Today I am going to give you my experience with intermittent fasting. If you think it "destroys" your metabolism and wreaks havoc on your hunger signals, check out the links under my blog. I am just providing you with personal experience-- the links get into the science of it all. Anyways, I intermittent fast for several reasons. First of all, if you don't know what IF is, it is choosing not to eat for an extended period of time to deplete your food stores. See nowadays we are eating so much, so frequently, our fat and glycogen stores get overflowed every few hours. If we don't deplete them by means of exercise or giving our metabolisms a chance to synthesize the food, it causes insulin and leptin resistance, and eventually leads to obesity. On top of that, if you are continually feeding your body sugars, white flour, or basically anything highly processed, it increases cholesterol and puts our bodies in to shock having never experienced food that travels through the blood stream so quickly...
But, back on track. The 6 meals a day thing never worked for me. I was left hungry after a small snack, tracking calories constantly, and always thinking about food. Now things are super simple and preparing food takes less time. I eat two times a day. First at 12pm and then the second at 6pm and I am done at 7 giving me a fast of about 16-17 hours. It gives my body time to digest and has helped me manage my hunger. Now when I go on a flight or am somewhere where the food is subpar, I use it as a chance to fast. Before I started fasting there was always a layer of fat that never seemed to melt away no matter how hard I worked out or watched my eating. But, with IF implemented it was simple. I work out in a fasted state for additional emptying of fat stores and then fill myself up afterwards with healthy, whole foods. I was getting rid of the insulin resistant fat on my stomach because I was only eating healthful foods. By working out in a fasted state, I switched my body over from being a carb-burner to a fat burner because the quick-energy carb stores were already gone. So our bodies turn to the long-time fat stores to keep us going.
In addition, I noticed that the 2 meals I ate became much more enjoyable because I had to wait to get to them and I got to eat a bunch of food at once instead of spread out throughout the day. I think for me it was important to realize that just because you are fasting, it doesn't mean that when you break a fast you skimp on calories. You eat the same amount of food, just condensed into a shorter eating window. Also, I think IF is something that should be included in a lifestyle after everything else is solid. A regimented exercise, eating, and sleep schedule. Especially sleep. If your sleep is off, cortisol rises, and fasting on top of that only worsens the increased stress hormones. I think that IF has given me more energy and makes me appreciate my meals more instead of just grazing throughout the day because I "felt" hungry. Now I eat only when I am hungry and my body tells me when I am full-- not stuffed like before-- but full. If you are someone who overeats, IF is also optimal because it is extremely hard to stuff the same amount of calories you eat throughout the day into two times a day. Personally I just couldn't eat a meal and all the snacks I used to eat into one huge IF meal-- it is too calorically dense.
Overall, if you are looking for a way to lose weight, increase energy, and improve your relationship with food, you should really give IF a try. It made sense to me in an evolutionary perspective as well. Obviously, hunter-gatherers wouldn't have had the opportunity to snack on Nutter-Butters throughout the day as we do. In fact, there were stretches when they went with little food, but then after a successful hunting day were able to feast. IF mimics this type of eating pattern, which is why it jives with our bodies and composition so well. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!
In addition, I noticed that the 2 meals I ate became much more enjoyable because I had to wait to get to them and I got to eat a bunch of food at once instead of spread out throughout the day. I think for me it was important to realize that just because you are fasting, it doesn't mean that when you break a fast you skimp on calories. You eat the same amount of food, just condensed into a shorter eating window. Also, I think IF is something that should be included in a lifestyle after everything else is solid. A regimented exercise, eating, and sleep schedule. Especially sleep. If your sleep is off, cortisol rises, and fasting on top of that only worsens the increased stress hormones. I think that IF has given me more energy and makes me appreciate my meals more instead of just grazing throughout the day because I "felt" hungry. Now I eat only when I am hungry and my body tells me when I am full-- not stuffed like before-- but full. If you are someone who overeats, IF is also optimal because it is extremely hard to stuff the same amount of calories you eat throughout the day into two times a day. Personally I just couldn't eat a meal and all the snacks I used to eat into one huge IF meal-- it is too calorically dense.
Overall, if you are looking for a way to lose weight, increase energy, and improve your relationship with food, you should really give IF a try. It made sense to me in an evolutionary perspective as well. Obviously, hunter-gatherers wouldn't have had the opportunity to snack on Nutter-Butters throughout the day as we do. In fact, there were stretches when they went with little food, but then after a successful hunting day were able to feast. IF mimics this type of eating pattern, which is why it jives with our bodies and composition so well. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!
RSS Feed