What is intermittent fasting (IF)?
In a nutshell, IF is giving yourself a strict window of time to eat and to not eat.
How does it work?
Science! IF affects hormones like insulin and glucagon which control blood sugar. Since I’m not a certified nutritionist, I’ll just recommend that you do your own research on that if you really want to know the details; however, I can confidently say, the more you abide to your feeding window, the more success you will have.
Ok, so how do I do it?
Decide which window you will want to follow. You could potentially follow a 16:8 pattern (fast for sixteen hours, eat during an eight hour window), 14:10 (fast for fourteen hours, eat in a ten hour window), or you could be extreme and fast for entire days. During your fasting window, you can have water and black coffee. That’s it. Typically and ideally, you would be asleep for at least eight of those hours, making it a bit more tolerable. If you feel like having a diet coke or pre-workout, or anything else that seems harmless but isn’t water or black coffee, let me remind you that IF works with your hormones. Your pancreas doesn’t know that your diet coke has zero calories… it just knows that you’re no longer fasting and therefore, offsetting your feeding window.
Depending on how quickly you would like to see results, what you eat during your feeding window is up to you. IF can still bring success if you’re not making the healthiest of choices, but obviously, the healthier your meals, the quicker you will see results. Personally, I would adjust my feeding window on the weekends to be able to have drinks with friends. I would not open my feeding window until later in the day, so that it would close later. Counting calories or macros are not necessary, but will certainly speed up the process. Therefore, keep in mind that IF is flexible in the quantity and quality of your food based on your timeline and goals.
My Experience with IF
I experimented with intermittent fasting during February and March of this year (2022). Like any new nutritional endeavor, the first week and a half were the most challenging because I had become dependent on breakfast. I chose the 16:8 structure, and would eat from 11am to 7pm. I workout in the afternoons, so prioritized my meals in order to be fueled for the workouts. Because I was wanting my results as quickly as possible, I was also counting my macros with the RP App. Over the course of those two months, I lost between 10 and 15 pounds. I never felt weak or tired during my workouts, and the results have been easy to maintain although I am not necessarily fasting at the moment.
