Being Flexible With Intermittent Fasting Can Keep You Going Longer
Intermittent fasting has helped me tremendously in my sobriety journey.
I wrote a story about it on Medium last year, and I want to share additional insights as we are headed into 2024.
As we know, intermittent fasting requires discipline. It was challenging at first, but the more I learned about it, the more I was excited to implement it in my lifestyle.
As a part of my intermittent fasting, I was doing 18/6; meaning I was fasting for 18 hours, and my eating window was from noon to 6 pm.
Even though I could implement this for over six months, I somehow started feeling “bored”. I felt my daily routine was consistent yet, in a way, “non-negotiable”.
I understood the benefits of fasting, so I didn’t want to give this up.
I had the opportunity to listen to a podcast between Tom Bilyeu and Dave Asprey; I heard these two insightful quotes from Dave Asprey.
“You don’t have to experience pain and hunger to get the benefits of fasting and to go into fasting.”
“Fasting the same way every day is bad for you. Because it doesn’t lend your body the idea of metabolic flexibility.”
Per an article from Healthline,
“To match your body clock, the recommended eating window is less than or equal to 8–12 hours a day during daylight hours. Eating outside of this window may lead your body to process calories less efficiently, contributing to weight gain.”
Instead of sticking firmly with my original 18/6 schedule, I became more flexible with my intermittent fasting schedule.
One added change was that I would stop eating according to our natural circadian rhythm before sunset.
I continued my bedtime routine around 10:00 pm while waking up around 5:30–6:00 am.
After this adjustment, I was afraid I might gain some weight since I was not as strict on my schedule.
My eating window was longer and more flexible with food choices, but I have maintained the same weight so far.
I was super excited about this adjustment.
My key highlights from this learning are the following:
- Adjusting your intermittent fasting schedule regularly based on your needs while maintaining an 8–12 eating window
- Eat during daylight; the last bite should be before sunset
- This will allow you to have at least 3 hours of digestion before bedtime
For those of you who are also intermittent fasting, I hope you find this helpful. Fitting this into our lifestyle long-term is not easy, but adding some flexibility would make it more enjoyable. At least for me!
Here's to better health.
Thank you for being here.
If you have enjoyed this story, please give me a clap or two, and I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you in advance for your support and encouragement by following me at @PeaceWithin.
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