If you missed my post last week, be sure to read it here before you continue with this one. This week’s post is a continuation of it.
Fasting is a word that, growing up, had all kinds of religious connotations. It implied piety and penance, spirituality and sacrifice. Few people outside of that context discussed or participated in fasting. In the 1900s the medical community began to study how fasting affected health. In that research, many forms of fasting were designed, all, I believe, with different target purposes and tweaks to accommodate that, as I stated last week, every body is different. In 2012 in the UK and Australia a BBC documentary was produced called Eat, Fast, and Live Longer. Based on a version of IF called 5:2, it is widely credited as the beginning of the popular IF discussion today. In addition to 5:2, other versions of IF are Time Restricted Eating (TRE), OMAD (One Meal a Day), alternate day fasting, and periodic or whole day fasting. In this post I can’t explain them all in detail, so if you’re interested, the Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung is a great place to find that information.
When I first heard about intermittent fasting and the benefits in addition to losing weight, I did as much research (how I came to own all the books) as I could. I watched countless YouTube videos: how tos and testimonials, medical and philosophical lectures, dietician perspectives. I subscribed to the YouTube channels of several physicians who tout intermittent fasting as excellent self-healthcare practice, and still devour their videos. Here’s a good, concise, annotated article about the benefits of intermittent fasting. In a list, here are the benefits of IF:
- Weight loss.
- A lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
- Improved heart health.
- Improved brain health.
- A reduced risk of cancer.
- Changes to the function of cells, genes, and hormones.
- Reduced oxidative stress and inflammation.
- Induces cellular repair processes.
- Helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease
- Improves longevity.
After all my research, I felt well prepared to try IF for myself. After experimenting with different fasting regiments, I found that for weight loss at my age, a 20 hour fast per day worked very well for me. 20 Hours you might say! I can’t not eat for 20 hours! Yes, it is possible. I lost about 60 pounds several years ago. Only gained back about 25 of them which I took off again last year after the cancer diagnosis.
One of the reasons the 20-hour fast worked so well for me is that I set the window for the fast from 11 am – 3 pm. I’ve never been a breakfast eater so waiting to eat every morning until 11 was not difficult at all, especially since I was working when I first started IF. Getting my butt out of bed to be at work at 8 was hard enough for me that making time to eat in the morning was NOT a priority. And once I got to work, I was too busy, busy, busy to be hungry.
This is a good time to talk about hunger, which is our body’s response to a hormone called ghrelin produced in our stomach. You may (or may not) realize that when you’re hungry, the hunger doesn’t keep growing until it’s satisfied. Hunger comes and goes in waves and (believe it or not) only lasts for about an hour or two. If you can distract yourself and wait out the hunger pang (not pain!), that hunger feeling will not be the impetus for you to eat. Hunger pangs seem to be triggered more often by the type of food and how often you eat. Randy and I find that after struggling through about 3 days of time restricted eating and cutting out a lot of sugar from our intake, we are no longer bothered at all by hunger pangs outside the eating window we choose.
Lots of intermittent fasting recommends you start with a 16 hour fast and an 8 hour eating window. I think that’s a great idea to get you into a fasting routine. Don’t eat after 6 pm in the evening and your eating window opens again at 10 am. Eat between 10 am and 6 pm, rinse and repeat. Easy, peasy.
Having said that, I also think you get some of the health benefits of intermittent fasting with that schedule, and you can lose weight if you carefully watch what you eat, but I know a 16:8 fast doesn’t work for me to lose weight. I have a tendency to overeat when I eat (IF is forgiving in that regard) and reducing the eating window length helps keep down how much I eat.
I do cut down on sweets and carbs A LOT when I’m fasting, but I don’t cut them out completely. It’s not reasonable to me to think I can live without sugar for the rest of my life. For me IF is a ‘rest of my life’ lifestyle, not a “diet.” So, I am as careful as I can be to have the carbs only while eating meals. Blood sugar is already elevated from eating anyway, and eating a little sugar doesn’t affect it as adversely than eating something sweet by itself in the middle of a period of time where blood sugar has already started to drop naturally. As I mentioned last week, they are finding that weight loss is very much related to the hormone insulin and whether or not it’s working correctly in one’s body regulating glucose (blood sugar).
We’ve been home a few days and it took about 2 full days to “gear up” to starting a new fasting routine. During that time, I made a weekly planner template to help me keep on track for all my New Year’s resolution type thoughts. I’m happy to share the template with you as a PDF file. If you want it, send me a message or comment below. I had gained about 10 pounds since Thanksgiving (thank goodness only 10!). I’m down 3 pounds since we returned, but it’s too early to tell if that’s a result of IF. My blood pressure has been too high the past several months and I believe the IF will help with that too, as a by-product. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to move more and when I get into a routine with walking, stretching, and working with resistance bands (a new thing for me) I am sure I’ll get the benefits of all that too.
I’ll update you periodically how it’s all going.
Here’s the great news as far as I’m concerned. I made good progress on my weight and health in 2023. While I took a small step backward at the end of the year, I am thrilled and grateful I didn’t have to start from square one again in 2024. My goal to look and feel fabulous in 2024 seems far more obtainable this year than it did at the beginning of last year. And that’s progress.
There’s no better time to start than right now. If I can help encourage you or keep you accountable, I’m happy to do that. All you have to do is ask.
P.S. I achieved a 20-hour fasting window on Sunday and Monday was easier. I’m at 18 hours already today (Tuesday) with no hunger pangs on the horizon. You CAN do it!
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