How To Begin 16 8 Fasting
For people that get hungry first thing in the morning, this 16 8 Fasting schedule may be a bit tough to embrace. My suggestion is to push back the morning window by 30 minutes every day or two until youre comfortable waiting until 12pm to begin your 8 hour eating window.
You can also consider drinking water, coffee and other drinks that have no calories. This does help reduce the feelings of hunger and make it a little easier to transition.
How To Get Started
16/8 intermittent fasting is simple, safe and sustainable.
To get started, begin by picking an eight-hour window and limit your food intake to that time span.
Many people prefer to eat between noon and 8 p.m., as this means youll only need to fast overnight and skip breakfast but can still eat a balanced lunch and dinner, along with a few snacks throughout the day.
Others opt to eat between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., which allows plenty of time for a healthy breakfast around 9 a.m., a normal lunch around noon and a light early dinner or snack around 4 p.m. before starting your fast.
However, you can experiment and pick the time frame that best fits your schedule.
Additionally, to maximize the potential health benefits of your diet, its important to stick to nutritious whole foods and beverages during your eating periods.
Filling up on nutrient-rich foods can help round out your diet and allow you to reap the rewards that this regimen has to offer.
Try balancing each meal with a good variety of healthy whole foods, such as:
- Fruits: Apples, bananas, berries, oranges, peaches, pears, etc.
- Veggies: Broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, leafy greens, tomatoes, etc.
- Whole grains: Quinoa, rice, oats, barley, buckwheat, etc.
- Healthy fats: Olive oil, avocados and coconut oil
- Meat, poultry, fish, legumes, eggs, nuts, seeds, etc.
Drinking calorie-free beverages like water and unsweetened tea and coffee, even while fasting, can also help control your appetite while keeping you hydrated.
But 12 Hour Fasting May Not Work
If you are anything like I was with hormone issues, gut imbalances, sleep issue, a liver needing detoxed or any vitamin deficiencies, 12-hour Intermittent Fasting may not work for you.
I always suggest to anyone interested in implementing a 12-hour Intermittent Fasting schedule, to get their bloodwork and labs. This helps to ensure your body is in optimal shape to change your diet.
Consider the following labs: hormones along with vitamins and minerals.
If your lab results show an imbalance, check out a few articles at Clean Cuisine to get you back to optimal health so you can begin taking advantage of all of the 12-hour Intermittent Fasting benefits.
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May Play A Role In Cancer Treatment And Prevention
This potential benefit is still a bit up in the air. Animal models have shown that periodic fasting may help protect normal cells from the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs while sensitizing cancer cells to the treatment .;
When it comes to human trials, the data is still inconclusive. Weight control and reduced inflammation in the body could reduce the development of cancer, but further research is needed to understand the role fasting may play in cancer treatment .;;
How Does Fasting Work
Our bodies put in a lot of work when it comes to processing the food we eat to provide us a consistent source of energy.;
When we eat food is broken down into macro and micronutrients via digestive enzymes. Carbohydrates like rice and starchy vegetables get broken down into glucose to be absorbed into our bloodstream and utilized for immediate energy with the help of insulin.
When our cells don’t use all of the glucose from the food we eat it gets stored in our liver and muscles as glycogen. And when in a calorie surplus, any leftover fuel gets store in our fat cells, as fat.;
In-between meals, and when we first start fasting as long as we aren’t snacking, our body will utilize glycogen and some stored fat for energy. But once our glycogen stores are depleted our body will begin to break down more fat for fuel .
Prolonged fasting will eventually prompt our body to experience ketosis and metabolically;switch to breaking down fat as fuel; using stored fatty acids instead of glycogen for energy .;
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Your Body Will Adapt Give Your Body Time To Acclimate
When are you first starting out, you may experience some hunger pains. This is because you taught your body that you are going to feed it first thing in the morning. If you extend intermittent fasting by 20-30 minutes a day, within a few weeks you can extend your fasting period from 8-9 hours to the 12 hour fasting window.
Same things happens in the evening. Perhaps you have taught your body that when you sit down to relax after dinner, you like to have something sweet to eat. By reducing this back by 20-30 minutes a day, you can optimize your 12 hour intermittent fasting window.
The Morning Hunger Was Real
I’m not huge on breakfast, but I start desk snacking at 10:30 a.m. every day almost religiously. For the first three;days this wasn’t a huge issue because I was only fasting for 12 hours. I stopped eating most nights at 9 p.m. and had the green light again at the same time the next morning. But when I upped that no-go window to 16 hours on day four, my rumbling stomach was hard to ignore until noon. Smith had warned me that the hunger often leads to binging, so I was careful not to start shoveling handfuls of chips into my mouth when the clock struck 12. Instead, I ate either an apple or banana with peanut butter to keep my snacks portioned until I ate a bigger meal around 2.
