Whilst I decide what I really want this blog to be about, I thought it would be a good idea to start off by introducing a recent discovery in my life.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in a full UK lockdown, I had never really come across the term ‘intermittent fasting’ and I definitely had no clue as to what it was all about.
But as the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, I knew I had to make a change in my lifestyle in order to become healthier and lose the weight I’ve been trying to for about 5 years.
In the past, I have tried so many different methods for weight loss and had no joy. I’ve even tried unhealthy methods, such as starving myself at one point, I don’t condone or recommend this at all.
But the point is, I’ve given pretty much everything a go, healthy eating, extreme exercise and my body just doesn’t seem to change. I’m very results-driven so because of this, I often give up these diets pretty early on.
So with the UK lockdown restricting our exercise and variety of foods, I decided I needed to find a new way to shed the pounds and this is how I found out about intermittent fasting.
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Working it out
At first it really didn’t make sense to me, all the articles I read had numbers flying at me left, right and center.
From 12:12 to 20:4, I didn’t understand any of it. This is when I began downloading loads of fasting apps on my phone to see if any of them could help me.
After browsing through about 6 of them, I decided Fastic seemed to be the best app for what I was trying to achieve, and I wasn’t wrong!
When you first sign up to the app it recommends for you to join their Facebook group with all the other intermittent fasters of the world.
I soon found out that this is an amazing community where everyone is so friendly and supportive, and always helping to motivate each other to keep going.
Any questions I had about intermittent fasting (including whether brushing my teeth with toothpaste broke my fast), someone was always there to jump into the comment section and provide answers supported with evidence.
(It doesn’t by the way).
So now I had the support system I’d always needed, it was time to give it a go.
Fastic has many features built into it, some which are premium but I’m just using the free version for now, and one of my favourites is their daily lessons.
Each lesson takes about 1 minute to complete and consists of some infographics to help you along your fasting journey, day by day.
This is how I’ve learnt so much about intermittent fasting so quickly.
Motivated by this, I decided to chose an intermediate level fasting programme to begin with, this is the 20:4.
Once you understand it, the numbers used are really simple. 20 is the number of consecutive hours you fast in a day and the 4 is the amount of hours you have to eat.
For another example, one of the suggested beginners programme is the 16:8, for this you would fast for 16 hours straight and have an 8 hour window for food intake.
Another great thing about intermittent fasting is that you can choose the hours you do to fit around your schedule.
So for me, I decided my eating window would be from 4pm to 8pm as this works best with me currently sleeping in late and doing my workout in the afternoon.
The times you choose to eat and fast don’t affect the success of the diet.
My Progress So Far
So, for those of you wondering about my progress, I can tell you that I’ve started off well.
Everyday it becomes easier and easier to reach my fasting goals, some days I’ve fasted for an extra hour. And the results…in the first 5 days I lost 2.4kg!
Unfortunately after consulting my fasting Facebook group, they confirmed that I shouldn’t expect to keep shedding weight this quickly as the majority of this weight loss is from something called ‘water weight‘.
But still, I feel better in myself already.
The Life-Changing Benefits
As well as my speedy progress, there are so many confirmed health benefits to intermittent fasting.
One I found the most surprising was that after a couple weeks you actually begin to feel like you have more energy than ever.
This is because your body will begin to automatically take energy from your body’s stores instead of waiting around for your next intake of food.
Some other amazing benefits are listed below:
- Changes to the function of cells, genes and hormones
- Reduces insulin resistance, lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes
- Reduces oxidative stress and inflammation in the body
- Improves heart health
- May help prevent cancer
- Good for your brain
- May prevent Alzheimer’s disease
- May extend your lifespan
(All facts in this list are evidence-based)
So, I’m exciting to keep going with my intermittent fasting and see where it takes me. I will make sure to keep you updated with my progress and when I hopefully reach my goal. 4kg lost, 15kg to go!
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It is so exciting that you have such a great journey. I am trying to get trough this lifestyle and I hope one day I could share my experiences with othere. By the way you experience of intermittent fasting was so useful for me. Thanks. Hope you have great time
Thank you so much! I’m so pleased to here that my blog has been helpful to you 🙂 please do let me know if you have any questions on intermittent fasting and I will do my best to answer them.
I keep seeing a lot of people rave about intermittent fasting. I’m scared to try it since even low calorie diets I’ve been on have been brutal and had some painful side effects, but I too want to see actual results when I diet so I’m getting more and more used to the idea. Thanks!
Yes it was the same with me! To be honest, I am still getting used to the idea now. My worst time is of the late evening when I am very snackish but once you’ve found that motivation, the hunger will soon pass and you’ll feel better than ever! It is a scary thing at first but please contact me if you need any help.
Ah I’ve always wanted to try it! Might have given me that push (well see) Well done and good luck ❤️
I’m glad! You can start off at any pace you want…the 12:12 is a good place to start. Good luck!
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Loved this post 🙂 I actually randomly stumbled into intermittent fasting during lockdown too! I get very “snacky” late at night and I just felt like I was really eating wayyyy too much than I really should, even though I exercise a lot. I never considered an app or community because I have strong individual willpower anyways. For me the benefits are psychological – I’m really bad at telling myself “I can’t eat X until Y time” but I’m way more effective at saying “I will eat X after Y time.” I have actually worked up from 24 to 36 hour fasts nowadays and will just do it spontaneously. I feel like it keeps my fitness in check.
Also, I love your blog overall 🙂 can’t wait to dive in more
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