Meh, IF for weight loss is totally about caloric reduction. I don’t think there will be anything to indicate otherwise in human studies in the future. The reality is humans love novelty and IF is a way of keeping things novel. I am a big fan and think fasting is just a fancy name for not eating all the bloody time. Like anyone over 50 would have done when they grew up. I think real fasting is terrific, but the IF term has really been co opted LOL.
Well, I thought the Berardi article contained some worthwhile, thought provoking information, particularly about the different approaches to IF and measurable impact of each that he found during his self-experimentation. And B.S. on 4%? Well I’ve seen my 34 year old, 5’10”, son who weighs 154, has a 1 RM max of benching at 340, deadlift at 550 and squat at 325 when he was Dexascan tested at 6%. Definition was not much different than in the article’s pictures so I have no reason to doubt what I’m seeing in the article nor any demonstrable, fact based reason to doubt what Berardi wrote. As to intensity of his exercise routine, I think Berardi’s pictures of himself speak eloquently to the efficacy of the routine he put together. And there’s all sorts of ways to structure intensity by manipulating duration, load and volume. I bet I could structure a 45 minute strength routine using bodyweight and dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags and slamballs, none of which exceed 60 lbs, that would be intense enough to have anyone totally spent at the end of the 45 minutes and rethinking concepts of intensity.
I think it’s great that IF worked for the author, but people are very different so what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. I’ve done self-experimentation too. What works for me is eating several small meals throughout the day. For me, a simple formula of burning off the number of calories I take in seems to be working to control my weight. If I skip meals it gives me a headache and my work performance suffers, so I feed my brain on a regular basis. IF wouldn’t work for me. But the results of self-experimentation are anecdotes, not data. A scientific study that has control groups and can be replicated would provide hard data on health benefits of a particular diet.
After a lifetime of having a kind of magical metabolism that let me eat more or less whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, it was frustrating as *%#! to have that come to a screeching halt when I hit perimenopause a couple of years ago. Pounds crept on slowly but surely even though I was still running and/or walking just about every day and eating pretty clean. I started IF about 3 months ago and have dropped almost all the perimenopause weight already (8 lbs) and what’s amazing is that I have not really changed what I eat very much, just when I eat it.
I do the 16:8 plan with just coffee in the morning (apparently a splash of half&half won’t knock you out of a fast because there aren’t enough carbs to trigger an insulin response - pure stevia is ok too!) and then because I am a big breakfast lover, I do have breakfast haha, but I eat it at noon. Usually oatmeal with banana, blueberries, and walnuts now that we’re into the colder months. I eat late lunch if I’m hungry again around 2:30-3pm and dinner by 7pm. I don’t count calories at all. No eating after 8pm.
I think the one thing I’d say about how IF has changed my habits is that having that shortened time window has made me more thoughtful about what I’m choosing to eat. If I have certain amounts/kinds of nutrition I’m trying to make sure I get in on a daily basis, having only so much time to do that in has naturally guided me away from empty snacking. The beautiful thing about it is that it doesn’t feel like cutting anything out, so much as it feels like making sure I’m getting the good stuff in within the time I’ve got to work with. Definitely the most painless “diet” I’ve ever been on, and (so far!) the most effective. Obviously, any individual’s results are going to depend on their own personal situation, but this is my experience in case it proves useful to anyone. 
I agree with @maya54 that breakfast is most often recommended to skip simply because it works best with many people’s regular schedule and you can take advantage of your sleeping time as fasting hours. Dinner is more a social or family time, whereas breakfast is often on the run or solo, so dinner is harder to skip. And yes, coffee (black) can be consumed while in the fasting window so you can still have your morning coffee. But it is the hours that matter, not the actual meals skipped.
I’ve listened to a podcast recently where the guy recommended a 24 hour fast twice a week and his study participants had greater weight loss than those doing 16 hour windows, for example. I’m very sorry but I don’t remember his name or his book. He wrote a book many years ago about it, but like he says, there’s really no money to be made from a fasting “diet” or fasting system, so his book didn’t make much of a splash! (Although I have seen “electrolyte drops” and commercial “fasting products” creeping out.)
For those who may be interested, know that fasting is kind of a muscle. You can’t just jump into a long fasting window and expect it to be easy the first time. But it does get easier pretty quickly. I’ve had “one meal a day” days (dinner for me) and after thinking “I could never do that”, it’s actually pretty easy (and I am prone to headaches from hunger, but those went away after the first 2-3 tries). I have a brief hunger feeling around the time I would usually have lunch, it might last a half hour, then it goes away, and then about an hour before dinner rolls around, I am hungry, but that’s good, being hungry for your meal! I also find that having an “eating window” of 8 hours simply prevents me from nighttime snacking, which is weight loss inducing in and of itself. I’ve also found interesting things I LIKE about fasting, such as not having to think about, plan for, make and clean up, spend money on, or take any time for, lunch and snacks! It’s great for busy days. It’s also good for travel.
But like @thermom and others say, that’s my experience if it helps anyone but might not be best or workable for all.
I read a NY Times article in 2014 or 2015 about animal studies which refers to a 10-hour interval to eat, and decided to give it a try. Without any particular effort (only discovered during a routine physical) I had already lost 10 pounds after my daughter went away to college and I could completely control what food I brought into the house and was no longer playing the “are you coming home for dinner” passive aggressive game with her.
