The #1 Worst Intermittent Fasting Mistake, Dietitian Says

[OctoberRed]

Healthy wisdom that could change how you think about your fasting windows!

Let's be honest: Intermittent fasting is not for the faint of heart. It takes strategy, commitment, and a hefty dose of willpower… but now, a registered dietitian is sharing a new way to think about what your body needs, plus four tips to make your intermittent fasting practice healthier, and more successful for weight loss.

Mandy Enright, MS, RDN, RYT is known for the practical advice she shares on her social media to make weight loss and healthy eating less restrictive and more sensible. This week on her LinkedIn profile, Enright proposed: "Let's talk about the #1 mistake people are making with Intermittent Fasting." But she didn't stop there, and shared some other smart I.F. pointers.

1 "Most people need more than an 8-hour window."

Enright kicked it off by calling out what she says is the worst mistake people make with intermittent fasting: Eating within "feasting" windows that are too narrow of a timespan.

She said that the 16-hour "fasting" window combined with the eight-hour "feasting" window may be too strict for some dieters. In fact, she suggested, when your body is telling you that it needs to eat, fighting that feeling "is simply just torturing yourself," and can be compared to forcing yourself to wait 16 hours to use the restroom.

When you think of it this way, you might agree that it's important to listen to your body, right? Here was Enright's solution for going about this more gently—"After all," she said, "would you only let yourself go to the bathroom between 12-8pm? [sic]"

"If you're looking to try Intermittent Fasting," the dietitian said, "don't be so restrictive off the bat or you will set yourself up for failure."

Instead, she shared: "I always recommend starting with a 12-hour window in your day to start, and you can always adjust from there based on hunger, energy levels, and what your schedule looks like that day."

Another big intermittent fasting miss…

Enright added that another way she sees people not getting the most out of their efforts is to respond to long daily periods of deprivation by doing this: "If you're only eating 1 or 2 overly large meals per day, how is this helping your weight loss or weight management goals? . . . often I see people eating these big meals super late in the day."

What's the problem with this approach? "Not only is this not ideal for your energy and metabolism, but it's also fast track to a terrible night's sleep," Enright said.

Enright says instead, dieters should follow these three rules:

Eat earlier
Eat often
Eat balanced portions.

[GrandpaBernard]

Mandy is a chicken wuss

6 hours is the biggest window for IF

tf she talking about more than 8

have your first meal

finish eating for the day with your 2nd and final meal 3 to 4 hours later

[OctoberRed]

Mandy is a chicken wuss

6 hours is the biggest window for IF

tf she talking about more than 8

have your first meal

finish eating for the day with your 2nd and final meal 3 to 4 hours later

I usually try to have last meal by 7PM and that's it for the day

[GrandpaBernard]

I usually try to have last meal by 7PM and that's it for the day

Yeah man ever since I began the IF lifestyle

11 AM lunches are overrated

other countries have it right. They eat lunch later in the day

Americans will go to lunch after only 2 hours at work lol

[TheBoxGod]

I'm not a big fan of IF but some people swear by it but its just cause.... imo they really dont know whats taking place. If you ask them what benefits they get from it its always usually calorie restricted related benefits not an IF related benefit. Which makes sense you cut your window of eating you are essentially restricting the calorie you are taking in a day,,, just in a different way.

You want to reset mtor,, mtor resets after about 4-5 hours after you ate, you do not want to keep mtor elevated all day so if you constantly snacking all day your keeping it elevated and that is no bueno, so 3 meals a day are fine with 4-5 hours between meals. with IF the main reason is KETOSIS which is overrated in itself unless you trying to reverse diabetes otherwise I really don't see the point, and if you aren't restricting carbs during this feeding time you are not going to even get close to ketosis during your IF so yeah back to restricted calories benefits only and if you aren't fasting for more than 16 hours your aren't even going to start initiating the real benefits of IF either.

My advice is understand your goal and take the best route to achieve it. If you are someone who is pre-diabetic than by all means adopt IF and get your system under control before its too late. However if you are a healthy individual their is really no benefit from IF other than the placebo effect in your mind cause 99% of the time the benefits people will point to are actually a calorie restricted benefits not an IF benefit.

Even in this article you posted the "dietitian" is talking about IF from a weight-loss perspective so thats a calorie restricted benefit approach not really an IF benefit approach. So if you goal is lose weight understand that and get yourself a plan, not rely on IF restricting your time to eat to lose weight lol are you going to do that the rest of your life? if not than how do you plan to keep the weight off if you dont even understand why your body is putting on weight, if you dont understand how to count calories, or why, or all that.

