March
2008
How To: Intermittent Fasting
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Lunch
After the great discussion last week following the 1 Meal vs. 3 Meals news post, we thought it was a great opportunity to follow up and delve into the nitty gritty of IF. Practically speaking, what does IF look like? Today we’d like to focus on the “window of eating,” a dimension of IF that got people talking last week.
Any brand of fasting can already seem a little daunting for the newcomer. (But for those whose impressions of fasting involve hunger strikes or gaunt figures sitting in meditation, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.) Reading about some options, and knowing your efforts will indeed be rewarded with true health benefits, makes the leap a little more inviting.
Let’s first put this on the table: there is no one way to do IF. The only real guideline is that, as always, the food you eat should be healthy. (It’s pretty clear how we choose to characterize that.) In addition to the substantial health benefits, the simplicity and flexibility are what draw people to IF.
As Mark said, he enjoys mixing it up beyond the use of one approach by missing meals naturally or on an unplanned basis in addition to full day fasts. Let your choice(s) fit with your personal/family schedule, natural rhythms, and your personality (some of us are meticulous planners and some are more spontaneous – “and that’s O.K.”). The point of IF is this: episodic deprivation takes your body “off the track” for a while and allows systems to reinvigorate and recalibrate (also known as up-regulating and/or down-regulating gene expression). Check out Mark’s previous post on IF for more info on the research and nifty benefits of fasting.
Here are a few ways to IF (in unofficial terms):
Skipped Meal:
As Mark alludes to in his comment in the 1/3 meals post, he likes to miss meals naturally or on an unplanned basis. When we listen to our bodies rather than blindly follow routine we find we’re not always hungry when mealtime comes around. Let yourself skip a meal when this happens, or plan a meal skip during a convenient time.
Condensed Eating Window:
As shown in the comments from last week’s post, this is a popular option. The day’s food intake is condensed within a set number of hours, often somewhere between four and seven hours. The timing of this window varies depending on the individual’s schedule and preferences. The time since you prior meal or until you next day’s meal becomes the fasting period.
Early and Late:
For some, this option is more easily managed than the condensed eating window. The day’s food intake and nutrients are balanced between an early meal and later afternoon/early evening meal.
Single Twenty-Four Fast:
Most people choose to have a normal dinner and then fast until the following evening. Others choose to extend the fast until the following morning. For many people, this can be a weekly routine. Others may integrate it on a monthly basis or as an occasional event based on their sense of progress/plateau.
Alternating Day Fast for Week (or more):
This approach is often credited with a deeper “cleansing” character. Some people do it once or twice a year. Others make a seasonal commitment. You can choose to drink only water or include teas/small amounts of juices during fasting days. On the alternate days, some people choose to eat normally, and some opt for reduced caloric intakes.
One tip: During your “window of eating,” however long or brief it is, don’t feel that you should eat more than you might be hungry for. It’s a unique opportunity to listen to your body’s signals. It also serves as a way to “prove” to your conscious brain that you can survive quite nicely on smaller amounts of food and that you don’t need to “make up” for those temporarily lost calories. Of course, eating according to the Primal Blueprint at all times whether fasting or not means that you are constantly refining your fat-burning skills. This, in turn, means that you are not so dependent upon regular meals to sustain normal blood sugar levels, physical energy and mental acuity.
Interested in trying IF for the first time? We’ll highlight the “condensed eating window” approach (one option among many) to get you started. This approach, particularly with a fairly extended window, is very doable and can seem less daunting as you get started. Choose your own timing and length of window based on your schedule and preferences. If you can’t decide, you can consider condensing your eating between the hours of eleven and 5:00 p.m. Look for a corresponding IF menu in this week’s installment of “Eat This Today, Feel Good Tomorrow” later on today.
Be sure to send your feedback. We’d love to hear your results!
*Florian Flickr Photo (CC)
Further Reading:
Modern Forager: My IF Success Story
Conditioning Research: IF Reduces Inflammation
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are you seriously suggesting people fast? as in not eat? that’s called something isn’t it- oh yeah anorexia! i realize this is one day but you have written a suggestion for people to skip meals, or full days of eating once a week. So which is it MDA- skip meals or eat 5-6 small meals a day? i do understand the point you are trying to make of listening to our bodies, but i think there are much healthier ways of going about knowing when we are hungry and when we are not. and if it was as simple as stopping eating when we are full, we wouldn’t have people on diets and meal plans now would we? and intermittent fasting simply causes us to eat more faster.
Um, anorexia is far more than just not eating…that’s just the way it is expressed. Abstaining from food for a certain period of time is a common practice that appears to have some health benefits. And the world is not going to end if you are hungry.
Rachel -
As Katie said, anorexia is a serious medical condition. Intermittent fasting is simply a way to structure your eating patterns in order to potentially receive a variety of health benefits - weight loss not being the main focus. It may not be for everyone. Some people may not care to do it, and others may find it exceedingly difficult to skip a meal. We are simply offering it up to our readers as an eating option that they should, in our estimation, consider trying.
I’ll skip meals a few times a week, mainly breakfast or lunch. I’m usually not hungry when I wake up, so I usually don’t eat until a few hours later, at which point it’s lunchtime. Sometimes I’ll eat an early breakfast, and then find that I’m just not hungry come lunchtime, so I don’t eat. I find this style of eating much more natural and comfortable. I hate being forced to eat when I’m not hungry. It usually just leaves me feeling sluggish and bloated. I’d much rather eat when my body tells me to, not when the clock on the wall says it’s time.
