Intermittent Fasting- Which Method Reaps The Best Results And Why?

There is only one way to find out - test your reaction to various options - because everyone is an individual and there isn't a most effective method.
Personally I need to eat first thing and then late, or my BG levels go up and down like a rollercoaster - maybe it would settle down eventually, but as I have to cope with life on a daily basis I don't want my BG going up all morning and crashing late afternoon for even one day - plus I seem to get normal reading this way, so why quit when you're winning?

Hi @Debandez last trip to doctors for HbAic came back at 82, Bg 16.6 and weight 157Kg.
I started LCHF on 30th April this year. I did 18/6 fasting, no food from 20.00 till 14.00 next day, with only black tea, coffee, water and vitamin water as needed. I found fasting for this long easy as I don't have much of an appetite in a morning. I aimed for less than 15-20% carbs. First few days felt a bit funny with extra trips to the loo, this soon settled and now things are great. I have also given up alcohol.
I got weighed on 30th May and was 148.6kg 8.4kg off. Bg 7.0, nurse was very surprised but pleased.
I have since dropped my carbs even more to less than 10gms per day, again I find this easy as I live alone so there are no temptations!!
Bg coming down nicely currently running at 5.0 (that's average over 7 days)
I find LCHF very easy and have to say have real food and have not been hungry at all.
Hope this helps, any more info you need drop me a line. Good luck with what ever path you take.

Debandez said:

I'm currently looking into IF and it's benefits. As far as my understanding goes the fasting gives a break to cells in the body so that they can concentrate on repair and maintenance. It also forces cells to resort to alternative sources of energy for example fat.

So which one has the most benefits I'm wondering:
5:2
18:6
24 hour
Alternative day fasting
Fasting every other day
The fasts that seem to go on for days!
To name but a few!

Can anyone that has tried any one of these please help me by telling me how well you responded and explain how? Maybe your hba1c came down significantly, your cholestrol improved, your IR improved. Or anything else that you benefited by doing the fast.

Many thanks for your help as always.

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Hi @Debandez I’ve found that since I arrived at bmi of 20 I find it very hard to fast. Having said that I do always stop eating by 7pm and rarely eat before 10am and only take water and black tea during those times seems to be working re maintenance I also just eat three small meals. However I fasted a lot alongside LCHF to get my bgs down including one month 23/1 with one meal a day and only clear fluids for that month to get weight and bgs down and then did that one or two days a week until I reached my goal weight and hbaca1. I can see that Fasting is good for you but personally I just don’t have the body fat or need any more. Note that Dr feung works with overweight or obese individuals on his programme. Know you’ve lost a lot of weight did you want to reduce your weight or bgs anymore or are you looking at fasting for autophagy reasons? Know that @Goonergal does still do OMAD on regular basis but has a low BMI. As lots of people say it is individual both reasons for fasting and what works for you too. Sure you’ll get lots of ideas about what works or dosent work for others.

shelley262 said:

Hi @Debandez I’ve found that since I arrived at bmi of 20 I find it very hard to fast. Having said that I do always stop eating by 7pm and rarely eat before 10am and only take water and black tea during those times seems to be working re maintenance I also just eat three small meals. However I fasted a lot alongside LCHF to get my bgs down including one month 23/1 with one meal a day and only clear fluids for that month to get weight and bgs down and then did that one or two days a week until I reached my goal weight and hbaca1. I can see that Fasting is good for you but personally I just don’t have the body fat or need any more. Note that Dr feung works with overweight or obese individuals on his programme. Know you’ve lost a lot of weight did you want to reduce your weight or bgs anymore or are you looking at fasting for autophagy reasons? Know that @Goonergal does still do OMAD on regular basis but has a low BMI. As lots of people say it is individual both reasons for fasting and what works for you too. Sure you’ll get lots of ideas about what works or dosent work for others.

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Thanks for the tag @shelley262

@Debandez - just having a quick peek at the forum in a break at work. I'll get back to you when I get home later as I have quite a lot of thoughts about this.

Debandez said:

I'm currently looking into IF and it's benefits. As far as my understanding goes the fasting gives a break to cells in the body so that they can concentrate on repair and maintenance. It also forces cells to resort to alternative sources of energy for example fat.

So which one has the most benefits I'm wondering:
5:2
18:6
24 hour
Alternative day fasting
Fasting every other day
The fasts that seem to go on for days!
To name but a few!

Can anyone that has tried any one of these please help me by telling me how well you responded and explain how? Maybe your hba1c came down significantly, your cholestrol improved, your IR improved. Or anything else that you benefited by doing the fast.

Many thanks for your help as always.

