There was a time when I told every client not to skip breakfast or to go too long without eating. I was certain that going too long, on too little food, would wreak havoc on their metabolisms. It was what I learned, and it made sense.
And then I learned the health benefits of intermittent fasting.
I hate to admit it, particularly because my little sister was an expert about it well before I was…(oh for shame) but the science shows that if you want to lose fat, improve metabolism, and experience other health benefits, all without giving up your favourite foods, intermittent fasting might be the way for you!
It’s an emerging area of research and the results are very promising.
Although the things I learned years ago about insufficient food intake (starvation diets) and poorly executed calorie restriction (forgetting to eat) still hold true (spoiler alert – they are still bad), intermittent fasting is different enough that it has benefits for weight loss and for metabolic improvements.
In some ways these benefits are similar to those from well-executed calorie-reduced diets, but longer fasting might even improve our health at deeper levels, including brain and mental health.
Intermittent fasting (I-F as the inner circle call it) has a few advantages over regular calorie reduced diets.
Not only is it easier for many people to stick with, but it also seems to have a metabolic advantage. These are really good things when it comes to long-term health, and they are the reasons why I completely did an about-face on the issue of skipping meals.
Intermittent fasting is just that – fasting intermittently (periodically). It’s an “eating pattern,” rather than a “diet.” The pattern part is important, because pattern suggests “mindfulness”.
That means regularly reducing your eating and drinking during pre-set times.
It’s controlling when you eat and drink, as opposed to what you eat and drink.
☆Cue eureka harp noises☆
There are lots of ways to intermittently fast. I
t can be done daily, weekly, or monthly. In future posts, I will go over the health benefits, we’ll look at some of the most popular methods of how to, and who shouldn’t, I-F.
So be sure to read about how and why to give it a try.
Ciao for now, Dana.
