.intermittent fasting.

when I first heard about intermittent fasting, or if, a few years ago, my knee-jerk reaction was - "no way! I could never." having so many set hours of not eating just sounded way too restrictive

and now that I've had time to sit with it (and actually research it), it doesn't sound so bad. it sounds like a good way to keep eating in check, so not allowing for late night snacking.

wikipedia's definition:

Intermittent fasting is any eating diet plan that cycles between a period of fasting and non-fasting over a defined period. Intermittent fasting is under preliminary research to assess if it can produce weight loss comparable to long-term calorie restriction.

sure, I might be trying this out to see what weight loss might happen. (trying to get back on track to what makes me feel better long-term.)

and sure, there are some extreme ways to execute it, as you can do with literally any kind of eating. it depend on the approach, what the balance is. the way that seems to work for me is the 16/8 method (or, how I've been doing it - the 15/9 method, whiiiiich is recommended for women).

here's an easy full definition of the 16/8 method from the healthline article, "6 popular ways to do intermittent fasting" by kris gunnars on june 4, 2017:

The 16/8 Method involves fasting every day for 14-16 hours, and restricting your daily "eating window" to 8-10 hours.

Within the eating window, you can fit in 2, 3 or more meals.

This method is also known as the Leangains protocol, and was popularized by fitness expert Martin Berkhan.

Doing this method of fasting can actually be as simple as not eating anything after dinner, and skipping breakfast.

For example, if you finish your last meal at 8 pm and then don't eat until 12 noon the next day, then you are technically fasting for 16 hours between meals.

It is generally recommended that women only fast 14-15 hours, because they seem to do better with slightly shorter fasts.

For people who get hungry in the morning and like to eat breakfast, then this can be hard to get used to at first. However, many breakfast skippers actually instinctively eat this way.

You can drink water, coffee and other non-caloric beverages during the fast, and this can help reduce hunger levels.

for me, I'm focusing on eating all of my calories within an eating window that starts at 11 am and ends at 8 pm. I've actually started tracking my daily calories to see if I'm meeting, going under, or going over the amount  of calories I should be taking in.

in a future post, I'll go over my body image issues and how it's impacted my relationship with food, but it's actually positive that I've been able to see calories for what they are: data points. this is similar to how I was tracking my sleep routines. intake data, compare notes, determine what the impact is. 

back to if: I started tracking via the app, fooducate. I input my goals and starting information, and then began tracking both diet and exercise within the app. based on what I put in, fooducate determined that my recommended daily calories at 1710. I began tracking on september 16, 2019.

so with intermittent fasting, I need to eat 1710 calories per day within the 9 hour window, from 11 am to 8 pm.

I am allowing fluctuations to see what works well with my body and schedule, especially now that I've re-introduced gym sessions / heavy workout times for after work.

I plan to do an update by the end of the month to see how things have been going for the last few months of trying it out. measured in hunger levels and mood, not in inches or weight.

until next time,
emily renee