What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is simply an eating pattern. Fasting, normally water fasting, so consuming water possibly with salt and or lemon (and a black coffee if needed!), for a certain amount of time. Then eating within the remaining timeframe of the 24 hour day.

As a start it is recommended to slowly increase this fasting window to 16 hours. This leaves an eating window of 8 hours in our 24 hour day. If right now though you finish eating at 7pm and begin the next day at 7am, you have a fasting window of 12 hours and an eating window for 12 hours also. In this situation to increase your fasting window by 1 hour at a time until you reach the 16 hour initial aim for fasting which will leave an 8 hour eating window.

What are the benefits of Intermittent Fasting?

There are many benefits of IF and the time in the fasting state determines what the main benefits your body will experience. There is so much research still going on in relation to IF.

Some benefits are:

• A healthier body which has a chance to cleanse each day!

• Weight loss, even though studies show you will eat the same amount of food, just in a slightly different way

• Cognitive wellbeing including clearer thinking

• Moves body into ketosis, where body produces ketones as its main energy source therefore using stored fat to function and feeding the brain ketones which it loves

• Improved regulation of blood sugar, therefore improving insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity

• Cleansing of old cells into new cells (autophagy)

• Relieves digestive upsets

• the list goes on…….

How does Intermittent Fasting look in a day?

If you stop eating at 7pm, and normally you would have breakfast (break your fast) at 7am then your fasting window is 12 hours and your eating window is also 12 hours. To start moving to an IF lifestyle start by lengthening the fasting window hour by hour each day. If you prefer to spread this out to a change every 2nd or 3rd day or even longer, do that. All of this is perfect for tweaking your health in a positive direction.

Day 1– From when you stop eating the night before, let’s say 7pm, only drink water or black coffee until 8am. This 13 hour window by eating breakfast at 8am has increased your fast from 12 hours to a 13 hour window.

Day 2– From 7pm, your next meal to break this longer fast will be 9am. A 14 hour fast and a 10 hour eating window.

Day 3– Let’s now extend to a 15 hour fast. If your last meal is at 7pm you will now eat at 10am.

Day 4– Now our first goal of a 16 hour fasting window where you are eating your last meal at 7pm and your next meal at 11am.

You have now fasted for 16 full hours. Your eating window is now at 8 hours. It is recommended here that you have lunch and dinner with no snacks in between. This is commonly known as the 16:8 fasting pattern.

 

Tips for intermittent fasting beginners

1. Water with some good quality salt such as Himalayan Salt or Celtic Salt and a little lemon, ginger or mint can go along way to replenishing your mineral reserves

2. Black coffee will not break your fast. This of course means no sugar, or sweetener and no milk.

3. Herbal tea, again, nothing added is ok. Be sure though to make your drink of choice good quality water.

4. You may have heard the terminology – BULLETPROOF COFFEE. It does seam like we live in a coffee society!!! This is where you are able to add in some MCT oil. (medium-chain triglycerides) from the coconut. This can be very helpful to keep you feeling satisfied until you break your fast. If you feel satisfied without the need for the oil, I’d suggest leaving it out.

5. If you worry about being too hungry a hack is to slightly increase the calories of your last meal. Have high quality food and add a little good fat like avocado or nuts and seeds to your meal. (If you need help on that last meal please let me know)

*First Meal Matters*

How you break your fast matters, alot!. Believe it or not this is one of the most important things to be aware of on this topic of fasting. During a fast your body will have started repairing cells, especially in the digestive tract. The first meal needs to support the digestive tract and the microbiome it houses. From here we need to look closely at your microbiome. Wow, we could talk about microbiome (one of my favourite topics) for many hours. But for now let’s just know that this first meal needs to feed and replenish it.

Foods to consider as you reintroduce food following any fast.

• Organic Bone Broth – The glycine here repairs the inner lining of the gut

• Fermented food such as sauerkraut (any traditionally fermented vegetable) or milk kefir – probiotics will make you dance – this food will replenish the gut with beneficial yeast and bacteria

• Fibre! (avoid fruit as many are hybridised to contain high amounts of sugar which my spike your insulin level) so nuts, seeds, berries, in some greek yoghurt.. a salad here is great. I often add saurkraut, a fermented food, to a salad so I’m getting both the probiotics and fibre in one go – fibre is known as a probiotic, it literally feeds the probiotics in the gut

• Light foods including animal or plant protein. Possibly fish or meat, vegetables and legumes are all good choices

• Avoid break – fast cereals. This concept of breakfast being the most important meal of the day was developed by KELLOGGS. Don’t be fooled. We do not need to start our day with these so called healthy boxed cereals.

 

What next?

This is a great and exciting beginning to improving your health and wellbeing. By applying this simple concept and doing nothing else, you are very likely to have moved into a much healthier stage of your health.

There is more!!

These first concepts can be tweaked to add in concepts such incorportating a KETO diet into your life on certain times of the month, different lengths of fasting and adapting these concepts to your individual needs and stage of life. By periodically increasing the length of fasting beyond 16 hours has different benefits on the body. Be guided through this process.

Want to know more?

Just ask….during your next session if this blog peaks your interest we will muscle testing the best form of fasting for you. When to and not to fast. Let’s dive in and explore the best option, for you..

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