Intermittent Fasting

My thoughts, questions, and concerns about a new dieting craze.

Whenever I read something new about food or fitness it makes me excited to switch things up. It gets boring when your doing the same things in the same gym, and eating the same stuff. So that is why I was so eager to try out this new pattern of eating called intermittent fasting.

I guess you can’t really call this a diet, because it’s not actually what you eat; it is when you eat.

You’ve probably seen the images on Facebook, ripped dudes with their shirts off, advertising intermittent fasting. But when I looked into it, it sounded a lot more manageable than it looked.

Intermittent fasting is when you alternate between cycles of eating and fasting. Some people alternate between days of eating, 3 nonconsecutive days of fasting, or, what I have been doing is 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating

The benefits of intermittent fasting include:

• Increased energy
• Improved brain cognition and memory
• Making our bodies less insulin resistant, which helps to starve off fat
• Improved immunity
• Making you more resilient to neurodegenerative diseases

And of course…weight loss (just being honest). This is how weight loss occurs with fasting.

Your body is in the “fed state” from the moment you start eating for about 3–5 hours after while you digest and absorb food. During this time it is hard for your body to burn fat because your insulin levels are high. After our bodies are in the “fed state” we go into post absorptive state which is when our bodies aren’t processing food. This state lasts 8–12 hours after the fed state has ended, and it is easier for our bodies to burn fat during this time because our insulin levels are low.

Fasting puts your body into a fat burning state that you don’t usually make it to regularly, because most of us are eating, even if it’s a small amount, every 8–12 hours. When your body is fasting for that 16 hours, your able to burn fat that is not accessible while we are eating. I have also read that a lot of people lose weight without even changing what they are eating, simply because they are eating for less hours of the day.

Okay, you still with me?

All of this sounded awesome to me, then I started to research women and intermittent fasting. Here is where I found some issues!

Fasting in women can cause hormonal imbalances which messes with your periods, mood, and also your metabolism. To get more in depth you can read this article. This is a solution that I have been experimenting with for the last week and a half.

So I decided I would give this a shot and just listen to my body while I was doing it. The first week everything went well, I felt more energized and it simplified my morning routine. I would definitely make sure that if you do decide to fast for 16 hours, that you have a big meal prepared for when the fast is up.. so you don’t end up rifling though your cabinets like a wild animal. But this week I am backing off one less day with the fasting because I started to feel period symptoms about three weeks early…

I would like to know if any of you guys out there have tried it for yourselves? Any advice, or pointers would be fab. :)