Somewhere in our society, we were told to eat three meals a day and two snacks to keep your metabolism going…plus NEVER skip breakfast as it is the “most important meal of the day”.
The food pyramid taught us that is was okay to eat as much as you wanted (9-11 servings) of starchy carbs- and make sure avoiding fat as it would “kill you”.
We ended up eat a high carb diet -with little to none fat…and some protein consumption in between if you were not afraid of eating animals!
How did these ideas make any sense to anyone?
I didn’t to me when I started thinking outside of the box in 2001 when I started training for Ironman Triathlons. What if I wanted to burn fat stored on my body… how do you do that if you are to eat so frequently throughout the day and during exercise? WHAT?
How do we burn the stored body fat for fuel …instead of burning the fuel we keep eating?
Political Nutrition taught us to eat…buy more food and eat more. Get stuck on the blood sugar roller coaster, burn carbs and you need to keep fueling up – or else you will bonk and get “hangry”.
Read all about the history of the fat phobia and lies we have been told in Nina’s book the “Big Fat Surprise”….which includes her references from the ten years of research she conducted before publishing her best selling book.
Now intermittent fasting, ketogenic diet, keto carnivore and low carb fueling has finally become popular topics all over the internet and social media.
Why should you implement fasting into your weekly schedule?
Hormetic stress.
Not all stress is bad stress.
Bad stress is chronic stress.
Alternating on/off… hot/cold… sprint/rest…
Just as hot and cold therapy… high intensity interval training with rest intervals in between … we also have feast or fast.
Intermittent Fasting is alternating periods of not eating with periods of eating.
Time Restricted Feeding. Eating in a condensed window, allows the body more “Rest and Digest” time as well as heal, rebuild and detox.
What if you ate your food, ideally the right ratios of carbs-fat-protein to balance your blood sugar and reduce insulin surges, in a time restricted manner?
I love to fast for sixteen hours then eat in an eight hour feeding/eating window. It is very easy to do…once you transition to a fat burning machine and “flip the switch” to be fat adapted.
In my “The WHOLESTIC Method” 5-day and 30-day program, I teach clients how to start with intermittent fasting for 12 hours and build up to 16 hours.
Once we learn how to stop eating three hours before bed (and get to bed by 10pm with reading time before bed)…then you may stop eating by 6pm or 7pm for the day then go to bed.
You then “break your fast” the next day after 12 or 16 hours…or longer depending on the day, your schedule and activity level.
During my Phase One: Five Day Jumpstart program, we start “breaking our fast” with more liquids- Athletic Greens, Bonafide Provisions Bone Broth, Liver Detox herbal tea, lemon water and Apple Cider Vinegar drink.
It is easy, or intuitive eating, to only need one big meal a day. I created this 5-day Jumpstart program almost five years ago, before we understood we were actually intermittent fasting (IF), time restricted feeding/eating (TRE) and one meal a day (OMAD).
It was just naturally what was the end result when we restricted sugar, grains and other inflammatory foods!
The longer the fast, to an extent, provides more benefits of cell autophagy and more. Read Siim Land’s book “METABOLIC AUTOPHAGY” for all the research and more (500 pages of information).
My other favorite books are by Dr. Jason Fung… a must read. Start with his ” The Complete Guide to Fasting“.
To learn more about our circadian rhythm and time restricted eating then make sure you read “The CIRCADIAN CODE” by Dr. Satchin Panda.
What are some of the benefits of fasting?
In an article on the Global Healing Center website, they listed many benefits and references on Intermittent Fasting including:
- Improves fat loss and body fat levels
- Decreases Oxidative Stress
- Regulate hormone levels – growth hormone, insulin, grehlin, leptin.
- Mimics the beneficial effects of exercise
In an article on Healthline, they listed “Ten Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting”.
- Changes in the cell, gene and hormone function
- Helps fat weight and belly fat
- Reduce Insulin Resistance and risk for Type 2 Diabetes
- Reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the body
- Decrease risk factors for heart disease
- Cellular repair processes
- Decrease risk of cancers and side effects of chemo
- Important for brain health
- May help prevent alzheimers disease
- May extend your lifespan – improve longevity
Learn more in my next online fat loss and transformation coaching program to help you burn fat, optimize health (mitochondria) and improve performance (and longevity of course!).
Contact me for questions or a consultation before you sign up!
Debbie Potts
