Is it about zero food or about low food intake?

[Yvana van den Hork]

Now I'm confused. I've been reading too much on IF by now and everything gets a bit fuzzy because of the various interpretations. What is the most vital characteristic about IF?

Is it about eating zero food during xx hours, say 12-24 hrs and giving your gut a complete rest?
Or is it about eating very little one day and then eating lots another day , viz. an extreme zigzag pattern.


In the first case we are talking about an absolute fast and then a feast, that might take you at or over maintenance every single day.
In the second case someone can theoretically eat 6 teeny-tiny meals of say 100-150 kcals each one day and then semi-gorge another day.
And, in the second case, does it HAVE to be a ketodiet , since ketodiets are said to give much of the same effects as fasting does, because of the low carb intake.

I've seen a lot of people experimenting with IF and have seen many interpretations passing by. So, please give your interpretation!

[Allen Yeh]

I always tended to think it was more of option 1. I know it'd be very difficult to go over maintenance calories if my eating window is only 6-9 hours, I sometimes have a tough time getting all ~3000 in that time to begin with that I don't even worry about going over. I typically do my fasts in 15-18 hour stints.

I've found that the longer I have been IF'ing the less total calories I need to maintain.

[Mike ODonnell]

a true fast is only water...no food...otherwise you are still having some sort of insulin response. I am sure both approaches have benefit over the normal daily eating habbits of people today....but the pure fast probably has the most benefit giving the digestive system complete rest. Some people do 15 hours...some do 24hours....some do low carb, some use pwo carbs.....like Alan said you probably will end up needing less calories per day to maintain because of the fasting part saving muscles and enhancing protein/carb sensitivity with periods of zero intake...which allows you to better utilize and asimiliate what you eat....Not sure there is only one right or wrong answer....as every approach gives benefit and everyone has an individualistic base of health (insulin resistance, etc...).

[Troy Archie]

Isn't the second one essentially CRAN?

[Yvana van den Hork]

CRAN = ?

Sounds like calorie restriction + ??

[Mike ODonnell]

Calorie Restriction w/ Adaquate Nutrition

For your extreme zig zag of fasting every other day not to be CR you would have to eat for example 4000 cal on the eating day if your normal baseline is 2000 cal/day....although with fasting and more efficient digestion/metabolism...you could probably get by on less calories than you think.....Intermittent Fasting is not CRAN in my book....but everyone has their own interpretation

[Troy Archie]

Oops, I misread that...