I got great news for you: the system is easy to use, you just need to start, and then your body will appreciate it a lot!
First of all, familiarize yourself with two basic terms:
In fact, every day you indeed spend some time fasting (while sleeping at night + some time before and after). Assuming your regular dinner at 6-7 PM and breakfast at 7-8 AM means that your regular ratio is 13:11 (13 hours fasting and 11 hours eating window). The fasting, which that you used to have up until now, was doing an important job to increase your health, but unfortunately not long enough, as it was interrupted by breakfasts. This fasting was not sufficient to compensate the terrible damage to your body caused by eating many times a day (well, at least that damage was partly compensated somehow; otherwise you would weigh a ton within a few week).
In other words, you need to increase the period of fasting. First, increase its duration by 3 hours to change the ratio to 16:8 (16 hours fasting and 8 hours eating window). It would be an exaggeration to say that this task is hard to accomplish.
Strictly speaking, only the rules 1, 5 and 6 define Intermittent Fasting itself. If you will observe ONLY them, that will already be a revolutionary turn for the better, so your body will thank you. However, careful observance of other rules as well will make your transition to IF much easier, and the process of losing weight will develop fast and efficiently.
Effective tomorrow, here is what you do:
- Eat twice a day. Your first and second meal should be eaten within a 8-hours period.
Note that you must complete the second meal before 8 hours have elapsed, not start.
For me, the most comfortable is the interval between 10 am and 6 pm, but you can choose any other.
It is better not to eat early in the morning so that you don't get hungry in the evening before going to bed. I never start breakfast before 10 am. It's not hard to make it to 10 am (drink water and teas!), but going to bed in the evening with a rumbling stomach is a problem. Most often, my eating window ends at 4:30 - 5:30 pm, and I experience absolute satiety until bedtime at 10 - 11. Lifehack: If you're afraid that you'll be hungry in the evening, eat a lot of protein at your second meal. Eggs are especially good - they are almost guaranteed to prolong satiety until the end of the day.
The second reason not to eat early in the morning is to prolong the action of growth hormone (somatotropin) produced at night. It plays an important role in weight loss - it "opens the fat depot" i.e. enables the use of fat deposits as a source of energy. This hormone "acts" not only in the second half of the night (when it is being produced), but also for several hours after you have awaken. But only until the moment you eat! The insulin spike from eating suppresses its effect.
8 hours is the maximum allowed length of the eating window. In general, it is better to make it shorter (for example, 7, 6 or 5 hours instead of 8) - then during the day more hours will be devoted to fat burning. So, it is better to keep not 16:8, but 17:7, 18:6, or 19:5. Some experts say that the 20:4 regimen has almost the same effect as OMAD (one meal a day). However, it is practically undoable since you will not get hungry so soon if your ration is low in carbohydrates, and you cannot force yourself to eat.
Any meal must take no longer than 30 minutes (in the worst case - 40).
If this is a celebration with guests, gala event or visiting a restaurant with friends, then as a very rare exception your meal can last 1 hour (in this case, try not to eat non stop). But an ordinary everyday dinner should never-ever last more than 40 (preferably 30!!!) minutes.Do not watch TV and do not surf the Internet while eating!
Your thoughts should be focused on the pleasure of eating, and not be distracted by what is happening on the screen - do you want to deprive yourself of pleasure? Absolutely forget about watching films hours to the accompaniment of nuts and seeds (saying it's still technically one meal, even though long)! I discussed that with a naturopathic doctor, working with Dr. Fung. She said, that we can eat nuts and seeds (as a dessert immediately after meal) for no longer than 15 minutes (which are included in the 40 minutes, of course). In addition to very healthy fats, they unfortunately contain carbs which cause hunger and make stopping eating them almost impossible (it's not because they are tasty and we want to extend the enjoyment of this taste - for example, a high-quality steak is much tastier, but nothing like this happens). Nuts and seeds are a rare example of a natural product in which carbohydrates and fats are combined in large quantities, which causes gaining weight even more than carbohydrates alone. This is a typical "autumn" food. The combination is for gaining fat to survive the winter. Eating it all year round is the same as arranging for yourself an autumn fat depositing all year long.
