quick guide on IF

So IF, short for intermittent fasting.

One of the biggest misconceptions about IF is that starving yourself for a long period of time is what’s helping you get weight loss results from it. That’s absolutely false. You don’t need to starve to lose weight, and starving yourself being super hungry and all is no indicator that you’re losing more weight or losing weight faster.

The feeling of hunger is a part of the journey yes, but is very much not some kind of special indicator of progress.

IF is a diet method that leans into hunger meaning you’re likely to feel a lot more hunger from IF than other diet methods, but that doesn’t make it better or worse. The payoff you get from being extra hungry on IF is that you get to be extra fulfilled during your meals cos IF often means you get to eat more per meal while still sticking to the same overall amount of food you’re eating.

A quick and easy way to look at it is let’s say you’re on a 1500kcal diet. Without IF a typical meal schedule would be something like 500kcal for breakfast, 500kcal for lunch, 500kcal for dinner. On IF will likely mean you skip breakfast or dinner, which means you’ll likely just have 2 meals a day which would mean 750kcal per meal for the same total of 1500kcal. Same total for the tradeoff of being hungrier than usual throughout the day, but also get to eat more per meal on a regular basis.

Is that a good or a bad thing? It’s neither.

It’s really up to you to decide whether IF is something that suits your lifestyle or not.

If you’re someone that consistently needs to be nibbling on something throughout the day, IF is a terrible idea. You’re better off having 5 meals a day of 300kcal each (for a total of 1500kcal by example) than to only have 2 meals a day. But if you’re someone that doesn't mind dealing with temporary hunger so you can have a bigger meal later on then IF is something you can consider.

If you struggle with hunger in any shape or form, don’t do IF. It just makes those struggles worse which invites binge cycles inevitably.

What about the timing of IF?

16/8 is the standard you’ll see most people talk about. Fast for 16hrs, 8hrs eating period.

Typically it’ll look something like finish your last meal by 8pm, start your first meal by 12pm the next day. If you’re not a breakfast person it’s quite easy and doable. Of course there’s variations like 18/6 or 20/4 but it’s really just preference. More fasting time doesn’t mean more results. You wanna follow the timing that you can keep to as consistently as possible for as long as possible. There’s nothing wrong with say 14/10 or 12/12 either. IF is just a timing restraint to help keep your diet in check.

Remember though IF isn’t magic.

You can totally gain weight through IF as well. Say with the 1500kcal example, if you’re eating 2000kcal on IF you’re gonna gain weight. IF isn’t some guarantee that you’ll lose weight, it’s just a strategy to help you be in control with your diet. When weight loss is your primary goal, no matter what diet method you choose to follow you still gotta be mindful of the amounts of food (calories) that you’re consuming regularly. There is no such diet where you can eat whatever you want however much you want and lose weight.

It doesn’t exist.

I hope this quick guide helps you understand IF a bit more!

Till the next one~

— Po