With intermittent fasting’s surging popularity, chances are that you’ve probably heard of it in the past few years. Not only are more people achieving their weight loss goals with intermittent fasting, but there is a growing list of studies both confirming and discovering a multitude of benefits to our health and longevity.
Intermittent fasting was an huge proponent in the final phase of My 100lb weight Loss Journey. It was the major key I used on my path to achieve sustainability in my fat-loss efforts. And, made it significantly easier to achieve my revamped goal of seeing my abs for the first time in my life.
In the Past
In the Early part of my journey, between 2005 – 2007 I dropped 70 lbs from my peak weight of 240. The trouble was that for the next 8 years I was completely stuck in a yo-yo cycle.
With my weight bouncing up and down by 30lbs (180 to 150) for so long it was clear that the methods I was using weren’t helping. Going from one fad to the next smothered with a thick layer of “bro-science” behind it provided zero sustainability towards my goal.
It was time for a new approach.
The Beginning of my Journey with Intermittent Fasting
I didn’t hear about Intermittent Fasting until early 2015 through an article posted on Collective Evolution. Naturally, as I read about I-F the skeptic came out in me, but I did my best to remain optimistic.
I knew that my biggest desire was to move away from this stagnant place of being unhappy with my body.
I needed a solution.
Intermittent Fasting is not a Diet!
Intermittent fasting is a general term used for a variety of methods. This can lead to a bit of confusion since it isn’t just one guideline with one method.
In its simplest form, I-F is a meal timing plan, NOT a diet! This means that you are abstaining from food for X amount of hours, then consuming your calories during a specific eating window.
Other Styles of intermittent fasting include fasting for certain days of the week and even prolonged multi-day fasting.
For simplicities sake I’m only going to focus on the form of fasting that I used and highly recommend for beginners: Time Restricted Feeding.
I specifically used the 16/8 method which I believe is the easiest way to start. For some of you, having a 16-hour fasting window may seem daunting at first, until you break it down.
Remember, we are sleeping for roughly half of that fasting window so during our wakeing hours you just need to split up the other 8 hours or so.
I started with 12-8pm, but I was having a challenging time with abstaining from food for the last few hours of the day. I shifted my eating window towards 2pm to 10pm which made it much easier to stick to.
The Beauty of Intermittent Fasting
Many people dont realize there’s flexibility and simply go with the 12 to 8pm eating window.
This is the beauty of I-F, you can manipulate your 8-hour eating window to whatever time works best for you.
Just do yourself a big favour and stay consistent with the schedule that you setup for yourself.
I say this because the main difficulty you’ll experience is with the adaptation period, typically 7 to 10 days. Through-out this time your body will still be sending out appetite signals during your new fasting window making you feel hungry. For some people they can adapt in as little as 4 days to this.
Adaptation
Once you get past that week of this new 16/8 schedule your body will begin to understand that you are providing yourself with all the food you need; just at a different time of the day.
This is where the magic really starts happening and why intermittent fasting is so effective for fat-loss.
As you adapt, your body won’t be sending out hunger signals during your fasting window. Instead it will be producing huge quantities of growth hormone to facilitate fat burning as your primary source of fuel. And a cascade of other beneficial processes that come along when your insulin isnt being triggered.
Adding to this, eating larger meals during my eating window provided this level of satiation that I never experienced before with past dieting.
Sustainability is the Name of the Game
This was the biggest key for me and will be for so many of you on your fat-loss goals. The truth is that when it comes to losing fat, this process is a marathon, not a sprint.
If you put yourself through the challenge of constantly feeling hungry and deprived, how can you ever expect to achieve your weight-loss goals? Let alone maintain them…
Having adapted to intermittent fasting combined with eating larger meals, the feeling of hunger was no longer there. I was always super satisfied. And, It didn’t feel like this huge mountain to climb of discomfort and pain in order to get lean.
After my first year with intermittent fasting, I felt it was actually going to be possible to get lean enough to see my abs. I adjusted my goal and utilized another tool in the form of counting my macros.
Staying consistent with macro counting was much easier than I thought. And, adding this layer of accountability by knowing my caloric intake, I was actually able to achieve what I never thought was possible; seeing my abs for the first time in my life!
How I-F can Help You
I believe that Intermittent fasting is a phenomenal tool for achieving your weight-loss goals. And, if youre new to this you’ll soon discover the plethora of other benefits to your health and longevity.
Now I cant speak for everyone, but I feel its safe to assume that whatever amount of weight you are looking to lose; once you do lose it, you’re probably going to want to keep it off.
The longer you do keep it off, your body becomes accustommed to your new found ideal weight. This will make it much easier to maintain, especially because it will help to alter your self-image.
I-F was an enormous proponent of the final phase of My 100lb weight Loss Journey – YouTube
It was the path that I used to achieve sustainability and made it much easier to do one of the hardest parts of any major weight-loss transformation… loosing the last 10 lbs.
Check out the video I made on YouTube for this post!
[…] any calorie restricted dieting you’re going to lose weight, no doubt about it. But generally speaking, not all the weight loss is coming from fat. The […]