Many people are trying Intermittent Fasting these days. While most diet related plans are eating and food focused, IF is time focused.
Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term for various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting and non-fasting over a given period. Methods of intermittent fasting include alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and daily time-restricted eating.
Many people follow IF for weight loss while others are more concerned with the health benefits.
Fasting has several effects on a person’s body. These effects include:
- Reducing levels of insulin, which makes it easier for the body to use stored fat.
- Lowering blood sugars, blood pressure, and inflammation levels.
- Changing the expression of certain genes, which helps the body protect itself from disease as well as promoting longevity.
- Dramatically increases human growth hormone, or HGH, which helps the body utilize body fat and grow muscle.
- The body activates a healing process doctors call autophagy, which essentially means that the body digests or recycles old or damaged cell components.
Whatever your reason is for doing IF, here are 5 tips that will help you succeed.
Drink Lots of Water
Water is essential for keeping your body cells functioning. It also helps to boost the benefits of intermittent fasting. As the body enters maintenance mode, it starts to cleanse proteins and other structures that have died or become dysfunctional. Without enough water, the body cannot perform the necessary detox efficiently.
It is important to start your day with 16oz of water to replenish any fluids lost during the night. While you are fasting, your body flushes out a lot of water which can lead to an electrolyte imbalance. In order to fix this, add a pinch of Pink Himalayan sea salt to your water or you can get higher alkaline water with added electrolytes.
Your goal should be to drink a minimum of 68oz per day with the aim of drinking half your body weight in ounces per day. (ie. A 160lb person should drink 80oz of water per day)
Meal Plan
It is super helpful to take some time Sunday afternoon or whatever day works for you, to plan your meals for the week. Having a plan in place makes everything a little bit easier. This is especially true during the first 2 months when your body is adjusting to time restricted eating. Knowing what you are going to eat and when can help you get to the next meal while staying on track. A sample meal plan is as follows for a 18:6 eating window:
12:30pm- Lunch: Cucumbers, tomatoes, celery sticks, pita chips and hummus
3:30pm Snack: Beef Jerky
6pm Dinner: Grilled chicken, brown rice and green beans.
What your day might look like, opening your eating window at 12:30 and closing it at 6:30:
6:30am- drink 16oz water
8:30am- black coffee
{drink more water}
12:30- lunch
{drink water with squeezed lemon or a drop of high-quality lemon essential oil}
3:30- snack
{more water, another coffee or tea}
6pm- Dinner
6:30pm- CLOSE EATING WINDOW
Remember, only drink plain water, black coffee or green/black tea during the fasting period.
Drink Tea or Coffee
In order to enjoy all of the amazing health benefits of IF, you will want to fast “clean” which means nothing during your fasting window but water, green or black tea and plain black coffee. Drinking coffee in the morning helps fight off hunger and helps you ride the hunger wave until you break your fast. Coffee has also been shown to assist with weight loss.
- Caffeine may stimulate brown adipose tissue, or the fat in your body that burns calories, per a 2019 study in Scientific Reports. Essentially, researchers discovered that drinking one cup of coffee increases your metabolic rate to the point that brown adipose tissue activity occurs, leading to fat-burning and weight loss.
- People who drank four cups of caffeinated coffee per day saw a 4 percent decrease in body fat, according to 2020 findings by Harvard public health researchers that were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study’s authors suspect this is because drinking coffee increases a person’s metabolic rate (which can cause an increase in the number of calories burned).
Green/Black tea work the same way. Many IFers will enjoy a cup of chilled or hot tea at night in lieu of dessert or a nighttime snack.
Both black tea and green tea contain polyphenols which are antioxidants that protect cellular structures – such as DNA and cell membranes – against damage from free radicals.
Polyphenols from green tea are small enough to be absorbed into the bloodstream and body tissues, and studies have shown that they can alter the liver’s energy metabolism in a way that promotes weight loss.
Lead study author Susanne Henning explains, “Our new findings suggest that black tea, through a specific mechanism through the gut microbiome, may also contribute to good health and weight loss in humans.”
Exercise
Did you know that studies have shown that working out while in a fasted state helps you burn more fat? Research suggests that during periods of fasting, glycogen stores are empty. This means the body starts to burn fat for energy during exercise, which may help weight loss. One study found that exercising in a fasted state also led to a higher fat loss than in people exercising after a meal.
I would not recommend doing anything too strenuous while fasting as it may make you feel sick. Instead, opt for a fast-paced walk, a swim, resistance training or lower impact activities.
And remember to drink plenty of water!
Mentally Prepare
I cannot stress this one enough. I highly recommend reading two books to prepare for Intermittent Fasting. The first is an easy to read and understand book that is a great mix of conversation and science, Gin Stephens: Fast, Feast, Repeat. The other is The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung which is heavy on science and data but also very helpful in mentally preparing for and understanding Intermittent Fasting. These books will set the foundation for you to be successful.
It is also important to make a decision for a longer fast in advance. For example, if you normally do 18:6 and you want to try a 24 hour fast, your chance of being successful at making it 24 hours, is in part, due to your mental state. For example, decide on Tuesday that you will enjoy dinner on Wednesday night at 6:30pm and your next meal will be Thursday night at 7pm.
My favorite way to do longer fasts is to eat a big lunch one day and not eat again until lunch the following day. It may sound crazy if you are just starting but I promise you, once you get used to time restricted eating, you may find that one meal a day is all you need.
Fasting dates back to ancient humans who often went hours or days between meals as obtaining food was difficult. The human body adapted to this style of eating, allowing extended periods to pass between food intake times.
In fact, eating 3+ meals per day is a very modern diet, dating back only 100 years or so. In the past, our ancestors only ate when they were hungry. And of course, back then, it was a lot harder to come by food as well since grocery stores did not exist. The surge of industry and marketing are responsible for making us believe we need to eat constantly or we will starve to death. It has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with marketing and corporations making a profit.
Intermittent fasting recreates this forced-fasting. When a person undertakes an intermittent fast for dietary purposes, it can be very effective for weight loss and improved health.
