The Unexpected Benefit I Got From Intermittent Fasting
So I know there’s been a lot of talk in the ‘wellness’ sphere of intermittent fasting, if it’s good for you, if it’s bad for you, how to do it, why to do it, and so on. I’ve been doing it for a little over a year now, and I thought I’d get on here and share my own personal experience with it, in case anyone finds it useful or insightful.
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I just want to emphasize that this is my own personal experience with intermittent fasting, and not something I would recommend for everyone, as it can be triggering for some people who have dealt with disordered eating previously. I’m not here to convince you one way or the other, simply tell my own journey. If you’re curious about giving it a try, be sure to consult your doctor, dietitian and/or do your own research before jumping in.
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I first started getting curious about intermittent fasting about a year and a half ago, but I wanted to do some digging on the topic first. And I was also training for my first half marathon, which was enough to handle on its own without dropping a new eating pattern in the mix.
After my race, I decided to just give it a whirl and see how it went.
For those of you who are new to the concept of intermittent fasting, it is basically an eating plan/pattern that focuses on when you eat rather than what you eat.
There’s a few different types of intermittent fasting that you can do, but the one that seemed most sustainable and doable for me was the 16/8 approach; you fast for 16 hours of the day and then eat in an 8 hour window. Also known as time restricted feeding.
There’s a lot of perks being swirled around about IF, such as weight loss, reduced risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, anti-aging benefits, lower risk of diabetes...I could go on. Much more research needs to be done on these, but it certainly is a compelling list.
The benefit that really piqued my interest was the potential to reduce the risk for Alzhemier’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. While I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t always trying to do my best to maintain a healthy physical body composition, what grabbed me about this was its potential for improving my internal health as well.
So anyways, I gave it a go, and I’m still going today. When I first started, I was pretty strict about the time windows on most days. Usually eating my first meal anywhere between 12pm - 1:30pm (depending on when my last me was the previous night), and eating my last meal between 8pm - 9:30pm. Only consuming water and tea during the fasting period. And honestly, it’s been so incredibly easy to make the switch.
Going into IF, the one benefit I really wasn’t expecting was the benefit of more freedom surrounding my food and eating. I was a little wary of the potential that this would turn into a bit of a restrict-binge cycle, but it actually was quite the opposite for me.
Prior to IF, I was definitely under the spell that you had to have breakfast to start your day right, get your metabolism going, and fend off the potential for ~overeating~ later in the day. I also stuck pretty rigidly to the ideology that eating every 2ish hours was the absolute best way of eating.
I didn’t realize how tied down I’d been to those lines of thought until I gave IF a try. It’s been utterly liberating to have one less meal to deal with when meal prepping, especially when I was bringing aaall of my food to work. It’s freed up so much time in the mornings.
I now know I won’t shovel all of the contents in the fridge into my mouth just because I didn’t eat breakfast, and my metabolism won’t come to a screeching halt because I don’t eat a snack every 2 hours.
I don’t find myself constantly fretting about when I’ll be eating next. Knowing I can go 16 hours without food and still be okay has been so eye opening in the weirdest and most freeing way.
On top of this, or probably in connection to this, I feel like I have more energy in the mornings, and haven’t really been getting the afternoon slump as much. I’ve also noticed improvements with my digestion.
I’m not as strict about the 16 hours every day these days, really as long as I get at least a 12 hour break I feel pretty good. And I’m definitely a bit looser with it on the weekends.
While intermittent fasting doesn’t focus on what to eat or how much, I still try to focus on eating my normal caloric intake and primarily real, whole, and healthy foods. I also think the limited eating window has really allowed me to focus more on making sure I’m getting all of the nutrients I need in the time that I am eating, rather than focusing on what foods I should avoid or cut out.
Alright, to bring this to a close, I would say overall IF has been an incredibly positive experience for me. I’ve found it to be, unexpectedly, sustainable and liberating as a lifestyle, and I don’t really have any plans in the foreseeable future to stop.
If you’re interested in it, based off of my own personal experience so far, I would recommend it. But again, everyone is unique and you should do your own consultations and research before getting into it.
If you’ve given IF a try, or are thinking of starting, I’d love to hear about your experiences with it!
xxSlim
