The many faces of Intermittent Fasting

I recently posted a review of Eat Stop Eat. It basically was a 24 hr fast twice a week. That, however, is not the only fasting train in town!

There is alternate day fasting, where you fast on every....you guessed it....alternate day.

There is Fast 5 where you fast until 5pm and then have an unlimited eating window for 5 hours.

The Warrior Diet is similar. (I haven't read the book yet so I don't know the differences off hand.)

Then there is LeanGains. From what I can gather it is 16 hours fasting and 8 hours eating window but it is accompanied by very specific macro ratios. (I have heard he is writing a book. I can't wait.)

And then there are those who wing it!

I have become one of those people.

I was doing the Eat Stop Eat plan but I have not been able to fast for 24 hours since I switched to a ketogenic diet. So I have been experimenting with various lengths of daily fasts. A 16/8 split seems to be the magical ratio for me. I fast until 12:30 or so and then have lunch. My eating window is 8 hours from the time I start eating, usually until 8:30. It has been working so far. My macros and calories have been far easier to maintain.

The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting: An Eat Stop Eat Book Review

I have had an interest in intermittent fasting for sometime now.

Like most the rest of the "civilized" world, it as been drilled into my head that I must eat regular small meals to be healthy. And if I were to skip one of those "healthy" meals I would start losing the precious muscle mass that I work so hard to build or my metabolism would come to a screeching halt.

So I was intrigued when I ran across a few fitness enthusiasts talking about intermittent fasting. A little more "Googling" and I stumbled on Eat Stop Eat. The author, Brad Pilon, sent me a copy of his book and I got to reading right away.

Mr. Pilon includes a practical approach to intermittent fasting that is very flexible. The book, however, is less focused on "how" to do intermittent fasting and focuses more on what benefits come from intermittent fasting and dispelling many of the myths surrounding fasting. Everything he writes is fully referenced and I was pleased to see many scientific studies among the list of references.

I decided to give the program a try.

How did I use the program?

1. I ate dinner on Saturday and then my fast began.
2. I fasted until it was dinner time on Sunday. (Two times a week was recommended in the book but I only did one)
3. I was not too militant on hitting an exact 24 hour fast. I followed a dinner to dinner protocol and the hours fell where they may. My fasts ranged anywhere from 20 hours to 26 hours.

What have I taken away from the book?

1. Intermittent fasting makes it so I don't have to stress over meeting the perfect, magical macro ratio all the time. I don't have to worry as much about getting too many carbs or calories because I know the fast will balance everything out.
2. If I get stuck and have to miss a scheduled meal I no longer stress over it.
3. If I get hungry and can't satisfy that hunger immediately, I don't find it stressful anymore. Being hungry is no longer the end of the world.

What did the fasting do for me?

1. In addition to the above mentions points, I lost about a pound and a half a week. More than that showed up on the scale the next day but some of the weight (about 25%) was back the next day. So the net loss for the month was 6.5 pounds.
2. I was very productive on the days I fasted. I don't think my house has been this clean in a while and I have finally managed to declutter some of my closets! So energy levels were great. (I never did workout on a fasting day but I don't think it would have been a problem.)

What problems did I encounter?

1. The biggest problem I had was during my last fast after I returned to a very low carb eating plan. I struggled to make it to 20 hours that day. I do not know if that is at all related to low carb or not. I will have to see if future fasts are equally difficult.
2. Another problem I had was remembering that it was a fast day. Sounds crazy but I have tried very hard over the last year to force myself to eat breakfast that it has become habitual. On two occasions I was in the middle of breakfast when I realized I was supposed to be fasting. I simply fasted the next day, so it was no big deal.

I would definitely recommend the book to anyone that was interested in intermittent fasting. It was an easy read and answered many questions and dispelled several myths.

Warp Speed Final Stats

Weight - 221.6

Bust - 46
Chest - 38
Waist - 41
Hips - 48.25
Thigh - 26.5

BF% 37

Since beginning Warp Speed Fat Loss I have lost 11.4 lbs of fat and gained 2.4 lbs of muscle.

About 25% of that weight loss was in the last week and I was following the TNT diet instead of WSFL. (They really are very similar.)

I am super thrilled with the results and I will continue with TNT Plan C from here on out. Technically I should be doing Plan A but I am willing to take a slower fat loss and have one day of higher carbs. I will also go back to doing intermittent fasting. I was doing it before WSFL, although I am curious to see how different it is now that I am low carb.

My reflections on my first fast!