After three years, I stabilized at 60 pounds down and had to acquire a new wardrobe. Although I am no longer losing and on paper my BMI is still not good, I definitely look way different according to every single person who knew me before the weight loss and then saw me after. I allow myself coffee with one-percent-fat milk in the morning, then start eating with a meal some time after noon, with the time depending on my schedule. I restricting my intake to a 9-hour period from when I start eating. In the beginning, just telling myself that the kitchen was closed after the 9-hour eating interval somehow worked much better than any previous mind trick I had tried.
For what it’s worth, I am much more active now, something I consciously started working on after I had lost a noticeable amount of weight. It’s a lot easier to do minus the 60 pounds.
Here’s another article I found helpful:
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/intermittent-fasting-diets-are-gaining-acceptance/
If you’ve reviewed Berardi’s exercise plans, besides the lack of detail, IMO, there’s a stunning lack of intensity AND duration for an accurate 4% body fat test. And the pics (and lack thereof, let’s see those quads, gluts, hammies, calves) prove that, in my mind. I have no idea how you cannot call his efficacy into question. Nonetheless, the author looks great.
We have a difference of opinion on this article. Time to move on.
Thermom, I won’t get too much into this discussion, but I think you are onto something when you say you are now more thoughtful about what you choose to eat and focus on eating nutritious foods.That seems very wise.
My D is in amazing shape and an intense athlete. She was frustrated that as hard as she worked out she wasn’t feeling great and her weight wasn’t where she wanted it to be. She scheduled a few visits with a trainer she respects and he suggested she try intermittent fasting. The program of restricting the hours of eating. He also told her she needed to eat more. Her schedule was such that she was not eating dinner till 9 , 9:30 most nights. By the time she got home she was starved and hangry. She also is a person who eats for fuel not a cook at all. He connected her with a woman who makes meals for athletes. Part of my D’s problem was that she doesn’t cook and rarely had anything prepared to eat when she got home. She started taking the prepared meals to work with her and eating dinner before she left her office at 5. She also became more aware of how her diet and eating schedule was on her mood. For her is was a lot about keeping her blood sugar regular. By eating within a shorter window she feels much healthier.
I have always had trouble fasting, even for religious reasons. I am never hungry in the morning, but because I often go to the gym or workout or do some other strenuous task, I eat a handful of dry cereal or maybe half a piece of toast when I get up. But then I eat some kind of protein meal at about 10 and another at around 1. I have an early dinner, and rarely eat anything after 7 p.m.
This eating pattern works very well for me. No diabetes or extra pounds!
Reading this thread, as well as the IF research. is rather reassuring. In my 20s I attempted to fast one day per week, with intermittent longer fasts of 3 to 4 days. I felt great and it kept my weight in control. After having S, I attempted fasting a time or two and realized that between nursing and keeping up with a baby and then young child, I needed my fuel. Fasting was very much out of vogue and I proceeded to gain weight though have been in a relatively stable yo yo pattern for years at this point. WW and the emphasis on breakfast has not been good for my tendency to over eat. But I am happily starting to restrict the hours I eat, and find it far easier than the careful eating that tends to be a fail for me.
@Data10 Here is an article that discusses TRF (time restricted feeding). There are some intriguing findings in the studies where they kept calories the same and adjusted meal timings for mice & people.
@sushiritto , you are right, we won’t agree, so I won’t bore you with the details of why I think your conclusions are unfounded. But as you say, the author - ya know, Berardi, - looks great.
And I have an offer for you. If you are ever in Philadelphia, come to my studio and maybe your concept of intensity will be broadened. I’ll comp you a 45 minute group strength class, using TRX, kettlebells, dumbbells, sandbags, battle ropes and plyo boxes. I guarantee that by the end of the class you will be muscularly and metabolically spent.
That’s an interesting study with the difference mice groups gaining different amounts of weight. Some of the groups had as large as a 70% increase in body weight, so it’s not surprising that there were a variety of negative health effects. There are numerous metabolic and hormonal effects that come in to play when eating more than maintenance like this, which influences excess energy expenditure to reach a maintenance weight. In mice, these processes may be sensitive to the timing of their light/dark cycle and/or having a “fasting” mode period.
Human studies that focus on a calorie reduction often show different results The six studies mentioned in the review earlier all attempted to maintain a similar calorie restriction between IF and continuous restriction groups, among overweight persons. The most common restriction was 25% reduction in calories. 5 of 6 studies found that the weight loss between the IF and continuous restriction groups was the same, as rounded to the nearest kg.
@maya54 - to get back to your original question, IF is something I want to try. Currently I finish eating my last and lightest meal of the day no later than 7 pm - breakfast the next day around 8:30, so it would not be a huge stretch to extend that fasting window. I got some “cookbooks” for the 5:2 method a while back but it’s not an option for me given my workout schedule. I feel encouraged by the success others have had.
I’m going to try it…9 to 5 window. That’s close to what I do now out of habit, but like sabray, just extends it a few hours.
I have pre-pre diabetes, so maybe the extra time will help my glucose levels.
I am keeping an eye on my glucose levels too, particularly as I’ve started a statin. It will be interesting to see how this works. I hope everyone trying this wil report back on their results.
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I’ve decided to give it a go, too. Started yesterday. Thanks all for the nudge.
“I’m going to try it…9 to 5 window. That’s close to what I do now out of habit, but like sabray, just extends it a few hours.”
I do think this is harder to maintain because of social issues than a noon to 8 pm window. For those who feel deprived and like they are really famished in the morning IF could still be done. But I do think it’s much easier for those of us who have no desire to eat before noon.