Baby Steps - Intermittent Fasting After 5 Weeks

First off, this is a GIF of my daughter taking some "baby steps" - get it?? Anyway, all too often in an effort to "get healthy," I try to do everything at once. I try to change my diet, my sleeping patterns, how much activity/exercise I do on a regular basis, etc. And inevitably, I fail. The main reason is a lack of motivation, which as we all know, is garbage. It's virtually impossible to will yourself to do something long term. Watch this video to learn more (it's fairly long, but a good watch).

Even so, I would try to get up earlier, exercise longer, or eat food that I didn't want to eat and wouldn't eat normally. Then I would get sick, and stop getting up to exercise, or be tired and not want to prepare a no-carb meal, etc. And after not doing something once (something you really don't want to do anyway), it's really easy to not do it twice, three times...

This time is different for four specific reasons. First, I'm not doing it alone. Both Kristen and I are doing it together. Second, it's not changing EVERYTHING at once. Third, it's simple, and isn't drastically changing what I'm already doing. It may sound extreme, but it's just an extension of what I've already done a million times. I'm just codifying it and tracking it this time. And fourth, if I "fail," it's really easy to get back on track. Let me explain what I'm doing.

About a month ago, Kristen did a bunch of research and presented the idea to me to participate in intermittent fasting. I'd heard about it but was skeptical, so I looked into it. As it turns out, there is a lot of legitimate research on it and its effectiveness, and it seemed like something I could do long-term. (If you're interested in learning more, I am going to put some resources down at the bottom of this post.)

Alternate-Day (Intermittent) Fasting

So what I've been doing is called alternate-day intermittent fasting or just alternate-day fasting (ADF). That means that every other day, I fast - that is, I go without food all day (I still drink plenty of water). The next day, I eat normally for my age, body weight, and activity level. Technically, I don't actually even do full-on alternate day fasting. I fast MWF, and eat normally the rest of the week (so I have two days in a row of eating normally on the weekends).

There are some caveats here. First, remember how I mentioned that I can fail? Well, it's built in. If at all possible, I try to fast the entire day. But if I'm just really hungry, I can eat up to 500 calories on a fast day. In fact, because we have kids at home, we usually try to eat dinner with them anyway. In the past five weeks of alternate day fasting, I have only ever gone a whole day without eating five times, or only once a week on average. The other caveat is that when I eat, I eat normally, but I keep track of what I eat. For a downloadable copy of my tracker, click here.

Every morning I step on the scale, put it on my spreadsheet, and use an online calculator to figure out my basal metabolic rate (BMR) and my total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). These numbers are essentially how many calories your body needs to maintain your current body composition/weight. Based on my (currently fairly sedentary) lifestyle, my body uses about 2000 calories per day to keep me going. That means on average, I want to eat fewer than 2000 calories a day to lose weight. So if I eat 2000 calories one day and 0 calories the next day, that's an average of 1000 calories per day. 

The chart I use to track what I weigh and eat every day

How I've Changed

First off, the major question - have I lost weight? Yes. So far, without doing a shred of physical exercise (which I really should do too, but like I said, baby steps/changes), I've lost 11.8 lbs in 5 weeks. This has been fairly consistent at 2-2.5 lbs per week, rather than huge drops and then leveling off. Based on my BMR, TDEE, and my caloric intake, I've run a deficit of ~5300 calories a week. If a pound of fat is about 3500 calories, that's 7.6 lbs. That means that some of that 11.8 lbs is probably water weight, and some of it is just that my metabolism is a little higher than the averages the BMR/TDEE calculators use. But the point is that it's been consistent. 

I've also changed my relationship with food. I love food - seriously, I love to eat. But I have used food as THE thing that I look forward to in a day. Often filled with sugar, or deep fried, or both (mmm, donuts). My wife and I would often use food as our bonding time - eating out after the kids are in bed, making dessert (again, after they're in bed). So this has forced me to change how I see food, and also look for other things that bring value and meaning to my life (oh the horror). But I've rediscovered my love for books, working on projects, and just talking with my wife.

Before ADF, I don't think I ever really understood how many calories were in the food I ate - how much I was consuming on a regular basis. ADF has changed how I look at food. To know how much we're eating, we look up the nutritional information that is available from restaurants and on packaged foods, and use this food calculator for the meals and desserts we make. This has helped us estimate the calories in our food we make. Two of our "regular" quick desserts (which we liked to make at least once a week) were 1000-1500 calories per person! The problem with empty calories (like sugar) is that they don't make you feel as full (think drinking all those calories in a soda), so you don't realize how much you're eating. With those desserts, I was eating almost my body's entire daily caloric needs as a late-night snack. Now that we know that, we are more hesitant about making them, and the desserts are, as Cookie Monster says, a "sometimes food." 