If you cannot stop eating, use two magic life hacks:
1. Use the IntFast timer. You just can't believe how disciplining it is! It even does the impossible - you stop eating nuts and seeds without any effort! Once I took two halves of pecan. After I have eaten one, the timer showed 30:00, and without further hesitation I put the second half back in the box - this is already at the level of religious fanaticism, nothing in the world will make me break the dogma!
2. Brush your teeth immediately after meal (preferably with a menthol toothpaste). Mouth wash liquids work well too. You will enjoy cool freshness in your mouth, which cannot be mentally connected with food, so your mind will easily get, that food doesn't even appear on the agenda!
Keep a minimum 3 hours gap between the meals (4 or even 5 hours are even better).
The goal is to give the previous meal the opportunity to be properly digested. To prevent fermentation of undecomposed food in the stomach and formation of gases and toxic compounds, a new portion of food can be eaten only after the previous one is disposed of. This process takes several hours, and is usually longer for those who eat a lot of meat and fat (i.e. for us, ha-ha!). The waiting time also depends on the characteristics and state of health, which affects the speed of the contractile wave of the intestine, which moves the digested food. 3 hours are enough for someone, and 5-6 are necessary for someone. And if you eat before the end of the cycle, the wave breaks down, and this badly affects all digestion. BTW, this is another reason for the harmfulness of snacking and eating many times per day frequently - in addition to constantly high insulin.This rule leads to a lengthening of the eating window (and, accordingly, shortening of the fasting phase). This seems to contradict the idea of intermittent fasting ("the shorter the eating window, the better since the period of time during which insulin is low lengthens"), but the body's functioning is much more complicated - much more factors are involved. We should not interfere with proper digestion of food by the body all along - our health is too much dependent on the proper absorption of food.
After completing the last meal and before going to sleep, a minimum of 3 hours (or even better 4) should elapse.
From the book "Fat For Fuel" by Joseph Mercola (PDF):
If it doesn't work out one day, then wait at least 2 hours before you go to bed. But the daily routine should be an at least 3-hour meal break before bedtime. And the point here is not even in the IF (or rather, not only in it).
THE BENEFITS OF AVOIDING EATING HOURS BEFORE YOU GO TO BED
No matter which fasting program you choose, or even if you choose not to adopt any formal type of fasting, you'll want to stop eating at least three hours before you go to bed. I have recently become much more aware of how important this simple change is in helping to optimize your mitochondrial function and prevent cellular damage. Many factors influence why you will reap health benefits if you develop the habit of not eating within three hours of bedtime:
• When you are sleeping, your energy needs are at their lowest, and providing excess fuel at this time will result in the production of excessive amounts of damaging free radicals.
• Sleep is your body's time for detox and repair, and needing to digest a meal during sleep will impair these important processes.
• Nighttime is a common time for your body to use ketones for energy, since glycogen stores are typically depleted within 18 hours (13 hours if you are eating low carb), and eating too close to bedtime can replenish glycogen stores and prevent the body from burning fat for overnight fuel.
• Not eating for at least three hours before bed enables you to extend that period of time without eating food on a daily basis, making Peak Fasting an easy and rewarding way of life.
A review paper published in 2011 provides much of the experimental work supporting the advice to refrain from eating too close to bedtime. The take-home message is clear: since your body uses the least amount of calories when sleeping, you'll want to avoid eating close to bedtime because adding excess fuel at this time will generate excessive free radicals that will damage your tissues, accelerate aging, and contribute to chronic disease.
