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Wow, has it really been over a month since I last posted on here? With extra work coming in, a bit of traveling and a family bereavement to deal with, the last few weeks have been a bit of a blur.
I’ve been away from home a lot lately, so I haven’t been able to take my weight and body fat measurements very often, but I think I’ve been hovering around the 21% mark.
I’m pretty happy with the shape I’m in at the moment, which is probably one of the reasons why I haven’t made changes to keep my progress going, but it hasn’t exactly been foremost in mind lately anyway. That said, I still have a bit of fat I’d li
ke lose and I know I’d feel bad if I gave up on this before reaching the 18% body fat target I set for myself, so I am starting to think about upping the ante a bit.
I’ve been reading about intermittent fasting for quite a while. This is where you go totally without food for a set period of time before returning to normal eating. You still have liquids of course, just nothing with calories. A lot of people I know have been trying it out since seeing the BBC Horizon documentary about it a few weeks ago and I’ve been hearing some very encouraging reports. Most people seem to find fasting for a period of up to 24 hours is manageable and, so long as they don’t over-compensate by gorging-out before or after, they’re achieving impressive fat loss. There also appear to be various other health benefits to fasting. Personally, I’m not convinced these go beyond what you would expect from any restricted calorie diet, but some people fast for health reasons alone.
One of my biggest concerns when I started looking into fasting for weight loss was that it would put the body into “starvation mode” and cause it to cling on to fat rather than releasing it for energy, making people feel lethargic and ill during the fast and causing them regain any lost fat and more besides once they started eating again. I was also worried that it would cause a loss of muscle tissue. But having read up on it, it seems that isn’t what happens, at least not when fasting for period a short as 24 hours. Quite the contrary, most of the people I’ve been speaking to have said their energy levels are not affected and, although they notice peaks and troughs in their weight, as you would expect around days when they’re not putting any food into their bodies, over the long term their body fat levels are falling.
For me, one of the biggest attractions of intermittent fasting is the simplicity of it. No one can claim it’s anything new or some kind of amazing breakthrough they’ve made in weight loss science. Fasting is basically just eating less, which unsurprisingly causes the body to use its fuel/fat reserves. If someone fasted for two days every week, then over the course of each week they’ll have cut their total calorie intake by 2/7, which is almost 30%, so it’s no wonder they’d lose weight.
Fasting is definitely not for everyone. But, for some people, taking food off the menu entirely for a set period of time can be an easier resolution to stick to than an eating programme. Obviously, this is not something for children, or anyone in ill health, or pregnant women, or people with a history of eating disorders, etc. But for people who are in good shape physically and mentally, it could be an option.
I want to stress, that I’m not at this stage advocating intermittent fasting. I’m just kind of thinking out loud here while I’m looking into it. But I am certainly intrigued. So intrigued, in fact, that I tried it out myself yesterday…
I had intended to write all about my experience in this post, but I seem to have a got a bit over-excited about the background there and now I have to go and get on with some work! So I’ll leave you with that for now, but I will tell you about how yesterday went in a post either later today or tomorrow.
In the meantime, I’m very keen to hear your thoughts on this, so do please leave a comment.
UPDATE: My post on my first experience of intermittent fasting is now live here.
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I did have a quick read up of this on wikipedia when you posted about it. I know there seems to be a lot of reports of long-term beneficial health benefits but I am not convinced this is healthy. Some days I can go without eating until around 3pm without even thinking about it, but I force myself to eat if I am going to exercise because all of my education on nutrition and exercise says its unwise to exercise without glucose reserves. I suppose if someone carb loaded the night before it might be okay, but that kind of defeats the purpose of using intermittent fasting for weight loss. So is this safe to do while exercising? I just cant get my head around how this can be a healthy lifestyle choice for dieters. All my dieting life I have had drilled into me that my dieting choices need to be a lifestyle change, one that I can maintain long term, otherwise the weight will go back on. Not to mention the physical problems of going without food.
