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Losing Weight

Intermittent Fasting And Me

Intermittent fasting lately has become one of the new buzzwords in the world of dieting. Can it help you? Yes, because it might just be your style. Here are Tatianna’s experiences.

Intermittent Fasting

Did you try the “6 small meals a day to keep your metabolism burning” method to lose fat?  Honestly, I have, and it didn’t feel natural to me or very convenient.

But about a month ago, I started hearing more and more about this new method that has been helping people everywhere to lose body fat while preserving muscle mass: intermittent fasting.  Normally when I hear the word “diet”, I run the other way and press my hands to my ears. But intermittent fasting actually is less of a diet and more of a style of eating – you set clear rules when and when not you are going to eat. Therefore you give yourself less excuse to gulp down calorie motherships.

Once I started reading more about it, I realized the method is not so new and that I actually used to eat in a similar style, beginning in my figure skating days.  Back then my method was to always fast after 6 pm and when I followed it every single day, I always stayed at a very low body fat percentage.  As soon as I ate after 6 body fat piled on pretty fast – so many more hours to eat.

The Rules

The rules of intermittent fasting are pretty simple: you have a window of eating and you have a window of fasting.  You eat during the first, you don’t eat during the latter, where you only have teas, water or other non-caloric beverages. The window of fasting obviously should be much bigger than the window of eating, but how big depends on you. Different people need different rhythms.

My Experiences

I started intermittent fasting about a month ago and so far I am loving it. Here is how I go about it.

Five days a week I have an eating window between 12 pm and 8 pm, where I usually eat 3 meals. Not baby portion meals, but real size meals.  In those I always include lean protein sources such as chicken, tuna, salmon, grass-fed beef, organic eggs, two portions of raw veggies (spinach, kale, mixed greens, lettuce etc) and one portion of a complex carb, such as brown rice, wild rice, toasted old-fashioned oats, buck wheat etc.  Finally, I usually have some kind of fruit such as watermelon, apples, oranges etc. to go along with it.

Business hours sign

What are you food business hours?

After 8 pm, I stop eating until the next day.  The goal here is not to starve your self, but to give your body time to digest all of your food.  I also love the feeling of lightness the next morning.

On the weekends I take a break from fasting, which is also where I noticed something:  When I haven’t fasted the day before, I wake up bloated the next day and I retain a lot of water in my body.  I also don’t feel as energized in the morning on the day.

Your Body Will Adapt 

The first week will probably be the toughest to adjust to fasting, if you are used to stuffing yourself with six meals a day.   By the second week, it will get easier, and during the 3rd week things start to feel quite natural and from there it should easy-breezy.  At that point, you should notice your body adapting to this regime and you naturally won’t want to eat after 8 pm (or whatever time you adjusted yourself to).  This for me is the best thing about intermittent fasting: that you can adjust your eating and fasting window to your own hours.

How To Make It Easier

Since I started doing “IF” I discovered whole bunch of herbal teas that I wouldn’t have found before.  Herbal tea and water is what you can have in the actual fasting period and they help you to not feel hungry.  Try to get real natural herbal teas without any so-called ” natural flavors ” added to them.  For me, it was about purifying my body and not add preservatives to it.  Bust just make sure to drink enough, as it tremendously helps tide you over during the adjusting phase.

Results I Noticed

After the first day of intermittent fasting I noticed a lot less water retention in my body.  After the second day, it was quite visible to the naked eye.  As the week went on, I noticed that this method of controlling calories worked for me and fat disappeared  from all those sneaky areas unseen to regular eye, but noticeable on closer inspections  After 2 weeks I began waking up in the morning with an amazing feeling on my skin every morning, which may come from an increased production of growth hormone. Finally, of course, the reduced body fat gave more definition to my muscle tone.

It has only been a month and I am really loving the results and how it makes me feel full of energy.  I am also going to start doing it on the weekends, because, as I stated earlier, I so far skip the weekends.

Does it really preserve muscle mass? I don’t know. But so far I’ve only seen positive changes and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to lean out, feel more energetic without feeling like you are on a diet and just needs a clean and simple rule to implement this change.

Pictures courtesy of Rob Young and “rick“.

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Latest Comments

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16 Comments

  1. Andrew says:
    July 27, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    I wonder if I.F. works on a bulk. It seems to work well if you want to loose fat.

    Reply
    • Marlla says:
      July 28, 2012 at 2:37 pm

      Andrew, check out leangains.com. The guy’s guru of IF and has a lot of info in the site. And he’s big. By big I mean bulked up:)

      Reply
  2. midimidi says:
    July 31, 2012 at 5:03 pm

    hey tati I am going to give this one a try this month. every few hours made me kind of obsessed with eating.

    Reply
    • Tatianna says:
      July 31, 2012 at 6:59 pm

      I totally know what you mean, I also noticed when I ate every few hours my mood jumped up and down all the time.

      Reply
  3. Lvette_1 says:
    August 1, 2012 at 6:48 am

    This is how most people around the world eat. Three meals a day, no snacking or grazing throughout the day. I think a good example of this way of eating are the French people. Most French people eat just 3 really good meals during the day. Also, I think not eating after 8pm if you keep a normal schedule (not a shift worker)is just commonsense and should be the norm.
    I guess naming it “IF” makes it look like a new idea and in vogue. Growing up, I had a solid breakfast at 7am, then lunch at 12pm and a solid supper at 5 or 6pm. The truth be told I really don’t remember ever feeling starved. I eat this way for 30 years of my life, then once I got into fitness 11 years ago 1 started eating 4-5 small meals since that’s what those in the industry advised. I went back to eating just 3 meals a day last year because I got tired of monitoring my food intake.

    Reply
    • Tatianna says:
      August 1, 2012 at 7:16 am

      Yep, I absolutely agree with you! I’ve used this method in my skating days and it always worked, I guess now they have a fancy new name for it. As much as I tried eating 6 meals a day, it was just too complicated for me and I always felt hungry and moody. Now I just eat 3 big meals and I feel full and happy all the time. I also love the light feeling I wake up with.

      Reply
  4. Christian says:
    August 2, 2012 at 8:16 pm

    Another awesome post Tatianna. Did u take a BCAA before you workout?

    Reply
    • Tatianna says:
      August 3, 2012 at 1:31 am

      Hey Christian,

      No I don’t take any powders at the moment at all. I usually eat something 1.5 hours before my training, and 15 minutes prior, I grab a handful of mulberry, ahh that mulberry, it just gives me wings!

      Reply
  5. Christian says:
    August 3, 2012 at 9:22 am

    Ok, i thought u take BCAA supplement while u were in IF.
    Have a wonderful day dear!

    Reply
    • Tatianna says:
      August 3, 2012 at 3:47 pm

      I use to take it months’ ago, but I stopped and now I just eat real food :).

      Have a wonderful day as well sweetie 🙂

      Reply
  6. Dr. J says:
    August 9, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    I’ve done IF Warrior style 20/4 for years! Long before it even had a name. I got into it because of my busy surgical lifestyle. I believe because of it I am lean and fit and avoid many of the food related problems that many people face. The main problem I see with it is that it doesn’t fit the tree meals a day social style. I’ve watched a lot of meals being eaten because of that 🙂

    Reply
    • Tatianna says:
      August 9, 2012 at 6:29 pm

      That’s a small window, I do 16/8, that works for me, and I usually have the 3 full meals, sometimes 2.

      Reply
  7. sedindriuke says:
    September 1, 2012 at 11:13 pm

    Hey Tati,
    have you read this http://www.paleoforwomen.com/shattering-the-myth-of-fasting-for-women-a-review-of-female-specific-responses-to-fasting-in-the-literature/#comment-1362

    I think its worth of attention in fact for woman. Of course it is one side of opinion maybe but with great evidence. Also another proof is our experience with our body and how we feel in the long run.

    Could you top up how you getting on with IF? 🙂 Really curious:)

    Reply
  8. Tatianna says:
    September 2, 2012 at 3:38 am

    Hey darling, I will check out the article, but I’ve heard of that before. I am doing really great on it, my body is completely use to it and I just love how I feel. I have more energy, I don’t feel stuffy in the morning and I seem to be immune to colds completely.

    Reply
  9. sedindriuke says:
    January 12, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    Hey marvelous Tati,
    are you still using l-carnitine in the mornings with coffee and before breakfast? What about now how often you started doing fasted state workouts? Thank you for answers as always!

    p.s. i love your leg slimming bodyweight intensity workout.. i do it every week to slim my legs, a day before i incorporated weighted workout (Shake your sexy tale) to tone a little bit. I am afraid to be left with small muscles and the same fat 😀 but for upper body i use weights to get more bulky (doing bodyweight i have slim upper body, so need more mass) and i do bodyweight plus cardio for lower body to slim a little bit.

    Reply
  10. Maria says:
    January 14, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    Hi, I know that this is old but I’ve been doing something like IF, I guess. Basically, I’m to busy/bored to make something to eat and I’ve cut back on carbs.

    I have Hashimoto’s which makes me very bloated. I’ve been battling with the bloating for 7 long years. I’ve tried diuretic teas, lemon in water every morning, magnesium, slimming pills which are actually mild diuretics, etc and nothing worked. Last week I came back from a trip 6 lbs heavier and lost the water in 2 days and then, yesterday I ate junk food for the first time in months and I gained less than a lb. If this is really because of IF, I’m going to worship it for ever.

    Reply
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