[OctoberRed]

I'm not a big fan of IF but some people swear by it but its just cause.... imo they really dont know whats taking place. If you ask them what benefits they get from it its always usually calorie restricted related benefits not an IF related benefit. Which makes sense you cut your window of eating you are essentially restricting the calorie you are taking in a day,,, just in a different way.

You want to reset mtor,, mtor resets after about 4-5 hours after you ate, you do not want to keep mtor elevated all day so if you constantly snacking all day your keeping it elevated and that is no bueno, so 3 meals a day are fine with 4-5 hours between meals. with IF the main reason is KETOSIS which is overrated in itself unless you trying to reverse diabetes otherwise I really don't see the point, and if you aren't restricting carbs during this feeding time you are not going to even get close to ketosis during your IF so yeah back to restricted calories benefits only and if you aren't fasting for more than 16 hours your aren't even going to start initiating the real benefits of IF either.

My advice is understand your goal and take the best route to achieve it. If you are someone who is pre-diabetic than by all means adopt IF and get your system under control before its too late. However if you are a healthy individual their is really no benefit from IF other than the placebo effect in your mind cause 99% of the time the benefits people will point to are actually a calorie restricted benefits not an IF benefit.

Even in this article you posted the "dietitian" is talking about IF from a weight-loss perspective so thats a calorie restricted benefit approach not really an IF benefit approach. So if you goal is lose weight understand that and get yourself a plan, not rely on IF restricting your time to eat to lose weight lol are you going to do that the rest of your life? if not than how do you plan to keep the weight off if you dont even understand why your body is putting on weight, if you dont understand how to count calories, or why, or all that.

What's your take on Metamucil?

After I started taking it, I sometimes drop three dueces a day.

[TheBoxGod]

What's your take on Metamucil?

After I started taking it, I sometimes drop three dueces a day.

Metamucil aka psyllium husk is good for a time to time use but I wouldnt recommend you using it daily and I would only recommend the powder version over the pills and I would recommend using the minimum amount needed to get the job done with ALOT OF WATER! People have choked and died from it (if not properly swallowed it can swell in your throat) and without proper amount of water if can cause the worse constipation you ever had.

Psyllium husk is soluble fiber that everybody needs (some more than others) in their diet and it just helps keeps your body regular, fiber is good because it help regulate your blood sugar level amoung other health benefits but you should be getting it in your diet through your food and you need 15g per 1000 calories so a typical average person should be eating 30g give a take a few grams. What I would ask you is why did you start taking it? if it was constipation etc I would recommend you get your potassium (4000mg) and fiber(25-30g) in everyday for a few weeks and see if that clears it up.

But yeah like with anything.. you do not want to have to depend on it, theirs are some people who just stop responding to psyllium husk and when that happens whatever symptoms you had prior are coming back and coming back alot worse, so I recommend people fix the issue that got them taking the psyllium husk in the first place if that a possibility if not you gotta do what you gotta do.

I do recommend psyllium husk to individuals who are dieting because after a while the lack of fiber and lack of "bulk" will start making going a lil more sluggish/difficult just cause you will not be producing enough bulk to flow right and this is where psyllium husk will help alot. (also should diet more than 2 months but that another story)

So overall yeah its fine, most people will have no issues using it if taking the proper way (see below) and its actually recommend for older folks same with vitamins because they just arent going to eat in the amount needed to hit the thresholds of their macros.

My recommended way of taking psyllium husk.
1. Take the least amount to get the results.
2. Take plenty of water along side it.
3. Take the powder form only.

so yeah great if needed if not needed dont take it, eat better choices of food.

[OctoberRed]

What's your take on Metamucil?

After I started taking it, I sometimes drop three dueces a day.

Without taking it I tend to drop a deuce every few days and get bloated. When I take metamucil, I drop at least one a day and usually 2-3 a day.

[TheBoxGod]

Without taking it I tend to drop a deuce every few days and get bloated. When I take metamucil, I drop at least one a day and usually 2-3 a day.

Yeah.... thats what fiber will do is keep you regular.

The thing is this... assuming you are taking in the "recommended" servings on the Metamucil label which is roughly 10g fiber (6g dietary and 5 soluble fiber) that is only 1/2 of the amount of fiber you should be getting daily through food which should be roughly 30g fiber which will actually be double of what Metamucil is providing you. So through diet you can be achieving the same results. So logic will say if you was getting in your recommended RDA of fiber you wouldnt even need the metamucil because you will be getting the fiber you body wants/need and you will be regular.

But... everything easier said than done and if metamucil is working for you than by all means, just keep in mind that you should be trying to get your fiber through food.

[Richard Hamilton]

People have been doing this for years without the fancy name.