[graaja]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

What is this 16/8 IF? Is there a simple definition?

IF, similar to LCHF, is a very vast field of discussion. I will try to summarize it briefly. Internet is abundant with articles and research on IF. IIRC, recently there was a nobel prize awarded to a Japanese doctor who wrote about the effects of fasting on autophagy.

Intermittent fasting is where you adjust the time window when you eat. There are various methods in IF, 16:8 and 20:4 are well known. In 16:8, you eat in an 8 hour time window and fast for 16 hours. This time window can be chosen to suit your lifestyle, work etc. You could eat from 12pm to 8pm, or eat from 10am to 6pm and so on. During fasting period, it has to be zero calories. You can have green tea, black coffee or just warm water etc.

When you extend your fasting period, your body remains free of insulin for a longer period. When there is no insulin in blood, your body effectively burns fat for fuel and hence you can achieve a faster fat burn. Also, when there is no insulin in the blood, that is when the growth hormones become active in your body. These growth hormones are responsible for purging wastes from the cells and also in building new cells - also known as autophagy. This also results in a little bit of age reversal. I have been foolowing LCHF for two years which resulted in lot of weight loss. But I have been hearing comments about looking younger only after I started IF a few months back, which proves the age reversal part of IF

Also because of the extended periods the body remains free of insulin, IF is a fantastic way to reverse diabetes. I know a friend who was a diabetic on insulin and now is free of any medication after a year into IF.

PS: You should not confuse intermittent fasting with severe calorie restriction. You still have to consume the same amount of calories that your body needs, just in a narrow time frame.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

What is this 16/8 IF? Is there a simple definition?

To add to @Samurai, if you can get your body gets adapted; to make use of fat as primary source of fuel (keto mode), then it can sustain longer food breaks.

And that is one of the reason, when you go LCHF, you can extend your fasting periods. In fact an extension is also to eat only one meal a day! Sounds really extreme, but quite possible!

Originally Posted by JMaruru

At 40+ am NOT losing the belly fat with what ever I have tried until now. Thanks for the nice explanation. One would NOT get the same on google, so concise and precise!

With diet and fasting you would come down to a plateau for your body's current metabolic rate. With that if you see belly fat, then you need to up the metabolism with a work out. But please note: that workout becomes a part of your lifestyle. Because the moment that workout stops, you return back to the original plateau.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Do all your eating in the 8 hours period, the remaining 16 hours is for fasting. If you have your dinner at 8pm, your next meal should be at 12pm next day.

As ever, you keep it so simple! Thank You!

Originally Posted by graaja

IF, similar to LCHF, is a very vast field of discussion. I will try to summarize it briefly. Internet is abundant with articles and research on IF. IIRC, recently there was a nobel prize awarded to a Japanese doctor who wrote about the effects of fasting on autophagy.
Also because of the extended periods the body remains free of insulin, IF is a fantastic way to reverse diabetes. I know a friend who was a diabetic on insulin and now is free of any medication after a year into IF.
PS: You should not confuse intermittent fasting with severe calorie restriction. You still have to consume the same amount of calories that your body needs, just in a narrow time frame.

At 40+ am NOT losing the belly fat with what ever I have tried until now.
Thanks for the nice explanation. One would NOT get the same on google, so concise and precise!

[Sheel]

TBH, I was doing point no. 1 precisely as what friendly BHP-ian graaja puts in. I have become a bit lax.

But posts by him, ampere, Samu, Axe-77 are enough of a motivation.

Will try the 16/8 as well.

Thanks guys

[mjumrani]

I have been doing one meal a day since 3 years and that one meal I eat is low carb high fat. My health has never been better. Weight loss is side effect of my eating lifestyle, 4.5 years since I took the last tablet of metformin.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by mjumrani

I have been doing one meal a day since 3 years and that one meal I eat is low carb high fat. My health has never been better. Weight loss is side effect of my eating lifestyle, 4.5 years since I took the last tablet of metformin.

Do you mean 1 meal and 1 breakfast or just 1 meal. Any snacks/drinks in between ? What time do you consume it ?

[shipnil]

I keep myself updated with discussion on this thread and learn all new things.

I have achieved my desired weight reduction 3 / 4 years back. I am 5'6" and weigh between 62 and 63 kgs. But there is some belly fat which I am trying to reduce for quite some time but without results. I try to do 3 days cycling and 3 days of weight training every week, alternate days, but generally end up achieving 5 days of exercise/training days only. I'll turn 40 this month. Will the intermittent fasting help here to increase metabolism/ reduce this fat?

[mjumrani]

Originally Posted by srishiva

Do you mean 1 meal and 1 breakfast or just 1 meal. Any snacks/drinks in between ? What time do you consume it ?

Just 1 meal and it's dinner. Snacks mostly no, 2 cups coffee with milk / cream in the morning and evening. No issues with energy levels or hunger, the only thing I strictly follow is salt intake ( adding salt to drinking water).

Originally Posted by shipnil

Will the intermittent fasting help here to increase metabolism/ reduce this fat?

I still have belly fat which is not going away what ever I do, it's not a good marker to be even concerned about. Check your over all body fat percentage.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by shipnil

I'll turn 40 this month. Will the intermittent fasting help here to increase metabolism/ reduce this fat?

Absolutely. With a healthy mix of cardio and weight training, I am sure IF will help you reducing that last traces of belly fat.

For a little extra motivation, the Wolverine follows 16:8 intermittent fasting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Evy_yz-1zk

[Rajeevraj]

Here is my small attempt and resultant achievement of weight loss. The wealth of information in this thread helped set the groundwork and also be an inspiration for this.

