be encouraged to improve their physical health.
Let's be honest here; you're not shaming people because you care about them. You're shaming people because you want to feel better about yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @06:03PM
The comparison against smoking fails because smoking creates smoke that gets inhaled by nearby people. Being fat really only effects yourself. People should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies so long as that isn't affecting people around them. "Hurting people's eyes" by looking ugly doesn't count.
The problem with mental health and obesity is poor diet causes mental health issues. I fixed my diet last year and my mental problems went away within 3 weeks (13 years of depression, anxiety, FOMO, motivation). I wasn't expecting that so it was an awesome side effect. If people feel good about being obese they aren't going to want to lose weight. Body positively is directly against weight loss. You don't do both because the positivity removes the desire for weight loss. You have a physical problem and a mental problem, yet solve your issues by distorting your view of the world to not see the physical problems. That's not a healthy solution. Fixing the obesity issues will help with the mental issues. That fixes both problems rather than masking them through cognitive dissonance.
The biggest problem is the general media. Normal weight loss advice is flat out wrong. Calories in vs calories out is complete bullshit. Our bodies don't set our food on fire then use the resulting heat and ash (that's what calories measure). We run on hormones and nutrients. If you focus only on calories you will get and stay fat. Insulin is the main hormone you need to keep in mind. When insulin is high your body cannot use your fat stores and everything extra you eat gets converted into more fat. When insulin is low nearly all excess energy is passed through the body instead of being converted to fat. If you believe carbohydrates are a necessary nutrient (something the media pushes) you will fail your attempts at weight loss. Cut the carbs, cut the fruit, and don't juice anything. The diet you'll end up on is meat heavy* with a couple veggies as spices/sides. You could also go vegetarian only but that'll require supplements and you risk IBS. Look into the history of the food agencies in America (discovering one reason why trust in authorities is so poor today) then go back to the diet before the food pyramid.
*Despite all the "eating meat means death" stories, meat is only 'bad' when pared with sugar and even then the problem is really the sugar not the meat. If you try to eat super foods and meat isn't on the top of your list, you have no clue what you're doing.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by nostyle on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:40PM (3 children)
I don't consume anything but two cups of coffee (one with a teaspoon of sugar) and water on Wed & Sat. Eat anything I please any other day.
It took a while to get used to this - especially the "punch in the stomach" ache that shows up at the twenty-hour mark on fast days, although it passes in about twenty minutes. Also in the evening hours on fast days, my energy can get low and I sometimes need a sweater to keep warm. Weight is stable though, a few lbs below ideal. Been doing so six years, mainly to lower blood pressure & cholesterol levels.
The upside is the lightness and clarity of mind you begin to notice on fast days.
--
"Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take - I say, doctor, to relieve this bellyache?" - Harry Nilsson, Coconut [genius.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:27PM
I'm not sure but this may be a sign that your metabolism is slowing down. This is not good if you are doing IF to lose weight. To lose weight via IF, you want your blood sugar levels to be low but your metabolism to be high enough that ketosis is burning off your fat reserves.
Good for you! And I mean that sincerely.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday January 05 2022, @03:58AM
When dieting I often experience the need-a-sweater scenario. I attribute it to there being significantly less heat from digestion and/or my body turning down the thermostat to go into calorie conservation mode. The latter is, imho, a pretty shitty thing for a body to do when I'm trying to lose weight. :)
I've read that cold showers or an icepack to the back of the neck helps with this but I haven't tried it. I don't have a source; maybe "The 4-hour body"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @05:13AM
There's not much point in going that long, the peak benefits you get from intermittent fasting tend to be somewhere around the 16 to 20 hour mark. Occasionally going beyond that can have some benefit, but there's no good reason to go 24 hours more than once a week. Even just 16 hours a week would get most of the benefit without the issues.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by inertnet on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:08PM (4 children)
I quit smoking 25 years ago, which wasn't easy. It took a while but I succeeded. I tried intermittent fasting before, but couldn't follow through. The primitive drive to overeat is really strong. I just started IF again and I'm determined to stay on it, because I see it as my only hope to live a healthy life for a couple more decades. So this time I'm going to stay rational and not let the most primitive parts of my brain tempt me with stupid excuses, just like it tried when I quit smoking.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:01AM
An app, Zero, and a post-it note on the microwave "Hey, you're fasting" helped me with this. I'd forget I was fasting and not remember until my first bite of shredded wheat. That's *super* frustrating.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @05:17AM (2 children)
If you're struggling to that extent, you're probably not doing it right. Either that or you've got metabolic problems that need to be cleared up ahead of time. Most people can do 16 hours without much trouble, that's just a bit more than the typical period of time between dinner and breakfast. Roughly the same as skipping either meal. Except for individuals with diabetes or some other malfunctioning metabolic condition, that should be relatively straightforward. Otherwise, you'd simply move one of the meals closer to another meal to make the time between them longer. You can also start the fast with some coconut oil to help the body out as time goes by.