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Improved Workouts Thanks To Intermittent Fasting
According to PubMed, training with limited carbohydrate availability can stimulate adaptations in muscle cells to facilitate energy production via fat oxidation.
Which means, when you workout during the fasting window of your 12 hour intermittent fasting, your body gets better at burning fat for energy since there are no foods to pull from.
Drink Plenty Of Water
Another duh! advice, you certainly already have heard it almost everywhere else on the web.
But I cant do a whole article on weight loss plateau without mentioning water consumption, because it might not be as obvious as you think.
First, water can help you if youre experiencing cravings. When I started intermittent fasting, I drank so much water. Because I knew it was important, but also because I had bad habits to get rid of and water helped me a lot.
I usually had an orange juice or two in the morning, some type of pastry at 9 am and a few snacks in the afternoon. Water was helping me get through my fasted morning and my non-snacking afternoon.
Every time a craving came, I would gulp on my bottle. I had created a habit of drinking at least 3 liters of water during the day.
And it would not only help reduce cravings I would also feel satiated from all the water I drank, especially when I had sparkling water.
Water will not only help with hunger itll also boost your metabolism for up to 30% for 1.5 hours after drinking it, through water-induced thermogenesis.
In this study, they looked into the effects of having water before a meal on a regular diet. On average, the group consuming water before meals lost 44% more weight than the other group.
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Intermittent Fasting: What It Is And How I Do It
Here’s a simple definition of intermittent fasting: you eat your normal amount of food in a smaller time frame. It’s not a diet, it’s just a pattern of eating that reduces your eating window each day to about 8 hours.
For example, I usually eat my first meal around 12pm or 1pm and then I can continue eating until my final meal at 8pm. After that, I fast until the next day at 12pm. That breaks out to about 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating each day. I do this almost every day.
I’m not going to dive into the details of intermittent fasting in this article. I have previously written a 3,000 word beginners guide to intermittent fasting and a lengthy question and answer guide on intermittent fasting. If you have questions about how it works and the science behind it, read those articles.
And if you want even more information, I was also interviewed on the Fat Burning Man podcast and the Jimmy Moores live show about intermittent fasting .
Intermittent Fasting Can Reduce Your Discipline Focus And Productivity
This may appear to contradict the previous point, but think about it, a hungry man can also be a grumpy man.
In other words, when fasting, its easy to lose focus and get agitated because youre really hungry.
This is why its so important to listen to your body, instead of sticking to a fixed regimen.
Ive noticed that theres a sweet spot every day a time period to stop your fasting window.
If you break your fast too early, youll miss out the energy that could have been used to get more work done.
If you break your fast too late, youll start to get agitated and lose focus during the day.
Every day is different, so its about trial and error.
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Spiced Carrot & Lentil Soup
This rich in flavor carrot and lentil soup is extremely nutritious and filling while being low in calories. Best for lunch, this soup will ensure that you reach your body goals without sacrificing the taste.
Ingredients for 4 servings:
- Plain yogurt and naan bread to serve
Directions:
Nutritional value of 1 serving:
Calories: 238, carbs: 34g, fats: 7g, protein: 11g
Is Intermittent Fasting Safe For Women
Ah, Ive saved the best for last.
This is the biggest area of controversy when it comes t0 intermittent fasting.
Those who caution women against intermittent fasting state that studies show that it negatively impacts fertility. And thats true.
Unfortunately, what most of these people fail to realize is that ALL of these studies use alternate day fasting protocols where women are literally eating nothing every other day!
No wonder their hormones get messed up and have fertility issues.
Remember, Im advising a 1-day fast once per week which is much, much safer and Ive yet to see any negative effects in the thousands of women that Ive helped with intermittent fasting.
There is some research that looked at the effect of short-term fasting on the menstrual cycle of women.
These research studies found that despite the metabolic changes that occur during fasting, even fasts as long as 72 hours do not seem to have an effect on the menstrual cycle of normal cycling women.
Interestingly, even longer fasts have been shown to have little impact on the menstrual cycle of normal weight women.
There is research, however, to suggest that longer fasts can affect the menstrual cycle of exceptionally lean women .
Overall, theres a lot of research that show intermittent fasting to be safe, healthy, and effective at burning fat in women of all shapes and sizes .
But again, were not going crazy with this and only fasting for no longer than 24 hours.
