Many of us who've been on a longer term project to get to a goal weight (read a Dietbet 10 lasting 6 months, and even another Dietbet4 or Dietbet10 added on top of that), know how even months of steady losses, weight loss tends to slow down. It's very understandable given that if we are consistantly eating the same amount and exercising the same, at some point, that amount is going to end up being just enough to sustain our new weight.
What is more frustrating is that even when decreasing calories and exercising more, the weight still is very stubborn and only comes off very very slowly. Many experts call this a 'set point' and leave it at that, without any real guidance other than to work harder, not cheat, and eventually your weight will budgel. But in the mean time, it can get so demoralizing after months of steady losses that you may feel that it's impossible to lose more, so what's the point in working so hard for nothing?
I first heard of intermittant fasting almost 10 years ago. Very few people knew about it back then, but it interested me a great deal. The idea caught fire after some animal studies by Mark Mattson at NIH that showed a similar health benefit between intermittant fasting (or 'IF') and caloric restriction (or 'CR').
(CR has been undergoing long-term animal for decades and is starting to show significant benefits in primates over long periods of time. People have tried this as well, but because they are self-selected, and very small in number the data is not as solid. Still, CR is currently one of the few methods that the scientific community agrees on that will extend life and health, at least in most non-human animals.)
Back to IF, now. IF is not fasting, it is not juicing, it is simply going withoug food for more than typical 2 to 5 hours between meals and snacks. It's not very radical unless you extend that period to a day or more. When you look at a typical person's eating habits, they will maybe stop eating at 9pm or even 10pm at night, but then eat again at 8pm give or take. Why do you think 'breakfast' is called that? I think it's because you are 'breaking' a 'fast' from the previous evening - a total of 10-12 hours of not eating.
There are many different ways to do IF. When I tried it first about 8 years ago, I did the type where I would eat between 6pm and 10pm every night, then I wouldn't eat again until the next day at 6pm. I did this most days for several years. I didn't give myself any restrictions on food other than this, and so I would eat whatever I wanted. Despite that, I maintained my weight and maybe even lost a little. I was also not doing any real exercise throughout most of this time.
I decided to stop because my blood pressure was high and I mistakenly tied that to the diet, but in actuality I'd had higher BP for years before, and after I stopped it continued to be high.
When I started my first Dietbet in January, I considered doing some intermittant fasting, but after trying it again, the initial side effects made me decide to wait until I'd lost a bit more. I weighed more back than then I'd ever weighed (almost 40lbs more than I do now), hadn't done any real exercise in years (other than a little walking here and there), and just wanted to do some basic monitoring of food and exercise before getting too advanced.
I apparently did a really good job with that stuff because I lost about 35 lbs over the course of about 6 months. That was the most weight I'd lost in probably 12 years and probably the first time I'd been around my current weight in about 6. But about 6 weeks ago, I started to notice how slow things were going. I'd sit at the same weight, give or take a lb for upwards of two weeks, sometimes even more, before finally losing a couple and staying at the new eight (plus or minus a lb) for another couple of weeks.
I know that for some people those two weeks can stretch into months, and that's happened to me as well in the past, so I knew that sooner or later the two weeks would grow to four, eight, etc. There's lots of advice given for this type of thing, usually called a 'stall' or 'plateau.' Advice like 'double up on your effort!' or 'Just exercise more!' or 'Just eat less!' or 'Just wait it out, your body will eventually get past it!' or 'Mix things up - eat differently!'
Well, that last piece of advice might be the one I took most to heart, because after being reminded about IF by a fellow Dietbetter here, Teeeeeeee, I decided to give it another try. Teeeeeeee mentioned a book by a Brittish physician that came out not long ago that has popularized IF somewhat, at least in the UK. But I think the awareness of it is greater in general. The type of IF that he mentions in his book is a much more limited version of the one that I did, but he claims to have lots of good results even from that, which includes really only a couple of days of it per week. On his plan, you basically just skip lunch two days per week. On the other hand, you also, on those days, actually mix in a bit of CR since you are only supposed to eat 600 calories on those days. In addition to that, you are still not supposed to overeat during the rest of the week, and you're supposed to try to keep your meals to only 3 per day without snacking if possible
After reading his book, I decided to try something between his plan and my old version of IF. I'm a creature of habit, so the more I could make my eating similar between each day, the easier for me. So aside from the two 600-calorie days without lunch, I decided that I was just not going to eat lunch the other 5 days as well, but on those days I would eat my normal allotment of calories (which ends up being somewhere between 1400 and 2200 calories, or maybe and average of say 1850). This means a pretty good sized breakfast and dinner, just just having to get through lunchtime without food.
