Intermitting Fasting Success

- POSTED ON: Jun 12, 2011

    
                   

                                 

During an online discussion of fasting in a forum I frequent,
one of the participants wrote:

"I don't think fasting works for everyone. ..
some people find that they are so hungry the day afterwards
that they eat more that day to compensate for the fast.
I suspect that, for people like this, fasting is simply not a helpful tool.

I've talked to lots of people about fasting
...which is a common practice here in India...
and I've never run across someone who found it difficult
and was hungrier the day after who ever really got used to it."

Based on my own intermittent fasting experience..which is extensive...
and my observations of others,
I tend to agree.

Although intermittent fasting has sometimes been useful to me as a maintenance tool,
my body has never become accustomed to it,

I have to be EVEN MORE CAREFUL to consciously moniter my food intake while doing this,
because I am always more hungry during for a day or two following a fast,
no matter whether the fast is 19 hrs, 24 hrs, or 36 hrs,
and if I left it up to the desires of my body, I would always overeat after a fast.

Of course, if I overeat the day BEFORE a fast,
I'm not as hungry as usual at the very beginning of a fast,
because my body is still digesting the food from the day before.
However, this does NOT mean that fasting is beginning to reduce my desire for food,
and I am always more hungry during the following day or two.

It isn't how hungry I am at the beginning of a fast that is predictive of overall success.
It is how hungry I am during the day or two AFTER a fast, when I return to eating.

Anyone with a tendency to have binges..
...by which I mean short unrestricted, uncontrolled high calorie eating episodes...
must watch and moniter their subsequent food carefully,
or intermittent fasting will simply become a "binge-fast" cycle...

In time, when it becomes extremely difficult (almost impossible) to fast,
this pattern can easily transform itself into a cycle of "normal eating & bingeing".
This "normal eating-binge" pattern is also a major difficulty
many very obese people have when following a "vanilla" No S Diet plan
and...in my own experience, and my observation of others...
this is NOT ALWAYS self-correcting...even after a lengthy trial period.


Comments:
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Existing Comments:

On Jun 14, 2011 wrote:
Dr. Collins, there are days when I skip one or two meals, but I don't call that fasting. To me fasting means not eating at least from when you get up one morning, until you get up the next morning, meanwhile drinking only water or other beverages with no calories.


On Jun 14, 2011 Dr. Collins wrote:
             Camile, I understand your point of view, and basically agree. But since the word "fasting" is actually defined as: "to abstain from food" and doesn't give a time limit, I figure people can correctly use that word even when they are talking about no eating in-between meals...or skipping a meal or two...which isn't my own personal definition of what fasting means. I have more trouble when people attach the word fasting to the intake of one specific food...like calling such a diet a "juice fast". To me, fasting still means ZERO food intake.

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