• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Intermittent Fasting

LindsayJane

LindsayJane

Well-Known Member
What's everyone's 'window' and how many hours do you leave between the last and first meals? Also, is it OK to fast every day or is it best to have a break every now and then?

Peace and love in abundance people xxx
 
My personal window is between 1 pm and 8 pm max and often closer to 3 pm to 8 pm.
For me that’s the daily norm with random extended fasts.
Edit to add as well as some OMAD days too.
 
Last edited:
bulkbiker said:
My personal window is between 1 pm and 8 pm max and often closer to 3 pm to 8 pm.
For me that’s the daily norm with random extended fasts.
Click to expand...
So, you miss breakfast but are lunch and dinner significantly bigger to compensate? Sorry to be personal but I feel IF is the next step for me and want to get it right x
 
My preference is to mix it up and not stick to any one strategy. Mostly I only eat between 12:00-19:00. Sometimes OMAD. It really just depends on my appetite. If I’m hungry I eat to full satiety and don’t overthink it. I am very lean though and don’t have a lot of fat that my body is willing to readily give up, so activity tends to bring on an appetite quite quickly. If I’m lifting weights I’ll become almost immediately ravenous and will have a hearty meal, irrespective of the time of day (but still rarely after 19:00).

Summary - I eat when I’m hungry, stop when I’m not, and don’t necessarily stick to set meal times.
 
LindsayJane said:
So, you miss breakfast but are lunch and dinner significantly bigger to compensate? Sorry to be personal but I feel IF is the next step for me and want to get it right x
Click to expand...
I've been doing this for over 3 years so its hard to say.. I try to eat until I'm full then stop (although rarely with food left on the plate). When I was a carb eater I possibly used to eat more and was a bit of a glutton, I believe down to the hormonal effect of carbs with high and low sugar levels. Since giving them up my hunger seems more balanced so I eat less bulk for sure. I don't subscribe to the "calories" model of weight loss.
 
bulkbiker said:
I've been doing this for over 3 years so its hard to say.. I try to eat until I'm full then stop (although rarely with food left on the plate). When I was a carb eater I possibly used to eat more and was a bit of a glutton, I believe down to the hormonal effect of carbs with high and low sugar levels. Since giving them up my hunger seems more balanced so I eat less bulk for sure. I don't subscribe to the "calories" model of weight loss.
Click to expand...

Same. My appetite since dumping carbohydrate is now perfectly tuned and controlled by my endocrine system. In other words it’s no longer hijacked by glucose dependence. I eat what I want when I want and have never been happier or healthier :smug:
 
I'm another who usually eats when hungry and doesn't when not.

Sometimes I'll only need one meal, sometimes I might eat 2, 3, or 4 smaller ones. Breakfast and then lunch are the meals I most frequently skip , but that's possibly due to a long lifetime of eating my main meal in the evening - usually between 7-8pm.

Robbity

PS My husband does his own thing, so I'm free to please myself what and when I eat.
 
Thank you everyone for your responses, I now feel armed with enough information to takle IF like a boss. Surprisingly simple rule though, eat when you're hungry, don't eat when you're not! :p
 
To help with Dawn Phenominum I am better to eat small breakfast but if I went through to teatime if that might suit me and be of use? So that would be me eating 8am and 8pm.
 
PenguinMum said:
To help with Dawn Phenominum I am better to eat small breakfast but if I went through to teatime if that might suit me and be of use? So that would be me eating 8am and 8pm.
Click to expand...
I don't think I've actually encountered the Dawn Phenomenum yet. Something else to look forward to!
 
LindsayJane said:
I don't think I've actually encountered the Dawn Phenomenum yet. Something else to look forward to!
Click to expand...
Don't be bothered by it - it's just the result of your liver doing its job, preparing your for the day. You may find that your ^wake up" glucose levels take
longer to come down than your ( probably more informative and certainly more controllable!) pre and post meal ones, but mine's never had any great impact on my overall results so I just let it be.

Robbity
 
Robbity said:
Don't be bothered by it - it's just the result of your liver doing its job, preparing your for the day. You may find that your ^wake up" glucose levels take
longer to come down than your ( probably more informative and certainly more controllable!) pre and post meal ones, but mine's never had any great impact on my overall results so I just let it be.

Robbity
Click to expand...

I both agree and respectfully disagree. Dawn phenomenon probably isn’t worth stressing over too much in the early days, but I wouldn’t agree that it shouldn’t be a concern. In my view, fasting glucose is the best practical measure of insulin resistance that we can easily attain at home with a glucometer. The ‘runaway train liver’ in the morning indicates (to me) serious metabolic dysfunction. It’s normal for the liver to secrete glucose during this time especially, but it’s not normal for it to ignore the requisite insulin secretion that is supposed to meter it.

It’s fixable in the fullness of time, but only when it’s been achieved do I personally think that the metabolism has returned to some semblance of normalcy. Others, as always, are free to disagree :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pardalope. Hi Guys. I’m a 88 year old , and I eat 5pm to 7pm then again next day at 5pm . I’m happy with that but family are not . I get all sort of predictions. But I sail on . I do not think I’m mad. What do you guys think .T
 
Back
Top