July 2017 was a turning point in my life. I came across the term 'Intermittent Fasting' in one of Luke Coutinho, the celebrity coach's online video stressing the importance of giving break to the body by not eating for a certain number of hours and the benefits it brought with such a "fasting" phase once a while. Not eating for around 12 or 14 or 16 hours? And me? How was I going to sustain and even live for a day by doing it? I read a lot of books about it. I read many articles online. I gathered information, got convinced by it, made up my mind and took up this lifestyle. Read on to know more about this lifestyle, which I have adopted very successfully, lost a lot of weight and also introduced a lot of friends and family members into it who are reaping its benefits every single day.
Intermittent fasting is an approach where you eat for a certain number of hrs., don't eat after that for a certain number of hrs. and then again break the fast by eating. It can be very well denoted by three words. Eat. Stop. Repeat. E.g. I eat dinner at about 8 pm. The next meal which usually and ideally I should have is breakfast at 8 am the next day, but I skip it and then directly have lunch at 12 pm. Yes. It is possible, very manageable. And breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. It is not. It is just the hype created by these marketing brands and food industry to force us to buy their products laden with sugar and artificial flavors. So coming back, the number of hours during which I did not put a single morsel in my mouth is 16 hrs. That's a pretty good thing to start. So you fast for 16 hours and then from 12 pm to 8 pm, you can have 3 meals. You can have your lunch, tea with snacks and then proper dinner. And there is no limit to what you eat and how much you eat. There is no good or bad food in this lifestyle. Whatever suits you and whatever you like can be consumed till your heart is full. It can happen that you tend to overeat while you lunch during the first 2-3 weeks, but it is very natural. Don't be upset, don't give up in a week or two. Be there patiently and it requires around 2-3 weeks for you to see the results.
Now, what exactly happens in this lifestyle? Every time you put food in your mouth, e.g. a single chocolate or an apple or your daily lunch it raises the insulin in your body so that the food which is put in needs to be digested and absorbed. So imagine if you are eating 8 meals in a day, your insulin levels will be high 8 times on that particular day and because the insulin levels are high, the fat stored in your body is not accessed for burning it as a fuel. When you don't eat for a certain time, it creates a deficit in your glycogen (energy storage) levels and they start depleting as you are fasting for a certain number of hours for days together. Once the glycogen levels are considerably down, the body needs to carry out the daily functions and then it gets to the fat storage and uses the fat slowly to burn as fuel and the immediate result which you might see in 2-3 weeks by doing this fasting is the fat burn or inch loss as the body burns it for bodily activities.
Now certain things are important here. Between 2 meals, you have to take care that you don't munch on anything, absolutely anything! Not a piece of an apple or some groundnuts. No. It was to be a "clean" fast. Lunch. Tea. Dinner. Nothing in between these 3 meals. You can drink plain water as much as you want. Even black tea, black coffee without milk and sugar are also consumed by many people, but I don't drink it. I just stick to plain water. I started with 16-8 as I mentioned earlier and slowly I have graduated to 19-5 (19 hrs fasting and 5 hrs feasting). I also dabbled with 20-4, 22-2 on some days. There are many versions to it 17-7, 18-6, 20-4, 21-3, 22-2, 23-1 and some just have one meal and day (OMAD). There is a group on Facebook, Delay don't deny of which I am member and I have learnt a lot about IF in the process and all the members in this group are very sweet and encouraging and we share our success stories, before and after pics or setbacks, encourage each other and move together in this journey. The admin of the group, Gin Stephens has written two books on this lifestyle and she does OMAD. She started doing IF, saw results, formed a group and is encouraging 1000 others all over the world to take up this lifestyle. And mind you, this lifestyle is free. No pills, no shakes, no powders, no operation, no tucks, nothing! You can do it whenever you want and wherever you want. Exercising will definitely boost the weight loss and will keep you active and engaged.
Another important process that happens at the back-end during the time you fast is called Autophagy. It literally means "self-devouring". The dead cells which obstruct the body functioning are cleaned up and fasting boosts this process. The dead cells deposition might cause cancer and IF helps in cleaning these dead cells very effectively. Aging gracefully without major ailments is possible with this lifestyle and the less you eat, the more is the energy used in healing and improving other bodily functions. There are instances where people have given up insulin injections due to this lifestyle, people's wounds or scars have healed quickly and the grey hair have reduced and turned black. We all are different and we will definitely see different results than others. Let our body decide what it has to concentrate on when we give eating a break. Maybe there is an internal injury to be healed, maybe your skin needs repair, maybe your gut lining needs instant help. So it may take time till you see results on the weighing scale. But weight loss and inch loss are bound to happen, sooner or later. It's a by-product of intermittent fasting.
