I’ve been fasting now for 1 week and here are my early results and conclusions.
Just today I came across this article by James Clear, which is another good resource for people wanting to give it a go. I was looking for the benefits of fasting longer than the common 16:8, as I am currently on 18 hours.
My conclusions at the moment are that over 16 hours and up to 24 only adds benefit of more targeted fat loss, while going over 24 hours, gets you into a phase called autophagy, which does something that starts to increase your life span. Still looking for a good reason to do 18-20 rather than just 16, which is obviously easier.
Anyway, this week my fasts have been:
| Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday |
| 16h 36min | 17h 14min | 24h 49min | 16h 40min | 21h 20min | 16h 58min | 19h 33min |
My diet has been mostly good and on Friday I began counting my calories for the first time in a while. Just to see if I was on the right track. I generally was, but it opened up my eyes to some foods, for example dates, that I was snacking on 10 at a time and inadvertently piling on 700 calories in the process!!
My current aim is fat loss and a bit of weight loss, so it’s important to function at a calorie deficit. I weighed myself and I was around 69kg – so I have obviously been eating the correct amount of calories. To help lose fat and weight, I am now counting calories and aiming for net 1,500 per day. Being injured means I can’t run far so I need to be careful to stay under that. Fasting has helped that for sure! I’m aiming for 65kg in a month or so.
My waist size will be my biggest target though through this. A year ago I was 74cm and I was 83.5cm when I decided to fast and after 1 week, I am now at 82cm so I think it’s working!
Once you’ve had a go for a few days you’ll find it’s easier than you imagined and I’ll leave you with this quote from the article I posted above.
“Diets are easy in the contemplation, difficult in the execution. Intermittent fasting is just the opposite — it’s difficult in the contemplation but easy in the execution.
Most of us have contemplated going on a diet. When we find a diet that appeals to us, it seems as if it will be a breeze to do. But when we get into the nitty gritty of it, it becomes tough. For example, I stay on a low–carb diet almost all the time. But if I think about going on a low–fat diet, it looks easy. I think about bagels, whole wheat bread and jelly, mashed potatoes, corn, bananas by the dozen, etc. — all of which sound appealing. But were I to embark on such a low–fat diet I would soon tire of it and wish I could have meat and eggs. So a diet is easy in contemplation, but not so easy in the long–term execution.
Intermittent fasting is hard in the contemplation, of that there is no doubt. “You go without food for 24 hours?” people would ask, incredulously when we explained what we were doing. “I could never do that.” But once started, it’s a snap. No worries about what and where to eat for one or two out of the three meals per day. It’s a great liberation. Your food expenditures plummet. And you’re not particularly hungry. … Although it’s tough to overcome the idea of going without food, once you begin the regimen, nothing could be easier.”
— Dr. Michael Eades