Intermittent Fasting…the new (or old) kid on the block.

For the past few months I’ve been trialling something called ‘Intermittent Fasting’ (or IF). Although IF isn’t a new concept (it is well known that humans have fasted since ancient times), it’s gaining a fair bit of publicity… especially amongst the weight loss, fitness and Paleo communities.  It flies in the face of “grazing” and “snacking” throughout the day, and is particularly beneficial for those who are plateaued or have come to an annoying stand-still with their weight loss. It seems that stressing over a skipped meal may no longer be necessary!

What is IF?

To clarify, IF is NOT calorie restriction… it is simply changing the terms and times in which calories are consumed. It is defined as “the process whereby one avoids food intake for a specific period of time”. There are various types of ‘fasting’, but for this blog, I’m just going to focus on a 12-16 hour fast which I think is the most realistic for people to achieve when starting out. Between dinner and breakfast is the easiest time to fast. So, if you eat dinner at 7pm, you wouldn’t eat again until 7am (at the earliest). It is also super important to STAY HYDRATED whilst fasting.

The negatives…

Fasting is not for everyone. If you don’t have a lot of weight to lose, it’s possible that IF can lead to a loss of lean muscle mass, which isn’t a good thing as lean muscle mass is crucial for healthy aging! However, many fitness fanatics actually adopt IF techniques and DON’T lose muscle mass, so the jury’s out on this one.

For some people, fasting is believed to slow metabolism… which is contradictory to losing weight… isn’t it?! Not necessarily, eating less frequently doesn’t always lower your metabolism. Some evidence shows that there is no correlation with meal frequency and metabolism (Bellisle et al, 1997).  And finally, anyone who is pregnant, has a serious health condition, or who is underweight would probably do best to steer clear of IF.

Why does IF make sense?

The concept of IF is to eat when you’re naturally hungry… rather than fitting your meals into a daily ‘schedule’. Interestingly, IF has even been shown to slow the little clocks that tick inside our mitochondria, helping us live longer… bonus! It REALLY makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, because our ancestors usually had to hunt before breakfast, and almost certainly went through regular periods of feast and famine.

At the end of the day, some people thrive on a lifestyle that incorporates IF, and others just get cranky and tired! As always lifestyle and dietary advice is anything BUT a one-size-fits-all. What I like the most about IF is that it teaches us to listen to our body and eat when we are actually hungry… not when the clock tells us we should eat… and that is CERTAINLY something we could all do a little more of.

Until next time, Stacey.

References:

Aksungar FB, Eren A, Ure S, Teskin O, Ates G 2005 ‘Effects of intermittent fasting on serum lipid levels, coagulation status and plasma homocysteine levels.’Ann Nutr Metab. Mar-Apr;49(2):77-82. Epub 2005 Mar 29

Bellisle F, et al. 1997, ‘Meal frequency and energy balance.’ Br J Nutr ;77(Suppl 1):S57-70.