Can you really get massive weight loss results with intermittent fasting? I mean, really? Intermittent fasting is just about timing your food. It is about “when to eat.” How can that possibly help weight loss?
I asked myself that for years before trying it and even once I decided to give it a go, I waited 2-3 months to implement it. I really didn’t think it would live up to the hype. How could it? How could “when to eat” actually matter that much? Furthermore, how on earth would I deal with the hunger? Wow. Do I have some answers for you in this video.
But first: You must, must try intermittent fasting. Don’t brush it off. Even if it sounds crazy and stupid, test it. Listen to the video.
“When To Eat”
Intermittent fasting is simply a structure of “when to eat” that allows your body time to focus on digestion and then some hours of “rest” to focus on fat-burning and body repair. The “not eating” hours of the day are the “fasting.” Some people “fast” only 16 hours, allowing 8 hours for eating. Some fast for 5 hours, with 19 hours for eating, and some for 23 hours with 1 hour for eating. I should add here that the fasting window can be much longer. For more dramatic weight loss, there are people who eat every other day, for instance. Fasts of 2- and 3-days are increasingly popular among people who are able to do it. (Some medications and conditions may prevent it.)
In the video, I describe my approach to intermittent fasting — eating one meal a day in one hour. I also describe the structure my husband used to lose weight — two meals a day in five hours. Both of us lost on the order of a half a pound a day, taking care to eat food very low in sugars and starches (low carb / keto) during that time. He had less to lose, lost as much as I did eating more food than I did, but he is a man, after all, and as I say regularly, “God loves him more.” I needed to lose more and needed to be more strict to do so, leading to my one meal in one hour.
Some people mix it up: Fasting for 23 hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and only for 16 hours on other days. As you consider your options, you’ll see that they are basically limit-less. You can take these examples and adapt them to your own circumstances.
Hunger and Intermittent Fasting
“How do you not eat your arm off?” my friend Kristen asked me. I was sure afraid I would want to! What is amazing about intermittent fasting is that it helps regulate your whole suite of fat-burning hormones, including your hunger hormone, ghrelin. In what I consider to be the strangest and most mind-blowing factoid of this whole weight loss thing is that you can actually reduce your feeling of hunger by eating less and, in particular as I see it, eating less regularly. I discuss the hunger problem in the video below.
Should You Transition Into Intermittent Fasting?
Another big question that comes up in the Eat Like A Bear group on Facebook (here) is whether you should transition into intermittent fasting or just go cold turkey. Do what suits you! There is a notion out there that you “have to transition” or that it will “be too hard.” Poppycock. If you’re a cold turkey person and can jump in, just jump in. (Yes, I am a cold turkey person myself.)