However, that said, when I do go without food – due to emotional upset etc – I do feel healthier and more energetic the next day, but I am not sure if that is because I have extreme food intolerances, or just because too much food can make you sluggish.
Hi Claire, I shared your concerns at first, but it seems to be working well for a lot of people. Obviously it wouldn’t be wise to do anything extreme like running a marathon without feeding up first, but a single day is really quite a short amount to go without food and the body seems to cope with it just fine.
Like I said, it’s not something I’m entirely convinced about myself just yet. But I am impressed with the reports I’m hearing about it.
I’ll be interested to hear about your experience of this and how it would fit with an active lifestyle. I can’t imagine going for a long run without my porridge first and I wonder how it would even effect short term bursts of exercise. Can’t see me trying it myself!
Hi Michelle,
I’m hearing from a lot of people with very active lifestyles who find they perform equally well on their fast days. It is very interesting. I don’t want to sound like an advocate for this type of lifestyle, by the way, and like I said to Claire above, I share your skepticism, but the evidence is looking intriguing.
Will be interested in what you learn from doing this Julia. I share some of Claire’s skepticism on the matter of IF, especially when combined with regular exercise. Look forward to your next post…
Thanks Alex. Yep, I know what you mean. See above!
I encourage anyone interested and skeptical to watch the bbc program, eat, fast and live longer. There is also a pretty good book called eat, stop, eat that is from a body builder’s perspective for questions about muscle loss and athletic performance while on a diet including fasting. I think like any diet change it really depends on the person. You have to have some will power to do this. I’ve found for me it is not that difficult and the pile of benefits outweigh not eating as much. I also find that I enjoy food more when I eat less often. I’ve been doing alternate day for around 2 weeks and plan on being a guinea pig for a while. One thing I really like is i see it as an easy maintenance plan too. Once I get to an ideal weight I can eat as normal and just monitor my weight. if I think I need to lose a little I can fast one day. For me it just is so easy and makes so much sense it’s ridiculous. Before you make judgements I highly encourage you to watch the bbc program. it does a great job of explaining things in 60 minutes. much better than I could do in a paragraph.
Hi Tim,
Yes, the documentary was nicely done and is informative. I’ve read Eat Stop Eat too, I’d say that also offers a nice introduction for anyone really.
Quite right, it’s not for everyone. But when you try it, I actually think it doesn’t require as much willpower as lots of other diets. Taking food totally out of the equation can sometimes be easier than fussing over the healthiest options.
I’m really keen to hear more about the system you’re using and how you’re getting on with it. I hope you’ll post more about it soon!
J
I’ve tried a variation on this by only eating a very limited amount (500kcals) on two days a week. I’ve founf that I don’t over eat on the other days and have not notice any lack of energy, in fact I feel like I have more get-up-and-go. I also initially lost some weight and am now maintaining a good body weight.
Very interesting. Thanks Edward. How long have you been doing that?
I occasionally do this when I just don’t feel hungry. Sometimes I get full on vegetable juice and it doesn’t occur to me to eat when my body is not calling for it. I also never used to eat when I had a cold etc so that my body could direct it’s energy and attention to healing rather than digestion. I have friends who fast when the seasons change and that seems to work great for them. I have tried to juice fast in the past (3 days) and as I mentioned on twitter I tried to do 100% raw for a while too (just to see what I was missing!). Both were too rigid for me.
Hi Emily, interesting stuff. It’d be good to hear more about your friends who fast when seasons changes and how/why they do it and what effects they experience. I tried a 5 day juice fast a few years ago as a New Year detox thing. I felt great afterwards and lost about 5 pounds as a result, but I don’t think I’d do it again, it was just too long. I’m try to eat as much raw food as I can, but I find it difficult, so I can imagine a 100% raw diet being very tricky. I bet you learned lots of healthy recipes/habits during that time though.
Is fasting really safe for your health?
So…how do I start… Planning 16 hrs fast with 8 hr food window…. How many times a week.. Or do I do it daily… When do I break from it.., when to resume.., confused….
