Think Fast!

Over the years there have been many schools of thought when it comes to meal timing. We have heard it all. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you’re going to skip a meal, skip lunch. It’s best to graze all day and keep that metabolism flowing. If you’re going to skip a meal, skip dinner so the food doesn’t sit in your gut all night.

Which one is correct? Some nutritional experts are saying the right answer is none of these. Instead, they’re discovering the benefits of fasting.

The concept behind fasting is that body composition, brain activity, sleep, and many other aspects of your performance are regulated by hormones. These things together contribute to how we look and, more importantly, how we feel.

Certain hormones, insulin being among the most widely talked about, also control your metabolic function. When we eat, especially something that contains starch, carbohydrates, or sugar, insulin spikes so the body can break down these nutrients, either to use as fuel or to store as fat.

“When we aren’t eating, insulin is quiet and our body is busy burning our stored fat for fuel. It is also a time when your body is cleaning house and clearing out toxins that we are all regularly exposed to throughout the day. Including intermittent fasting as a regular part of your routine is a great way to streamline your metabolism and improve overall health and longevity,” says Dr. Amber Mitchell, a fitness nutrition specialist and career public health practitioner.

For many people, fasting conjures up images of folks who have missed entire days of eating, either in protest or as part of their religious tradition. This is entirely different from intermittent fasting, also known as IF.

 

IF is gaining popularity, not as a diet, but as an eating lifestyle. Why? It might be because it’s so simple. It really doesn’t have very many rules at all. So how does it work?

The first rule of intermittent fasting is about as basic as it gets: Create an eating window and only eat when the window is open. Is that really it? Not exactly. What you eat still matters. IF is no more an excuse to gorge on jelly beans within your window than Keto is to eat a pound of bacon for dinner.

Okay, you eat well, but only during your window. So what’s your window? One popular method of IF calls for eating only between noon and 8pm. Others use the OMAD, one meal a day, method. Some will break fast in the afternoon with a healthy snack, then have dinner a few hours later, making sure to finish before the window closes. Finally, some forms of fasting include eating normally for a specific number of days during the week, and completely fasting or limiting caloric intake on the other days.

 

Which one is right for you? This is where you get to, as we like to say, MAKE IT YOUR OWN! The idea of eating only a few hours a day can create some pretty serious FOMO. The good news is, there’s no need to make an immediate drastic change. A multitude of studies have shown that the metabolic benefits of fasting begin about 12 hours after last food intake. If you don’t want to give up that creamy avocado spread on your sprouted grain bread for breakfast, don’t. Simply make sure to have it at least 12 hours after the last time you ate anything.

It’s also important to remember that while we think of certain foods as being for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, our bodies don’t care about those labels. If you're fasting, eat the healthy foods you love any time of day, as long as it’s within your window.