Do you remember your grandparents or parents eating every 2 hrs.? Their life was so hectic and active. Still they had only 2 principal meals. They just had breakfast/Brunch and dinner. Sometimes they had tea, but not like us, munching every 2 hrs on something. How long and fulfilled was their life! And how healthy they were! And look at us. At the age of 30-40, we have BP, heart problems and all the lifestyle diseases. I don't deny that the quality of food has declined a lot from the time our grandparents lived and not everyone can afford "organic" food. So the best we can do is to eat properly only at certain times and not whenever we like or whenever we are prescribed to do so. I was at the peak of my weight in 2014. I was always lethargic, tired and irritable. And from May 2015, I started taking care of my eating and working out and from July 2017, it has accelerated the weight loss to a great extent. I don't get tensed about what to eat when I go out. I feel a sense of freedom from food now. I eat pizza, pasta, cakes with no guilt or regret. It doesn't mean that I eat it often. But whenever it is offered to me, I don't feel bad about eating it. I also don't count calories or macros or weigh my food while eating unlike some other "Keto" or "Paleo" diets. And as I said earlier, this is not a diet, but a life-style.
My parents, 2 aunts, Vinatha and Sakshi (my colleagues), Aabha and Pallavi (my friends from Pune), Sonali, Madhuri and Rashmi (my friends from Bangalore) have all joined my troupe, they have and are seeing amazing results and are marching towards a healthy and a fulfilling life.
Please feel free to contact me if you feel encouraged to try it. I will be glad to help you out in this, give some tips or encourage you. Attaching my before and after pic. The one on left is the latest pic. Though the weighing scale shows 70, I am really not bothered as I fit into all clothes from 2009 and I feel light and energetic and sexy. I have come a long way and am extremely proud of myself. It requires a lot of determination and patience and self-trust to achieve anything in life and IF showed me the way that it is possible to achieve a healthier and happier you by not clinging to food emotionally.
Some links that might help you in this journey:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/intermittent-fasting
https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting/
https://jamesclear.com/the-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting
http://www.ginstephens.com/
Intermittent fasting is an approach where you eat for a certain number of hrs., don't eat after that for a certain number of hrs. and then again break the fast by eating. It can be very well denoted by three words. Eat. Stop. Repeat. E.g. I eat dinner at about 8 pm. The next meal which usually and ideally I should have is breakfast at 8 am the next day, but I skip it and then directly have lunch at 12 pm. Yes. It is possible, very manageable. And breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. It is not. It is just the hype created by these marketing brands and food industry to force us to buy their products laden with sugar and artificial flavors. So coming back, the number of hours during which I did not put a single morsel in my mouth is 16 hrs. That's a pretty good thing to start. So you fast for 16 hours and then from 12 pm to 8 pm, you can have 3 meals. You can have your lunch, tea with snacks and then proper dinner. And there is no limit to what you eat and how much you eat. There is no good or bad food in this lifestyle. Whatever suits you and whatever you like can be consumed till your heart is full. It can happen that you tend to overeat while you lunch during the first 2-3 weeks, but it is very natural. Don't be upset, don't give up in a week or two. Be there patiently and it requires around 2-3 weeks for you to see the results.
Now, what exactly happens in this lifestyle? Every time you put food in your mouth, e.g. a single chocolate or an apple or your daily lunch it raises the insulin in your body so that the food which is put in needs to be digested and absorbed. So imagine if you are eating 8 meals in a day, your insulin levels will be high 8 times on that particular day and because the insulin levels are high, the fat stored in your body is not accessed for burning it as a fuel. When you don't eat for a certain time, it creates a deficit in your glycogen (energy storage) levels and they start depleting as you are fasting for a certain number of hours for days together. Once the glycogen levels are considerably down, the body needs to carry out the daily functions and then it gets to the fat storage and uses the fat slowly to burn as fuel and the immediate result which you might see in 2-3 weeks by doing this fasting is the fat burn or inch loss as the body burns it for bodily activities.