When you first do this, as with anything very new, it is hard. Most of us are not used to going without food (except overnight) for more than 5 or 6 hours at a time. Hunger pangs get increasingly bad to the point where we think we're damaging our bodies by not eating. But if you weight just a bit longer, the pangs go away, and over time your body gets much more used to going longer periods without food, and you don't experience that discomfort anymore. Food tastes a lot better when you do eat.
There are some common concerns that I hear voiced though about fasting and so I'll try to address some here:
Energy: many people think that fasting will deplete them of the energy that they feel eating food every few hours is providing them. However, most people who do IF find that they actually see a big increase in energy level. This is partly because the energy needed to be continually digesting food is freed up for other uses.
'Starvation mode' and metabolism: the most common thing I hear is that eating less or less often will cause your body to go into 'starvation mode' or at least decrease its metabolism to the point where it makes it very difficult to lose. The large number of successful IF'ers however seem to contradict this notion, but of course that isn't hard science. The hard science does not indicate any good evidence for a starvation mode or decrease in metabolism, at leas not unless fasting has gone on for more than several days, or calorie restriction remains at minimal levels (600 or less) for weeks. However, because these things are fairly easy to understand and 'logical' they get repeated so often that they become 'fact' in the eyes of many, similar to the 'fact' that fat is bad for us in general, which is now universally said to be incorrect. Even the most conservative of dieticians will toute the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, which lots of olive oil, nuts, and avocado. But don't take my word for it, do your own research. I found very little in the scientific literature regarding metabolism and fasting, but what I did find was not in any way a confirmation of this fear.
In any case, started doing this about two weeks ago. My body quickly adjusted. I like that I know longer have to spend all this time in the morning getting my lunch ready for work. I like the "cleanness" of what I've designed in that when I do get presented with temptations I know exactly what I can and can't do - I can't eat ANY of it - well if it's during the day anyway. That black and whiteness makes it easier on my brain to refrain from anything even mildly unhealthy. I love the added energy. Even the 600 calorie days have become a lot easier as I've learned what foods are highest in nutrients but also lowest in calories (read some kinds of hummus, carrots, cereal, nonfat yogurt, salads with nonfat dressings, etc.). In any case, after just two weeks I've managed to go do almost 5 lbs. This is after the previous month or more or so only losing 2-3lbs. It has reinvigorated me to keep going, and this reinforces my willpower to get through those 600 calorie days when I really want to be eating a bit more.
I am still getting use to it, though. I am probably obsessing a bit much about getting ENOUGH calories on my full-calorie days. It can sometimes be a bit challenging to eat 800-1000 calories for breakfast or dinner, especially after eating maybe 500 calories or so per meal for the last 6 months (plus a couple of 200-300-calorie snacks. Sometimes I'll go to bed feeling overly full because I felt it necessary to eat a larger dinner becaue I didn't manage to eat a very big breakfast. I think the solution to this will come simply with more time and getting used to it more. The novelty of a big meal will wear off and I'll also become less concerned about not getting enough calories, and I'll probably end up consuming slightly smaller meals, but maybe giving up one of my 600-calorie days. Eventually I assume I won't have any 600-calorie days, once I get to my goal (somethere between 13 and 20 lbs from what I am now).
So, in summary, and sorry for writing such an incredibly long blog entry, for those who are willing to try something new and different, for those who have gotten sick of how slow their weightloss has become, if not outright stopped, you might consider intermittent fasting, or like me, a kind of combination of intermittant fasting and limited caloric restriction. It definitely resets some physiological processes, perhaps metabolism (but in a good way), and can really kickstart things in a way that doing the same type of eating you've been doing for months, can't. Give it a shot. I'm happy to try to answer any questions or provide support if you need some!