@BunsenBurner, since the premise is simply to increase the amount of time between insulin exposures, one could certainly put dinner on the chopping block instead of breakfast to get a long period of fasting. I think most people eliminate breakfast just because of personal preference, particularly if they have never felt hungry in the morning. People do what is easiest for them.
Here is one of the best reports on IF that I have encountered. Draw your own conclusions.
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/intermittent-fasting
^^^ Sorry but the author lost all credibility with me when I read this:
“My body fat dropped from 10% to 4%”
Google images of 4% bodyfat and you’ll see why it’s ridiculous for anyone outside professional body building competitions to make that sort of statement.
Read the entire article. The author has exponentially more profesional credentials and clinical experience working with non-athletes and world class athletes, with healthy people and those with metabolic disorders, than any of the pundits posting on this thread. He knew exactly what he was doing and why. You may actually learn something. Or maybe you won’t.
I’m interested in trying IF. I’m curious though - does coffee count if you have it during one of your fasting periods? What’s allowed during that time? Just water??
I don’t want to get into an argument, so I’ll just point this out.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson clocks in at 10% body fat. The author of the article claims to have gone from 10% to 4% body fat in 6 months. The Surgeon General himself could make that claim and I’d question it.
https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/what-4-specific-body-fat-percentage-ranges-look-men/
I’ve clocked in at a measured 11% body fat in my 60’s when I decided to play with body composition goals. My son has clocked in at a measured 6% body fat when he has been training to make weight for semi pro fights. So what. Different people, different goals, different outcomes. If you took the time to read the whole article, you would see that what the author reports about his own self experimentation was scientifically based, well documented and credible. More importantly, there is a ton of science based info on what IF is all about and different approaches to the concept, what it can achieve, what the pitfalls are, how it compares to plain vanilla energy balanced nutrition approaches. And that’s why I posted the article, not because anyone interested in IF should pursue it to acheve single digit fat %.
I don’t take testimonials from fitness or diet gurus as worthy of listening to. I prefer peer reviewed science by reputable researchers, thanks. I like to go try to find the studies behind a diet (or any other recommendation). And writers for newspapers and magazines sometimes jumble the science or the meaning/applicability of a study as well. And you want to know who funded the study, too.
That said, I am watching IF research with interest. We evolved as a species with VERY different access to food and patterns of wake/sleep (primarily due to electric lighting) than we have today. It makes some sense to me that we might learn something that shows that our bodies work better with some of those patterns restored.
Some “fitness or diet gurus” actually have the profesional credentials and science based knowledge and clinical experience to know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, many do not or have a personal financial agenda that causes them to be shills for “systems” that are not based on real science or that twist the findings of studies. You need to figure out for yourself where a particular “guru” falls.
The only financial agenda I can see with regard to this issue would be those who don’t want people to eat less often. Money is lost when that happens.
It always begins that way… eat less, but then there are books written and sold, websites and blogs (free, but ads keep bringing in $$), then there will be meal kits, paid support groups a la weight watchers, you name it. I have not seen a diet that no one has made money off. 
As I mentioned earlier, I graze all day long. I didn’t know that’s an actual diet plan. Cool. :))
Seriously I don’t know if IF could ever work for me, because I’d either be starving myself before or after my workouts, which are long and rigorous. I’d pass out. I can see how the IF diet could work better for someone who’s more sedentary. But I’m just speculating. Operating on 500 calories two days a week and also training for marathons, for example, seem incongruous.
@sushiritto you might find the PN article I linked to be very, very interesting. The author specifically addresses the concerns you raise.
.I couldn’t do the 500 calories two days a week thing. I’d binge. I pretty much stick to the skipping breakfast thing. I’m not hungry at all in the morning when I am eating low carb, which has shown quite clearly to benefit MY HEALTH and labs.
When I eat a very low carb diet, I am not hungry in the morning. There is no willpower involved at all, (I don’t do “hungry”) and I am not sedentary. I ride my bike pretty full bore most days of the week for an hour. I’m not an elite athlete by any stretch, but sedentary I’m not.
The problem with these threads is that there is a certain percentage of posters who believe their way is the only way. I can only say that I had severe metabolic syndrome before I cleaned up my act by eliminating refined carbs, biking, etc. The IF came naturally after I quite eating refined carbs. It wasn’t designed on my part, but it did help me lose those last 10 pounds.
All that said, I’m having stuffing, gravy, and pumpkin pie in a few days.
@MichaelNKat I’ll definitely read more later. I just skimmed it. But from what I saw, admittedly briefly, the author’s exercise regimen was what I’d consider on the light side (10-45 mins).
Duration was moderate but intensity was high. And look at the before and after pictures. And he blasted the 5/2 approach as being wholely unsuitable for any athlete.
When I as more in to working out and nutrition and followed more closely, Berardi recommended a variety of odd diets that were often not the logical conclusion based on available research. Instead he seemed to base it on a combination of personal theories and malformed logic, maybe in an effort to get traffic/sales. An example is recommending separating carbs and fats into different meals. Perhaps he’s changed since then, but I’d take his claims with a grain of salt and investigate in more detail elsewhere.
I’d expect the 4% body fat was an extreme claim to get more attention to his article and book This type of claim is quite common among such sites. The low number could relate to an inaccurate self measurement with calipers, which often grossly underestimate compared to more accurate techniques like DEXA . I don’t doubt that he got leaner, but reaching a true 4% naturally at his age seems unlikely and is certainly not an expected result from just doing IF.
Regarding IF, it’s my understanding that IF makes it easier to reduce calories by the body getting used to not eating and certain times, with adjustments to ghrelin/insulin/… over time, such that after a rough first few days/weeks, you don’t feel as hungry. With reduced calorie balance, you lose weight. There are also some additional benefits, such as increased HGH, which can help maintain muscle mass. However, weight training would have much larger effects. For typical overweight persons, I’d expect the primarily benefit over more traditional diets would be some persons find it easier to maintain a negative calorie balance. This is not a new theory. IF has been well discussed and researched for more than decade.
The point of IF isn’t just reduced calories. The same number of calories consumed in a tighter window of the day causes more weight loss. There is more to this than calorie reduction.
Well, “intensity” is a relative term.
I call BS too. Caliper vs. Hydrostatic vs. DEXA methods, there’s a huge difference. I looked at the pics. Don’t get me wrong, he looks great, although there are no pics of his lower torso and he’s flexing in each photo, but he ain’t no 4%. No chance based on the pics and his “intense” exercise regimen. :-?
Is there any kind of reference suggesting that the same calorie balance produced greater weight loss with IF?
The first review that came up in a Google search (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=12&ved=2ahUKEwjfiomo79zeAhVlg-AKHWzQAbgQFjALegQIChAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2F2076-328X%2F7%2F1%2F4%2Fpdf&usg=AOvVaw2fuolv6bEq2X4DNCrruF2c ) states the following it its abstract:
“Six small short term (<6 month) studies amongst overweight or obese individuals indicate that intermittent energy restriction is equal to continuous restriction for weight loss”