Now certain things are important here. Between 2 meals, you have to take care that you don't munch on anything, absolutely anything! Not a piece of an apple or some groundnuts. No. It was to be a "clean" fast. Lunch. Tea. Dinner. Nothing in between these 3 meals. You can drink plain water as much as you want. Even black tea, black coffee without milk and sugar are also consumed by many people, but I don't drink it. I just stick to plain water. I started with 16-8 as I mentioned earlier and slowly I have graduated to 19-5 (19 hrs fasting and 5 hrs feasting). I also dabbled with 20-4, 22-2 on some days. There are many versions to it 17-7, 18-6, 20-4, 21-3, 22-2, 23-1 and some just have one meal and day (OMAD). There is a group on Facebook, Delay don't deny of which I am member and I have learnt a lot about IF in the process and all the members in this group are very sweet and encouraging and we share our success stories, before and after pics or setbacks, encourage each other and move together in this journey. The admin of the group, Gin Stephens has written two books on this lifestyle and she does OMAD. She started doing IF, saw results, formed a group and is encouraging 1000 others all over the world to take up this lifestyle. And mind you, this lifestyle is free. No pills, no shakes, no powders, no operation, no tucks, nothing! You can do it whenever you want and wherever you want. Exercising will definitely boost the weight loss and will keep you active and engaged.
Another important process that happens at the back-end during the time you fast is called Autophagy. It literally means "self-devouring". The dead cells which obstruct the body functioning are cleaned up and fasting boosts this process. The dead cells deposition might cause cancer and IF helps in cleaning these dead cells very effectively. Aging gracefully without major ailments is possible with this lifestyle and the less you eat, the more is the energy used in healing and improving other bodily functions. There are instances where people have given up insulin injections due to this lifestyle, people's wounds or scars have healed quickly and the grey hair have reduced and turned black. We all are different and we will definitely see different results than others. Let our body decide what it has to concentrate on when we give eating a break. Maybe there is an internal injury to be healed, maybe your skin needs repair, maybe your gut lining needs instant help. So it may take time till you see results on the weighing scale. But weight loss and inch loss are bound to happen, sooner or later. It's a by-product of intermittent fasting.
Do you remember your grandparents or parents eating every 2 hrs.? Their life was so hectic and active. Still they had only 2 principal meals. They just had breakfast/Brunch and dinner. Sometimes they had tea, but not like us, munching every 2 hrs on something. How long and fulfilled was their life! And how healthy they were! And look at us. At the age of 30-40, we have BP, heart problems and all the lifestyle diseases. I don't deny that the quality of food has declined a lot from the time our grandparents lived and not everyone can afford "organic" food. So the best we can do is to eat properly only at certain times and not whenever we like or whenever we are prescribed to do so. I was at the peak of my weight in 2014. I was always lethargic, tired and irritable. And from May 2015, I started taking care of my eating and working out and from July 2017, it has accelerated the weight loss to a great extent. I don't get tensed about what to eat when I go out. I feel a sense of freedom from food now. I eat pizza, pasta, cakes with no guilt or regret. It doesn't mean that I eat it often. But whenever it is offered to me, I don't feel bad about eating it. I also don't count calories or macros or weigh my food while eating unlike some other "Keto" or "Paleo" diets. And as I said earlier, this is not a diet, but a life-style.
My parents, 2 aunts, Vinatha and Sakshi (my colleagues), Aabha and Pallavi (my friends from Pune), Sonali, Madhuri and Rashmi (my friends from Bangalore) have all joined my troupe, they have and are seeing amazing results and are marching towards a healthy and a fulfilling life.
Please feel free to contact me if you feel encouraged to try it. I will be glad to help you out in this, give some tips or encourage you. Attaching my before and after pic. The one on left is the latest pic. Though the weighing scale shows 70, I am really not bothered as I fit into all clothes from 2009 and I feel light and energetic and sexy. I have come a long way and am extremely proud of myself. It requires a lot of determination and patience and self-trust to achieve anything in life and IF showed me the way that it is possible to achieve a healthier and happier you by not clinging to food emotionally.
Some links that might help you in this journey:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/intermittent-fasting
https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting/
https://jamesclear.com/the-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting
http://www.ginstephens.com/
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