Intermittent fasting has benefits for your health on so many levels. Before w elaborate on them lets first note that fasting intermittently means not eating for 12 d0 24 hours. You calculate in even the time when you sleep. Most nutrition professional advocate annotating window for fasting and window for eating.
My personal fasting window is 16 hours daily and eating window is 8 hours. So, I can have two main meals, I opt for lunch and dinner while skipping breakfast. Benefits of fasting varies highly from person to person depending on personal health, history, and habits. These opinions are based on my experience and meticulous literature research. Anyone can drop a meal for a couple of days and get into fasting state. Fat adaptation and correction of baseline insulin response as a result of fasting tend to take months to years.
Should you change your daily calorie intake?
You shouldn’t change your daily calorie intake, but since you’re eating fewer meals your meals will likely have more calories. It depends on your goal. If you’re starting IF to lose weight then you will need to start at a deficit which means you would be consuming fewer calories.
Fasting usually make you to cut your carbs way back to like 20 grams a day. It gets a whole lot easier to fast 18 hours. I cut back the carbs for a couple weeks before I started the fasting. If you are already at a deficit, then your intake wouldn’t change, just your eating times. You can eat your meals at whatever intervals you want during your eating window. Most people tend to prefer to set their eating window in the second half of the day.
Does sleep time counts as fasting hours?
It’s just total elapsed time between eating. Consume your normal number of calories for the day within the eating window. How you divide that up is up to you.
If you normally eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same time every day, you can eat at those times but skip breakfast or dinner. It’s not a rule. When I do intermittent fasting I like to do 10am-2pm-6pm without skipping meals. The benefits of intermittent fasting accumulate from doing it regularly and on consecutive days. It won’t ruin anything to take a day off or change your window to accommodate plans.
No supplements are required specifically for do intermittent fasting. If you’re on keto, you should probably be supplementing electrolytes (or at least have them at the ready). You’ll overcome initial hunger. It’s temporary. Drink some water, and go for a walk. When compulsively thinking of food you can do several things that worked for me, and even change them from time to time. Distract yourself with work and chores. Distract yourself with entertainment.
How many carbs / carbohydrates can you take while fasting?
I’ve been intermittent fasting /One meal a day / for about a year and keto on and off. After having a few ‘cheat’ days (under 60g carbs) I realized I felt way better doing low carb than keto. A highly active person can take on more carbs, preferably during or close to activity time, because their body can metabolize sugars more easily directly into muscles and cells without as great a need for extra insulin. These persons sometimes even struggle to eat enough and there are trade-offs between eating fats or carbs. So maybe 40+g per day up to 100+g per day during high intensity competitions.
A normal/consistent weight person can eat more carbs because they’re both storing and burning energy as both carbs (glycogen) and fat. So maybe 30-50g per day depending on activity level.
How to deal with food Binging?
Many people who struggle with food addiction tend to eat as a way of coping with their emotions. Although their carb cravings may subside after fasting, they often find themselves craving keto-friendly foods like cheese, whipped cream, and nut butter. These foods can be high in calories, sometimes up to 1500 in a single meal.
To address this issue, a good first step is to stop stocking up on binge-able items like peanut butter, nuts, and cheese. Instead, consider purchasing healthier, less tempting options. Drinking plenty of water or green tea can also help reduce binging tendencies, as can eating protein-rich foods that fill you up quickly. Additionally, following an intermittent fasting schedule, such as 16/8, can be helpful in curbing binging habits.
Exercise for distracting yourself from food cravings
Exercise, even a brisk walk is a good way to mentally transition and not only negate your problem but have additional positive benefits. Sometimes stress can be hard to avoid but look at ways you want to deal with it so then you can do that rather than eat.
Swimming is an excellent exercise for this purpose. Fasting easily will fly off when you start swimming! May need to eat more than twice a week once you really start exercising though? I imagine the shift from sedentary to working out will do mostly good for your metabolic health, but could also be exhausting with long fasts.
Consume food less frequently let alone snacking
Look for the triggers and warning signals and stop yourself in time. For me, first warning signal is when I open the fridge for no reason. Usually asking myself “why did I just check the fridge?” is enough to have me snap back and go and occupy myself with something else. In 99% of the time, my trigger and reasons are simply that I’m bored.
You definitely notice when you consume food less frequently let alone snacking all the awaken time. You feel weaker on some days and more pronounced on others depending on what activities you do. I Stopped counting after the first year. Once You get the carb cravings under control It’s amazing how your body just changes. You likely don’t eat like you used to and your body tells you that if you listen.
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