Intermittent Fasting for TG's

[fluffy_kingston]

Intermittent fasting is a form of caloric restriction which extends life expectancy. Periods of feeding are alternated with periods of fasting. The length of these periods are easily modified.

I have been following intermittent fasting for about 6 months now. I stop eating in the evening about 9:00 pm and fast for about 16 hours until 1:00 pm the next day. I eat whatever I want during the feeding period, but mostly good foods.

So far, I have lost about 10 pounds and tightened up quite a bit, even with minimal exercise (just ballet/yoga). The best part is that most of the fat loss has been abdominal fat, which really improves my figure and is beginning to sculpt a nice waistline.

Intermittent fasting works by improving gene expression, so that disease causing genes are turned off and health promoting genes are activated...improving things like BDNF, SIRT1, insulin sensitivity and growth hormone levels.

[charlie]

Hello Fluffy!
From your avitar it appears that your work in progress is progressing nicely! Whatever you are doing, keep doing it.

[Karren H]

It all comes down to caloric intake vs expenditure... If you take in less than you expend you will loose weight.. Personally I lost 50 pounds in 9 months by portion control.. Not eating snacks after dinner, exersizing every day and playing ice hockey twice a week.. Some weeks I would loose 3 pounds... When I reached my target it then became a life style change.. Eating healthier and exersizing 3 or 4 times a week.. Which is really important because if you think of what your doing as a diet.. When the diet is over, the weight typically comes back...

So what ever your method... Ya just have to keep it up... Not for the faint of heart.... Got to be inshape to get old!! Lol

[Alys]

I don't know that I could ever do fasting, intermittant or elsewise :X I'm purely vegan and as such I need to keep my food intake up pretty stringently from the off-set. I can't imagine starving oneself on a regular basis to be any sort of healthy pattern to allow oneself to fall into, anyway :3 You won't lose any body fat for example, because your body will just go into starvation mode and it's going to diminish the value of the food you *do* eat...

But that's just the pretenscious view of an angsty little vegan girl~

[Tracii G]

I don't know if I could go the all vegitarian route.I do go for weeks and not eat red meat but chicken,turkey,fish I do some.I like veggies and tofu so I could live that way if I had too.

[tricia_uktv]

I love being skinny so much I don't bother eating at all!

[wishonastar]

I don't know that I could ever do fasting, intermittant or elsewise :X I'm purely vegan and as such I need to keep my food intake up pretty stringently from the off-set. I can't imagine starving oneself on a regular basis to be any sort of healthy pattern to allow oneself to fall into, anyway :3 You won't lose any body fat for example, because your body will just go into starvation mode and it's going to diminish the value of the food you *do* eat...

But that's just the pretenscious view of an angsty little vegan girl~


I also have a problem with low blood sugar. I am a vegetarian eating fermented milk products and eggs once in a while. A long time ago I fasted on a regular bases, juice fast only. I tried a water fast and only lasted 24 hours. Got the shakes and light headed. It is ok if you just stay in bed but I had to work.

I fasted nearly a month on juice only, I alternated days between vegetable and fruit juice. Vegetable juice fast is the best for you, but a lot of work, if you do not have a real good juicer, I did not. I lost about 10 pounds, was skinny to begin with. But it does clean you out. You feel great afterward.

[MJ]

I love being skinny so much I don't bother eating at all!

so that's the secret :straightface:

[LilSissyStevie]

I did IF regularly for a while but found that I couldn't maintain it. My routine was to eat one meal one day and two the next. My normal diet is low carbohydrate so hunger was not the issue it would have been otherwise. I just found it more of an inconvenience to restrict when I ate rather than what I ate. I still do it, it's just even more intermittent now.

I have got most of the health benefits attributed to IF from my low carb diet (we'll have to see about the longevity.) Yeah, I lost 60lbs and have kept it off for 5 years but that's not what keeps me scarfing down the pig meat. I could literally write a book about all the health benefits I've gotten just from getting off grains and sugar. That's the first thing I recommend: eliminate grains and sugar even if you don't go dogmatically low carb. I don't waste much time exercising either; it just makes me hungry.

