Some of us are trying this and we'll track our results here.
Here's the article that inspired us!
Dr. Eades Blog: Fast way to better Health (Be sure to read the comments)

Protein Power versus Intermittent Fasting

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How to describe your fasting schedule:

The first number represents the number of hours you fast. Second number represents the number of hours you eat, after a fast.
Fast/Eat

24/24 (Eades)
36/12 (Masochist)
20/28 (Eades-lite)
20/4 (Warrior)

I'm starting today. I utterly gorged myself on Pad Thai last night. Ate enough for 4 people easily. Gosh it was good though! But I felt pretty awful afterwards. I have been fasting a bit now and then to help my arthritis so I thought after that horrible dinner I should fast today. But I kind of dismissed it when I got up. Then I saw Dr. Eades article and it inspired me.

So, I tucked away my breakfast to have tomorrow.

I've got a little hunger this morning because the Pad Thai is awfully carby. But I'm a little experienced with fasting from my attempts to help my autoimmune disease. So a little hunger doesn't skeer me!

Hi Nancy,

I'll probably start tomorrow, so that my first day of fasting (majority of the day) is on the weekend. Pre-LC I have had problems with hypoglycemia. It shouldn't be a problem now, but I would hate to be at work if it happened, and I didn't have any food around.

Thanks for starting the thread.

If that happens, best to break the fast I think.

A few months back I managed to fast for nearly 3 days. I did feel pretty dragged out though. Hopefully this is something we can adjust to.

Mike posted the comments (I don't think they were up when I originally read the article), and one of the things I was worried about was missing my coffee in the morning. He said they continued to drink coffee, tea and diet drinks during the fast periods. I guess I should go without the cream in my coffee though, but I think I can do this. That's good news to me.

The other thing is supplements. He mentioned that they just took all their supplements during the time that they ate each day. I have broken up my supplements into morning and evening, since some things in particular might be better taken twice a day instead of all at once, but I suppose I could switch to all of them at once.

I'm considering trying the IF, but have not convinced myself that I could do it without getting too hungry.

How does one measure the effectiveness of the fasting? I wouldn't be doing it for weight loss, just for the generic health improvements that I am not sure how to measure.

Mike,

This is one of the reasons I am starting tomorrow night, so that my first day of fasting will be on Saturday. I don't know how I will handle the hunger either.

And I am also doing it for the health benefits, as I am pretty much in maintenance. I do plan on sticking to LC all the time.

Give it a try, you never know until you try.

I was supposed to have my cholesterol checked again, this time with the LipoProfile test, and I think if this works for me, I will wait until I have done it for 3-4 weeks before I have that test done and see if there is any significant change. I just had the regular lipid test done the end of August.

I don't know what other kinds of measures we could do, other than how we feel and perform.

I posted a comment to Mike's blog:



As far as results are concerned. I'm looking for a few things personally:

1) Better GI Tract. I am so sensitive to so many foods and end up with diarrhea and cramping. Hoping this will help heal my gut.

2) Lose some weight. Still have a ways to go here.

3) Relief from AS symptoms. When I'm very, very good on Paleo it seems like my symptoms get better. If this works I expect that my tendonitis in my right arm will let up without having to resort to NSAIDS. Typically I get very painful joints when laying in bed at night and lots of tendonitis and sometimes muscle spasms for no good reason.

4) Stuffy nose at night. Again, this seems to go along with my general health.

5) Twitches and pinpricks. Something that seems to happen when my gut is doing badly.

6) Better energy level. When the AS is bad, my fatigue increases.


For me, the fear of hunger is actually worse than the hunger itself.

Also it isn't a constant. You'll be hungry for a few minutes, then it goes away for awhile. It seems to peak out at a certain discomfort level and doesn't really get worse.

I read about that study in Science News and posted about it. Since I have started on 2 meals a day and one snack (yogurt) at night. I am type II prediabetic, I haven't lost much more weight, but my FBG went down almost 20 points. Today I am back down to my lowest weight 182 after some menu adjustments.

I don't think I could get by on one meal a day because I am active for my age and I don't like to eat too much at one meal-- I aim for 800 cal / feeding.

Is everyone doing it the same way the Eades' did? I'm going to give this a go as well, using the 6pm cut-off time/restart time - if I can get my dinner in by 6pm tonight, I'll start tonight and if not, then I'll start tomorrow. Should be an interesting experiment!

I have fear of hunger issues as well, and this sounds like a good way to deal with them head-on. Thing is, I usually only eat brekkie and dinner so I'm concerned about IF making me a little manic about eating enough and resulting in a binge. But, I would like to see if this helped my bloat issues (helped heal my gut from whatever it is) and my - I think - candida issues.

Looking forward to comparing notes! Are we going to report back to Dr. Mike on this?

I plan on doing it the way the Eades did. I will probably make 7pm cut off /restart time, as that will work better for me.

I am also a little worried about the bingeing, but I'm hoping that after a while it will get easier. I can easily not eat dinner, after having eaten my breakfast, lunch and snack. And there have been times when I am not very hungry after eating a large dinner. Putting those together, I am hoping I can make it work. But I don't typically start my day without breakfast, so I think that is going to be the challenge for me.

I certainly don't anticipate eating double the amount that I currently eat, during my eating times. I actually eat a good amount as it is, maybe even too much sometimes. Again, I think after a while my body will let me know how much to eat.

I was thinking about posting to him, with this thread as a link. Does anyone object to my doing that? I know that non-members can't read journals, but I think they can read these threads.

My take on it is the bingeing won't matter so long as you do it every other day. I'll probably do 8-8 because I don't eat breakfast too early. Just be wise and don't binge on things that make you sick, Wayward!

Work with your weaknesses!

I think it is a dandy idea!

I think I'll keep track of all my listed issues in my food log.

Chant this mantra over and over: "Hunger is pleasure". Maybe it'll rewire our brains.

LOL...none of that sort of bingeing, I promise!

I'm gonna eat my damn chips though, once a week...woo hoo!

And I was thinking that a slice of whole grain bread might be a nice change of pace.

I really want to try this too! I also posted on Dr. Eades's blog. I've been meaning to get around to IF for quite some time now, and now that other people are doing it too I finally have incentive.

Anyway, I don't think I will follow the schedule that he and MD followed. I am currently a stay-at-home wife (lol) so I generally don't get up til at least 10 and then I don't eat until 12. I think I'll just go for a sporadic meal kind of thing and see what I come up with.

I have already eaten lunch today, so I guess today is an eating day. I'll plan for an early dinner tonight, and then eat nothing til dinner tomorrow.

Oh, and I am a nerd and I made up an excel spreadsheet with dates, eating times, food eaten, weight, how I am feeling that day, etc.