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When it comes to health and wellness I am up for trying anything, at least once. From being a vegetarian to the Keto diet, I am still trying to figure out what works best for my body. As we get older our body changes. My food lifestyle, as I like to call it, needs to continuously evolve with the changes of my body. Unfortunately I have the type of body that can easily gain weight. I’ve never been one who can eat an entire pantry of food and not gain a pound. With this I know that I have to maintain a regular schedule of exercise and to eat a healthy diet. For the past year I have been indulging more than I have been eating clean, and it has really shown in how I feel and look. I know beautiful is not a number. I still wear a size 2 and I am sure most of my weight is muscle, but two weeks ago when I went to the doctor for check up, I was shocked to see that I had gained weight since my last visit back in January. I was shocked because I was doing Intermittent Fasting for the past month and a half.
Intermittent Fasting has been popping up on my radar lately through Instagram, websites, and talks amongst friends. If you are unfamiliar with Intermittent Fasting, it’s the practice of not eating for certain hours of the day or days of the week. There are a few methods of IF:
- 16:8 Method: Only eat for 8 hours a day then fast for 16
- 24 Hour Weekly Fast: Fast for one day a week
- 5:2 method: Fast for two days a week by only eating 500-600 calories on those days
- Alternate Day Fasting: Fast every other day
- Warrior Diet: Fast during the day and eat a huge meal at night
I considered all of the different methods and felt that the 16:8 method (most common) best coincided with my lifestyle. Plus it meant I got to eat everyday. I was eating my meals between noon – 8pm. The first week I felt great! I liked the fact that I actually felt hungry for meals and not just eating because the clock says it’s time to. I felt less bloated, didn’t have any digestive issues, didn’t feel guilty about what I ate, and enjoyed working out on an empty stomach. Then week two hit and I felt bloated again. I also realized that I can not do cardio in the morning without eating something first; I would feel weak and fatigued faster. Lifting weights, however, was not a problem. Then I started to break out a lot (probably my face detoxing I assume?), then I felt like my clothes were a little tighter. I figured during week three and four this was probably normal as my body was getting used to this new lifestyle, but after almost two months of doing IF and finding out that I had actually gained weight– and not just 1 or 2 pounds but 6lbs– I knew this wasn’t for me. Now I am not saying I gained all of this weight from just doing IF, I am sure some of it was gained before I started. But still, that is a lot to have gained for doing something that is notoriously known for excess weight loss.
At first I did what we all do, I googled gaining weight from Intermittent Fasting. The only article I could find was a blog post about how this girl gained weight because she was still consuming the same amount of calories during the 8 hours that she would’ve had the normal 12 hour eating period. This makes a lot of sense. It doesn’t matter when you consume calories, calories are calories. If you are still eating like you normally do during those 8 hours, you are only consuming calories at a smaller time frame than spacing them out to digest. I quickly took note of this. For the most part I was consuming less food because I was never hungry for lunch. I would be starving by the time I had breakfast at noon, snacked a little for lunch, then would be hungry again for dinner. The first week was the only time I was consistently eating throughout the 8 hours. So what gives?
It wasn’t until I went to get acupuncture for overall wellness two weeks ago that I decided to quit IF. I had a nice talk with my acupuncturist about how I have been feeling bloated, hormonally imbalanced, and had gained weight. Acupuncture is great for all of the above by the way. I told her I was doing IF and couldn’t understand how other people were having amazing success doing it and here I was gaining weight. She told me that IF is not for everyone, especially women. Our bodies are made to bare children, we store fat more easily than men do…ugh, curses! When I was starving my body for those 16 hours, instead of turning fat into energy like it should’ve, my body went into survival mode. Meaning my body started to store fat and that is why I was gaining weight. She said IF can be great for some women, but not all women’s bodies will be receptive to it. This was enough for me to finally admit that Intermittent Fasting is not for me.
What is my overall take on Intermittent Fasting. I like it better than the Keto Diet that is for sure. I think it’s something worth doing to see if it is right for your body. Here are a few benefits of doing Intermittent Fasting:
- Reduce insulin levels
- Reduce stress and inflammation
- Lower blood pressure and cholesterol
- Cellular repair and cleansing
- Increase growth hormones
- Weight Loss and reduce body fat
- Increased levels of brain hormones
- May help prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
- Possible reduce Type 2 Diabetes
- Increase of energy
As you can see there are a lot of proven benefits of doing Intermittent Fasting and why I was so intrigued to try it. As I mentioned I did feel great in the first week. However, I should’ve known earlier on that it was not sustainable lifestyle for me. When my body was weak and fatigued for the days I did cardio, that should have been the red flag I needed to know that my body was just not into it. My body needs breakfast and it wants it right when I wake up to start the engine. Would I do Intermittent Fasting again? No and yes. I wouldn’t mind doing a day or two a week the 16:8 full but not every day. Maybe I’ll try that for a while and see how it turns out. And maybe some day with a new adaptation of my body, Intermittent Fasting will be the key to my overall health. Until that happens I am going to go back to eating a regularly scheduled eating times. I will stick to the no eating rule after 8pm that I set for myself, unless I am out to dinner with friends.
So what am I going to do now about the extra pounds? Well I am going to accept it and take a healthy approach to shedding those few extra pounds. I am going to go back to what originally worked for me– clean eating and a little bit of paleo/whole30 lifestyle. This seems to be the best fit for my body over all. Would I try another fad diet? Sure, why not? It’s ok to change things up and see if maybe something new works for your body type. Like I said before, our body is continuously changing and we need to evolve with it.