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History Of Diabetes And Intermittent Fasting
Fasting has been around for some time, particularly if you consider the historical role of fasting as part of many types of spiritual rituals.;More recently, intermittent fasting has been used as part of a healthy diet for weight loss, as part of “detoxifying” the body, and more.;But there has been much controversy surrounding the topic of fasting for those with diabetes.
Today, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that specific types of intermittent fasting diets may be beneficial for people with diabetes. In addition, scientists are beginning to speculate that when a person fasts may be just as important as the diet itself.
Listen To Your Body On What You Should Eat
One of the most common queries on fasting is about the intermittent fasting diet plan. But, as Ive covered earlier this is not a diet plan, its an eating pattern and a lifestyle.
During the eating window, you can eat any combination of healthy foods.
The most important lesson Ive learned about what to eat, is to listen to your body and eat according to this.
For example, if you feel tired and drained after eating rice or grains, you could try eating more vegetables instead. If you feel more energized after doing this, thats your bodys way of telling you to stick to vegetables and avoid consuming high carb foods.
This is why Im a strong advocate against a fixed diet. Our bodies are constantly changing as we get older, plus, eating the same meals every day increases the odds of developing food intolerance and diseases.
Thankfully, I came across this idea of eating by listening to your body whilst reading the work of internationally renowned holistic health expert, Paul Chek specifically, in his book How to Eat Move and Be Healthy.
The key lesson here is to consistently listen to your body and experiment with different foods for optimal health.
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How Much Weight Loss Can You Expect In A Month On Intermittent Fasting
Many factors go into how much weight you actually lose on intermittent fasting. Weight loss will depend on your current weight, metabolism, what you eat, and your activity levels. Obviously, if you follow a healthy eating pattern and exercise every day or a few times a week, it will help you shed weight faster.;
Intermittent fasting may enable you to lose between 0.51.5 pounds a week. In 4 weeks, you could lose anything between 26 pounds.;
Intermittent Fasting 16/8 Vs 20/: Which One Should You Try
If you are a beginner, the 16/8 method would be better for you than jumping headfirst into the intermittent fasting 20/4 method. Unlike the latter, the former gives you less time to fast, translating into a longer feeding window. Once your body gets used to the 16:8 variation, then you could choose to attempt a 20/4 intermittent fasting meal plan.
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Getting Started With Intermittent Fasting: Next Steps
Intermittent fasting can potentially have some very positive benefits for somebody trying to lose weight or gain lean body mass.
Men and women will tend to have different results, just like each individual person will have different results. The ONLY way to find out is through a conversation with your doctor and;self-experimentation.
There are multiple ways to do an Intermittent Fasting Plan:
- Fast and feast regularly: Fast for a certain number of hours, then consume all calories within a certain number of hours.
- Eat normally, then fast 1-2x a week: Consume your normal meals every day, then pick one or two days a week where you fast for 24 hours. Eat your last meal Sunday night, and then dont eat again until dinner the following day.
- Fast occasionally: probably the easiest method for the person who wants to do the least amount of work. Simply skip a meal whenever its convenient. On the road? Skip breakfast. Busy day at work? Skip lunch. Eat poorly all day Saturday? Make your first meal of the day dinner on Sunday.
After that, get started! Take photos, step on the scale, and track your progress for the next month.
See how your body responds.
See how your physique changes. See how your workouts change.
And then decide if its something you want to keep doing!
4 years later, I have no plans on going back to eating breakfast. Sorry General Mills and Dr. Kellogg!
If youre worried about all of this stuff, or arent sure when to eat and stop eating, try out our new app!
-Steve
Enhancement Of Intermittent Fasting
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Drawbacks Of 16/8 Intermittent Fasting
16/8 intermittent fasting may be associated with many health benefits, but it does come with some drawbacks and may not be right for everyone.
Restricting your intake to just eight hours per day can cause some people to eat more than usual during eating periods in an attempt to make up for hours spent fasting.
This may lead to weight gain, digestive problems and the development of unhealthy eating habits.
16/8 intermittent fasting may also cause short-term negative side effects when youre first getting started, such as hunger, weakness and fatigue though these often subside once you get into a routine.
Additionally, some research suggests that intermittent fasting may affect men and women differently, with animal studies reporting that it could interfere with fertility and reproduction in females .
However, more human studies are needed to evaluate the effects that intermittent fasting may have on reproductive health.
In any case, be sure to start gradually and consider stopping or consulting your doctor if you have any concerns or experience negative symptoms.
Summary
Restricting daily food intake may cause weakness, hunger, increased food consumption and weight gain. Animal studies show that intermittent fasting may impact men and women differently and may even interfere with fertility.
