Intermitten fasting is not a diet like most people think, it is simply an eating pattern. You don’t change “what” you eat, you change “when” you eat.
Well, for example; I start with my first meal at 11am and have my last meal around 7pm which means I have a fasting period of 15h. You can change it and start with your first meal around 8am and have your last meal around 3pm. Be flexible with your times, that means that even if you start to eat 30 min earlier because you are hungry it won’t harm you. Just end your last meal a little bit sooner that day. You can also go out with friends at night and have a snack, you only reschedule that day and the day before and you are good.
It is easy to implement into your daily lifestyle and there are a lot of benefits. And no, skipping breakfast is not bad. I like to have breakfast during my weekends, so I reschedule those days.
Daily intermitten fasting may not be easy at the beginning because your body needs to adjust, so you will feel crazily hungry for the first few weeks but with a lot of water and discipline its doable.
So, how does it work?
Your body is digesting and absorbing food while its in fed state which usually starts when you begin eating and lasts up to 5 hours after your meal. It is way harder to burn fat while your body is in that state because your insulin level goes up. After those around 5 hours your body goes into a post-absorptive state which means you stop processing food. That lasts up to 12 hours and that’s when your fasting state begins.
Let’s say you eat every 4 hours and that throughout the whole day, that would mean that you will never get into that fasting state = it is harder for you to burn fat.
Intermitten fasting can help with fatloss, gaining lean muscle (when you have a (mostly) clean diet of course), reduces bloating and gives your digestive system a break.
I started it during December 2017 and I’m still in favor of that eating pattern. You will get used to it and the good thing is that you don’t need to meal prep so much. I am less bloated, lost fat and feel more energetic.
You guys should definitely try it out. T.H.
Example:
11 am: Proteinshake as a snack
2pm: Noodles/rice and chicken with some veggies
7pm: Omelette with bread and some protein yogurt.
Im not overeating during those meals and I dont eat less. I just have 2 meals and usually 1 snack instead of 5 meals.
Picture by Brooke Lark