Starting a journey for your health can be both exciting and intimidating. The constant desire to want to see results right away is something that always eats at me.
I began working out daily to improve my discipline and use that same discipline later to achieve financial freedom.
If you want to know more about the connection between your finances and your health, check this post out: https://dailystratagem.com/fitness-and-wealth-connection/
After about 3 months or so, I noticed that I was getting stronger but wasn’t as lean as I wanted to be. I can’t say that my diet was perfect, but I wasn’t eating crap every day.
I ended up conversing with a doctor, who told me that fasting is what my body needs to heal many ailments and would certainly assist with my fitness goals. So, I got to researching.
I found several YouTube doctors who gave general guiding points on how to fast and what type of fast to do, which certainly helped a lot.
Types of Fasting
Intermittent fasting
Common methods include the 16/8 method (fasting for 16 hours and eating during an 8-hour window) and the 5:2 method (eating normally for 5 days and restricting calories for 2 days).
Prolonged fasting
Fasting for extended periods, typically 24 hours or more. This can range from a full day to several days without eating.
Water fasting
Consuming only water for a set period, typically ranging from 24 to 72 hours, though some people fast for longer.
Alternate-day-fasting
Alternating between normal eating and fasting days or very low-calorie intake (usually around 500 calories).
The Benefits I Didnt Know I Wanted
If fasting is done correctly, it can provide many benefits, including better metabolic health, improved insulin sensitivity, autophagy, and weight loss. However, the more aggressive the fast, the more aggressive the benefits. So, I went with Alternate-Day Fasting (ADF).
This consisted of 36 hours of fasting followed by a 12-hour eating window. Starting at 10 pm on day 1, no food was allowed until 10 am on day 3.
While this can sound like a daunting challenge, keeping busy with coffee helped me stay on track.
After the 3rd consecutive fasting window, I noticed that fasting became dramatically easier. I no longer depended on the appetite-suppressing effects of coffee, and during my feeding window, it took a smaller portion of food for my stomach to not want anymore.
This worked wonders on my mental health and energy levels. I noticed I was waking up without an alarm earlier than normal, ready to tackle all of the day’s problems. It became significantly more challenging for life’s stressors to affect me negatively, and my mood seemed to always be on the positive side.
How to Begin Fasting
An easy and straightforward way to begin your fasting journey is the 16/8 method and skipping breakfast. Having your eating window start at noon and end at 8 pm hardly changes many people’s lives, but it can help prep your body for a more aggressive fast.
If 16/8 sounds too easy, then I recommend starting with the 18/6. You skip breakfast and hold until 2 p.m. to begin your eating window, which still ends at 8 p.m. This is how I started, and I’ll be the first to say that those extra two hours can be hard, depending on what your last meal was.
Ending your eating window with something sugary or carb-heavy leaves you prone to cravings, making it an uphill battle when trying to fast.
More Benefits? More Fast.
After getting used to your initial fast, I recommend eating one meal a day or having a one-hour eating window. The benefits of fasting ramp up quickly as you prolong your fast, and having a one-hour eating window a couple of times a week is a great way to keep you on track to your health goals.
I personally jumped to the Alernate-Day Fast after my 18/6, and while the first few days were hard, it was very surprising how easy it became.
Before you decide on how long you should hold these kinds of fasts, it would be a good idea to consult a medical professional as all of us are different, and a fast can affect people differently. But I ended up doing ADF for a month straight and lost close to 20lbs.
During my eating window, I was still consistently working out and not eating junk all the time, but I did eat what I wanted.
After about a month, I got to a weight that I was proud of and changed my ADF from consecutively to once a week.
Fasting has certainly been a life changer for me and my health, and I’m sure it can be for you. If you feel like you’re stuck on your fitness/health journey, maybe a one-time fast or adding fasting to your routine could be the difference that gets you to your goals.
Recap
Leveraging Fasting to achieve your health goals can be a powerful tool with benefits such as weight loss, improved cardiovascular health, improved insulin sensitivity, autophagy, enhanced immune function, and better metabolic health. I hope this has helped you clarify fasting and its benefits and may encourage you to try it. Let me know if you do and what your experience is!
