So here we are at the last diet of 2022. So for November we dug a little bit into the wonderful world of intermittent fasting. Having dabbled with fasting previously I wanted to mix things up and challenge myself a little.
Intermittent fasting is an eating plan that switches between fasting and eating on a regular schedule. Research shows that intermittent fasting is a way to manage your weight and prevent — or even reverse — some forms of disease. With intermittent fasting, you only eat during a specific time. Fasting for a certain number of hours each day or eating just one meal a couple days a week, can help your body burn fat. And scientific evidence points to some health benefits, as well.
For the 1st week the idea was to confront the most common and classic version known as 16:8. The idea behind this is to refrain from food for 16 hrs and have a "feeding window" of 8 hrs. This was easiest when done via 12 pm to 8 pm. This was a fairly simple diet to follow and is a modality I don't mind following when weight loss is a goal of mine. Simply put, skipping breakfast and refraining from snacks post 8 pm for me personally is a simple and effective way to reduce calorie intake without the hassle of logging, weighing and being scrupulous with nutrition. A major fault with it is the temptation to eat like a dickhead during the feeding window due to 2 reasons...1 you end up really hungry by lunchtime and over eat....or 2 you snack more through the day as you feel you can because it doesn't break the rules. This was certainly the case for me. I found this week to be pretty relaxed and easy and had i applied myself thoroughly I'm sure weight loss would have been possible however the temptation to overeat during the time i had was too easy and my desire to make the scales move less so. Knowing this was part of the reason why I wanted to intensify things each week of the 3 week spell of I.F.
Week 2 was the first real fasting challenge. For this week the goal was to attempt 5:2. This modality conformed to the idea of 5 days I would follow the classic 16:8 fast but on 2 days of the week I would restrict my calories to 500 for the full day. Being a fairly well built adult male who is pretty active this would not be an easy feat. My decision was to do the 500 fast on tuesday and friday of that week. The week started off well and I maintained training my usual way of intense and heavy roughly 6x per week. Again food for thought when fasting is it would affect recovery...more on this later. Monday night consisted of playing calorie tetris to see how much food I could consume in terms of volume the following day. coop pre packed salads were 24cals so they would form the backbone of my days eating. Protein was also essential so I managed to squeeze in 100g from tuna and ham. It was also cold so I bought some microwaveable turnip to provide a warm filling snack. I knew soup would sound better but its liquid form wouldn't fill me for very long and I knew the turnip would provide a slow release of energy and keep me fuller for longer. The day itself wasn't terrible, I ate when i was hungry and kept busy to distract from cravings. HOWEVER, towards the end of the day fatigue kicked in, training and staying active on such few cals made the following day difficult. Even after going back to 16:8 on Wednesday my body felt weak and depleted. The muscle soreness I've become accustomed to recovering from fairly well was really badly affected. Some of the worst DOMS I've had in years happened that week. This gave me proper fears for the 2nd day. Another factor that I was aware of for this week was the significant negative bias i had for the man and biggest endorser of the 500 fast (now called fast 800)...Michael Mosely. I'm not his biggest fan at all and dont trust a man who deals in absolutes and sells diet books with outrageous claims that have very little evidence. Friday was the second 500 cal day. Let's just say it didn't go to plan. By 5pm I had consumed 400 of the 500 cal limit. I was faced with the decision to punish my body and eat 100 cal dinner and face the physical costs over the next few days.....I chose a large stuffed crust pepperoni and a bag of doritos totaling 2400 cals.
And then we came to week 3......
Week 3 was supposed to be the most extreme of the fasts. I was aiming to perform alternate day fasting and only eating every 2nd day of the week. Given my performance week 2 it was clear that this wasn't gonna happen. The sacrifices required to do this week were too high for me. It would affect work, home, training, energy levels, and quality of life. Some homelife stress was encroaching also so the decision was made to call it a day. Sorry folks.....
My thoughts and findings:
I do believe there is likely a time and a place for fasting. Many of us live with such choice and abundance of food that a diet that forces you to exert restraint and self control has benefits that are above the physiological. The psychological benefits of being aware of hunger and how to manage it is a great somewhat essential tool to have when dieting and fasting is a brilliant modality for discovering this.
My concerns were that of the unilateral style of the diet regardless of the individual. 500 cals will have a different effect on a well trained, active male compared to someone with say a desk job who does little to no exercise. This is like putting a tenners worth of fuel in a fiat 500 and a range rover and expecting the same mileage. It's a great tool but it needs to stay in its lane as a tool... a pretty blunt tool at that.
Love this, it is something I've been considering. Some may find it difficult to believe but I really don't have the confidence to go to the gym myself and lift heavy, (ill happily use the various machines), I love grub waaaayyyy too much and I kinda get my relationship with food is probably not the best
I suspect given the vast differences in lifestyle between Dan and I the 16:8 may be do able in the short term for me.