Im too hungry to do fasting
Is your primary source of calories derived from Carbs, primarily from fast-acting (additive) sugars? If so, this could explain somethings---especially if you experience a phenomenon known as "hangry", which is basically you get emotional when your brain (and/or hormones) plays tricks on you by making you think you're hungry.
Fasting is still a new method, but studies from health websites have been showing positive results than other gimmicks. Besides, it's only saying to not eat until the afternoon.
You meant intermittent fasting? Fasting has been a thing for ages. Heck, fasting has been referenced & revered in various religious texts. Sure, the term "intermittent fasting" is probably a new term, but idea is most likely ancient.
Which could be a problem if you need food in the morning. Exercise and a healthy diet will always trump all these silly fad gimmicks that keep coming up.
Agreed; however, 'healthy' means different means to different people, including various industries selling said gimmicks in the name of 'healthy'.
The best method to lose weight safely is by having a caloric deficit than what your body normally consumes (It's a certain calorie count based off of how much you weigh.)
I would have to disagree, especially if you're someone who could be classified as having some form of metabolic syndrome. To someone like that, an immediate caloric deficit would most likely serve more as a test of willpower than producing anything nourishing. Furthermore, the opposite would most likely be more true, and that they need to consume more calories from cleaner sources to reacquire nutrients previously lacking, and to allow your body to adjust toxins being leeched into the bloodstream from adipose tissues (body fat cells). Otherwise, you'll most likely be in for one hell of a ride.
You're likely to be hungrier when you're changing your eating habits
Agree, and elaborated in comment above
but it's much, much safer to prepare meals with a specific calorie goal in mind.
I don't completely disagree with this, but you're sure you shouldn't take food quality & micro/macro-nutrients into consideration?
Then again, all these "sciences" seem to contradict each other at some point.
Especially if these "sciences" are backed by State interests. When I say State interests, I am including research funded by large corporations that have connections with government agencies.
That plus having everything in moderation
As a side note, moderation is not always 50/50. Not saying you're interpreting this as such, just as a general statement.
The only thing that ruined me was finally losing the willpower to stop myself from not just grazing on every bit of junk food I saw in sight. I had a few days of bad eating when I was moving some months ago, and I never got myself back into the groove of what I was doing before. I stopped paying attention to calorie counts because I couldn't be bothered right now, and I went back to eating too many of them.
Instances like this are why I would recommend exploring one's behavioral psychology & metabolic state (aka relationship toward food) before placing themselves on restrictive diets/activities such as fasting. One way put, before going on a diet, condition yourself to be more resilient to addictive behaviors such as sugar (and/or gluten) addiction by emphasizing on more cleaner sourced foods (i.e. food quality) as opposed to obsessing over calorie-counting (i.e. obsessing over data). Now, don't treat this as an exercise of willpower. This mindset will most likely cause burnout, just like you cited.
During this phase, as mentioned before, you may be eating more (thus increasing your overall caloric intake), since your body is most likely starving for nutrients. Also, you have to supplement in order to combat certain drawbacks of changing metabolic behavior.
I've been doing intermittent fasting for almost two years now. For me it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle.
As long as you feel good, and not experiencing long-term effects, keep it up (assuming you're still doing this)!
My meals are tailored with macros in mind plus plenty of hydration (and coffee. coffee is my best friend.)
Do you take micros into consideration as well?
not a doctor, but I'm a Bio major, and I'm pretty sure there have been cases of fasting working as long as individuals take supplements.
In that case, what's your take on such individuals mega-dosing on vitamin C on the short-term?
When you fast, your blood sugar decreases. Your body then goes to its storage sites to release glucose. if you don't have much stored, your body next targets sites of triglycerides and proteins and uses those to make energy instead.
I believe your body's usage of triglycerides as energy gives way for one to be in ketosis, absence of external glucose? Also, what's your take of protein (amino acids) being used as an energy source, as opposed to essential building blocks for your cells?
So technically you lose weight bc your body targets fat and protein for energy if it can't get it from your diet.
Also no excess glucose being stored?
however, glucose/energy isn't the only thing we get from our diet. For example, sodium and calcium are absolutely essential for every cell in your body, as well as several other compounds such as iodine.
May as well mention potassium while we're at it. Though, if we are to restrict carbs, I would imagine one would have to increase their sodium & potassium intake, due to carbs serving as a mean of water storage?
By the way, avocados are an excellent source of potassium, in case anyone's wondering.
It's easier to just eat to gain these nutrients, but if you're not eating you need to get them elsewhere, like from supplements, or you will die or have way more negative side effects than you intended.
Not to mention obtaining nutrients from food (not so-much industrialized products) provides a more holistic source of nutrition, as opposed to isolated compounds called supplements, which could increase the chances of overdosing on certain nutrients.
I don't think people should be fasting without seeing a doctor first, that seems pretty dumb.
Would a typical western doctor have a nutritional background, though?
The problem with this one is that when you skip meals that you normally eat, your brain responds by making you want to overeat for other meals.
If you primarily derive your calories from carbohydrates (in particular, added sugars) that may be true. However, not all individuals have this issues (at least for short periods of time).
If you want to lose weight effectively, the first thing you need to do is pass on all the fad diets and learn about basic nutrition so you can understand what you're doing most wrong.
And/or learn to start trusting your intuition, and ultimately listening to your body as opposed to solely trusting authority.
Intermittent Fasting is something, from experience, that shouldn't be done on a permanent basis...
...Lastly, I mentioned before I don't believe it's sustainable for most people. Sure there will be people who can do it for months and months, sometimes over a year, but from my experience and from talking to friends and gym buddies who have used IF, it just isn't sustainable and shouldn't be what you're doing every day for your life.
Agreed; one other thing to add, one should consider their lifestyle relative to intensity before considering depriving themselves.
I didn't know that's what that meant - I've heard the term intermittent fasting before but the "fasting" part made it seem more severe, like I expected it to be like a day of eating and then a day of not eating or something lol
If it's just not eating until noon or evening,
That is an acceptable definition of intermittent fasting.
It was also just a very standard way of life in my family growing up, we skipped breakfast all the time due to time restraints and would only eat lunch at like 1-3pm and dinner at 8-9pm.
Not trying to pick on you but skipping breakfast is impossible (hint: it's all in the name). Now if we are referring to how our cultural norms are regarding breakfast are fair enough.
And I mean, in terms of losing weight it definitely worked, even though that wasn't what I was trying to do - during the worst semesters I dropped to the lowest weight I was in my life during those periods unwittingly, at about 83 pounds and it took me about a year to notice and gain back roughly 10 pounds.
Question is, did you lose muscle and/or bone mass as well?
Pretty much all valid nutritionists and researchers have said that the key to weight loss in 95% diet, 5% exercise. If that's your goal, just shape up your diet based on your body's needs and you'll be fine.
Though those ratios seem pretty extreme, the point is valid. Also another factor to consider is quality sleep, since that's when your body does it recovery from the stresses of life. If your sleep is lacking, your body fat loss goals may be stalled a bit.
As for myself, I do this sometimes, mostly due to time constraints. However, ideally, I should probably be consuming more calories.