I searched the forum and found this term in a number of journals, but no actual thread on it. I recently stumbled on this concept on Eades' blog, so I'm posting in this thread looking for one or more persons with experience with IF to pummel with questions. I'm only on the 4th day of IF, but so far it seems like something I can keep up. In particular because I generally don't feel hungry every day, normally. But if I go 24 hours without eating, I feel better in a way that defies words. Not necessarily HUNGRY, just mentally clearer, more energetic and stronger. Cleaned out. However, although I used to fast once a week, fasting 24 hours every other day seems wrong to me.

Here's what concerns me: I have a history of hypoglycemic-like episodes. My husband, being well-trained in dealing with my blood sugar issues, is very unhappy at the idea of me fasting for so long. But, so far, I have not felt any of the symptoms of low blood sugar. Quite the opposite. The best part, though, is that I feel unburdened, emotionally, of the stress over what to put in my body, when and how much. It's that very stress that depletes my willpower over the course of a week and I'm off the rails by Friday. So I wonder how long I can keep this up.

Anyone have any experience with "IF"? If so, I'd really love to hear your experiences.

Cheers!

I don't know where you looked but there are numerous and lengthy threads on the subject.

Here are the principle ones:

IF, part 1 this one began in 2006 and has been running so long that it has been broken into the following threads
IF, part 2
IF, part 3
IF, part 4 post your questions in this one, it's the current one

I haven't heard of intermittent fasting involving 24 hour fasts. The technique I've read about and follow loosely is 16-20 hour fast with a 4-8 hour eating window.

I think IF can mean lots of different things to lots of different people.

I was taught that IFing was maybe once or twice a week of a 16-24 hr fast.

For me personally, I stop eating around 7pm and won't eat again till 11-12 the next day. I am just not hungry till then. Some people might not consider that IFing, I dunno.

All I know is that I do MUCH better eating 2 good size meals a day than I ever did eating 1200 small meals lol. I go 6-8 hours between meals and I am losing weight while feeling awesome and 'clean'.

It is usually not recommended to start IF until you are ready. And then it just became what my body said needed to be done...it was a natural progression for me.

Thank you!

I used the board search. Though now that I think about it, I should have also tried google's site: tag to crawl forum.lowcarber.org for the search terms. Search is a pain to write, most web apps get it wrong.

Anyhow, cheers!

ep

ETA: Yep. This is everything I was looking for. All of these posts describe my experience perfectly.

I do an extended fast everyday. I have done it since I learned about IF 4 years ago.Instead of fasting only periodically. I fast for at least 20 hours daily. Sometimes I now alternate the 4 hour window with having days where I have one meal. I make sure that every meal is packed with nutrition. Plus I add some sort of fat such as MCT oil, coconut oil, or pumpkin seed oil during fasting if I feel that I need it. So what really happens during IF is that you develope YOUR method to suit your own personal needs.

My favorite way to practice IF is to fast 23 hours, then eat a huge meal over the course of an hour. My husband actually started IF to fix his hypoglycemic episodes. He'd already gone low carb which fixed about 50% of the problem. When he went to IF, he obtained complete control and totally lost all his "mental fog" symtoms. When he asked our primary care doctor about it, she said fasting was the best way to get blood sugar to come down and even out - no more reactive hypoglycemia.

When I was IF'ing I too enjoyed about a meal every 24 hours. Once or twice a week I would even skip that meal, so I'd only be eating about 5-6 times a week. Going LC was the first best thing I did for myself, but I think IF is what really helped what I believe was my having been insulin resistant.

I think that eating frequent meals and snacks etc contribute to insulin/glucose embalances. I have always assumed that if you do anything on an "empty" stomach your glucose would plummet whis is just not true. Like you Jschwab, I prefer eating one meal a day. Sometimes I check my glucose levels just before my fast-breaking meal and it is always between 75-85. I may feel hunger but I am not experiencing any crashes.