But, even just cutting back on added sugars is probably going to help a bit. Personally, I tend to forget to eat, so I don't really have to worry too much about under doing it.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 05 2022, @02:37PM (1 child)
Seriously cutting out sugars can greatly help your overall health. You'd be surprised at just how much sugar is in everything.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 06 2022, @02:38AM
Yep, even just substituting food with less added sugar and avoiding obvious sources can make a huge difference.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @11:37AM (1 child)
I used to believe in the you-can't-burn-meaningful-calories-with-just-exercise propaganda. Turns out that's complete bollocks, you just need to find a form of intense enough cardio (anything over 80% max heart rate is a good burn, the higher the better) that you actually enjoy doing enough to get the hours in. For me that is exercise-oriented VR games such as Audio Trip, Pistol Whip or Beat Saber with squat maps. I've had success with intermittent fasting before, too, but playing video games is just more fun than dieting and works even better. Bonus points for making you fit as well, not just small.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @06:17PM
No, that's not healthy. Doing intense cardio like that shuts down your immune system and other organs because your body goes into flight mode thinking you're trying to get away from something trying to kill you. Resources are reallocated to things to keep you alive in that moment, everything else gets starved. If you want to lose weight through exercise you should be doing weight lifting to increase your muscle mass. That'll increase your baseline energy use so you'll burn more energy 24x7 rather than just when you're playing video games. It'll help you in old age too. The #1 thing old people care about is mobility and that's from muscle strength. When your mobility is poor, you're closer to death and your quality of life sucks. High intensity runners have poorer health and die earlier than other people. Routine, high intensity cardio isn't healthy.
If you want to keep doing something similar to your current setup, put on a weight vest/ankles/wrists or do Zumba while holding weights.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @01:58PM (1 child)
I have good luck with one meal a day. I naturally gravitate to that anyway, so it's really just a matter of not eating snacks the rest of the time. It tends to average about 1200-1500 calories per day, so it's about the same calories as I would eat on a strict but not extreme traditional weight loss diet. But I feel much better and can eat more enjoyable meals.
Once in a while I just don't get hungry on a particular day and don't eat anything, but it's not part of a schedule.
I lose about ten pounds a month on this if I don't eat dessert and only feel hungry for a couple of hours a day before bed, and right before eating, of course. I maintain weight easily if I eat dessert or a second small meal a few days a week, in the 300-400 calorie range.
Some people do 8/16, which I don't consider IF at all. That's just "skipping breakfast." I find that eating three meals a day is so bad for me that I genuinely feel ill if I do it, unless one of them is just a salad.
(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Thursday January 06 2022, @09:23PM
I'm basically 23:1 - one meal a day. But, like, it ain't magic, yo. I've gained 30 pounds on it; I've lost 30 pounds on it. The metareview shows "blah blah blah, people that do 'skip meals' end up eating about 500cal less than they otherwise would have and lose a pound of fat a week just as though they had counted calories and planned it that way".
Me - https://i.imgur.com/7isuNCv.png [imgur.com] - weights are 188/165/155/168/168.