Intermittent fasting are two buzz words that are floating around the health and fitness world. It’s a controversial topic among health professionals such including dietitians and nutritionists. Some say it’s healthy while others say it’s not a healthy practice to have when it comes to optimal health. While I wholeheartedly respect all of my fellow health professionals, I firmly believe there’s a time and a place for fasting.
In this article, I’ll share how our bodies benefit from fasting. I’ll also share my tips for incorporating fasting into your lifestyle including when you should and shouldn’t fast.
What exactly is fasting?
Fasting is the period of time between meals including snacking. Unless you sleep eat, you’re fasting while you’re sleeping. It’s a time when our metabolisms get a break from breaking down food.
Fasting is also a time when our bodies essentially “take out the trash.” Our bodies have systems in place to get the toxins out so it can create new cells that are healthier. There are also anti-aging benefits to intermittent fasting. As a bonus, our bodies naturally become more efficient at burning fat when we incorporate fasting into our healthy lifestyle habits.
How to incorporate fasting into your lifestyle
Incorporating fasting is an opportune time to truly get in tune with your body’s hunger levels. Experimenting with different time frames of intermittent fasting is a key component to learning more about your body’s caloric needs.
The first thing to consider before fasting is your eating style. While I follow mostly a paleo/primal way of eating, I don’t like to put a label my eating style. I simply focus on eating whole, real nutrient dense foods and limit the amount of processed foods. Even if it’s paleo friendly processed food. If you, like me, eat mostly who foods that come from the ground or an animal you’re probably ready to start taking your fasting to the next level. You probably feel satiated for extended periods of time. This means your body most likely relies primarily on fat for energy.
If your eating style consists of mostly high carb and processed foods, you’re most likely not ready to incorporate intermittent fasting into your lifestyle. Fasting should be an effortless process and if you’re eating too many processed foods you will not have a pleasant experience fasting. When you eat mostly processed food, your body relies primarily on carbs for energy. Our bodies burn carbs first and then fat. This means that when the carbs we’ve just consumed are burned too quickly we run out of energy quickly. Our bodies then require us to consume more food shortly after we’ve had a meal. This makes fasting more challenging.
I encourage you to focus on eating whole, nutrient dense foods for 21 days before experimenting with fasting. Eat only vegetables, whole fruits, eggs, meat, seafood, healthy fats (olive oil, avocado oil, butter, ghee), herbs and spices. This might be a stretch for you so do the best you can with your available resources. You can go here to check out my simple whole food recipes.
On day 22, go as long as you can without eating whole food after you wake up in the morning. I encourage you to stay hydrated by drinking water while you fast. I will still have a few cups of black coffee in the morning during my fast. The jury’s still out on whether or not unsweetened black coffee and unsweetened tea with no cream significantly breaks your fast.
Take note on your energy levels, mental clarity and mood. The first time might be difficult mostly because it’s new to you. If you feel hangry during your fast, you most likely need to give your body more time to transition into becoming a fat burner. Simply continue to eating whole, nutrient dense food for another week and then experiment with fasting again. Keep doing this until you can go at least 15 hours without eating whole foods.
When it’s not an ideal time to fast
If you’re pregnant, please consult with your doctor before experimenting with intermittent fasting. I’m not a medical professional and have never been pregnant so I’m not an expert in this area.
If you have increased your training schedule for any reason this might not be the best time to fast. The more calories our bodies burn the more we need to consume to replace those calories. It’s important to keep up with protein requirements so your muscles have the resources they need to grow and recover.
If you truly feel hungry shortly after you wake up, eat breakfast. Sometimes I plan 15 hour fast and end up only fasting for 12 hours. This usually happens when I’m craving a specific whole food. I see this as a message my body is sending me that it’s lacking a certain nutrient or multiple nutrients. If your body is telling you it needs nutrients, give it what it needs and don’t fight it just because you said you would fast for a certain amount of time.
As I mentioned earlier, fasting should be an effortless process. It should physically and mentally feel good so that you’re benefiting from it. If it feels forced, it’s probably not an appropriate time to skip a meal. Forcing a fast will have a negative effect on your physical and mental health.
Let me know in the comments what your experience is with intermittent fasting.