Can You Lose Weight By Intermittent Fasting Alone?
A diet strategy that strays a little from the mainstream but is incredibly effective is known as intermittent fasting. Like other lifestyles (such as paleo), this takes its roots from our primitive ancestors, for whom food was never guaranteed. They would spend their days looking for food and—if they were successful—their evenings feasting on the bounty. Intermittent fasting suggests adopting the same strategy of feast and famine. Of course, we like to focus our energy on the first part, because while fasting is easy, eating right is much harder.
Fasting isn’t for everyone, because everyone responds differently to it. I grew up fasting on Yom Kippur, and, as a thirteen-year-old boy, it was the hardest thing I’d ever accomplished in my life. As I’ve gotten older, I don’t notice the fasting until about twenty hours in, and each year it gets easier. This isn’t the case for my sister; for her, fasting is still a challenge.
Everyone is different—some people can fast all day without even noticing, while others get grumpy if they don’t eat every three hours. This intermittent-fasting strategy is designed to help anyone fast without ever feeling like they are starving.
This diet strategy helps you lose weight because it decreases the amount of time per day that you spend eating, which often reduces overall calorie intake. Total calorie intake is the most important thing when it comes to losing weight with intermittent fasting. Additionally, the long breaks between eating can help decrease insulin levels. Lower insulin levels are correlated with lower body weight.
As a personal trainer, I had a young woman come to me for weight-loss advice. She was upset because she wasn’t seeing results, and her current trainer “made me wake up early to eat breakfast.” After simply suggesting she skip breakfast if it didn’t bring her joy and change nothing else, as she was already eating a healthy diet, she lost five pounds in five weeks.
This diet strategy is the least popular of those suggested, because most people tend to find it intimidating. But don’t fret! It really isn’t that hard.
If you choose to adopt this strategy, there is a common myth we should quickly bust.
MYTH:
If you choose not to eat, your body goes into “starvation mode” and decreases the calories you burn at rest, making it impossible to lose weight.
TRUTH:
If you eat fewer calories, you’ll lose weight. If “starvation mode” was a real thing, anorexia would be impossible.
It’s true that if your weight is constantly fluctuating, losing weight can become more challenging because, under those conditions, your metabolism can get a little funky in the short term. Time, consistency, and resistance training can offset any of the funky stuff.
THIS STRATEGY IS GREAT FOR PEOPLE WHO:
Have high levels of self-discipline
Don’t feel hungry in the morning
Are short on time
Prefer big meals
HOW DO YOU DO IT?
Ideally consume nothing but water during your fast. If needed, you can drink coffee or tea but without sweetener.
Eat your food for the day in a 9- to 11-hour window. (Most people go from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m., but any window works.)
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
1. Break your fast with a big salad (and some protein)
We always want 50 percent of your diet to consist of vegetables, and this is an easy way not to overeat high-calorie foods immediately following your fast.
2. Don’t binge
Think of this strategy as forced portion control. If you try to eat the same amount of calories in one sitting as you normally eat in a day, you probably won’t feel too great.
3. Keep it in perspective
Remember, half a day without food isn’t really the big thing people make it out to be. Don’t stuff your face to prepare for your fast. You’ll be fine.
4. Don’t eat crap
Just because you fasted for fourteen to sixteen hours, that doesn’t give you an excuse to binge on junk food. If you fast and then eat crap, you render the fast meaningless.
If fasting for fifteen hours becomes too challenging, feel free to eat leafy green veggies during that time. At no point should you ever be in extreme discomfort.
Finally, remember you still have to feast on healthy foods. Do not use fifteen hours of fasting as an excuse to eat junk. Aim to cut out processed foods, and you’ll have no trouble losing weight with intermittent fasting.
