Intermittant Fasting
Dec. 13th, 2017 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebR has had a lot of success with fasting but had read that women do better with "intermittent fasting" than fasting for whole days at a time. So I decided to try it.
The version I'm trying involves limiting my eating to an eight-hour window each day (unless there is a party). I try to wait about four hours before having breakfast so I only have to go four hours after dinner. My goal is to lose weight (from fat).
I'm not sure what I think about it yet. I've been reading that with breaking bad habits, some people do best by reducing the bad behavior to reasonable levels because then they still get to do it. Other people do best going cold turkey because then they no longer have to worry about when or how much--that burden is lifted because none is allowed.
You can't really go cold turkey on eating* if you're eating too much, but fasting lets you take advantage of the benefits of not thinking about food at all for stretches of time.
* Okay, leftover Thanksgiving dinner is coming to mind.
I much, much prefer portion control over excluding evil luxuries forever. Some mornings and evenings I have been distracted by hunger and food, sometimes I have gotten the benefits of not worrying about food at all. I think I'm getting better at distracting myself from eating, so that's good.
One thing I've learned is that eating as much as I want of whatever I want when I'm not fasting does not let me lose weight. Ah well, good to know.
I've been saddened by the fact that I've been having more trouble with the aerobic part of the Silver Sneaker classes lately (how am I getting so out of shape?). Monday I realized that the problem may be that I go in the morning before breakfast. So yesterday I had breakfast first and things were back to normal. So I won't be going to the gym before breakfast in the future.
And then I did some research of my own and found Precision Nutrition's Intermittent Fasting for Women: What You Need To Know. There's not much research on women and fasting, but it's very clear that fasting works very differently for women than for men. As pregnancy pods, our bodies freak out more quickly when they fear starvation which can lead to lots of bad side effects. The one that scares me most is that you can get worse at dealing with blood sugar. An even scarier one is that you can get addicted to having extra energy and turn anorexic--I don't seem to have extra energy, so I'm not too worried about that one for myself. Everyone is unique; I should definitely pay attention, or maybe just drop this idea.
The Kettle and Fire Blog's Intermittent Fasting for Women: Your Complete Guide is shorter and lists some interesting specific alternatives to what I have been trying. For example, have an 8-hour window, but only a few days a week and only when you're not exercising hard. Oops.
At the very least, I like the idea of declaring myself done eating at a certain time/after dinner each day. Then I can brush my teeth. And stop snacking. Some snacks are okay (popcorn), but if I have a good enough dinner, I can probably do this fairly painlessly.
Exercise update - Yesterday I took a Silver Sneakers class (post breakfast, as described above). Then instead of walking straight home, I walked to the library first. So I had no trouble getting all my steps in just during that one trip.
Quote of the Day - "Today's the day. Ajit wants to end net neutrality. He really, really wants to, even though 96% of real people want to push him off a bridge." - Name withheld because I'm paranoid. Also, it's "only" 83%.
The version I'm trying involves limiting my eating to an eight-hour window each day (unless there is a party). I try to wait about four hours before having breakfast so I only have to go four hours after dinner. My goal is to lose weight (from fat).
I'm not sure what I think about it yet. I've been reading that with breaking bad habits, some people do best by reducing the bad behavior to reasonable levels because then they still get to do it. Other people do best going cold turkey because then they no longer have to worry about when or how much--that burden is lifted because none is allowed.
You can't really go cold turkey on eating* if you're eating too much, but fasting lets you take advantage of the benefits of not thinking about food at all for stretches of time.
* Okay, leftover Thanksgiving dinner is coming to mind.
I much, much prefer portion control over excluding evil luxuries forever. Some mornings and evenings I have been distracted by hunger and food, sometimes I have gotten the benefits of not worrying about food at all. I think I'm getting better at distracting myself from eating, so that's good.
One thing I've learned is that eating as much as I want of whatever I want when I'm not fasting does not let me lose weight. Ah well, good to know.
