Intermittent fasting. . .

How it works

So, how does intermittent fasting (IF) work?  It’s a two-part thing. It works because you wind up eating less, and, because you eat less frequently, your body burns more fat. (More later.)

I don’t know if you separated these out that the results would be the same. But from my own experience, just eating less doesn’t make it happen, at least not long-term.

Like much in life, you can make it simple or complicated. As I mentioned in earlier blogs, the only thing I do is skip breakfast, so I am essentially down to two meals a day. Not a drastic change. 

When I was commuting to work, I usually skipped breakfast because I had no time to eat it. I was thinner. My clothes used to fit. Now they are sitting dormant in my closet. (I am sure I am not alone here?)

But there are other schedules: alternate days where you fast one day and eat healthy meals the next; fast two days and eat for five; OMAD.

I use the “daily eating window” frame (no pun intended). I like the routine of eating every day. Who reading this blog doesn’t? Skipping a meal is one thing; skipping a day another.

Whatever type of fasting calls to you, I suggest you check with your doctor. I am only sharing my personal experience; I am not an expert on dieting (though I sure have tried a lot of them), and everyone has different medical stuff going on. For that reason, at the bottom, I am going to share the disclaimer from the Fasting for Life guys who I have already pointed you to for information. 

Scott Watier and Tommy Welling have recorded some 170 podcasts that are short, informative and generally based on their personal experience and scientific-type studies. They are hardly the only source for IF information, but I listen to them a lot. They seem to make sense.

Back to me. I skip breakfast, eat a normal size lunch around noon, and close the eating window with dinner, no later than 6 or 7 p.m. I try not to snack too much during the day or nibble at all after 7. So that’s a 6 to 7 hour eating window, close to the standard 6/18 schedule, basically fasting for 18 hours a day. That’s it.

Simple, yes. Not always easy. But it has gotten easier in time. I’m not really hungry in the morning. I am usually thirsty though. So I drink room-temperature water (I leave it out at night) with a squeeze of lemon first thing, while making coffee. It’s filling, and I have a routine I enjoy that works.

This is an ongoing process. Even with a few hiccups this week (St. Patrick’s Day was one), my weight hasn’t changed more than a few ounces either way.

Here’s more by way of explanation as to why it works. I like the way this Johns Hopkins source explains it.

Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the calories consumed during your last meal and begins burning fat.

Mark Mattson, a Johns Hopkins neuroscientist who has 25 years experience in the field of IF, explains:

“Intermittent fasting contrasts with the normal eating pattern for most Americans, who eat throughout their waking hours,” Mattson says. “If someone is eating three meals a day, plus snacks, and they’re not exercising, then every time they eat, they’re running on those calories and not burning their fat stores.”

Mattson says that after hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. He refers to this as metabolic switching.

And then there’s this question I have been asked many times:

Does it matter how much you eat? Of course it does! How could it not? Eating 5,000 calories vs. 1,000 calories (as an example) during any window is going to make a difference. But it’s a lot harder to consume the higher amount of calories in a shortened period; the schedule naturally reduces your calorie intake. It seems like common sense, right? Here it is from Harvard Health Publishing:

The weight loss effects of time-restricted eating derive primarily from achieving a negative energy balance. If you maintain your regular diet and then limit the time window during which you eat, it is likely that you will eat a few hundred fewer calories per day. If this is sustainable as a lifestyle, it could add up to modest weight loss (3% to 8% on average, based on current data) that can produce beneficial improvements in cardiometabolic markers such as blood pressure, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and average blood sugar. . .

And even with some potential caveats (like loss of lean muscle mass), the author, Richard Joseph, M.D., continues: 

Nevertheless, it seems clear that in a 24/7 world of around-the-clock eating opportunities, all of us could benefit from aligning with our circadian biology, and spend a bit less time in a fed state and more time in a fasted state each day.

I believe the two things combined are why IF works.

The type of food you eat opens up a completely different question. Maybe in another blog.

More next time on how I stick to it.

Here are the Fasting for Life disclaimers.

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