Question on IF

Not sure where to post this... I am starting Intermittent fasting but only doing 14 hours to start. I have to ease in some. I have watched many videos and more, but I cannot seem to get answers on certain pieces. I know I am not going to bulk up really doing this, but my question is related to eating during the day. When doing IF, am I expected to eat less calories as well? I am confused if I can still maintain my calories and burn fat when working out or if you still need to shrink meals. I dont want to lose a bunch of weight, I want to maintain muscle (getting a lot of protein still) and try to cut some body fat. Sorry if the question isnt strong but I am just confused on some of it.


Any help would be great or if I should post on another thread please let me know.

IF won't cause you to lose body fat, burning more calories than you consume will do that. You could eat those calories all in one go, or spread out throughout the day, the result will be much the same.

IF is good if your calories are restricted and you want to "save them up" for a larger meal later on. For example you could skip breakfast and lunch and then have a much bigger dinner. But it won't burn any more or less fat compared to spreading the same amount of food over 3 meals.

[QUOTE=ghirardello;1598052581]Not sure where to post this... I am starting Intermittent fasting but only doing 14 hours to start. I have to ease in some. I have watched many videos and more, but I cannot seem to get answers on certain pieces. I know I am not going to bulk up really doing this, but my question is related to eating during the day. When doing IF, am I expected to eat less calories as well? I am confused if I can still maintain my calories and burn fat when working out or if you still need to shrink meals. I dont want to lose a bunch of weight, I want to maintain muscle (getting a lot of protein still) and try to cut some body fat. Sorry if the question isnt strong but I am just confused on some of it.


Any help would be great or if I should post on another thread please let me know.[/QUOTE]

Thats not IF....that is called sleeping.

Why are you doing IF?

If it's to lose weight then you'll need to reduce your calories. If it's to help with insulin tolerance then your going to want to keep your calories the same.

I was actually wondering more about this as well. Interesting to read all the comments. I thought it was better than just weight loss.

I was intrigued by this thread, so I'm trying 16/8 IF - stop eating roughly 8pm (although I did snack at 9pm last night, bad! bad!) - then skip breakfast and any snacks etc so not eating anything before 12 lunchtime, although I do have milk in tea/coffee so it's not a total 0 calories strict fast, just zero food.

I'm interested to see if this makes eating less overall calories easier. At this point I'm not tracking calories or particularly restricting (beyond common sense) what I eat in this 8 hour or so window. At this point I'm just trying to get a feel for how hard it easy the 16/8 is. So far... and this is only day 4, so no conclusion yet, is that 16/8 isn't too hard for me my only battle is with a late evening snack.

I don't believe the magical fat melting hormone snake-oil explanation of all the "IF is wonderful" articles (and I'm fully aware of grehlin receptors in the pituitary and how short term hunger increase GH although long term will reduce it, yadah yadah yadah). But it might be that repeatedly going 16 hours without eating leaves the stomach smaller making eating less overall easier, if that is true?? it could be a winner for me.

Once I settle in, I'll then start tracking calories and then I'll know if this method adds up to easier (for me, YMMV!).

I'm not usually hungry at breakfast time - but I do have a protein shake in the morning. I know this is technically "breaking the fast" but the fast is not a benefit in and of itself. The only true benefit of IF is making it easier to comply with a calorie deficit.

There are downsides to going for long periods without protein intake that have to offset against this. So since having a shake doesn't seem to wake my appetite up, I think I have the best of both worlds.

I just dont eat at all between a 7pm...11am window. I can have black coffee, water, brush my teeth...thats it. In my eating window from Noon till 7pm I just eat normally...so lunch, afternoon snack, dinner...thats it...nothing extra. Based on my tracking this lops off anywhere fro 300 to 600 calories a day. I also try to schedule any fitness or other strenuous activity before one of those eating times.