Intermittent what?!

You’ve heard about it for a few years, but what the heck is Intermittent Fasting? Like you don’t eat? For how long? Just what?

Ok, so there are a couple of different types of intermittent fasting. What I am going to tell you about is the 16:8 Method. This involves 2 windows of time: A Fasting Window and an Eating Window. Your Eating Window is fun part because you get to eat, obviously. How you do this is rather simple: 1) Start your fast right after you finish eating for the day. For me that’s about 7-7:30 pm. Then, you just don’t eat again for 16 hours. The best part is that the majority of this time is spent asleep so you don’t miss it. 2) 16 hours after you stop eating you get to open your 8-hour eating window! So, if I stopped eating at 7 pm, I get to start eating at 11 am, and keep eating until the window closes again at 7 pm. All of that equals 16 hours of fasting, and 8 hours of eating = 16:8.

Here is what happens during that Fasting Window that makes this method so valuable to your health. First, your insulin sensitivity improves and the levels of insulin in your body drops quite a bit. Having a lower insulin level allows your body to have access to the stored fat …. so you can BURN IT OFF! We’ll get into that in a minute. Secondly, your levels of HGH or Human Growth Hormone goes through the roof. HGH is what your body uses to help burn fat and build muscle. Thirdly, when you are in the fasted state, your digestive system is allowed to REST so your body can devote its energy to cellular repair. Fourthly, and the one that excites me the most, fasting allows your body to release norepinephrine, which is a FAT BURNING HORMONE!

I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention but Intermittent Fasting is a huge strategy to help facilitate Fat Burning. So, does Intermittent Fasting mean you can’t have anything at all during the fasting window? Please say no...

Actually, you CAN have some things during this window. What you’ll want to make sure you avoid are things that have fiber (because fiber will make your gut get going), and fewer than about 50 calories. What is allowable?

• Black Coffee or tea – may use skim milk, unsweetened nut milk/creamer, stevia
• Water – sparkling or still
• Bone Broth
• Unsweetened nut beverages like almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, coconut milk, cashew milk
• Powdered collagen peptides but keeping it to under 50 cal per serving
• Vitamins and medications

Personally, I drink coffee with an unsweetened coconut/almond milk creamer and a stevia. I’ll drink about 40 oz of water, as well, before I break my fast around 11 am.

When its time to break your fast, make sure you are getting a really good meal that is packed with the macro nutrients you need: Protein, Fat, and Carbohydrates. We’ll get into the Macro Nutrients in another post. Until then, Happy Fasting!