If your belly started grumbling at the title and you were reminded of excruciating pain in your stomach the last time you skipped a meal... or your inner eye saw Tibetian, ascetic monks in near-Nirvana meditative state nearly starved to death... - that is excactly how I felt about intermittent fasting as little as 3 months ago! I thought Ramadan was crazy, and the people with their Spring fasting fad as well! How could you go without food for more than 6hrs? How could you go to sleep hungry? Why would you want to do that anyway when we have foods in abundance?
It was therefore with great resistance that I read about intermittent fasting ("IF"). A fasting method involving different approaches. It denotes anything from skipping a meal, reducing the eating window to 6-8hrs, or going 24h without food once a week or every other day. But slowly I began to except the advantages:
A recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gives a great overview of these benefits which include
- decreases in blood pressure,
- reduction in oxidative damage to lipids, protein and DNA,
- improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake,
- as well as decreases in fat mass.
Besides that don't forget:
- it will give you more flexibility in planning your days (remember, sometimes you just don't know how to fit in a healthy meal...)
- it is a time gainer (I'd calculate 1h/meal, with preparation - that's 3h per day without considering doing the dishes)
- some fitness sessions (in the fat burning heartrates) are known to be more effective on an empty stomach.
- It's natural! Our ancestors had to skip a meal every now an then - either because they were out on the hunt - or nothing was about.
- A lot of times the food that is at hand is so unhealthy there is no way skipping it could ever do you more damage than eating it! (Yes, I mean that drive-thru or that hot dog stand you pass at lunch!)
Personally I just wanted to know if I could do it and how I felt doing it. And ok, maybe
tip the scale a bit to the left... ;-) So I started with skipping a meal (I chose dinner, so the time I felt hungry would be spent sleeping, not working - where I could gobble up some food if my willpower drained...). And it didn't turn out as bad and difficult as I thought. I slept good, was alert and alive when I awoke, and if I had any doubts if it would make me feel good - it did after stepping on the scales. So next I decided to try having a last snack at 5pm and skip breakfast the next day. And soon after that I went for my first 24hr fast (early lunch to late lunch, no dinner or breakfast in between). Here are my experiences:
- I felt alert, awake, energetic, in a good mood and slept good (once I fell asleep).
- I didn't notice any drop in performance during physical activity but didn't test it during more than 2hrs.
- If anything hurt me going into the fast (overused tendons or ligaments), it hurt a lot less at the end of the 24hrs.
- The first skipped meal is the hardest considering the hunger I felt. Between 12-18hrs of fasting I hardly notice anything.
- The first time I did 24hrs was definetely more work than the following IF-days I did weeks later.
- It was easier to do the IF on working days, where I'm not as close to food and don't have that much free time to think about food.
- It's easier to skip meals if you don't "have to" sit at a lunch table where others are eating. I tried to avoid such situations and the handling of food during the fast period. I don't know if I could do it.
- If it gets really hard drink a glass of water (with a quench lemon) first - then take 15mins and reconsider if you really feel like you have to cut your fast short or if the hunger you just felt was a temporary burst. I did green tea and water only - some people also drink juice.
- Yes, still I have abandoned 24hr IFs after 18, 19, 20... I just couldn't do it any longer.
- Don't read a cooking book during your fast. Take my word on this; just don't!
- Coming back from a fast I had to conciously tell myself I don't need to "make up" for the skipped meals by overloading my plate. As soon as I started eating my stomach did tell me the same. It's just mentally before you start eating, that you get overwhelmed by hunger.
- The first food after the 24hrs tastes different. More concious. You feel more texture and have more taste buds. Enjoy it and indulge!
- I had 24hrs IFs where the hours 21-24 of the fast were really, really hard ("hard" as in "I can't think about anything else than lunch time" ). Then I tried eating a small fruit at 22hrs and it greatly helped - also with the "making up the lost meals"-sensation I mentioned.
With the subjective and predominately positive experiences I've made I'm thinking about incorporating one 24hr fast per week and I would definetely try to do a 2 week "deep cleansing program" with a 24hr normal, 24hr IF sometime after Christmas every year. AND: If time doesn't allow it, or I just don't feel hungry I have no problem with skipping a meal. This experiment has definitively taught me several things. Now I ask myself more consciously every meal if I'm eating it because I'm hungry, or because it's lunch/dinner time where one eats. Go for "Eat when hungry. Don't if not." in any case!
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Further reading:
How to do the different types of IF: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-intermittent-fasting/
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