I know what you’re thinking… Another diet? Do I really need to get on another diet?
Most of us know from experience that this strategy of trying out conventional diets is either short-lived or completely ineffective.
Just think about your last diet. It didn’t really work out, did it?
To be completely precise, intermittent fasting isn’t a diet. It’s not about what to eat but when to eat.
I’ll not try to convince you to start fasting, but to consider it, as it has been proven effective by many people dealing with chronic conditions.
As we forge wellness in life and our own individual path we must learn, do, adapt and repeat.
We must continually make adjustments to our approach in order to avoid and/or overcome obstacles that are revealed along the way or from the very beginning.
Once a particular part of our journey is “done” we can share our experience in order to help those around us. Hence I like to say “Easier done; then said.”
Why is this diet working?
Intermittent fasting is exactly what its name suggests – eating at irregular intervals.
Most of us eat 3 meals per day – breakfast, lunch and dinner.
With intermittent fasting, one or more of the meals are skipped or the time window between taking them is shortened on purpose.
Usually, you’d start with skipping one meal every day so you could fit another two or have all three of them in an 8-hour window and fast for the rest of the day.
Quick history throwback: Fasting was the norm as we didn’t have 24/7 access to food like we have today. Our ancestors had to hunt for their meals. This meant less regular eating or even days without food if they could not find any.
It’s somewhat normal for us to have longer periods of time when we don’t consume food.
When you eat throughout the day and never skip a meal, your body is burning sugar (glucose) as its primary fuel, and as a result, you become a sugar burner as opposed to a fat burner.
This might be the reason so many of us struggle with excess weight and trying so hard for so long to lose fat.
Intermittent fasting has been effective in treating type 2 diabetes by reversing insulin resistance, resulting in cessation of insulin therapy while maintaining control of blood sugars. [1] This also means loosing a significant amount of weight. In general, from head to toe intermittent fasting may provide many benefits in many disease prevention and treatment. From reducing obesity and overweight, visceral fat mass, skin disease, aging, blood pressure, stroke, boosting immune system, promoting autophagy, and many more. [2]
Types of fasting
These are the most popular methods of fasting:
- The 16/8 method: Involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, such as 1-9 PM. You fast for 16 hours in between.
- Eat-Stop-Eat: This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example, by not eating from lunch one day until lunch the next day.
- The 5:2 diet: You consume only 500–600 calories on two nonconsecutive days of the week, but eat normally the other 5 days.
I’ve done several experiments with intermittent fasting as well as long term water fasting (most typically 5 days). My favorite method is a 16/8 but I employ different methods depending on my schedule. There is no one size fits all nor does it have to be exactly the same every day.
Intermittent fasting has been proven effective combined with the ketogenic diet or a low carb diet in order to lose fat. This works because fasting and carbohydrate restriction contribute to a body switching to burn fat instead of sugar.
Benefits?
Fasting can be uncomfortable and challenging at first but does get easier if you build it into your routine. But, some of the benefits are balanced hormone levels, fat loss, less stress, more energy and no dips in energy level, better sleep, mental clarity, delayed aging etc etc.
Conclusion
Just like with anything related to an individual, its perception of life, previous experiences and current conditions, this diet might or might not work for you.
There isn’t anyone who’ll be able to tell until you try it and see for yourself. Of course, out of precaution make sure to consult your doctor and talk about potential risks and how you’ll solve possible side effects.
I can testify and say it has made a big difference in my energy levels throughout the day and I believe it’s worth trying for anyone dealing with chronic fatigue, low energy levels and other types of chronic illness symptoms.