Just another buzz word or something legit?

Intermittent Fasting is of course what I am referring to and I am sure that quite a few of you are doing a serious eye roll - believe me I did too.

We have been conditioned to eat from the moment we wake up and snack all day long. Eat frequently. Eat smaller portions. Never skip breakfast .... and we will lose the weight we want and feel great - right?

WRONG!

For as long as the human race has been around, we have had periods of fasting. In fact many religions have fasting as part of their yearly traditions & customs. Yes we like to feast - but in order to feast we MUST fast and the way we have currently been conditioned to eat doesn't have us fasting at all.

This constant feasting is fucking with us in so many ways (#notsorry for the f bomb) - I like the occasional effective swear word. Two examples of this are the hormones leptin and insulin. And for those of you confused by this, when I used to hear "hormone", I only thought of estrogen & testosterone - wasn't on my radar at all that insulin is a hormone.

When we are in constant states of feasting, our "satiated hormone" leptin pretty much goes wonky. It doesn't know that we are full or hungry anymore and so it just stops telling our brain that it's full (this is of course written in layman's terms and is much more complicated than what I have written here).

The other component here is our release of insulin. When we are constantly eating, we are constantly releasing insulin. This leads to insulin resistance which then leads to weight gain which then leads to Type 2 diabetes. SAY WHAT? This was another "are you kidding me" moment for myself. Why on earth if someone HAS INSULIN are they taking insulin which then causes them to gain more weight and thus worsens their diabetes??? This fact completely boggles my mind but is often the case when metformin stops working in Type 2 diabetics.

The solution - FASTING = longer periods WITHOUT FOOD. And just to be clear, this is NOT starvation. This is a choice and we can choose to eat at anytime or not eat at anytime. That is very very different than starvation.

I follow a 16/8 method similar to the picture above and I feel amazing. I have tons of energy and never feel super hungry. I enjoy my food and try to choose the healthiest options because I always feel better when I do and I finally feel like my own insulin resistance / slow weight gain has been reversed.

There are many other methods of fasting some mentioned in this article. I also highly recommend:

• Intermittent Fasting on Healthline

• The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung

• The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung

At times I have become angry with the misinformation we have been provided, but for the most part, I am happy to finally feel like nutrition makes sense. I am no medical expert so if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, etc please discuss these with your doctor as close monitoring will be important along your journey. And friends, remember, this is ALL about what works for each one of us. Clarissa counts macros .... I fast. What works for one may not work for another but being educated on our choices and our bodies is incredibly important to find the one that works!