Every time I say I’m fasting or intermittent fasting my family members always say “Honey that’s not good for you, the weight is just going to come back plus some. Its not good for dieting” (For context, I’m in the obese range for BMI) But I don’t plan on stopping - I’ve started fasting 19:5 for the past two weeks and I really like it. I have less cravings and I have more control over what I eat and I’ve been finding really good and healthy foods while still enjoying a cup of ice cream every night. I just hate bringing it up to people because I always get criticized for it.
Don’t mention the word fasting. Just say “I feel better when I eat less frequently” or “I only eat when I’m hungry”, or something like that. Make it a statement, not an explanation. Don’t explain yourself and do not give a lot of details, people will jump right on it. It’s not the goal to convince them, it’s just the goal to let them know what you do when that suits you. If it doesn’t, don’t let them know at all.
Same way you show anybody who just believes whatever they want to believe that you can live rationally and be happy: live rationally and be happy.
Just wait until you’re only 10-20 lbs over the target weight for your BMI and they are already telling you how gaunt and anorexic you look. What they mean is “your success makes me feel fat and lazy”, but that’s not what they’ll say.
My response for similar, “well every person in this family is clinically obese or morbidly obese, and we have lost a lot of our loved ones to heart disease or cancers of the bowel or breast which are linked to obesity and visceral organ inflammation. So taking diet advice from people in this family is like asking for investment advice from Bernie Madoff”
My father in law used to say this all the time and I just ignored him. Then he ended up in the hospital and the doctors recommended fasting. He read Dr Fungs book and he’s all about it now.
Anyway, who cares what they think? It’s your life and your body.
IF is probably easier to explain. Eating in timed windows is no different than dieting by just eating healthier foods with no windows for eating. In the end your still eating. Water fasting will always be difficult to explain to the uninformed
I find it’s helpful to explain that biologically, we’re not really programmed to eat three square meals per day and in fact we can go for days and days without eating. Our human ancestors who had to hunt and forage for survival most certainly did not eat three meals per day and often didn’t even get one.
We’re not all that genetically different from our ancestors who went for days and days without food.
Sometimes you have to refer them to other sources if they won’t take your word for it. My mom was like this. I let her read a couple of books and referred her to some of my favourite podcasts… not only does she now support me, she’s an IFer herself! People are usually afraid of things they don’t understand :)
You’re a champ. Our ancestors did it, and I am sure that’s part of our evolutions.
They are enabiliting poor behaviour because they are ignorant to the facts, is awful. I’m sorry, OP. Stay the course as you said.
I ask them how they think we evolved, specifically if we had three meals a day. It always stops and makes them think. I don’t think they’re always entirely convinced but it does place enough doubt in their minds to stop telling me it’s unhealthy.
I’ve done keto and IF for many years, and ran into a ton of resistance at first. Seeing is believing for a lot of people, and once they saw that it worked, resistance waned. I didn’t really bring it up, as a general rule, because no amount of explaining is going to convince someone who isn’t open to the idea. Just gotta show ‘em!
“I fill up my car with 12 gallons of gas on Monday. It takes me 4 gallons of gas to get to and from work. So I drive to and from work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and I’m all out of gas! So Wednesday night, I refill on gas.”
“If I refill my car every day after driving, I go from 12 down 8 gallons of gas left, and I have to fill it up. I’m a sloppy person and when the gas tank is full, I unintentionally keep holding down the lever to pump more gas in. That gas spills out and causes problems, like safety and health hazards.”
“If I only overspill my gasoline twice a week instead of 7 times a week, that is way less safety and health hazards I’m causing.”
I was having lunch with my dada recently, and he mentioned he wanted to lose weight, but because of injuries, he was unable to really do much in the gym. So I mentioned fasting as a solution for him. Fasting requires no extraneous physical movement and is a faster way to lose weight compared to anything else. I explained how the body, though the process of autophagy, eliminates the old cells from the body, and scavenges them for additional resources. leaving the healthy strong cells. I told him about how you will experience an increase mental clarity during fasts. Fasting is actually the healthiest things you can do for yourself.
You cannot. Mortals do not believe and it’s almost impossible to change their minds. Some doctors and clinicians know about fasting but when you tell them about it they assume you’re gonna get all crazy and fast for 90 days. This is how most clinicians react, they think of the most extreme outcome.
So you can’t tell them. Just lie. Say you already ate…etc.
I lead them to the science. Send links to documentaries, research papers readily available on researchgate and ncbi, books about fasting, etc. Then if it’s brought up again, “I sent you a ton of educational material, did you take the time to look into it?” The answer is probably no, in which case I point out that they clearly aren’t interested in actually knowing what they’re talking about, they just want to hear themselves talk.
“Honey that’s not good for you, the weight is just going to come back plus some. Its not good for dieting”
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Ask you going to wake up and eat to stop your 8 hours sleep fasting?
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Wait, if she eats at 6 and 8 next morning, that’s 14 hours fasting. She is not allow to do that by her rule.
Time restricted feeding, maybe a better phrase to use instead of fasting if intermittent. Let them know the health benefits. If that doesn’t work, just don’t tell them. “I’m stuffed, just ate right before I came over.”, etc…