Intermittent Fasting Works-Focus on When You Eat
Intermittent fasting has not only been proven to be effective in achieving weight loss but also it has several notable health benefits.
And, in addition, it’s not at all that difficult to achieve so why are we not trying it?
Well, I've got some good news for you. You’re already fasting! For at least six to eight hours in every 24-hour period, you’re already going without food.
Fasting is defined as a period of time during which you don't ingest any calories. So, by definition, you're already fasting for six to eight hours while you sleep, unless you’re one of those people that gets up for a midnight snack! The only thing that remains is for you to add a few more hours to that fasting window.
Now you have a fasting time-frame and the hours left in the 24-hour period are termed your feeding window. In the feeding window you can eat your normal three meals. Of course, it helps if these three meals are healthy and not composed of processed meals and other unhealthy foods.
So all you're doing is adding some order to this pre-existing pattern. This is what's so awesome about intermittent fasting. You're not really doing something completely new. Sure, this takes a bit of doing because we all are creatures of habit, but it can be done.
The problem is that, for the average person, this feeding window lasts over 15 hours and can go well past dark, which is directly at odds with your biological clock. Remember that once it gets dark, the brain releases melatonin and your body starts preparing for sleep. This is not a time to be eating!
Eating Late Makes you Fat
I’m sure you know that what you eat can have an impact on your waistline. But it turns out that it’s when you eat that has the most impact. Michael Roizen MD has written that it’s time we started paying attention to our ‘food clock’.
‘As we eat late, we get fat,’ Dr Roizen says. ‘It adds to our waist size, it adds to inflammation and it adds to type 2 diabetes. Studies show people gain weight when they eat calories at night.’
So there you have it! Stop eating when it gets dark. Try to stretch your breakfast to a little later than usual and you will get all the benefits of intermittent fasting.
Intermittent Fasting and Insulin Resistance
Your body becomes more insulin-resistant as the day goes on. This means that sugar stays in your bloodstream and is transformed into fat.
In fact, Dr Roizen recommends eating 75 percent of your daily calories before 2 p.m. Breakfast and lunch should be your largest meals, and dinner the smallest.
This gives weight to the saying ‘Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper’. This was written by American author and nutritionist Adelle Davis in her 1954 book Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit.
I’ve always been a fan of breakfast because the word itself literally means ‘breaking the fast’ and you would assume that you should do this with a healthy meal.
Instead of doing this, many of us either skip breakfast altogether or eat sugary processed cereals, white bread with jam, bagels, muffins and pastry. Breakfasts are substantially different around the world and it’s most interesting to see just how much food, or how little food, the various nations eat for breakfast.
Now remember that intermittent fasting isn’t about starving yourself. Make sure that you get plenty of protein and healthy fat for breakfast and lunch, and you won’t feel so hungry later in the day.
Pick your Feeding Window for Successful Intermittent Fasting
Choosing your feeding window is the most important step in intermittent fasting. A lot of people would tell you that they have an ideal schedule for you. Don't listen to those people! Everybody's different.
Some people are night owls. They're most effective and creative late at night. They wake up at 6 in the evening and they continue until 6 in the morning. That's when they sleep.
Other people are early birds. They wake up really early. We're talking about 3 a.m. and that's when they do their best work. By the time noon rolls around they're winding down.
Most people are somewhere in between. You have to pay attention to your body rhythm. If you’re an early-morning person, it doesn't make sense to adopt the schedule of a night owl. You're certainly not doing yourself any favours. And the reverse is also true.
This means that when you're picking your feeding window, you have to look at the time when you're most active and when you are most likely to eat. For instance, does your work schedule afford you the time to eat a healthy meal?
With this information in mind, you can decide on a feeding window that suits you. There are various recommendations regarding intermittent fasting and I’ve written a whole course that tells you exactly how to go about it. You can find everything you need to know about intermittent fasting on my membership site.
Decide on a Start Date for Intermittent Fasting
A lot of people might think that this is so basic that I shouldn't even be talking about it. Well, a lot of people make all sorts of plans to change their eating habits but never quite get around to doing it.
Deciding on a starting date is one of the most important decisions you will have to make regarding intermittent fasting. When you decide on a starting date, you want to pick a date that you’re quite sure you will be able to stick to. This is the date that your new eating pattern starts. It’s important, so make sure that you’re physically, spiritually and emotionally prepared for it.
Plan your Meals for the Rest of the Day
The name of the game, when it comes to intermittent fasting, is satiety. This is the sense of fullness you get from your food. Just be careful not to fill up with unhealthy foods as this person is doing! Some of this is a physical feeling of satiety, but it’s also mental and emotional. If you're the type of person who eats food for comfort, then your satiety levels are quite different from those of people who eat because they're hungry.
If your cravings can easily be taken care of by drinking water or a non-calorie drink, then you know you're on the right track. On the other hand, if your cravings are so intense that you can't help but eat something, then you might want to look at what you're eating during your feeding window and make some changes.
Drink when You get Hungry
A lot of people think that, when hunger pangs hit them, they have to automatically rush to the fridge or make a quick stop at the nearby McDonald's or fast-food chain store. It doesn't have to be that way.
Pay close attention the next time hunger pangs hit you:
- Did they last forever?
- Were they excruciatingly bad?
If you're honest about it, your hunger pangs aren’t really as bad as you think, and having a drink when you get hungry may just do the trick.
At the very least, this takes your mind off your hunger pangs. Drink filtered water and not fizzy or sugary drinks. You'd be surprised as to how effective drinking water is when dealing with hunger pangs during intermittent fasting.
Extend Your Hunger Waiting Time during Intermittent Fasting
Everybody has a hunger waiting time. It's like a fuse. You can stay hungry for a period of time until you break down completely and raid the fridge, or order out, or even make a stop at the nearest fast-food joint.
Everybody's different. Some people can wait a little bit longer. Others fold like a house of cards when the hunger pangs come. It doesn't matter whether you’re a person who completely folds the moment you get hungry or you can last quite a bit. There's always room for improvement. If you feel that you have no willpower and you just have to eat whenever the hunger pangs get to you, resolve to wait it out for two minutes. That's your starting point.
Once those two minutes pass, go ahead and eat. But make sure to resolve that the next time you feel those dreaded pangs of hunger you're going to try to scale up from those two minutes. Next time, shoot for three minutes, then four, then five. I think you know where I'm going with this.
Never underestimate your ability to adapt. What's crucial is that you're conscious of the adaptation process. This enables you to wait out your hunger pangs.
So this is an outline of intermittent fasting, but I urge you to go to my membership site to do the intermittent fasting course or you could go to a page on this site to find out about diet and health.