For this reason, I believe one of the best strategies for reducing mitochondrial free radical production is to limit the amount of fuel you feed your body when it requires the least amount, which is when you are sleeping. That's why I stop eating four to six hours before I go to bed, although a three-hour window is also beneficial and probably more doable for most people.Please note that this is not the famous meme "you can't eat after six" (some idiot launched this nonsense, and many people repeat it like parrots) - except if you always go to bed at 9 PM. For example, if you go to bed at 1 AM, then you can finish your dinner at 10 PM.
The next timeline summarizes all of the aforesaid:
Any snacks are absolutely prohibited in the fasting phase (and in the gap between the 1st and the 2nd meal when you eat twice a day).
Even a smallest piece of most healthy food is essentially just another meal that resets the timer for the food digestion / fat burning cycle. In the fasting phase, this will simply stop it. In between the 1st and 2nd meals, the consequences of a snack will be much less catastrophic, but they will still exist (although they will appear later, when you stop losing weight after the initial weight loss). Explanation without going into details: the biochemical and hormonal picture, say, 2 hours after eating, is very different from that during eating (and immediately after). With a snack, you forcibly replace the second (which should be at this stage of the previous meal's digestion) with the first.
Any drinks with calories and sweeteners are absolutely prohibited in the fasting phase (and in the gap between the 1st and the 2nd meal when you eat twice a day).
These may include, but not limited to, coffee/tea with sugar/milk/cream, juices, any sweet drinks. No lemon juice/slice with water or other allowed drinks. Teas from hibiscus, dog rose and any fruits and berries are forbidden even unsweetened: even though they contain a minimum of sugar, these calories may be enough to raise insulin. It’s not that calories may contribute to fat accumulation (although it does matter), but it will stop the period of fasting since your organism will perceive it as another meal. Technically, even unsweetened tea and coffee contain a small number of calories (1-5), but do not be afraid to drink them - in order to break the fast, several dozens calories are needed. Sweeteners are also banned - despite the lack of calories (shocking details coming soon, keep reading!).BTW, there are 137 calories in a 250-milliliter cup of cocoa - this will clearly break fasting.
Drink water (unflavoured carbonated/sparkling is fine!), as well as unsweetened coffee and various plain teas. Very tasty, without any sweeteners, are the leaf oolong, green tea and puer.
However, you should not drink too much tea and coffee with caffeine because it increases the level of cortisol, which in turn increases the level of insulin, which can prevent weight loss even if you have cut back on carbohydrates and perfectly maintain intermittent fasting. Try to remove caffeine at all, or consume it only 1-2 times a day.
You may as well try herbal/wellness teas (double check they don't contain fruits/berries), rooibos, ivan-tea, chicory (the last one is prohibited if you have varicose veins!). Try teas from rhodiola, ashwagandha and tulsi (holy basil). They have many beneficial effects, including soothing, reducing stress and lowering cortisol levels. They can be bought at health food stores, as well as on the Internet, including on Amazon.Broth is not allowed between your meals because of calories (it's food!).
If your stomach starts churning while you fast, just drink.
You will find more details the first bullet of the TIPS AND TRICKS FOR EASY HUNGER MANAGEMENT section in the page KETOSIS AND HUNGER.Absolutely remove easily digestible ("fast") carbohydrates, and minimize "slow" ones.
This is the most important rule of all the rules listed (if I would be forced to obey only one rule, I would select this). To explain the topic properly, I provided a lot of details, so this paragraph had grown to large size and, one day, was extracted to a dedicated page that needs to be carefully studied!- Limit your consumption of dairy products. First of all, it's milk itself, as well as cream, yoghurts, kefir, baked milk, sour cream and white soft cheeses (cottage, feta, cream-cheese). In the beginning, if you switched to intermittent fasting and low-carb food, then weight loss usually goes well even with dairy (the change for the better is too revolutionary), but at a later stage, dairy products can be the reason why weight loss stalled. Carbohydrates (lactose is sugar!), a high insulin index, and hormones are involved in that. Butter is ok (although many people prefer to melt it into ghee, which is better). If you eat dairy products anyway, then prefer ones made of not cow, but goat, sheep or buffalo milk.