["Mary"]

Hello Fluffy!
From your avitar it appears that your work in progress is progressing nicely! Whatever you are doing, keep doing it.

If you're impressed by Fluffy's avatar, you'll be blown away by her figure at her website.

[fluffy_kingston]

Thanks Diana.

Actually hunger is not much of a problem with IF if you implement it slowly. I started with a 12 hour fast, which pretty much lets you eat mid-morning if you like. After I adjusted, I increased by an hour each week or so as I felt the adaptation. It is 1:00pm now and I am not hungry in the least.

My goal is to bring my Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist-hip-ratio (WHR) to levels associated with beautiful women. That is somewhere around BMI: 18-19 WHR: 0.7. I won't be able to achieve the WHR goal without hormones though, I'm stuck around 0.82.

I think IF is a better fit than other diets for TG's because of its effect on SIRT1 and visceral fat.

[Ruth]

Sounds good but it will not suit everyone. You should take medical advice before doing this if you have any long term health issues or if you are over 50.

[susanmichelle]

dont want to lose weight like I have either. 2 years ago I weighed 185 and now Im just around 146 to 149 and 6 feet tall. Have always been slim but really skinny now. Its a great look for wearing womans clothing though. I can wear between 5s and 7s depending on the clothing. I have crohns disease and just cant eat much anymore and my stomach has shrunk alot too. If I go and even get a double cheese at McDonalds Im stuffed for the day. Really not alot I can do about it either as 4 of my doctors said eat what you can but at least eat.

[docrobbysherry]

It all comes down to caloric intake vs expenditure... If you take in less than you expend you will loose weight.. Personally I lost 50 pounds in 9 months by portion control.. Not eating snacks after dinner, exersizing every day and playing ice hockey twice a week.. Some weeks I would loose 3 pounds... When I reached my target it then became a life style change.. Eating healthier and exersizing 3 or 4 times a week.. Which is really important because if you think of what your doing as a diet.. When the diet is over, the weight typically comes back...
So what ever your method... Ya just have to keep it up... Not for the faint of heart.... Got to be inshape to get old!! Lol

It is said that almost all diets r doomed to fail. That u must change your eating regimen gradually, but to something u can live with the rest of your life.

Many years ago, I went vegitarian. Had strong cravings for nuts. Lost so much weight, I almost froze to death that winter. ( In SoCal, yet!)

Since then, I try to maintain a balanced diet. Heavy on fruits, vegitables, and grains. If I want to lose some pounds, I eat a little less meat, cheese, and butter! I knocked off the boozing about the time I started dressing. Hmmmm. Coincidence?????:brolleyes:

[Jessica212]

I'm currently in the middle of a 1-day fast (4 pm today to about 5 pm tomorrow - and I only had a small salad at 4, so it's almost like a fast from 11 am today... I'm hoping to stretch it beyond 5 pm tomorrow, but we'll see about that), and am not hungry at all actually. It helped that I worked out from 4 to 6 today - that really cut down on any possible hunger. I'm sure I'll be hungry tomorrow though.

I often do 1 day fasts and have stretched it to two days at times. I usually fast one day every weekend (usually Sunday), or possibly in the middle of the week as well. I find it hard to never eat junk, so while I try to eat healthy and exercise, this makes up for a lot of those unnecessary calories.

[fluffy_kingston]

I have'nt gone beyone 18 hours yet. But that seems like enough to trigger the positive gene expression: softer skin, more energy, less abdominal fat etc.

[Jessica212]

I have'nt gone beyone 18 hours yet. But that seems like enough to trigger the positive gene expression: softer skin, more energy, less abdominal fat etc.

I think 18 hours would be enough, but the longer you go, the more of an effect it has, so I try to go as long as possible.

In addition to fasting, I'll often try to have one day a week where I eat less than 1200 calories - I usually do that if I can't fast in a certain week for some reason. Usually all it takes is skipping a meal and then eating healthy stuff the rest of the day (basically, a normal dinner, with no desserts or snacks). It's done wonders for my figure.