Optimized fasting: All you need to know

After decades of struggling with food and weight, I have finally made significant progress with Intermittent Fasting. Crucially, it enabled me to maintain results and not slip back, and that is a game-changer.

It is I.F.’s simplicity and flexibility that make it work. Excuses are removed, and it is easy to get back on the horse.

In the 10 months I have been doing I.F. I have learnt a lot — through trial and error — and I will share my 5 most useful tips here. They are practical things that can help you get on and make it work in the long term.

I know how frustrating food and weight can be, so I am honestly happy to help.

 Fat loss is great, but it is not the only benefit of fasting.

1. Intermittent fasting makes your day simpler.

I am big on behaviour change, simplicity, and reducing stress. Intermittent fasting provides additional simplicity to my life that I really enjoy. When I wake up, I do not worry about breakfast. I just grab a glass of water and start my day.

 I enjoy eating and I do not mind cooking, so eating three meals a day was never a hassle for me. However, intermittent fasting allows me to eat one less meal, which also means planning one less meal, cooking one less meal, and stressing about one less meal. It makes life a bit simpler and I like that.

2. Intermittent fasting helps you live longer.

 Scientists have long known that restricting calories is a way of lengthening life. From a logical standpoint, this makes sense. When you are starving, your body finds ways to extend your life.

  There is just one problem: who wants to starve themselves in the name of living longer?

 I do not know about you, but I am interested in enjoying a long life. Starving myself does not sound that appetizing.

 The good news is that intermittent fasting activates many of the same mechanisms for extending life as calorie restriction. In other words, you get the benefits of a longer life without the hassle of starving.

Way back in 1945, it was discovered that intermittent fasting extended life in mice. (Here’s the study.) More recently, this study found that alternate-day intermittent fasting led to longer lifespans.

3. Intermittent fasting may reduce the risk of cancer.

This one is up for debate because there has not been a lot of research and experimentation done on the relationship between cancer and fasting. Early reports, however, look positive. This study of 10 cancer patients suggests that the side effects of chemotherapy may be diminished by fasting before treatment. This finding is also supported by another study which used alternate-day fasting with cancer patients and concluded that fasting before chemotherapy would result in better cure rates and fewer deaths.

 Finally, this comprehensive analysis of many studies on fasting and disease has concluded that fasting appears to not only reduce the risk of cancer but also cardiovascular disease.

4. Intermittent fasting is much easier than dieting.

 The reason most diets fail is not because we switch to the wrong foods, it’s because we don’t actually follow the diet over the long term. It’s not a nutrition problem, it’s a behaviour change problem.

 This is where intermittent fasting shines because it’s remarkably easy to implement once you get over the idea that you need to eat all the time. For example, this study found that intermittent fasting was an effective strategy for weight loss in obese adults and concluded that “subjects quickly adapt” to an intermittent fasting routine.

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