What is Intermittent Fasting?
I remember reading about Intermittent Fasting a couple years ago. A friend recommended a book after she got diagnosed with cancer and had other health ailments. I got the book and when I read the section on Intermittent fasting I was so surprised at how much of it made sense. I’m sure by now you may have heard about it before. If not, by the end of this post you will know more about it.
As always please remember that I am not a doctor and before starting any type of plan to please consult with a physician.
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You may be asking what it is. Well Wikipedia says “Intermittent fasting (intermittent energy restriction or intermittent calorie restriction) is an umbrella term for various eating protocols that cycle between a period of fasting and non-fasting over a defined period. Intermittent fasting is under preliminary research to assess if it can produce weight loss comparable to long-term calorie restriction”
Intermittent fasting has been around for thousands of years. I’m not sure why it was discovered but I know people saw the results and decided to stick with it. Recently it has been brought up in the weight loss community quite often. I really learned about it when I read Effortless Healing by Dr. Joseph Mercola [HERE] (yes I know he’s a quack) and David Perlmutter M.D. Then I got The Complete Guide to fasting by Jason Fung, MD [HERE]. It dived deeper into healing your body with intermittent fasting.
The Not So Nitty Gritty on Intermittent Fasting
I’m not going to go into the science of it all. And I’m not talking about fasting that last for days. I’m here to give you a brief overview about intermittent fasting and a quick how to.
As mentioned above Intermittent fasting is a period each day that you fast. This does not mean go without drinking water, coffee, or tea. It means going without food and no sugar or milk in your coffee). An example of a 16 hour fast would be Starting your fast at 7:00 pm and ending it at 11:00 am the next day. You would eat lunch and dinner in those 8 hours then fast again starting at 7:00 pm the next night.
To sum it up you eat during a set period of time each day.
That’s it. Well basically in a nutshell. And I said I was going to be brief. You should know to actually lose weight you still need to be consuming less calories than you spend. I’m not going into all of that in this post but there are many websites that will help you figure an estimate of calories you are burning a day.
People intermittent fast for many reasons. The biggest reason I have found is weight loss. Next is the ability to feel better, some say it helps them focus longer at work without having to stop for lunch, many said they sleep better.
I have tried intermittent fasting before and as of this post I’m trying it again along with these supplements. Before when I tried intermittent fasting I felt better. I had a certain clarity about me, slept better (I have insomnia most of the time) I always said I slept better because I was so tired from not eating and I eventually craved less food.
If I only have a certain amount of time to eat and only 1 or 2 meals I make sure they are good. I end up cutting out all snacks which really helps me to lose weight. Something about being on a restrictive time crunch really helps me. I give myself a certain period of time I can eat and that is it. It’s almost like making a game out of it. See how long i can go before I look at my app (more on that below).
What People Had to Say about Intermittent Fasting
I recently asked a few friends who intermittent fast and asked them why they liked it and why they did it. Here are some of their responses.
“I do it for the weight loss and because a friend suggested it then I eventually started sleeping better so stuck with it”
“I heard it improved memory function and increased energy so i was all for it.” I thought If this isn’t a good enough reason to try intermittent fasting I don’t know what is. It actually motivated me to start it again. Now if I could just get my husband on board.
Convinced yet? Here is another one….
Another friend who is honest to a fault said this “Don’t use my name ? I started IF and keto because I was added to a fb group that was dedicated to fasting. This particular group was for people that IF daily and some peeps for like 10-12 days (dry fast). I saw astounding before and after photos and that group backed everything up with science. I’ve found a lot of people FREAK when you say “fast.” “It’s unhealthy blah blah.” I appreciated the science aspect…”
She keeps going…
“…Anyway, I didn’t follow it exactly as recommended because I still drank my plexus in the morning as my migraine preventative. My recommendation for newbies is to start slow. Skip breakfast. Then add an hour the next day….progress up to skipping breakfast and lunch. Once my body was conditioned it was no problem to eat one meal per day, dinner around 5:00. I found that I looked forward to dinner (hello, hunger) but I ate better because I didn’t want to mess up my work. I ate ketoish. Eating normally, I would have to rush home (TMI) to use the bathroom every day. I suspect a touch of IBS. Doing IF, ibs symptoms practically vanished. I no longer had to rush home after work, I drank water throughout the day. and I ended up dropping a lot of weight quickly. And now that I’m typing all of this out, I think I need to start it again ASAP lol”
Didn’t she basically say what I did? That the ones of us that have done this before are wanting to do it again just by the memories of doing intermittent fasting.
One other said “I started it because I wanted to lose weight and my husband does it so I jumped on board. I am not hungry surprisingly and I eat less. I would recommend for people to do their research before starting and to keep with it because it’s worth it. Lol. I am not a writer.. Soo.. Yeah”
To sum it up
Overall I heard and read more people do it for weight loss and to help the cravings than anything else. Everything else that comes with it is just a plus. Which is amazing. It does take some planning. I had one friend one night send me a picture of her keto friendly meal (you can check out her blog here on all things Keto) that she had to eat before her fast started to be in within her eating time frame. So planning is key and in no time it will be second nature.
If you were to start Intermittent Fasting how many hours do you think you could start off fasting? I always take it slow and work up to the 18 hours fast. I may do 12 hours fast the first few days then 13 hours and so on.
There are apps and facebooks groups for support that can help you do this. And really there are so many great books and blogs on this topic I’m sure you will be able to find more information than you will ever know what to do with. Here are some of my favorite books. Right now I’m loving the Zero app. If you have a suggestion for a better one please let me know.
What are your thoughts?
I’m curious to see if you have ever tried Intermittent Fasting. If you have please drop a comment below and let me know. And if you have time share a tip with all of us!
Before you go
Until next week you can also check out my brief month trying to oil pull [HERE].
Have a great day!
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