Intermittent fasting, Feast and Fast

The one thing I am loving these days is Intermittent fasting as I have shed those extra pounds, feel lighter for most of the day and many more.  But before I have started it, I had lot of doubts like whether it is safe? will it cause health issues? will it aggravate my gastritis? will I be malnourished ? etc etc. Now, it's been 80 days and I am very happy. So felt like sharing and spreading this joy.

Intermittent fasting is nothing but incorporating fasting in our everyday life. If I start talking about fasting, the list of benefits keeps on going . Here , I will confine only to intermittent fasting, addressing the doubts I had and the schedule I followed.

So ,

What is intermittent fasting ? 

This is not something new . We do some amount of fasting everyday that is when we sleep, we don't eat anything, means we are fasting all the night and when we wake up, we break our fast with break-fast.  

Most of us will be already doing 12 hours of fasting this way. Now our goal is to increase the duration of that fasting period. 

We are grown up listening to eat well to stay healthy , do not skip meals etc etc but in fact you need both feeding and fasting cycles to properly nourish our body. Life lies in the balance of the two.

So, the day is divided into fasting window and eating window. Usually followed pattern is 16:8 

means 16hrs fasting , 8 hours eating.  People also do 18:6 , 20:4 or 22: 2 . It is said that more the fasting window the more beneficial it is. 

How to start Intermittent fasting ?   

Bring the change gradually , changing it suddenly might be difficult to adapt for our body is tuned to eat at particular times. In my case I was already doing 12:12 .  I started with 13:11 for three days , then 14: 10 for 3-4 days. After that I have made it 16:8 . Now I am very comfortable with that pattern and sometimes I even do 18:6 with no problems.

Where should I place the fasting window (morning or evening) ? 

You can do it as per convinience. Any 8hrs in the day can be put as eating window. 8am-4pm , 9am to 5pm , 10am-6pm , 11 am - 7pm , 12pm- 8pm.

But the best is to finish your last meal before or around sunset . 

And the minimum gap between sleep and last meal should be mandatorily 2 hours.  This point can not be ignored. So it's better to keep your last meal lighter , that is easily digestible .

Can I have something during the fasting period ?

Yes. You can have water, Ash gourd juice , Coconut water , any fresh vegetable juice. This is the order is preferance. 

If u are having ash gourd or any vegetable juice ,it has to be strained and fibre free. Fibre is good . But during the fasting window the idea is to give rest to digestive system. So when u take the fibre the purpose won't be solved. So during the fasting window consume vegetable juices without fibre. 

And a strict no to coffee ,tea , milk and buttermilk during the fasting window. 

I do not recommend taking green tea too during fasting window because personally it causes gastric irritation to me when I have it in empty stomach. 

How to break the fast ?  

How you are breaking the fast everyday is more important. You are Fasting for 16hrs or 18hrs , means your stomach is empty for all that time. Show some love and care on it . Do not just dump all the dense food into it , it will suffer if u do it. 

My personal choice is fruit bowl . Fruits are soothing to stomach and easily digestible . Always include seasonal fruits. Occasionally you can make smoothies with fruits. Fruits are nutrient rich and are best absorbed when u have them on empty stomach. And give atleast half an hour after consuming fruits and before having anything else. Having fruits after a meal is not recommended.

Another option is you can have salads ,soups or some Kanji. For those who do not like the raw taste of vegetables or  experience bloating issues can steam the vegetables for the salad.

Important note is not to have anything too spicy to break the fast, it will irritate your stomach.
 

What to eat during eating window ? :

Actually there's no restriction in that . But it is always good to eat healthy wholesome foods . Better to avoid the processed and refined products completely.  Indulge more on whole some and water rich foods.
Because the wholesome foods keeps you fuller for a longer time, and water rich foods keeps you hydrated naturally.
Refined and processed foods lacks nutrients and stimulates hunger more.

Dn't we feel hungry during the fasting window ? and what do I do ?

Yes , we do, but only during the initial days, could be a day or two or a week depending on the individual and type of food you eat during your eating window.

Firstly, Our bodies are tuned to get food at particular times and Ghrelin is a hormone that plays a role for mealtime hunger pangs . 

We tend to feel the more we eat the more it will supress the hunger but thats not true.

Also we might think this ghrelin induced hunger pangs are indicators that our body is in need of food , if this is true our ghrelin levels should be highest in the morning when we wake up from sleep, that is when we went on longer durations without eating but to contrary studies suggest that ghrelin levels are lowest in the morning. 

And as you start fasting, you will become less hungry. Also, according to yoga & ayurveda the minimum gap between two meals should be 8 hours. Its a myth that you should not sleep with empty stomach. Body gets time to heal only when the stomach is empty.

But how to manage the hunger, during those initial days, remember this ‘hunger comes in waves’. If you simply ignore it, it will disappear. Try to deviate your mind from hunger, do something you like where you can put you can concentrate your mind on. I used to do drawing to deviate from those hunger pangs.