The background.

• Just to set the expectation straight. I am not very fat or anything. Late 30's. 5 feet 11 inch. Approximately 78.x Kg at the end of 2017.
• In general was feeling unhealthy and was a little out of control on the sweet stuff.
• End of 2017 health checkup showed up numbers I did not like. Again, nothing majorly off the chart, but was seeing a trend.

What I wanted to do-Starting Jan 2018.

• Goal was modest. First step- lose 5 kg and become around 73 kg-which is around the ideal weight for my height.
• Second step- Maybe reduce 2-3kg more and improve strength and eliminate the belly fat/flab

What I did

• Reduced sugar. Apart from morning Tea with Sugar, attempted to avoid all other forms of sugar via processed foods for 6 days a week. Indulged in a chocolate or some sweet treat once a week.
  
• Did not reduce/eliminate fruits. I think fruit intake increased.
  
• No major change in dietary intake- But reduced portions across all meals. Examples- (3 chapathis as opposed to 5, 4 small dosas as opposed to the 'no upper limit' approach ). Basically changed from always eating a 'little more than I wanted' to a 'little less than I wanted'.
  
• Did attempt to control carbs one or 2 days a week but was not consistent.
  
• Attempted to consistently have dinner before 8 pm.
  
  
• Exercise:
  
  • I am not a gym guy and will never sustain it. So my workouts were focused on HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Based on my research- I found the videos provided by FitnessBlender suitable for me.
    
  • Initially 5 minutes of HIIT would be enough to leave me drained. Slowly was able to do the full routines ranging from 15-30 min.
    
  • Would typically do it in the morning before any food intake with the understanding that the body would be forced to burn fat as it will not have minimal ready sugar to burn coming of a period of fasting (post dinner the previous night)
    
  • Would do it 3-4 times a week. During the other days attempted to supplement with 30 min of cycling or jogging.
  
  
• With this routine, over a period of 3 months from Jan to March dropped 4 kg's to ~74.5. Felt fitter and more flexible too.
  
• In April things went off track a little bit with vacation and couple of trips. Things resumed by end of April.
  
• Was stuck at around 74.5 for nearly a month. Assuming that was a plateau. Slowly increased the intensity of work out and now seems to have started dropping again.
  
• As of today am at ~73.2 and the initial 5kg goal achieved.

As mentioned initially, it was not intended to be any drastic program as my goals were modest. Intention was to get into a routine that I could sustain and I think that I was able to do.

Any thoughts suggestions from experts welcome. As mentioned as 2nd step, want to go down couple of kg more and at the same time focus on the muscle too. Right approach?

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

...As mentioned as 2nd step, want to go down couple of kg more and at the same time focus on the muscle too. Right approach?

Yes. That is the right approach. If you only do HIIT and focus on weight loss, you will have some muscle loss as well. You need to strike a balance between cardio and strength. For strength training, you do not have to go to the gym and pump weights. You could easily do strength training at home with push ups, pull ups and squats and maybe a few small dumb bells.

There are a lot of videos that you can follow for strength training at home. I follow the P90X series, which is very effective.

[GTO]

Guys, congrats to all who have lost weight. Thanks to advice from Samurai & Ampere, I myself dropped from 92 - 94 kilos to 72 kilos. I was always fit in life, but 5 - 8 years of over indulgences took their toll. Now, my waist is the same as it was in my college days .

Just a note: Please EAT RIGHT, but do NOT STARVE or stay hungry ever. One, your body needs nutrition. Two, eating is one of the most pleasurable daily activities - don't deprive yourself of that. I eat all I want, but without carbs and till I've had 'enough' (no overeating).

Originally Posted by JMaruru

At 40+ am NOT losing the belly fat with what ever I have tried until now.

Darn belly fat is one stubborn thing in your 40s. I reduced it only with LCHF & working out (I work out almost every day). However, the stomach still isn't as 'flat' as it was 15 years back (even though the weight is). Oh well, something to work toward. It's good to always be pursuing some sort of target in life.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by GTO

Guys, congrats to all who have lost weight. Thanks to advice from Samurai & Ampere, I myself dropped from 92 - 94 kilos to 72 kilos. I was always fit in life, but 5 - 8 years of over indulgences took their toll. Now, my waist is the same as it was in my college days .

That is an awesome weight loss! Once you make clean eating a lifestyle change, there is no going back.

Originally Posted by GTO

Darn belly fat is one stubborn thing in your 40s. I reduced it only with LCHF & working out (I work out almost every day). However, the stomach still isn't as 'flat' as it was 15 years back (even though the weight is). Oh well, something to work toward. It's good to always be pursuing some sort of target in life.

Try intermittent fasting. That will remove that last layer of belly fat and you will also shed a few years off your age

[GTO]

Originally Posted by graaja

Once you make clean eating a lifestyle change, there is no going back.

Very true. Also about balancing it out. I eat out thrice a week on average and am happy. The balance are all strict LCHF.

Try intermittent fasting. That will remove that last layer of belly fat and you will also shed a few years off your age

Will do, thanks! Ampere has also been speaking a lot about intermittent fasting. Frankly, I don't have major belly fat at all and wear 31" denims now. Just that the stomach isn't as 'tight' as it was earlier.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by graaja

Try intermittent fasting. That will remove that last layer of belly fat and you will also shed a few years off your age

Will try that too, anyway I end up skipping breakfast sometimes because I wake up late and have to get to work! Does that count as intermittent fasting?

I remember reading somewhere that fasting might actually lead to an increase in fat as the body assumes that food is scarce and attempts to store sustenance in the form of fat. Not sure if that is true.