Intermittent Fasting

I also attack my weight problem from the angle of intermittent fasting. What is intermittent fasting, or IF?? It is simply a way of eating where you eat within a specific time period and fast the rest of the day.

You may be surprised to realize that you already fast intermittently every day of your life, if you are like most people. You sleep, right? Well those hours that you are sleeping, you are also fasting. If you go to bed at 10pm and wake at 6am, you've just fasted for eight hours. A person can extend their fasting time on either or both sides of their sleep hours. Stop eating at 7pm and don't have breakfast until 7am and voila! you've fasted for 12 hours. It's an easy eating method that can provide serious benefits for many people.

Personally, I usually eat on a schedule called 16/8. I fast 16 hours per day and limit all of my eating to an 8 hour period. I usually have lunch around 12:45pm and dinner around 6:30pm.  Some days I eat 18/6 and some days I eat 23/1. This is often easily accomplished because I am fat adapted. See this post for more info:  Fat adaptation  I am burning ketones, which are available in abundance due to the amount of fat I still have on my body.  Because I don't rely on sugary/starchy foods for energy, I don't feel hungry during my fasting windows.

Dr. Jason Fung, a kidney specialist in Toronto, Canada is an expert who thought outside of the box when it came to treating his diabetic patients.  He realized that the problem for obese patients was insulin.  Insulin is a fat storage hormone.  Too much insulin and all your body (well, mine at least) does is store fat.  So, how do we get our bodies to not produce as much insulin?  Stop eating. This will encourage our body to start using the stored fat, rather than continuously storing fat.  It's that simple.  Here is a section of a presentation that Dr. Fung gave that describes how MY metabolism works, starting at 8:42:

What are the benefits of intermittent fasting?  Well, it depends on the individual.  For me, I have experienced greater mental clarity, better ability to concentrate, improved fat burning, more energy, and body fat loss.

Dr. Fung's website is Intensive Dietary Management Program.  I highly recommend you check it out, even if you aren't obese. The IDM blog is chock-a-block full of information on the benefits of fasting, often in easy to understand language.  There are scores of lectures and interviews available on youtube.  I find this interview particularly helpful and well worth an hour of your time.


If you have any questions, please get in touch and I'll do my best to help you out.