What I learnt from Intermittent Fasting

Photo by Ali Inay on Unsplash

I love breakfast. It is the favourite part of my day. Whether it was a rushed sandwich before my morning commute or a lazy Sunday massive breakfast with the family, I love them all. Heck, I even had two breakfast-themed birthday parties. So it was no surprise that I was appalled when I was advised to “skip” breakfast to lose weight.

After leaving school I gained a significant amount of weight which was attributed to my desk job, plus terrible eating habits and lack of exercise. It took me a while to get convince myself to start getting healthier. With gained weight comes self-image issues which added more stress, which resulted in gaining more weight.

A friend advised me of the wonders of Intermittent fasting. Since I am someone with a much higher than needed body fat percentage I could easily avoid a meal and push my body to convert existing stored fat to energy for its use, which is what stored fat is for anyway. I wasn’t sold on the whole thing at first, but I tried it out and the results after 6 months was fantastic. I’ve been doing it for over two years, coupled with a few other diets and habits and I am more healthier and happier. Here are a few things I learnt from Intermittent fasting:

Please note that I am not a nutritionist and I am not recommending anyone try the things mentioned it this after reading this post. Please consult a nutritionist or doctor before trying it yourself.

When

Firstly, intermittent fasting isn’t a diet, it’s more of a schedule of when you should eat and not what you should eat. You can eat what you usually eat but just restrict it to a certain timeline. The main three timelines are as follows:

The 16/8 Method — also known as the Leangains protocol, probably the most common way to intermittent fast and the one suggested to me. This is where limit your calorie intake to eight hours of the day and you fast the remaining sixteen to allow your body to process what you’ve eaten.

Eat Stop Eat — this method involves you eating a single high calorie meal a day, normally dinner and fasting the rest of the day.

The 5:2 Diet — You eat as you normally would but on two days of the week you limit yourself to a 500 calorie diet.