I feel slow when i have food too early in the day. Keto and IF got me used to fasting daily. Stopped keto a while ago now im doing a responsible daily meal plan 2200 calories or so but STILL doing a daily 16-18 hour intermittent fasting with responsible amounts of hydration and coffee and exercise. How long can i safely keep this going?
TLDR: do people experience long term negative side effects if they keep doing IF for like 5-6 days a week consistently for months at a time?
You can literally keep this going forever. Generations ago, everyone ate like this. Fasting for 16 hours is nothing. You stop eating at 5 p.m. and then don’t eat until 9 a.m. in the morning. It’s not hazardous at all. You can even eat 3 traditional meals if you want.
Maybe adjust your chosen hours to something fitting your body’s natural cycle. Look at the nutrition of the foods your eating, whether you’re getting balanced meals and enough calories.
Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and this is not medical advice. In my non-expert opinion, it generally seems safe to do 16:8 IF every day for the long term (if you are generally in good health, getting good nutrition, hydrating, etc.). You’re really just skipping breakfast — which loads of people do every day anyway, even if they don’t call it IF. It isn’t anything drastic. If you have specific health concerns, definitely talk to your doctor.
Personally, I’ve been doing OMAD every day since May 2021 and have suffered no ill effects. In fact, I’ve had multiple positive health effects, not just losing weight. When I reach my goal weight, I fully intend to continue IF. Might need to modify my schedule to maintain instead of lose. But I genuinely feel so much better doing IF.
“Fast. Feast. Repeat.: The Comprehensive Guide…” book by Gin Stephens, seems like something you’d be interested in. She’s kind of annoying (with the cheerleading pep talks), and overly verbose (book is 35% longer than needed due to redundancies), but does cover the studies that exist. However, like someone else pointed out, the best “long term study of IF” is how people ate 100+ years ago.