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Thread: Intermittent fasting: Why your neighbors follow new weight-loss craze

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    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    Intermittent fasting: Why your neighbors follow new weight-loss craze

    You know that hungry feeling when you first wake up? You can't wait to eat, right? But what if, instead of sitting down at the table, you walked right past it until lunchtime to mid-afternoon? And after eating then, you put down the fork and didn't touch anything until the same time tomorrow.

    It might sound impossible and, frankly, torturous.

    But intermittent fasting, as this philosophy of eating is called, is a practice that many, including some doctors, trainers and athletes, swear by. Here's how it works - you fast, or don't eat, for a period of time that might last as long as 24 hours, then eat for a short, designated window of time before returning to fasting.

    Of course, fasting isn't a new concept - it's been a part of some spiritual and religious practices for centuries. But proponents of intermittent fasting say that it can lead not only to fat loss but an eventual healthier relationship with the food you do eat.

    "If you're getting the oil changed in your car, you're not pouring clean oil over the dirty oil," says Maribel Bleeker, a personal trainer in Palm Beach Gardens. "We have to take care of our engines. It works for me as an athlete, for cleansing my body."

    Dr. Mark Sherwood, who with wife Dr. Michelle Sherwood founded the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Functional Medicine Institute and authored the best-selling "The Quest For Wellness," says he's "seen body fat drop and muscle tissue increase" through intermittent fasting.

    "(Eventually) there's less of a dependency on food and more intuitive eating. When you're hungry, eat. When you're not, don't."

    Bleeker, who's been in the fitness industry for 15 years, discovered the concept of intermittent fasting six years ago through a program called Isegenix, where the fasting periods are referred to as "cleanses" and supported with protein shakes, approved snacks and other supplements.

    She says she was initially skeptical but says that the cleansing allows "the body to take a breath. It can be hard to consider a day of not chewing when you first start. But it's not a diet. It's a lifestyle. It's putting in new fuel and feeling better."

    Like any change in lifestyle, intermittent eating isn't easy to adapt to. Maksim Deryabkin, a personal trainer at the Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa in Manalapan, admits that his first week, embarking on a 20 hour fast and 4 hour feeding schedule, "was a rough adjustment period. The hunger seemed relentless and unnatural. It was a mental boxing match between my stomach and my mind. Why am I pushing myself through this?"

    But after acclimating to the fast, making sure to constantly hydrate to feel fuller, Deryabkin says he "noticed eating wasn't my daily priority. Hunger became just another emotion. Life became simpler. I was eating to live, rather than living to eat."

    All told, Deryabkin, who was running about 15 miles a week and working out almost every day for 45 minutes, lost "a good percentage of body fat" as well as some muscle, although "my muscles popped out a lot more...I had a leaner look to my figure. My strength and energy levels went through the roof."

    He has now begun suggesting intermittent fasting to his clients.

    The Sherwoods, like Deryabkin, experimented with intermittent fasting personally before suggesting it to others. Mark Sherwood says it sounds daunting, but, for instance, "if you eat a normal dinner at 6 p.m. and don't eat again until 18 hours later, which is noon the next day, most of the fasting is done while you're sleeping."

    There are some initial side effects besides the hunger. Sherwood says he has seen patients experience "a little bit of a headache" when first trying intermittent fasting, which makes sense because "you're going through a detox program. The thing I see most commonly is irritability, people biting their spouse or partner's head off. But you're used to being driven by addictive and mind-altering refined carbohydrates and sugars."

    To the uninitiated, it seems that the first thing one would want to do after going that long without food would be to attach oneself to a pizza buffet and stay there until closing. But Sherwood says you have to stay off the "cheat train" and commit to healthy eating with proper nutrients.

    "You have to look at the quality of food," he says. "Inflammation is the precursor for all sickness and disease. We know that processed foods are inflammatory. We believe in a transition from carbohydrate-dependent diets of sugar, grain and bread into more vegetables and fruit, to higher quality protein. Intermittent fasting works great in that transition."

    Deryabkin agrees that "this routine forced me to make conscious choices with my meals because I was limited to the amount of meals I would consume. I had to ensure that my limited meals contained my daily nutrition requirement. I was impressed with my ability to resist junk food and favor quality foods that I knew would satisfy me until the next feeding segment. The fewer meals led me to eating generally less throughout the day."

    Some experts have reservations. Stacey Silver, a dietitian at Delray Medical Center, says she sees pros and cons in intermittent fasting, which "has a time and place, but isn't necessarily the best thing for everybody." On the plus side, it's good for weight loss, which is "about calories in, calories out," Silver says.

    However, she says that "fasting can cause overeating at times." Silver also cautions that there "really hasn't been much human research done on it, so it's hard to say if it would be super beneficial over a large period of time. And when diets are too (calorie) restrictive, it can affect your workout."

    Silver says that rather than intermittent fasting, she prefers to teach people to focus on balanced, healthy eating. "It can be a place to jump-start (a healthier diet), but I'd rather promote healthy patterns, not 'good food' or 'bad food' or skipping meals. You hear people say 'I'm going to a party tonight so I'm not going to eat all day,' and you go out tonight and overdo it a bit."

    Joni Suarez, 36, a hair stylist from West Palm Beach and one of Bleeker's clients who eventually lost 41 pounds, says she was initially worried that her reaction to intermittent fasting would be wanting to overdo it.

    "But it's not like that," she says. "It's a gentle cleanse. And when (the fast) is over I can sit and enjoy food. It really is balanced, healthy eating."

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    Administrator fuego's Avatar
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    I've generally led a lifestyle of intermittent fasting for awhile now. I eat all my food within a 6-8 hour period, most of the time 6 hours. And I don't snack. And generally my eating is just two meals.

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    Frozen Chosen A.J.'s Avatar
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    Great info thanks.

    I really need to get back on the fasting train

    My eating habits since about last Christmas have been horrendous.

    One thing I HAVE noticed with all the fasting and detox I've done is that the "high" weight I plateau at is MUCH lower than it once was.

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