Intermitting Fasting 101

Intermitting fasting, the thing that everyone is talking about it. I love a simple thing to add to my life that will add some health benefits.

Intermitting fasting is exactly what it sounds like; you have a specific amount of time during your day where you eat and then a longer portion where you do not. Things like water, tea, and plain coffee are okay when you’re fasting as long as there are no calories. While you’re fasting your body does a lot of things like repairs calls, change hormone levels, detoxes and a lot more. Your body focuses on maximizing your health during these hours instead of working on digestion.

Intermitting fasting is also a great way to promote weight loss. When you include intermitting fasting into your life then usually you will eat during a certain time frame, helping prevent mindless snacking which helps promote weight loss. When you are your insulin levels get lower, your growth hormone level gets higher and you get a larger amount of norepinephrine. It sounds complicated but it means that it promotes the ability to breakdown fat and use it as an energy source. Plus some studies claim that fasting speeds up your metabolism, an extra benefit we love.

One of my favorites benefits is the ability to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the body. Nobody likes waking up bloated and this is such a great way to prevent that. Your body has a greater ability to breakdown food and fight stress when you’re fasting. Since digestive issues and stress is such a large part of bloating and discomfort this is a great way to help prevent it.

There are so many other benefits but often people avoid intermitting fasting because they think it means that you need to restrict. That is not the case if done correctly.  The idea of intermitting fasting is to give your body more time to focus on repairing and detoxing while making sure that you’re eating enough calories during the non-fasting time frame. When you’re fasting you still need to eat a proper amount of calories but you’re just eating them in a smaller amount of time. By preventing yourself from eating too late you’re helping your body digest the food you ate earlier a lot easier.  Keep in mind that if your fasting but all of a sudden you get hungry it does not mean that you should ignore your hunger. It is completely OKAY to break the fast! The first thing is to listen to your body. It knows what you need so go ahead, eat a snack, and feel better. It’s also important to check up on yourself throughout your fasting journey and make sure you are not feeling restricted or developing a complicated relationship to food. This should be something that adds guilt or stress to your life.     Instead, it should be something that helps you feel good and become healthier.

If you want to try it out I would recommend going into it slowly. It’s so much easier when you build up to it giving your body more time to adjust. What I currently do is the 8/16-hour rule. That means that my eating time is for 8 hours and I fast for 16 hours. It sounds a lot but the time you spend sleeping is included in your fasting time frame. Sleeping usually takes up a majority of the time so it’s really easy. I love to use the app called ZERO because it helps me keep track and make sure I’m sticking to the full fasting time.

Most people tend to skip breakfast but I do things a bit different. I love to workout in the morning in a fasted state, I feel like I have so much more energy doing it this way. Since I wake up and be ready early that means, I workout early. Most of the time, I will start my workout 5-6 AM. I like to have some source of protein after my workouts. That is why I break my fast early, around 7 am. Since I break my fast so early, that means I start fasting earlier than others at around 3 pm. This is not for everyone but it works well for me. I don’t like going to sleep feeling full so having my last meal early works perfectly. I go to sleep feeling a lot better and I get a better night of sleep. It just helps me wake up feeling so much better and with so much more energy. The difference is so noticeable to me and it is something I like to try to do every other day or any day I feel like my body needs a reset or break.

I think fasting is just about keeping in mind your current habits and fitting it into your schedule. At first, I think it may seem a lot harder than it is. The good part is that slowly, your body will adjust and it will become a habit. For me, it has become a habit and I rarely feel hungry after my last meal.  If for some reason I do feel hungry I’ll have a small snack and feel great. Fasting is simple and easy to add. A simple habit that brings you so many benefits making it so worth it to try!!

All the love,

Kamila Coellar