Let’s talk about intermittent fasting or, to be more precise time-restricted eating.
Time-restricted eating is when you limit your feeding window = the time when you eat to a certain number of hours per day. In its most basic form, you fast for 12 hours and eat for the other 12.
The longer the fasting period, the more time you give your body to “keep the house tidy”, repair cells and “take out the trash”. This process is called autophagy and refers to removing damaged cells to regenerate newer, healthier ones. It’s beneficial for overall health and enhances your lifespan.
Autophagy declines as we age. Cells that no longer work may do harm or multiply, which is how cancer begins.
With that in mind, here are a few things worth knowing:
1. Listen to your body. Like everything, you must find what works for you – not your best friend, colleague or husband. It’s your body; some things work well for you, while others don’t.
2. Start slowly and ease into a longer fast carefully. Switching to a 16:8 fast from one day to the other can be unnecessarily stressful for your body.
3. If you’re doing it to lose weight, be aware that you’re not automatically losing weight. How many calories you consume during your feeding window and how active you are is still important.
4. It takes a bit of time to start autophagy, and – again – it depends on the individual. A 16-hour overnight fast is a good starting point, but your body might need longer.
5. If you want to stay in autophagy, the only thing allowed is plain water, tea or black coffee – no flavoured sweet-tasting water, bullet coffee or a teaspoon of nut butter – nothing.
6. You don’t need a 16-hour fast every day to see results. You can see them fasting 3-4 times a week for just 12 hours.
7. Women’s hormones are extremely sensitive to longer fasts. Some women can handle it, and others can’t – it depends on your body.
8. It is common for women to see adverse effects of fasts longer than 12-14 hours, including weight gain.
Don’t fast if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding or have a history of eating disorders.
