It’s important to note that I’m not a doctor. This is my experience with Intermittent Fasting (IF) and the methods I have learned come from my personal cardiologist. I also have been following Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Axe on social media to learn the reasons why everyone should incorporate some kind of IF into their diets.
My typical fasting schedule goes like this. I fast Monday, Wednesday, Friday for 24 hours. That means I don’t eat anything until dinner time. I just drink water, unsweetened herbal teas, and black coffee. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday I do 16:8 fasting which means I fast for 16 hours and only eat my calories in an 8 hour window. What that means is I only eat lunch and dinner… eating between 12pm-8pm only. This allows me not to have to count my calories. I’m not hungry because I eat keto which is a high fat diet. Keto and IF go hand in hand. Fats leave you feeling satisfied and feeling fuller longer.
The first week I began IF…. was brutal. I could have eaten my entire house. I had come off a very unhealthy, carbohydrate based diet from the Thanksgiving and Christmas time of year where I ate all the things that are super high in sugar. Adjusting to keto and IF takes a week at minimum while your body adjusts from burning carbohydrates to fats for energy.
Why IF?? We fast every day without even knowing it. Most of that time we are sleeping. When you are constantly eating, your body is in a constant digestion mode and it doesn’t have much time to do anything else in your body being in that state. It has minimal time to self heal naturally. While you are fasting you drastically improve your HGH levels (human growth hormone) naturally which is responsible for fat burning and muscle gain. As we get older we make less HGH naturally but a way to keep those levels up is to incorporate IF.
Anti-aging benefits…. my skin is sooooooo much better. Like, noticeably different. When fasting your body is able to repair/regenerate cells and thus improving autophagy. Autophagy is a response present in all of our cells to basically clean out and recycle old cells. When fasting your cells have time to do this naturally. Plus, if you’re like me and have 130lbs to loose I’m worried about excess skin when I lose this weight. IF regenerates skin cells so when you fast it helps restore the skin so you don’t need skin removal surgery. Now, you’re not going to have the body of a 20 year old after losing 150lbs but you more than likely won’t need skin surgery.
I was born with a genetic heart defect so when my cardiologist recommend this it got my attention. There is no cure for what I have and being morbidly obese throws fuel on the fire. IF actually lowers blood pressure, increases good HDL cholesterol and decreases both bad LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Boosts energy and mental clarity. I used to wake up and still feel tired. Now I’m up and I barely need my morning cup of coffee. Don’t get my wrong, I still drink my coffee but I don’t *need* it anymore. I also suffered from “mommy brain” and since going Keto/IF my mental clarity is back!
Other notable benefits of IF is boosting immune system and lowering insulin levels. I don’t have diabetes but I have PCOS which is related to glucose levels. My PCOS symptoms normalize and I feel like a different person! Dr. Fung works directly with patients that have diabetes and if you have diabetes or insulin resistance please research him on google!
Please research IF and see for yourself the studies and research that is available. There are not a lot of doctors that support keto or IF because if you can fix yourself they don’t make any money off healthy patients.