By keeping track of my food intake, in addition to becoming more aware of what I eat, I pay more attention to how it affects me and what my body actually needs. For example, I learned that I am most likely lactose intolerant, so now before eating dairy, I take a lactase enzyme pill first. As a result, I am much more comfortable later on. You probably think I starve myself or deprive myself all the time, but I don't. We still eat out about once a week (date night), eat dessert occasionally, etc. But the difference is that I don't gorge myself anymore - I don't eat until I'm uncomfortable. I just eat a regular portion of food, and then I'm done (with maybe a little tiny helping afterward). I still indulge in sweet treats sometimes, but it isn't four donuts. It's one. It's not three sugar cookie bars - it's one (maybe one and a half).

This journey has been eye-opening, and I'm excited to continue to share it with you. If you're looking for more information about intermittent fasting or my experiences with it, take a look at this FAQ I made (though no one has actually asked me any questions yet, so I am just assuming that these would be the questions asked most frequently).

FAQ

Are you really hungry all day? No, actually. When I first started, it was harder to go all day without eating. But I've learned (and noticed) that hunger tends to come in waves. It peaks around our usual meal times, and then subsides, regardless of whether we eat (mostly). And like I said, it's okay to "fail" a fast day and have something to eat. This is a long-term change - not a quick fix.

Can you drink while fasting? There are different meanings for "fasting" depending on who you're talking to. Some people don't eat or drink at all when fasting (usually for religious reasons), but when doing intermittent fasting, it's important to drink lots of water. I actually find that sometimes water even helps keep cravings at bay when fasting. You can also have other zero-calorie beverages (even diet sodas), but it's best to primarily drink water if possible. It's the best for you, and is sure not to mess with your metabolism (jury is out on artificial sweeteners) or make you hungrier.  

Won't your body go into starvation mode and your metabolism will drop to compensate long-term? This is a big question from a lot of people, and what initially concerned me about IF. I've read about the Biggest Loser contestants, how their metabolism permanently dropped, and how even if they eat what should be a normal amount of food, their body turns it into fat instead of burning it. But the answer to the question is NO. This is actually a myth/misconception about intermittent fasting, and about eating in general. Our bodies aren't designed to eat a steady amount of food all the time (ever hear the myth about how you should eat five 300-calorie meals a day to "keep your metabolism up?"). We evolved to eat big meals sometimes, and then have to go a while before our next meal. Going longer between meals is actually more optimum for our body. Your body won't go into "starvation" mode (or muscle breakdown) until you drop to around 4% body fat. To learn more about why Biggest Loser contestants have lower metabolism, read this article.

Isn't this the same as just cutting calories (calories-in<calories-out)? No, actually. Research has shown that intermittent fasting, while certainly reducing your average calorie intake (similar to calorie-restrictive diets), actually is better at helping people lose weight and fat. Going back to that starvation mode question - in the most recent study on the topic, calorie-restricted diets did lower basal metabolism, but intermittent fasting did not. Also, the failure rate of the "Eat Less, Move More" weight loss method is 99%. To learn more about calories-in-calories-out vs. intermittent fasting, read this article.

Won't you just gain the weight back when you start eating normal again? Here's the thing - I don't plan to "eat normal" anymore. This is a lifestyle change for me. When I get to the point where I feel better about my body, I will just lower the length of time I'm fasting until I reach the maintain phase, and eat to my "maintain" BMR/TDEE numbers. I feel fine missing a few meals here and there - my body doesn't need food all the time. I was eating for the taste of the food, not for energy. I was eating until I was uncomfortably full, or eating things that had lots of "empty calories" - calorie-dense foods that don't actually make you feel full, like sugar and processed foods. I will still eat them, but now I have a better awareness of how many calories I'm taking in so I'll be more careful. But to answer the question: I don't know, but I don't think so. As long as I am not overeating / eating more calories than I need to maintain my current weight (BMR/TDEE), even if I went back to "eating normal," I should stay around where I end up.

Further Reading

If you really want an in-depth understanding of fasting, Dr. Jason Fung (a nephrologist, or kidney doctor), is actually one of the leading experts on intermittent fasting. He is not peddling the latest fad diet routine. He is trying to help people prevent and fix type 2 diabetes, the leading cause of which is obesity. So his focus is on diet and nutrition. He has a ton of video clips, lots of research cited, and makes a lot of sense. Learn more at his site here.

Also, check out this woman's Instagram/YouTube. She has a fairly long (23 min) video about intermittent fasting, but if you want to learn more, she is a good resource:

Instagram: Rachellsharp93