What's Intermittent Fasting and Why do it?

So what is IF? It’s not a diet but an eating schedule. Many people how follow an IF schedule use a 12/12, 14/10, 16/8 approach. All that means is that you have two windows, one where you eat, and one where you fast. I personally follow a feeding window of 11am - 7pm and a fasting window of 7pm- 11am (most of which I am asleep).

Why?? When we eat, the food is broken down by our digestive systems for use in our bodies. Carbs and sugars are burned right away for energy, and any of it we don’t use gets stored as fat. Insulin is what puts sugar into fat cells. When we don’t eat for a period of time, our insulin levels go down and the excess sugar is released and burned off, so we lose weight.

Fasting also improves the immune system because it’s not busy scanning all the food we put into our gut, so it can spend more time attacking threats and repairing.

It does more for your body than just burning fat. Science-backed research also shows IF improves metabolism, lowers blood sugar and inflammation, repairs damaged cells, removes toxins from the body, and helps to maintain skeletal muscle mass. Some people have shown to have an improved metabolism even before they start losing weight.

Because intermittent fasting is not a diet—it’s an eating schedule—it’s less about restricting calories and more about nourishing your body, as well as giving it time to effectively heal and repair itself. This only happens during a digestive rest (fasting).

Now you can totally try intermittent fasting on your own, but you don’t want to mess around with it if you haven’t done your research and know exactly how to fuel your body the right way during your eating periods.  If you have underlying health issues including adrenal fatigue or thyroid issues, you should work with a health professional to assist you in figuring out the best protocol that will work with you and not against you.

The reason the FASTer Way to Fat Loss is so effective is that it combines intermittent fasting with carb cycling, whole foods, balanced macros, and 30-minute workouts to help you turn your body into a fat-burning machine. If you are ready to try it out, consider joining my next round of the FASTer Way so I can give you a plan to follow and make sure you are doing it correctly!