Optimize Your Intermittent Fasting With This Simple Hack
An effective strategy that will improve your experience
Intermittent fasting (or time-restricted eating) is increasingly gaining popularity. Many celebrities practice it, and I also know some people around me who follow this method. I have been doing it since 2018, but I was years into it when I found the game-changing hack I’ll explain to you in this article.
What is intermittent fasting?
There are different methods of intermittent fasting, the most popular of which is probably the 16:8 method, which involves 16 hours of fasting followed by an 8-hour eating window. I have also adopted this method, and I have become so used to it that I feel no hunger on most mornings.
In practice, the 16:8 method could mean that someone finishes eating their last meal at 8 p.m. and then waits until 12 p.m. the next day to eat again. Only zero-calorie drinks such as water, black coffee, tea without caloric sweeteners, or diet soda if that’s your thing, are allowed (although the use of non-caloric sweeteners is a constant subject of debate). Bulletproof coffee is definitely not suitable, by the way, because it is high in calories.
How it all began for me
I have been practicing intermittent fasting on most days since 2018, and it feels great. The start was really hard, though.
I was once one of those people who would never leave the house without breakfast because, you know, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”
Is it, really?
When I started in 2018, the science on intermittent fasting convinced me to give it a try. I had read a few books and scientific articles on the topic. One of the authors I most appreciate and admire in the field is Dr. Jason Fung (I cannot recommend this book enough!). He also writes here on Medium.
After all, I am a scientist by profession and should revise my beliefs based on the evidence. After reading about intermittent fasting and the 16:8 method, the “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” myth started to crumble just like the bread I had been eating for breakfast for years.
Maybe breakfast is not that important after all?
I decided to give intermittent fasting a try.
The beginning was hard. I gradually tried to extend my fasting window by an hour every few days until reaching my aim of 16 hours without caloric intake. During the first days, I felt nauseated during the fast and extra hungry when I was finally allowed to eat.
On these first days, I probably ingested more calories than I would have ingested without that fasting window in the morning.
But after a few weeks, it started working. I had acquired the new routine, and it felt great. I was no longer hungry in the mornings, and on some days, I even extended my fast to more than 16 hours.
Learning that my body could go long stretches without any food or liquid calories felt super empowering. Before learning this, I always thought that the body could not function properly without ingesting calories every few hours.
It was liberating for me to learn that even long periods without food are ok.
Not having to care about breakfast in the morning also saves me time and stress and sharpens my focus. Morning hours have always been the best time for me to engage in focused work, but intermittent fasting has significantly increased my focus and helps me be more productive.
What I learned later
During my first years of practicing the method, and despite all the positive experiences with it, on some days, a phenomenon occurred that made me question if I should continue doing it: Sometimes, when talking to someone close to noon (and therefore close to the end of my fasting window), I had trouble speaking and finding the right words to speak fluently. It did not happen very often, but it made me nervous when it did.
Then, one day in 2021, I was watching a Huberman video in which he talked about intermittent fasting and how he drank water with salt when he got up in the morning. It made sense to me that in the morning, the body is not only deprived of water (which I was aware of) but also of minerals. Some high-quality, mineral-rich salt helps to replenish that.
Since then, when I get up in the morning, I add about half a teaspoon of Himalayan salt to my water. With this hack, fasting feels even easier, and I haven’t had trouble finding words when speaking with someone close to noon again.
These problems were likely due to a lack of minerals, but the salt hack resolved this issue and has been a real game changer.
If you practice intermittent fasting and do not use the salt hack, I strongly recommend you try it. Your body will thank you.
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Hello! I am Dr. Schmidt, a psychologist, academic, and Notion creator. I enjoy sharing my thoughts about different topics here on Medium. If you like my work, follow along!
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