Secondly, there is something called as emotional hunger. It means you you get the desire to eat at the sight or smell or thought of your favorite food. For example , I wont be hungry until my mom starts making dinner . That aroma gives me desire to eat which is not an actual hunger. You need to work on this by being mindful and being aware that you are not a slave to your taste buds rather you love your wellbeing.

Thirdly, as I said before, what you eat during the eating window contributes to your hunger during the fasting window. When your food is rich in nutrition, water rich(fruits and vegetables) wholesome (not processed for example brown rice instead of white rice, whole wheat instead of maida , jaggery instead of sugar ) you can go longer without food. 

Can we do exercise during intermittent fasting ? 

Yes , absolutely you can .

You can happily do Low intensity aerobic exercises which are performed at 60-80 % of your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is calculated by subtracting your age from the number 220. For example, the maximum heart rate for a 35 year old is 220 – 35 or 185. The target heart rate would be 60 to 80% of 185 , that is 111 to 148. 

Also these low intensity exercises burn body fat effectively when done for longer durations. 

But when u are doing high intensity exercise (HIIT )or your goal is to build muscle, better not to plan your workout after a prolonged fasting period. Better is to do the HIIT after two- three hours of your major meal and make sure to have good calorie rich meal with in half an hour after workout . 

Can we have cheat days ?

It is really difficult to change our pattern, so dnt be very strict on yourself and its better to keep cheat days initially so that we do not get tempted to go back often. I used to keep once in a week cheat day I personally feel even during cheat days finish your dinner early . For me cheat days were only to have idlis , dosas  for breakfast , vadas or bajjis for snacks or white rice pulav but mostly I will finish dinner soon. But after consistently doing it , I felt no need to have cheat days often. And the surprising fact is I started loving my regular days than the cheat days. I enjoyed what I was doing with no regrets. There should be a considerable self control initially later you will love doing it.

Intermittent fasting and gastritis /acid reflux?

I used to suffer from gastritis and acid reflux before I started to fast. And I was worried about whether it would worsen. I have done a little research and found mixed opinions. Few of my friends had bad experiences too. With that hesitation I have started doing fasting and to my wonder, I no more suffer from acid reflux or gastritis.

One of the reasons for uncontrolled acid secretion is bad eating habits like over eating ,frequent eating and irregular eating When you do intermittent fasting this habit will come under control. May be that is the reason my problem got cured.

Also I have taken few precautions like decreased oil consumption (fried foods), chillis and other hot spices. And avoid taking any gastric irritants like tea, coffee, green tea etc during fasting or empty stomach . Till now my gut is super happy and so do I 😁

Did I face any Bad experience ?

Yes I did. Once I had food late in the night around 8-9PM, Also that day at 5PM I had some heavy food. So I felt bloated and got abdominal pain .That was the day I understood why there should be a sufficient gap between two meals. Also as my body was used to finish last meal very early, this could have happened. Always observe and listen to your stomach and act accordingly than mindlessly becoming slave to your tastebuds.

How does Intermittent Fasting promotes fat loss ?

Insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar level, also determines how the body stores glucose and fat. Unhealthy eating habits are major reason for dysregulation of this hormone leading to obesity, insulin resistance and ultimately diabetes. Intermittent fasting , when combined with eating wholesome foods can reverse the insulin resistance and helps in fat loss. There is lot of research work available on this. I am not going into all those details. 

Schedule & Diet I followed 

First two days :

I did not change the breakfast time, lunch as usual but

Had a early light dinner around 7.30- 8PM.

Next two days :

Regular Break fast at 10 AM, lunch as usual, soup for dinner at 7PM

Next two days :

Regular Break fast at 11AM, lunch as usual,  soup for dinner at 7PM

Second week :

Breakfast : Fruits : 10- 11AM

Lunch : Brown rice , a cup :1-2 PM

              Cooked vegetables two cups 

Dinner : Vegetable soup : 7-8 PM

Third week :

My dinner time was clashing with my workout time, so I have decided to finish my last meal very early and started having soup around 5PM. I have continued this for 4-5 days, but as it is summer it was not soothing to cook and have a soup during that time . also I was not actually hungry by then.

So after trying few changes, I have almost fixed to the following plan

6.30 AM : Yoga 

8 AM : Ash gourd juice/ coconut water

10.30 AM : Fruits 

11.30  AM : Vegetable Salad

1.00 PM : Lunch , a cup brown rice or 2 rotis with double the amount of cooked vegetables.

4-5.00 PM : coconut water or mosambi or lemon juice or some fruit.
7.00 PM : low intensity exercise 

You might be wondering that I am not eating at all, but truly I have not felt that way.  Only for the first few days it will be difficult to adjust if you are a person like me who is not used to go without eating for longer periods. But later on I felt satisfied and was not starving. Only after doing this I have realised how much I was overeating all these days.

Last but not the least , The food you eat should be both healthy and delicious. Do not be monotonous , add variety and enjoy your meal 😊

Follow my Instagram page @veganlove_sindhumalar for healthy cooking ideas.
https://instagram.com/veganlove_sindhumalar?igshid=1xkkac2ae7xud

Feel free to share your experiences in the comments section. also if have any other doubts or thoughts on this or any additions do let me know .