As a recovering anorexic, I really see your point Rachel. However, Anorexia is officially defined as amenorrhea for at least 3 months, refusing to maintain a bodyweight of at least 85% of normal, intense fear of fat or weight gain and a disturbance in the way one views their body. Fasting is certainly a technique that many anorexics use but not all who fast are anorexic.
I use IF (with the approval of my doctor, even) for religious and health reasons and have seen only positives from it. It has not caused me to go back to my ED’ed ways.
My only problem now with IF is eating past fullness once I finish my fast - any suggestions on that, guys?
I could see avoiding IF if you’re prone to eating disorders or recovering from anorexia, though it sounds like Charlotte has managed it successfully. Psychological health is as important as, and inseperable from, physical health. However, IF itself does not cause anorexia.
There really do seem to be some health benefits to IF, particularly for insulin regulation.
Food Is Love
I guess I’ve naturally, unconsciously doing some sort of IF for years. I almost never wake up hungry, so I often skip breakfast. And I find, interestingly, that if I skip breakfast, I almost never want lunch until 1 or 2 pm. However, if I eat breakfast, I’m hungry by noon.
charlotte,
Wonder if that’s a vestige of the anorexic days. The sense that the “sacrifice” you just made is worth an “indulgence”. Many people report that they don’t eat as much after a fast as long as they understand that it’s OK NOT to have to make up for the lost calories, that you can stop eating when you are simply not hungry for the next bite (as opposed to waiting for the sensation of fullness - at which time you may have eaten more than is comfortable). One idea might be to take whatever meal you had planned post-fast and divide it into two halves. Eat one half now and allow yourself the option of eating the other half in 90 minutes….but only if you are still hungry. That might train your brain to use the primal signals of “hunger” and “non’hunger” versus having to consciously override a more hedonistic desire to simply indulge until overfull. Does that make any sense?
Fasting is NOT starving oneself. You can fast..it’s natural and has been done for ooohhhh….couple millions of years. Again, starving oneself with little or no calories is not the goal of IF. The goal is taking in your calories in a shorter time window, or taking a day off eating so your body can do some much needed internal gut cleaning and other health benefits. Most people with serious diseases have found much relief when they allow their body to heal. Healing takes alot of the body’s resources and energies, digestion takes up alot too. You still need nutrients, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and all the wonderful stuff that helps us rebuild our sick cells and detoxify the body.
If you want some more info, you can also check out a post I did on IF 101
http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/2008/02/27/intermittent-fasting-101-how-to-start-part-i/
I also did one on my own personal reasons on why I choose IF for a lifestyle
http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/2008/03/03/why-i-do-if-and-everyone-should-to/
and here’s one on the benefits for health, cleansing and detoxification on fasting
http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/2008/03/05/long-term-fasting-and-healing/
When you see people with plenty of muscle, plenty of health, living long and fasting…hard to think it is such a bad thing. Just ask Jack LaLanne!
The benefits of fasting and calorie restriction also has some nice little research such as:
- increased longevity
- reducing oxidative stress
- reducing inflammation
- reduce risk of heart disease
- improving neuroendocrine responses
- increasing GH secretion
- protective effects on heart, lung, brain
- decrease in insulin resistance
and other overall disease prevention and life extension factors….here’s about 20 or so studies on it all.
http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/resources/
Mike OD wrote: “Most people with serious diseases have found much relief when they allow their body to heal. Healing takes alot of the body’s resources and energies, digestion takes up alot too.”
Come to think of it, whenever I get sick, I have no appetite whatsoever and can go days without solid food. I guess the body does know what it’s doing.
Personally, when I come out of a fast I eat like a horse. I make up for the calories I skipped, or at least close. But I’m also very active and I don’t think my body wants a long-term calorie deficit.
On another note, Indians in the Pacific NW traditionally used fasting to treat a variety of illnesses. Fasting and herbs were the first line of defense, and if that didn’t work, it was time to call the medicine man for some good old-fashioned placebo.
But fasting was also a part of their life even when they were well. The men often wouldn’t eat for a day or more when they were on a hunt.
[...] you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Earlier today we highlighted some approaches to intermittent fasting and recommended a condensed eating window for those who were new to IF. Over time, many people who [...]
Thank you Charlotte, I appreciate someone seeing my point as well.
Mark - thank you for the insight. I think you have a point and I’m going to try the portioning you suggested. I think the problem is that when I stop my fast I feel like I should be able to eat my normal-sized portions but fasting kinda shrinks my stomach and it’s hard to accept that just a few bites makes me “full”. But I like your idea of reminding myself that if I’m hungry an hour later, I can just eat again then. Thanks for the common sense:)
Rachel - it’s kinda funny. This topic is being discussed all over the blogosphere (something in the water?). Over here everyone is pro- IF, but other sites like The Weighting Game (which I love, btw) are totally anti- IF. Check out the comments over there.
IF can also be used in conjunction with weight lifting to affect dramatic physique changes!
Check out Martin Berkhan’s LeanGains website for more information and stunning before and after photos.
http://www.leangains.com