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You could always check out the Fasting section of the forum!
But as for me I intermittent fast every day (no breakfast) sometimes I only eat one meal a day OMAD and then crazily sometimes we do extended fasts (up to 7 days). I credit the IF with bringing down my HbA1c fast and helping witht he first bout of weight loss along with Keto eating. I have been on a weight loss plateau for about a year now (at a higher weight than I want to be although my body seems happy here) so can now only get that down by extended fasting BUT the pounds usually come back slowly over the following few weeks. However on the extended fasts I get my lowest blood sugars and highest ketone levels.
So I guess this rather long tome is about - what do you want to achieve by fasting?

I do a 21:3 most days, probably a 22:2 in reality.

It makes me feel good, but other than that I can’t put my finger on what benefits it’s given me.

My improvements in HbA1c and weight lost occurred prior to starting IF.

Terrytiddy said:

Bg coming down nicely currently running at 5.0 (that's average over 7 days)

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@Terrytiddy as you are on Gliclazide, you need to see your doctor quickly, as I expect the dose will soon need reducing.

Debandez said:

So which one has the most benefits

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What you do, that fits in with your life, so you keep doing it.

Up to 36hr fasting is clearly safe, with the only issues being getting enough salt when you do eat, and drugs. I think it is best to start with very low carb, then restricted hours eating, then consider only having one meal most days.

I find it's so easy to miss breakfast so I usually do 19:5 or 18:6.

Hi @Debandez

Back from work now, so here are my thoughts, which I hope will add to the excellent advice you’ve been given above. A few general points:

- The best method will be one that suits your routine and which you can stick to fairly easily. That might be one of the options listed in your original post, or a combination or it may change over time.

- Be clear about what what you want to achieve with fasting as that will inform what you try and be prepared to experiment.

- Start slowly so that you are able to achieve your initial goals. It’s easier to build on success.

For me personally I started by skipping breakfast every now and then (because of other medical conditions I was extremely worried about skipping any meals) and once I learned I could do that without problems, took the plunge and committed to doing that every day. That was around last May.

Then while I was on holiday last summer, I fell into doing one meal a day - wasn’t planned, circumstances led to it. That proved to be the turning point for me in terms of weight loss: blood sugars had normalised through a very low carb (20g or less) regime but weight loss, although steady to that point, had been slow. Having gone on holiday aiming not to put on weight, I returned 3 weeks later having lost 9.5 pounds! Just checked back on my records and it was 8 days of OMAD in a period of 12 days at the end of the holiday. Blood sugars also improved while I was away.

After the holiday I continued with OMAD 2-3 times a week, occasionally more (twice did 2 full weeks last summer) and continued to see dramatic weight loss: 95 pounds total, of which the bulk was between end of June last year (holiday) and October. HbA1c dropped from 108 on diagnosis to 31 this March.

Since getting into a normal BMI range fasting has become much harder. Have completed one full 48 hour fast (first attempt failed) as I wanted to try for autophagy. It was hard, I did lose a chunk of weight, but I overate in the following week. Even OMAD is harder now - my body has less reserves, I guess. Have just finished 3rd consecutive day this week though.

Have you read Jason Fung’s book, The Complete Guide to Fasting? It’s very helpful.

I can’t offer help with fasting, maybe one day I’ll consider it
But what I can offer is a (((hug)))

Debandez said:

That's another thing. People are so on the ball with regard to new postings and teply so quickly and sometimes I just stumble on posts days after they started. I don't know how you keep up. Thanks again.

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Aswell as the New Posts bit on the right hand side of the main page I use Recent Posts a lot. Give it a try, you can scroll back much further than just the five in New Posts. I’ve circled it in the pic.

@Debandez you are doing so well and I really feel you should take a deep breath and take time out from making decisions about fasting or not. I don’t think there’s a holy grail that works for everyone. We also all struggle at times at working out what’s best for ourselves. I have very high cholesterol and there is so much stuff out thereto get my head round eg some on here - backed up by research say cholesterol is not implicated in heart probs unlike medics who give me a talk about my very high risk. So what decision did I make? The middle road for me seems the most attractive to me personally I’m a carer for an adult autistic son and can’t take risks with my health real or imagined. I’ve already worked on reducing my cholesterol from 13 to 10.8 and am hoping to get my ldl a little lower whilst maintaining my high HDL and low triglycerides. So I’m still doing lCHF but with mainly healthy fats ( ie the ones that are universally agreed to be healthy olive oil, advocados nuts etc) I’m reducing diary and meat fats - note not cutting out but taking a moderate route. Suppose what I’m saying is if you are overwhelmed by too much info and don’t know what route to take do similar to me take time out, read lots and then review what you want to achieve and that hopefully will help. Meanwhile a big hug it’s not an easy road lots of twists and turns but you’ve done so well remember that.