- Eat more proteins, as they prolong the feeling of satiety and suppress the feeling of hunger.
Due to proteins, you can keep your fasting periods longer even in the beginning of your IF. Meat, fish and eggs are your best friends! - Include fatty food into your ration.
It's extremely important!!! Eat pork lard, bacon (check the ingredients to make sure sugar is not added!), fatty meat (pork, lamb, "marble" beef), fatty fish, avocado, butter, oil (MCT, olive, coconut, avocado, but NOT soy, corn, sunflower or canola!). Never buy products with a "fat free" or "low fat" label. Buying meat, choose only fatty pieces, no lean meat. No more dry ("dietary") chicken breast in your life!
Fry meat, fish, eggs in fats. Stop trying to fry cutlets on water in non-stick cookware. By the way, fats are not only very healthy, but can also greatly change the taste of a familiar dish. For example, beef steak has a completely different taste if you fry it in lard and add butter at the end.
"But... the official guidelines instruct us to eat as little fatty foods as possible, otherwise we will get fat..."
Have you been following nutrition guidelines and advice for years and STILL gaining weight and becoming unhealthy?!? It’s time for new guidelines. It’s time for us to take back our own health. Huge quantities of grains are urged by the official guidelines, and tiny amounts of fats are encouraged! The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (cnpp.usda.gov) were first released in 1980. I would like to comment the following graph, but what can I add???
Government dietary guidelines are plain wrong: Avoid carbs, not fat
Fortunately, there has been a change for the better in recent years: Low-Carb, High-Fat Is What We Physicians Eat. You Should, Too.
Too good is also bad.
LCHF (low-carb, high-fat diet) means that there should be as few carbohydrates as possible. But it does not mean that there should be as much fats as possible. It just means that fats should not be avoided and should be sufficient.
Note that although fats are very important, it is possible to over-eat them, so you shouldn't consume tons of them. Let me explain why. Ketosis (which is caused by IF combined with a low-carb/high-fat diet) is a condition in which the body uses ketone bodies, which are derived from fats, rather than glucose, as fuel. When the body is deficient in glucose, the liver synthesizes ketone bodies from fat, which are then used by the cells as the primary fuel instead of glucose. Ketosis is not necessarily a condition in which the body uses only its own fats. If you have too much fat in your diet, your body may have enough of it and not burn your fat reserves. So even though the recommended way of eating is high-fat, it is important not to overdo it if you want to lose weight. If you have a different goal (e.g., to improve your health, maintain good health and effective brain function, or control your current weight if you are happy with it - for example, you have completed the weight loss process and are in the "maintenance phase"), then you can consume enough fats to keep your body's fat reserves intact. - Eat your fill, don't cut back on portions. Don't try to eat less than the normal amount of food. Never ever allow a daily caloric deficit!
If you try to eat fewer calories, you will fall into the classic "dietary trap" (slow metabolism and subsequent weight re-gain) - be sure to read that! Remember that there are 9 calories in a gram of fat (and only 4 in a gram of carbohydrates and proteins). This means that eating enough fat is important not only for achieving and maintaining ketosis, but also for avoiding a calorie deficit. If you see that the food is not very fatty, then just add two or three strips of bacon to it.
This rule is especially important for those who are on OMAD (one meal a day) because they need to satisfy the daily caloric requirement of the body in one meal. Do not force the switch to OMAD! It is very efficient, but can lead to the "dietary trap" and plateau in the same way as a low-calorie diet. Be sure to read the Dr. Fang assistant's article OMAD: Should you eat one meal a day?. Please note that she does NOT recommend OMAD if you are trying to lose more than 15 pounds (7 kg) of weight, looking to improve symptoms of metabolic syndrome and high insulin levels, such as type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or still in the process of working on your health goals (i.e. you have not yet reached your desired weight yet).
