From what I gather the need (appetite) to eat during the day becomes very controllable and not all that pronounced after some time on IF.

I'd like to know how one *gets* to this state,as far as staving off hunger for the first several weeks during the daytime.

It may depend how you eat normally, and what tasks you do in the day. I normally could go without breakfast and lunch too with a bit of will, so trying out IF wasn't too much of a struggle. I don't think all people are suited to IF. Try your standard anorectics like nico to see how you go. Or do VC version with a bit of protein in the day to keep you going until your proper meals.

It really depends on the length of your feeding/fasting window. You may only need to skip breakfast for an 8 hour window, which is quite easy. For four hour window, try skipping breakfast for a week or two, then start shifting calories from lunch to dinner and/or a late-night snack. Eventually, lunch disappears.

Don't keep extra food around. I finally settled on buying what I need fof the evening refeed each day after work, and have no other food in my home. If shopping hungry leads one to buy tons of crap, rather than what they intended, this method won't work.

I would never have been able to do IF before starting the low carb thing, too much hunger and blood sugar highs and lows.

What you might want to try is just a couple days a week 16/8 IF split. Having the mental edge of knowing that it's just "today" should help you get used to any nagging cravings.

In my case, a little Turkish coffee when I wake up and matè during the fast portion help a great deal.

At the risk of being labeled a "meth-er," get two or three weeks worth of the behind-the-counter pseudo-fed. Stimulating beverages, as Redsky pointed out, are also very helpful. Lots of water also helpful.

While the feedback for the 16/8 routine is positive, the highest levels of alertness, energy, etc seem to come on between 16 and 23 hours. Skipping breakfast just seems too simple/easy; perhaps the benefits derived from 16/8 are merely disproportional to the effort required. In any case, it's a good place to start.

With a 20/4 or even 22/2 routine, you can still get in a preworkout shake and a large meal afterwards. With casein, you have aminos for at least eight hours after feeding.

I've been on and off intermittent fasting since early 2001 when Ori's articles appeared on T-Nation. The things I've found that had the most profound effect on reducing hunger are.

A) If you haven't already, start off by transitioning to a ketogenic diet. Do this for at least 2 weeks. Going into IF on a carb-based diet makes it way more difficult. After having super-stable blood sugar on a higher fat, VLC keto diet, the body will be more efficient at providing ketones and FFA's as energy and not getting hypoglycemic. Chances are your fasting window will put you in a ketogenic state.

B)Start skipping breakfast or pushing it back an hour every few days until it becomes lunch. Do the same with lunch. Push it back another hour every few days, expanding the fasting window. You don't have to jump right in.

C)This is contrary to some advice, but if you're gonna fast, fast. No fruit, nuts, etc. I, and i've seen many others report the same, have a much easier time with a total fast, and even a small bite to eat stimulates the appetite.

D)Make the meal a keto meal (if possible). This is variable, personally, even a moderate amout of carbs in the meal causes deep hunger pangs the following day. When I eat a high fat meal of eggs, meat, bacon I feel no hunger the following day. I eat carbs, i'm often ravenous. Probably something to do with reactive hypoglycemia or the dawn effect, but its always the same with me. Many report the same thing, although others say the opposite. See what effects you.

E)careful with sweeteners. Sometimes when I drink a lot of diet drinks, I get hunger pangs soon after during the fasting window. Perhaps its from a drop in blood sugar, not sure. I've seen others say the same, although I know it's not universal.

Why it's hard to jump into IF:

Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2008 Jan 10 [Epub ahead of print]
Related Articles

Possible entrainment of ghrelin to habitual meal patterns in humans.

Frecka JM, Mattes RD.

Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States.

Ghrelin is reportedly a meal-initiation signal based on observations that concentrations increase before meals coincident with rising hunger. However, evidence that ghrelin peaks vary with feeding schedules suggests it rises in anticipation of an expected meal, rather than eliciting feeding. To explore the entrainment of ghrelin profiles, this study investigated the association between varying habitual meal patterns and plasma ghrelin concentrations. Lean and obese adults following either a short intermeal interval (SII) pattern, with 2.5-3.5 hours between their habitual breakfast and lunch times, or a long intermeal interval (LII) pattern, with 5.5-6.5 hours between these eating occasions, participated. Food intake and appetite were recorded for 2 baseline days. On the subsequent test day, blood samples were collected over 8 hours while participants ate a breakfast and lunch matched to their customary meals and pattern. Appetite ratings were obtained and ghrelin, insulin, glucose, and leptin concentrations were measured. Peak ghrelin concentrations differed significantly by group and occurred prior to each groups' respective lunch time. Ghrelin concentrations directly correlated with subjective hunger. This association was stronger when hunger preceded ghrelin; a pattern inconsistent with ghrelin causing the hunger rise. Ghrelin concentrations were inversely correlated with insulin, and peak insulin concentrations preceded nadir ghrelin concentrations postprandially. Ghrelin concentrations periprandially, and over the entire test session, did not differ by meal group, likely due to similar intakes between groups. These data demonstrate the timing of ghrelin peaks is related to habitual meal patterns and may rise in anticipation of eating rather than eliciting feeding.