Intermittent fasting: 5:2 vs. 16/8

[HunterST]

The 5:2 diet (which I first found out about from a video on here) is starting to gain traction in the US. For those that do not know, 5:2 refers to a diet in which you restrict yourself to 600 calories/day for 2, non-consecutive days per week. A lot of people have had success with it. I lost about 10 pounds doing it for 5 weeks.

Recently, I've been hearing about 16/8 intermittent fasting. Hugh Jackman has been advocating it and used it as he got in shape to portray Wolverine. In this version, you allow yourself an 8 hour window in which you may eat per day. A person might be able to eat between 11 and 7 for example. The other 16 hours, no food is permitted.

Anyone have an opinion on which of these options would be most beneficial?

 

[GuyClinch]

I like the 16 hour deal - its easy for me and seems like a good idea.

I can't get my g/f to commit to it but it does seem to work. The only caveat for me is that I don't like eating a huge dinner as the last meal (if you do say 3 in the 8 hour period). I don't like a huge meal sitting in my stomach while I sleep. So I think its best to make the middle meal biggest and this is difficult if you work.

The best example is the Lean Gains guys diet. He pretty much started the trend. I'd characterize his diet as 'medium carb' with IF. Its hard to argue with is results. In fact they are so good you wonder if he is clean..

Don't get me wrong - he doesn't seem like the nicest guy. And comes off as pretty arrogant but most feel he is the guy that everyone is ripping off now.

http://www.leangains.com/

You can read his site and save yourself the trouble of purchasing one of this books. His exercise advice is also old school - but no doubt effective if you can follow it..

 

[Talker]

One way to do intermittent fasting is to eat sometime the night before and then skip breakfast.
This way your sleeping through 8 hours or so of the intermittent fast and part of the next day.

Here's a new study with some results about skipping breakfast.




U.S. men who skip breakfast may increase heart disease risk


07-23-13

Men who regularly skip breakfast may have an increased risk of heart disease, U.S. researchers say.

Leah E. Cahill of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues analyzed the eating habits, including breakfast, of 26,902 U.S. men, ages 45-82, who were found to be free of cardiovascular disease and cancer when assessed in 1992 for the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

During 16 years of follow-up, 1,527 incident coronary heart disease cases were diagnosed. Computer models were used to estimate relative risks and adjustments were made for demographic, diet, lifestyle and other coronary heart disease risk factors.

The study, published in the journal Circulation, found men who skipped breakfast had a 27 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease compared with men who did not skip a morning meal.

 

[ollinger]

^^ Skipping breakfast also has been shown years ago to increase risk of gall bladder disease, the reason being that dietary fat in the morning stimulates gall bladder contraction and emptying, helping to prevent formation of sludge and stones.

 

[GuyClinch]

Men who skip breakfast are pretty unhealthy. But is it because they skip breakfast or because unhealthy men skip breakfast.

I think its the latter. Correlation studies are relatively useless. You know what they say about people who sleep in their shoes - they get headaches.

 

[HunterST]

Men who skip breakfast are pretty unhealthy. But is it because they skip breakfast or because unhealthy men skip breakfast.

I think its the latter. Correlation studies are relatively useless. You know what they say about people who sleep in their shoes - they get headaches.

That's just what I was thinking.