This is the common wisdom of the world - it's better to be safe than sorry. It is better to lose less weight on two meals a day than to lose weight fantastically on OMAD and at the same time kill the metabolism, which is already barely breathing after previous restrictive diets, which will inevitably lead to subsequent weight gain, which will be even more unrealistic to get rid of. - Put your meal into your mouth by tiny pieces, and chew each of them carefully – until it vanishes.
Why? The mechanism is explained in these very short, but very important videos: 1, 2, 3, 4. For more details, read the book Fletcherism: What It Is; Or, How I Became Young at Sixty, written in 1913 by Horace Fletcher. I started to chew each piece until it totally disappears in the mouth 7 month prior to starting IF and had lost 22 lbs (10 kg) only on that method. So, that has nothing to do with Intermittent Fasting – I just give this advice to everybody, now and again. I rigorously observe this rule, and it is highly probable that my transition to IF was so easy and smooth due to this in particular. Another reason for me to love this method is that it allows me enjoying my meal for a protracted period. I eat only once per day, after all, and chewing long is a good alternative to devouring it all in a few minutes – crunch-munch! (especially because my current portions are small). Therefore, I make the enjoyment longer, as the next time will come only in 24 hours or so! - Get completely rid of sweeteners - in both the fasting phase and the "eating window".
That includes:- Diet drinks (named "light" in some countries).
- "Splenda", "Equal", "Tween", "Sweet'n Low" etc.
- Whatever (chocolates, candies, ice-cream, chewing gum etc.) with the words "Sugar-free" on the package. "Sugar-free" means "Full of a sweetener" in the same way as "Fat-free" means "Full of carbohydrates"!
>> Click here to read quotes regarding the the harm, caused by sweeteners
Sweeteners gained widespread use in the past few decades - and it is just in these decades that obesity became a pandemia, i.e. a global epidemic. No doubt, replacers of sugar helped the official guidelines to do their harmful work, so it's not a surprise that the following timeline is similar to the graph in the section "Include fatty food into your ration":
- Remove alcohol.
It causes insulin resistance, as well as decreases level of the growth hormone (the latter is critical for fat burning). Apart from that, many alcohol drinks contain sugar and other carbohydrates. Even those that do not (pure vodka, whisky, rum, tequila) will make the process of reducing your weight a bit slower, and the calories contained in them are way nastier than the equal amount of them contained in other food. Why calories in alcohol are extra-fattening – see here. And this video explains in detail how exactly alcohol affects ketosis. - Chewing gum is out of question.
Each of them contains either sugar or a sweetener (otherwise it would taste like eraser for pencil), so you cannot chew it even in the "eating window". In addition, chewing in the fasting period may be misunderstood by your body as a signal that you are eating. Chewing and secreting saliva gives the body the impression that food is about to arrive, so the normal hormonal cycle starts: insulin begins to enter the blood in anticipation of a rise in sugar, counter-hormones (leptins, etc.) begin to secrete slowly preparing to suppress hunger when enough food eaten. All this will end faster than in the case of real food, but a spike of insulin has already occurred, suppressed fat burning and stopped the fasting phase. - Do a sleep study to define if you have the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome; if it is detected, immediately start CPAP therapy.
If you are overweight, then it is likely that you also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Please get familiar with the statistics of OSA prevalence in groups of people with different body mass index (source):
- BMI 35-39.9 - 71%
- BMI 40-49.9 - 74%
- BMI 50-59.9 - 77%
- BMI 60 or more - 95%
- Reduce stress. Cortisol interferes with losing weight.
That topic is so important that I dedicated a whole page to it.
If all these time intervals seemed difficult for you to remember and observe, then just install the IntFast phone application (download, read full description). It clearly indicates when you can and can't eat using the green and red colors. Just watch the color and the protocol will be followed! The app also helps to plan your day, calculating the time when at the latest you can start your meal so as not to exceed the eating window. The time intervals for the above three rules can be set in the application settings, according to your preferences:
