We’ve all heard the buzz trend of intermittent fasting that seems like the latest fad. In actuality, it has been around for thousands of years. I can find a myriad of resources regarding the science behind it and why I wanted to try it. Dr. Jason Jung is a wonderful resource for you if you would like to read about the amazing benefits of different types of fasting and their purposes.
What about intermittent fasting over 40? Personally, I wanted to try it for the health benefits. Struggling with over 40 mind fog, heat sensitivity, and sluggishness, I wanted to see the effects of fasting. Oh, and if I lost a few pounds while I was at it, that would be frosting on the cake.
Cultures around the globe have used fasting as part of religious practices or as part of ceremonial rites since the beginning of recorded history. In the Bible, God recognizes fasting as a means of conveying intense petition to Him or heart wrenching seeking of His counsel.
I was sitting down one day contemplating all the “diets” out there: paleo, keto, cave man, etc and the thought occurred to me that all these diets are based on a particular belief system that goes deeper then just a simple way of eating. It actually reflects the core belief of the origin of man. If the Bible is good for teaching in all things, then why not in the way we should eat? Fasting is one of the concepts found iin the Bible among others.
So, after reading up and thinking on it. We decided to do an experiment. Below are the results of our experiences. My husband and I found that fasting, when we did it right, has many cleansing and healthful benefits. When I first thought of trying it, I immediately thought that I would not last long because of “hangry” low blood sugar shakes. My husband decided to do it with me to see what benefits would happen for him as well.
We quickly found that we were surpised by what we experienced. Read on for the top 5. These are not listed in any particular order as they are all very important to me and not the only benefits.
Caution and disclaimer: I am not a doctor and am not diagnosing or advising on health issues or how to diet. This is a personal record of what I experienced and results from it for entertainment value. We are not teaching you how to fast or what you should do, merely recording what we personally did and what we observed. As with all dietary and exercise changes, please be informed that there are certain health circumstances where fasting is not appropriate and can be dangerous. Please do due dilligence in researching how to fast correctly for your situation and consult with your doctor prior to using fasting as you would before any important health decisions.
5 Personal Thoughts on Fasting
1: Clear Thinking
One of the very first beneficial effects of fasting was a lifting of my brain fog. Yes, at first while getting used to fasting, I was pre-occupied with all things food. But after I settled into the concept and broke some unconscious habits, I felt very clear in my thinking and could focus a lot better. Mind fog complaints are common in many over-40 women (and men, too) and I was extremely pleased that it lifted for me.
2. Less Heat
Ok, so when you think of summer do you hate it or love it? I have never liked summer purely and simply because of the heat. It is a season to endure and I breathe a sigh of relief when autumn finally arrives. Sticking my head in the freezer is a pretty common site around our house. If it’s above 75 degrees, it’s too hot in my book. Oh, and it doesn’t need to even be summer. I will still have my head in the freezer occasionally!
BUT, a very unexpected side effect of fasting for me is that for the first time in my entire adult life, I actually enjoyed summer! When I fast the way I have been doing it (see below), I actually cool down inside and things seem to reset. World shaking news, I actually went grocery shopping and my car thermometer in the parking lot registered 112 degrees! And I wasn’t even going postal ballistic from the heat. Go figure!
3. Mood Smoothing
So, the great elephant in the middle of the room- menopause and mood swings. Husbands everywhere are nodding yep while they slowly back out of the room. For some unexplainable reason ( I know there’s got be A LOT of science behind this), any hormonal disruption in both men and women seems to manifest through mood swings for some.
I found that after 40, my fuse can be quite a bit shorter and my patience with humanity severely limited at times. While fasting, I felt released from this random strange hold on my mood. A lightening and relaxing effect that works like nothing else took it’s place. The word even-keeled actually comes to mind.
4. Blood Pressure
Another of the totally unexpected side-effects of fasting actually occured for my husband. While fasting with me, his normally just-over-the border blood pressure dropped by 20 points within the first week. What?!? From being advised to go on a statin, to a normal great blood pressure just by fasting? He was thrilled by this.
I normally have too low of a blood pressure and curiously didn’t have any problems with mine dropping. Hmm, maybe a normalizing and balancing of pressures occured for us? That seems to be what happened.
5. Water Weight
Let’s just say that the old phrase of “just looking at a donut and gaining weight” holds true here. I can feel my fingers expanding after eating a high carb meal. The water retention is amazing and uncomfortable. While fasting, I was able to move that water weight quickly after eating a high carb day. Yes, most “diets” do go through the water weight at the beginning, and fasting was no different for me. The difference is that I could fast at any time to “re-cupe” from a holiday meal or a day at the lake without needing to go on any special food diet while I ate.
I typically carry 9-11 pounds of water weight if I don’t watch and do something about it. After losing that, I know that I am losing fat weight. When I focused on fasting for one single season, I lost 18 pounds. An average of a pound a week consistently. Of course, I need to be conscientous about being consistent in intermittent fasting.
How we did intermittent fasting
There are many ways we could’ve done intermittent fasting. Eating windows, alternate days, pairing with carb cycling, protein cycling, etc. At first, I tried a recommended beginner fasting schedule from an online fasting coach but used a larger sized eating window to get used to the idea. The eating window was 11am-7pm. Being a night owl, I figured that cutting off the window by 7pm would target an evening-heavy eating pattern. This just made me focus on food all the time and subtly over eat at dinner to compensate. Same thing happened when I narrowed the eating window to a shorter duration. No go. It also made me hungrier for breakfast the next day.
Let’s be honest, if I know that the “store is closing” I will hurry and make sure to eat up before it closes. This led to making the all-in dive to a schedule of doing the alternate day fasting.
Alternate day fasting
The alternate day fasting schedule looks like this for us: we eat up to 500 calories on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The other days are normal eating which should involve plenty of fruits, veggies, and fiber. That’s it. Cheap and simple. Some people prefer to be sure to alternate every other day no matter what day it falls on. For us, that is confusing to plan ahead for because that would change what days each week that we were fasting. Having a family with certain activities scheduled on certain days, we needed a more predictable schedule.
And, to be honest– it’s beyond lousy to fast on a Saturday at the lake surrounded by BBQ’s. Just sayin’. Hubby found that he doesn’t do well fasting on days off of work since his job keeps him distracted from fasting. So Sundays, are out also.
500 Calories Alternate Day Fasting Schedule
There are a number of ways we experimented with spreading 500 calories over a day. My husband is a morning person while I am a night person. These 500 calories were spread differently for the two of us. Obviously, hubby had a level of self control that is a tad more then me (ha-ha) but it still worked for each of us in the way that it fits what our day looks like. Below is a comparison of a simple example of what that looked like as we started:
My Day
- My day starts much later then my hubbies and the day is more loaded towards the end.
- Breakfast: none, just coffee or tea without sugar or milk while we do breakfast homeschool read aloud history with kiddos.
- Mid-morning: a cup of broth with a pinch of sea salt and Tajin seasoning. After the initial 2 weeks, I didn’t need this anymore.
- Lunch: A pea protein smoothie with 1 cup of almond milk and a varying selection of extract flavorings to change up the flavor. A tray of ice cubes added to the blender with extra water as needed. I found that making it a cold thick smoothie that needed a spoon helped with the “chew” factor. If I am not using broth, making the smoothie at 11 before lunch and sipping on it all the way through lunch helps me not to fail and chuck the rest of the day of fasting.
- Mid-afternoon: a cheese stick, broth, or cucumber slices.
- Dinner: A simple side salad with 1 hard boiled egg, 2 slices of avocado, celery, green lettuce, and 1 serving of Zesty Italian Lite salad dressing. This allowed me to eat something during dinner with the family and not go over the 500 calories.
Hubby’s Day
- His day starts on “baker’s hours” and he has a physically demanding job. The day needs to start with a breakfast.
- Breakfast: a pea protein smoothie with extract and water just mixed in a cup with a spoon.
- No snacks, just a LaCroix in his lunch box. The carbonation helps fill his stomach. If it’s really hot outside, I will put electrolyte powder in his lunch box for him to put in his water bottle.
- Dinner: he will have another smoothie that is iced from the blender or eat a regular dinner.
- When we first started, he also used broth as needed during his day to get used to fasting. In the beginning, he had a cheese stick or a Kirkland Signature Protein bar before bed so he could sleep. Now, he finds that he can eat a regular dinner, sleep better, and stay on track.
The Downside
The first two weeks of fasting were not easy or fun, I will be honest. During those two weeks, there was an amazingly strong habit of eating at certain times and needing something to chew. We don’t like having hunger, but that’s part of the problem. Food is so lovely and tasty, and man I sure love it, that we never let our system get hungry between meals. Not letting the body fully finish with the last big snack or meal before we rush on to the next big snack or meal doesn’t allow the body to reset the system between all this yummy eating.
After the first 2 weeks, we found that we didn’t need the broth or as much of the little helps during the day. Now, if I get back on the wagon and fast, it’s not hard and mentally it’s not a big deal anymore. For me, the biggest hurdle is keeping my willpower to stick to the schedule that works for me when no one else is fasting in the family on the same day with me. I end up chucking it and having a “vacation” day on the same days my hubby has off of work.
The Upside
So, what is the trick to making this work for us? Just doing it. I was able to fit into my jeans that I had stashed as my more “skinny” type jeans and not the “fat” jeans in my drawer. I was on my way to real significant body changes. Then summer hit and we had three day weekends and holidays and bbq’s and summer gatherings and…. I stopped. I ate like a typical American. Fell back into feeling as crappy as before I started. Weight came back.
The benefit of fasting is I can get back on the wagon any time I fall off the wagon without having to go out and buy all sorts of specialty items. When I do fasting, I consistently lose 1 pound a week. I also don’t have to go through the same feelings of adjustment that I had to initially when fasting was a new concept and my body was thinking it was going to die-haha.
An interesting note: after fasting for the day, I always think that I’m am going to want a huge breakfast. Something happens though while I sleep. Even if I was hungry the day before, I wake up not ragingly hungry and eat a normal breakfast and carry on as usual. For some reason, this is surprising to me.
The lovely part of doing this fasting is how much better we felt when we did it. It was cheap, easy (packing lunches during the week went down to just 2 days versus 5), and flexible. If a holiday came up or we had guests, we ate. We just resumed the schedule on the next fasting day. If we got a cold or are sick, we didn’t fast.
All in all, this is my go-to for getting serious about losing weight. Summer survival now includes a simple coping mechanism- fasting. We are very pleased with our experience of intermittent fasting and have been utilizing this concept now for over a year albeit sporadically or I would have hit my goal weight along time ago- haha! A side note: We find the alternate day fasting to be very hard. If there is an alternative that gives the same results we would choose it over this.
Resources
Again, this is an article about our experience giving fasting a try. If you are considering fasting, please research for your own circumstances and definitely check with your doctor that it is actually ok for you to do. Here are some great resources to get your research started:
Dr. Jason Fung’s website
Rachel Sharp has a very inspiring channel on how she traversed this journey.
TedX Talk by Cynthia Thurlow as well as many others.
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Very Informative and useful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for dropping in!;)