Hi Sashaank, have a read through my previous posts if you’d like to know what I do. I think you would find the Eat Stop Eat ebook helpful too.
I’ve done 20h fast + 4hr eating window everyday for 2 weeks in a row. Believe me, the fat just melted right off..literally. people at the gym commented instantly and asked me for the trick lol. The trick for me is to have the eating window between around 11:00h and 14:00h, and eating healthy(not over maxing out on the carbs unnecessarily), then bed at 22:00h, and then gym at 07:00h before work with weight training + LIGHT cardio. (gym is important when on a hungry stomach so that only fat burns during this golden state of fat burn) then after gym at 08:30h, i wait before eating again..till 10:30h or 11:00h depending. Waiting is important so that the body still eats out more fat to replace lost energy from the gym. Lost between 2-3kgs between 1 and 2wks..had to ask my gym if they recalibrated the scale coz i couldnt believe it.
Hi Ellz,
Great that you’re making such brilliant progress. It’s not entirely true to say that the body only burns fat at those times, but I know a lot of people do believe in fasted state cardio to boost fat loss. It’s not something I would want to do every day, but as mentioned I do exercise on fast days. Hope you’re continuing to get results. Julia
This is an option for people who are not lean and are at the high spectrum of overweight/obese. Someone who is healthy and looking to shed of that extra fat would actually not benefit, rather it would be unhealthy for them. I read a few weeks back that for lean, healthy people, it would start to consume the muscles instead of the fat. The reason this works for alot of people is because… well, they have more fat than muscle (or very little muscle) hence the fat just shreds away since there is no rich nutrients to get from the muscles.
So if you’ve never done resistance training before and want to lose that fat, then this is perfect for you. If you want to lose weight to get that six pack showing, then this is not for you.
Well, it has helped me and many other people I’ve spoken to who didn’t have a huge amount to lose Pritesh. IF is still something I am investigating, but what I’ve discovered so far leads me to disagree with what you’ve said there I’m afraid. Always great to get opinions though, thanks for the comment.
Hi Julia! Really interesting reading through your blog and getting your perspective on ways of losing weight.
A friend of mine has been raving about these http://www.sweatsuits.co.uk. Is it something you have tried? She says it is making her workout more effective and she certainly looks good on it. Wondered if you had tried them and what you thought? I am seriously thinking about giving it a go! Something to help me with calorie burning and weight loss has got to be worth a try, as long as I am sensible about it, right?
Hi Michelle,
Sorry to disappoint, but all those things will do is make you lose extra water. The body doesn’t shed fat by sweating. It’s good to hear your friend has made progress and maybe the sweatsuits have helped in that they gave her extra confidence that the exercise she was doing would help her to lose fat – but it is down to her moving more (and possibly changing diet if that’s what she’s done), not the sweating caused by wearing those things. Just get moving and eat clean, it’ll happen.
Hi Julia,
I came across your post and thought I’d share my experience. I tried intermittent fasting in 2009. I had about 30 kilos to lose, and In the first month I lost 8 kilos. I would drink as many fruit and vegetables juices as I wanted on the days that I fasted, which I was surprised to find really wasn’t much (3 or 4 glasses). On the days that I didn’t fast, I started my day with a fruit, and followed with a regular carbohydrate breakfast. I ate light the rest of the day, but I allowed myself anything I wanted in moderation.
So, I think fasting 2-3 times a week on non-consecutive days is a good option for someone who wants to kick start losing weight, without slowing down their metabolism. My energy levels were always high and I walked for 30 to 40 mins every day.
I never read Eat Stop Eat of watched the BBC documentary, but I plan to do so now.
Hi Julia..
Which one do you think would give speedy results?? Alternate day fasting or daily fasts like 19/5 or 20/4??
Much better then making 5 or 10 decisions each day. Relieves the torture of choice. I tell my patients to pick a 3 hour window to eat..period. Cheat once in a while ok. Works great short and long term!!!