IF Question page

[Jadebb1]

OK - Huzzah for me! I did my first IF (so it was only 14 hours, but it's a start). My question is from what I have read it helps to burn the stubborn fat (that's hard to access even from dieting alone) - so is my body burning the fat during the IF only or is it continuing to burn it at a higher rate for the rest of the day.

Also, how often should I IF if I am doing only shorter bouts (say 14 - 18 hours)? Any suggestions?

Thank you!

[Daemonized]

That is totally up to you of course, but you can do that as often or as infrequently as you like. I, for example, do either a 20 to 24 hour fast more or less pretty much daily. For me, that suits me and works well into my schedule. Some people would much rather do it once or twice a week and that works great for them. When I first started with IFing, my plan was to do it once or twice a week myself, but then it quickly went to three times and then every day.

[Daemonized]

And congratulations on doing your first one! If you had told me when I first started that I'd be IFing daily I'd have told you that you were nuts. Hell, you may be nuts for all I know and no offense to you if that's the case.

[Grol]

Haha. If IFing is nuts, that's fine with me. Good job Jadebb1. I think there's probably other variables involved in your fat burning question. I doubt everyone is identical but some believe that it takes 12 hours for the body to start burning its own fat. Again, I think that may be the case sometimes and other times not so much. Available dietary nutrient supply varies from person to person, meal to meal, and probably IF to IF. Once certain dietary supply is exhausted, theoretically, you should begin to burn body fat. That's probably way oversimplified.

My case is just like Daemon's. I started thinking my Euro bro in law was on to something fasting one day a week for health and weight maintenance, so I did that and it just becoming a natural part of my daily routine. I eat at night only. I'm a fan of the the health benefits so my suggestion is to to keep doing it, extend it a little when it is easy enough. IFing makes weight loss fast and simple for me, and it's also most forgiving when you screw up with your 20%.

[LessofMimi]

I IF every single day. I have 1-2 meals per day. Never hungry enough to eat before 2pm, never eat after 8pm. I don't know all there is to know, other than I love IF and it works amazingly for me. Longest IF was ~26 hours. So proud of pushing boundaries. WTG on your 1st IF.

[Nellie]

Damonized-
When you fast most part of many days in a row what is your meal after? I ask because I did a 20 hour fast monday and was all set to do one again today but I opted not to. The reason being that I hit a major stall in weightloss 2 weeks ago because I wasn't taking in enough calories daily, as soon as I added more calories (coming from fat) I started to lose again. So now Im weary that if I fast to often I will be taken in too few ccalories and stall my weight loss efforts again. Thoughts?

[Fatkid]

I tend to stick to fasts around 24hrs but I don't keep a schedule... just sometimes I don't feel like eating...and then I don't for 24 hrs... usually it will be something like I don't feel like eating supper so then I fast until lunch the next day... ... it may not be a predictable system...but that's pretty much how I do

[Daemonized]

If I'm only going to eat once then I do eat a fairly big meal especially considering that I'm mostly carnivorous. I eat a lot of canned salmon and I have tons of left over meat dishes that I heat up as meals. What I do is to cook massive primal meals on weekends and then I save meal sized portions for weekdays when I need food quick. If I don't think I've had enough to eat then my fall back is to scramble up some eggs to go with it. If I eat twice then my second meal a lot of the time is just bacon and eggs. I can't ever get enough bacon and eggs.
My goal is go get all the protein that I need and then fill up the rest of my diet with as much fat as it takes to satisfy me.

[Jadebb1]

Thank you all for your congratulations and answers to my question. So I think I understand that the fat burning happens only while you are fasting and stops when you break the fast?

I think once or twice a week sounds reasonable and I'll see where the journey leads me.....welcome to nutville!!

[rphlslv]

You can experiment with eating during a 6-8 hour window. You then get a daily IF of 16-18 hours.