First of all it was really easy. Basically I chose to fast from Saturday evening to Sunday evening. We had dinner around 6 on Saturday night and then I didn't eat again until Sunday around 6pm. (I mention my reasons for choosing that time in yesterday's post.) I really didn't have much in the way of hunger until 3:30 and even then it really wasn't much worse than the hunger I typically get at that time of the day.

It was nice not to think about food. I didn't have to worry about eating every three hours, getting protein with each meal, pairing up a protein with each carb or forcing myself to eat breakfast.

I can't say anything about weight loss yet since it was my first fast. I can say that I am hopeful. The scale read 231 this morning. I had been stuck at 233 forever and since I started taking creatine I was hovering around 235. Not to mention, I typically avoid the scale this time of the month anyways because I am usually up 3 or 4 pounds. So all those things, though not conclusive, are very promising.

It was really such a non-issue that not a single person (except those who read my blog) even knew I was doing it, not even my husband. I didn't really keep it a secret on purpose, more to see if anyone payed that much attention! LOL Even the people at church didn't notice when I didn't have refreshments after service.

My energy level was unaffected, however I did not plan a workout on that day. Next time I will be doing the last NROL Fat Loss 1 workout. That will surely test the energy concern. One thing I noticed was that I did not get an energy slump after I ate dinner that night. I was very alert and even walked the dog an extra mile (much to her dismay!). I did have trouble sleeping that night but I really can't blame that on the fast at this point. I don't exactly have the best sleep patterns.

The biggest PIA, if you can even call it that, was how thirsty I was all day. Even after drinking a ton of water I was still thirsty. I am guessing it was because of the lack of water that I would have normally gotten from my food.

I had originally planned on only doing it one day a week for the first month. Mainly because I am a chicken and figured it would be too hard! LOL But it was so easy, I have decided to do it twice a week instead. Wednesday to Thursday is my next plan.

IF - Day 1

I have been doing tons of research on Intermittent Fasting since stumbling on Eat Stop Eat. I find the concept very fascinating. Here is a great blog post from Michael Eades with some really interesting comments. One of the comments from mrfreddy mentions how he did this as a child and got in trouble for it.

I totally remember doing this in highschool. Not intensionally, but looking back, it helped me to lose weight which I gained when I was 15. I never did anything special to lose weight, it just happened. I would eat a snack when I got home from school and then dinner (and my mom didn't make anything healthy or low cal!) and then I didn't eat again until after school the next day. Not because I chose to starve myself, but because I have never been a breakfast person and if you saw what they called food at our high school cafeteria you wouldn't eat lunch either! LOL When I was 16 I distinctly remember my mother accusing me of having an eating disorder and grounding me for a month.

Today is my first attempt at IF. We had Buffalo Chicken Pasta for dinner last night around 6pm, which I will post the recipe for soon, BTW. Of course I was hungry at 7:30! LOL I wasn't actually hungry, I couldn't be. I had just had a huge bowl of chicken breast and whole wheat pasta an hour and a half early. I think my brain was screwing with me.

This morning I got up and not eating was no biggie. I usually have to force myself to eat breakfast any ways. I can see this being a challenging spot for someone that thrives on breakfast.

Now it is noon; I have had some pangs of hunger but nothing too bad. I have made myself a cup of tea with some cream in it. I'm not sure cream is "allowed" but I wasn't thinking about that when I brewed up a cup of black chai. I only drink black chai with cream. Next time I will make red or green chai, but since a pay a pretty penny for this chai AND have to drive into Orlando to get I WASN'T wasting it! (Seriously, I go as far as weighing it on the digital scale so I don't use more than is absolutely needed. And before you think that is a bit compulsive, let me assure you it is more cheap and miserly than compulsive!)

I chose Saturday to Sunday for my first fast on purpose.

First of all I am always having to remind myself to eat on Sundays. I don't workout of Sundays and it seems that a workout is a natural reminder for me to eat.

Second, I can try it without anyone else knowing. I really don't want to have to explain the science or try to convince someone I don't have an eating disorder. LOL

Another thing about Sundays that makes it an ideal first attempt is my schedule.

The first part of the fast is done while asleep (Saturday night), then I usually get to sleep a bit later on Sundays (9:30 this morning), then we leave for church at 2:30. There is a snack time after church (4pm) so I don't have to make the boys an afternoon snack. We will get home around 5 and by that time it will be time to start working on dinner. My fast is over at 6pm. So in essence I will only be consciously fasting from 9:30 am to 2:30pm. The rest of the time will be filled with sleep or activities.

At this point I am 3/4 of the way through the fast and I am JUST starting to notice some kind of hunger. Of course I won't know for several weeks if this even does any good but the science definitely supports it.