I've been saddened by the fact that I've been having more trouble with the aerobic part of the Silver Sneaker classes lately (how am I getting so out of shape?). Monday I realized that the problem may be that I go in the morning before breakfast. So yesterday I had breakfast first and things were back to normal. So I won't be going to the gym before breakfast in the future.
And then I did some research of my own and found Precision Nutrition's Intermittent Fasting for Women: What You Need To Know. There's not much research on women and fasting, but it's very clear that fasting works very differently for women than for men. As pregnancy pods, our bodies freak out more quickly when they fear starvation which can lead to lots of bad side effects. The one that scares me most is that you can get worse at dealing with blood sugar. An even scarier one is that you can get addicted to having extra energy and turn anorexic--I don't seem to have extra energy, so I'm not too worried about that one for myself. Everyone is unique; I should definitely pay attention, or maybe just drop this idea.
The Kettle and Fire Blog's Intermittent Fasting for Women: Your Complete Guide is shorter and lists some interesting specific alternatives to what I have been trying. For example, have an 8-hour window, but only a few days a week and only when you're not exercising hard. Oops.
At the very least, I like the idea of declaring myself done eating at a certain time/after dinner each day. Then I can brush my teeth. And stop snacking. Some snacks are okay (popcorn), but if I have a good enough dinner, I can probably do this fairly painlessly.
Exercise update - Yesterday I took a Silver Sneakers class (post breakfast, as described above). Then instead of walking straight home, I walked to the library first. So I had no trouble getting all my steps in just during that one trip.
Quote of the Day - "Today's the day. Ajit wants to end net neutrality. He really, really wants to, even though 96% of real people want to push him off a bridge." - Name withheld because I'm paranoid. Also, it's "only" 83%.
no subject
on 2017-12-15 05:44 pm (UTC)Anyhow, I don't really understand fasting as a weight loss strategy. If I don't eat regularly, I become totally famished. Seriously, my stomach hurts, my head hurts, and all I can think about is food. The result is inevitably that I end up eating like a total pig, and consuming many more calories than I would have if I'd simply eaten when I was hungry in the first place.
The other night I was really tired (new light strategy in action) and even though I felt a tiny bit hungry, I decided to skip the snack and just went directly to bed. BIG mistake! A terrible pain in my stomach woke me up at about 4am. At first, as I was struggling to come to consciousness, I thought something horrible was happening. Did I have appendicitis? Was this some sort of internal hemorrhage? Maybe it's cancer!!! Then, of course, I woke up fully and realized. Oh... I'm hungry. So much for getting a good night's sleep!
Anyhow, I guess that my main theory on diet in this country - well, other than the fact that we eat way too many refined carbohydrates and not enough veggies - is that people have simply don't listen to the signals their bodies are sending. I think it's that we're very threatened by our own emotions. Emotions are big and out of control, and we don't like that, so we do everything we can to avoid feeling them. And this generally means that we eat based on emotions rather than eating based on fueling our bodies.
BTW - I saw a very interesting TED talk on diet. It sorta throws everything we think we know about diet out the window: https://youtu.be/0z03xkwFbw4
Maybe that's why fasting doesn't work for me? Well, anyhow, best of luck with your diet and exercise stuff.
:-)
Cat
no subject
on 2017-12-16 01:18 am (UTC)Ha ha, clearly fasting does not work for you! Sometimes when I get too hungry, I can't concentrate on my work until I eat again, but that's the worst symptom I've seen in myself.
I definitely eat too much sugar, though I do try to go easy on the other refined carbs. I like very few vegetables, though I did find that there's a squash soup I like. Trader Joe's was giving out samples and told us the recipe was one box of squash soup, one bottle of green curry sauce, and one can of coconut milk. I tried the soup plain and didn't like it, but just half a bottle of curry sauce makes it taste good--it already has coconut milk in it. Last time I dumped in a bunch of leftover brown rice, too. I'm sure I could grate up some other vegetables and still like it.
Thanks for the link; I think I've read about that study. I have not tried checking my blood sugar after meals, though my boyfriend has. (Most carbs, processed are not, are not good for him, but potatoes are okay.)