I’ve discussed my fasting schedule in the past, but I just wanted to talk about it a little more in its own post.
There are a lot of forms out there you can do when starting intermittent fasting.
Over the past 15-ish months I have tried many of them and came up with what works best for me.
There is the entry 16-8, 20-4, alternate day, 5-2 or one meal a day.
Now I’m sure in a future post, I will go over each in more detail. But for now, I’ll just be going over why I settled on what I do now, and hopefully it will make some sense and help you choose what is best for you.
So, to get it out of the way, what I do bounces between 18-6 and 20-4. Meaning I eat in a 4-6 hour window every day.
The only thing I have outside of that is water or the occasional zero calorie energy drink, which may break a fast, but I have it towards the end of those 6 hours anyway.
I personally eat breakfast at around 8 am, split between a chia seed pudding and something with eggs. Then at around 1, I will have my main meal, which is whatever I have meal prepped for that week.
And somewhere in between I might have a snack depending on how I feel that day.
That means I’m eating 2-3 times in a 4-6 hour window, then going the rest of the day with only water.
When my main focus was losing weight, I was very strict with my hours. Staying within 4 hours and doing that every day.
Now a days, after losing 75 pounds, I am much more focused on maintenance. Which means I can be a little less strict. So, on occasion I might eat or drink something out of my window, but that is rare.
Now let’s talk about why.
A mentality for many is that it’s easier to calorie restrict when you only eat within a certain window.
For others it’s about being able to eat whatever you want on the days you are not fasting, because it will be offset by the days you do fast.
Both are valid, but neither is for me. Simply, I fast because its what I’ve been doing for years without even knowing.
The first time I lost 50+ pounds was about 6 years ago. Throughout that process I tried many diets. But what I figured out was that I could pretty much eat what I wanted as long as I ate it before 2.
I could never stick to salads, or 5 boring meals a day. I was a couple years out of high school, and I liked having chicken cutlet sandwiches and buffalo chicken pizza, and burritos.
So, my days started to look like this.
5/6am – workout
7/8am – cream cheese bagel and a vanilla protein shake
8-12pm – class
1/2pm – lunch (main meal of whatever I felt like) and small dessert (brownie, cookie, candy bar etc.)
And that would be it. Now I was trying to lose weight, so I was still conscious of portion size and quality.
But it wasn’t restrictive. It was the best of both worlds, eat what I want and still lose weight.
That worked for a very long time (until I started bartending and had 2 jobs and my schedule went haywire which is in part why I gained the weight back a few years later).
To do this day, that is why I intermittent fast. Not only because I now know what it is called, but because it’s what I was already used to.
Now why I skip dinner when most people will skip breakfast
Because breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?
No.
I am someone who’s schedule tends to be skewed towards the morning. Even though I am not a morning person.
I find that its better to get the things done on your list before the world has a chance to wake up and get in the way.
So, I wake up early, workout and read early. Things that if I were to put off till later, I might not do as consistently. Especially since my work hours are never consistent.
On the other end of the spectrum, I find that if I eat too much too late, it messes with my energy levels (the itis) and eventually my sleep.
Which leads me into why I don’t eat one meal a day (OMAD)
Its just too much to have your whole days’ worth of calories in one sitting. I don’t know about you, but eating that much food can get old quick.
There are studies that suggest the joy you get from eating diminishes with every bite you take. So, by the end of that huge meal, you might be miserable.
At least I was. With my schedule at the time that meal would be around 7/8pm. I couldn’t have prepared that much food to bring to work for that one meal a day.
And to go out for lunch, that would be a lot of money every day. All in all, it just wasn’t for me.
I gave it about 2 weeks before going back to 22-2.
22-2 isn’t discussed much, but for me, it’s like having an appetizer and then your main entrée.
This was my favorite for a while. The only reason I don’t do this anymore is because I like to eat after my workouts, which are early in the morning.
So, eating my main that early as well meant that there was too much day left after that meal.
I believe that leaves alternate day fasting
Where you eat whatever like one day, then fast the next.
Depending on who you ask, that fasting day might be 500 calories or less, just water green tea or black coffee, or maybe even some bone broth.
For me it was an extension of what I was doing at the time, which was a 42 hour fast once a week.
For example, from Thursday at 2pm to Saturday at 8 am. I wouldn’t change my schedule, just take Friday out.
So, I thought I could introduce alternate day fasting.
Nope, not even a little bit at the beginning.
Sometimes I just eat to eat. And taking that away felt wrong. It kept food constantly on my mind and I was more likely to eat off of keto when coming back.
I’m sure this would have worked for me if I weren’t also keto, and if I would have allowed my self to eat whatever I wanted on those eating days.
But I was staying clean keto, so it was just too much to handle.
Which is also why I left 5-2 alone
Where you fast 2 times a week and eat what you like 5 times.
I just felt like after a few months, I had found what worked for me. Which was eating within a 6-hour window 6 days a week, and full day fasting once a week.
Again, now that my focus has shifted from weight loss to weight maintenance, I full day fast 1-2 times a month, no longer weekly.
And that’s the whole point, find what works for you, give multiple versions a try for more than just a day or two.
This reminds me of a story about one of the first times I tried full day fasting, but got a blinding migraine, and a KFC chicken tender helped me get home that day. But that’s a story for another day.
