There are two topics that I am hearing about as new miracle ways to lose weight; the Keto Diet and Intermittent Fasting so I am going to be exploring them as a 2-part series that I call Modern Dieting.
So what is Intermittent Fasting?
Fasting is the practicing of limiting calorie intake between certain hours or on certain days. Many cultures practice fasting for religious reasons and if you look back at the history of mankind, food has not always been as plentiful as it is now.
As a side note: I did just stop to think if their lifestyles were healthier, why did ancient man live shorter lives, but of course, there are less wild animals chasing us and medical advances have made huge progress in extending our lives. I doubt the folks of classical Greece or medieval Europe had the issues we have with obesity, diabetes and cancer… so to my mind, we are living longer but not healthier. Perhaps if we combine their lifestyle and our medical advances…
Intermittent Fasting is the practice of alternating periods of eating and fasting and unlike a diet; it doesn’t prescribe what you eat, just when you can eat. And even then, there are variations on when to fast, how often you fast and a few ways to build up to it if you aren’t quite ready to take the leap. The fasting patterns are generally divided into time-restricted where you fast between certain hours or day-restricted where you fast on certain days.
Common variants are:
- 16:8; 16 hours of fasting, 8 hours to eat
This one is the classic – 16 hours of no food, 8 hours to eat your 3 normal healthy meals. Personally, I try not to eat before noon, but I often eat dinner as late as 8 pm, so I think I am closest to practicing this one. What I am not sure of… I really cannot do without my one to two cups of coffee with a splash of milk in the morning, does that break the fast and undermine my effort?
- 12:12 (12 hours fasting, 12 hours eating) or 14:10 (14 hours fasting, 10 hours eating)
Popular if you want to get started but aren’t quite ready for the 16:8 extreme.
- 5:2; severely restricting calories on 2 non-consecutive days of the week
On 2 days, eats as few calories as you can, but typically around 500 calories and usually no carbs. The remaining days of the week you eat a healthy normal diet (1500 – 1800 calories for women, 2000 – 2500 calories for men). Ahem, yes, I think I would lose weight just eating 1500-1800 calories…
- Alternate days; as for 5:2 severely restricting calories, but on alternating days of the week, with a healthy normal diet on the other days.
This seems a bit extreme.
- Days off from eating; do a 24 hour fast two days a week, definitely not on consecutive days.
Don’t think I could make it through this.
Why Would I Want to Fast
This is the bit that caught my eye! From everything I read, the body seems to function better when it is not completely satisfied and overly well-fed. It is thought that since digestion takes energy, by having times when you are not eating or eating lightly, the body has time to rest and recover. It seems that fasting can improve the metabolism, improving everything from resting heart rate to heart function, reducing blood pressure and inflammation, as well as reducing stress and helping the body burn fat better. Who doesn’t want all that?
The even better news appears to be that once you have accustomed yourself to the new eating routine, which takes a couple of weeks, the results seem to be significantly better and long lasting than for other diets.
Intermittent fasters are:
- Able to adjust fairly quickly to a new eating pattern
- Able to maintain the lifestyle longer as they are not feeling deprived
- Less stressed by their diet because it is very low maintenance with no special purchases or calorie counting
What are the Risks?
The long term effects haven’t been studied, but science does seem to be quite confident that intermittent fasting is doing a lot of good for overweight and obese people. By reducing weight and specifically fat, the rates of diabetes and high blood pressure will drop, which in the longer term will reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.
Studies are mostly on overweight people who have a lot to lose so intermittent fasting may be ineffective or counterproductive for normal weight people.
To live a healthy lifestyle you need to be following a healthy sustainable diet, exercising regularly, and intermittent fasting doesn’t reference this. However, if you are looking for something to kick start your weight loss, to perhaps yield good results so you have more energy and can get out to exercise, then perhaps this is a good starting point for you.
How to Get Started
The two main approaches really are time-restricted or day-restricted, so figure out which works best for you. For some people the idea of not having breakfast until noon, or not eating after 6 pm is just unrealistic, in which case it might be better to have 2 fasting days of only 500-600 calories spread over the whole day as normal. For others, the idea of eating so little is just daunting, so for you it would be starting with a restricted time schedule.
If you pick time-restricted, start gradually over a week, restricting meal times to 10 hours of the day, perhaps 8 am to 6 pm or if you only get home from work and start making dinner at 6 pm, then maybe 10 am to 8 pm and have breakfast at work. The following week aim for 8 hours, perhaps 12 to 8 pm, or 11 to 7 pm. If you go a half hour over one night, that’s ok. Don’t stress, try a few combinations that work for your life and your schedule. If you pick day-restricted, then decide which 2 days you are going to restrict your calories. Maybe start with a busy day so you won’t think about it. Then plan on eating predominantly protein (think: nuts, cheese, yogurt, egg, fish, chicken, turkey) to sustain you through the day, but limiting you calories. If you normally pack away 2000+ calories, you might want to try limiting yourself to 1400 the first fasting day, 1000 then next, 600 the next.
If you struggle at one level, stick to it for a couple of fasting days. Whatever you can manage will help, and although you might not see the benefits as quickly, remember you are building up to what you want. No one climbed Everest the first time they went out mountain climbing.
Start with what you can manage.
As you might know if you have read some of my other posts, I am a firm believer in eating less, eating better, eating healthier and being more active. I don’t believe there is any one miracle diet or exercise plan, but I do believe we can each find something that works for us. So try something, see if it fits your lifestyle and if it’s sustainable. I have been on too many diets that I just couldn’t keep doing because they were too restrictive, too few calories, or foods I didn’t like. But I am happy to try new ones. If nothing else, I keep my body guessing and one day I may find the perfect combination that works for me, melting the pounds away.