First intermittent fasting experience

That’s really a bit of a stretch and a click bait because this isn’t really my first intermittent fasting (IF) experience. This is however…

That’s really a bit of a stretch and a click bait because this isn’t really my first intermittent fasting (IF) experience. This is however, a description of my first 24 hour IF experience. And it was quite glorious I must admit.

For those that don’t know, IF is pretty simple. You just don’t eat. You do this on purpose and you do it for a short period of time. Pretty much what it sounds like. IF’s can last from 12 hours to a week. There’s no official time limits really. Also, they obviously include things like water.

There’s plenty of evidence that IF is exceptionally healthy for you. For example, it seems to promote autophagy (which in itself sounds like a great thing). It also helps you lose weight. It can help you reverse type II diabetes. Finally, it can reduce inflammation in the body which is responsible for many chronic diseases such are heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

I’ve read a lot of opinions about IF and many people recommend it as a regular practice. One such notable case is my internet hero, Dr. Jason Fung. However, I’ve never done a longer fast then 16 hours. The way I would usually do it is have my dinner by 8 pm and then skip breakfast and have lunch the next day at around 12 pm. That makes it exactly 16 hours.That was pretty much my daily routine for the last year or so.

On Monday, I’ve decided to step it up a notch and see how I would feel if I went a full 24 hours. To do that, I had to skip one additional meal. Dinner had to go. I must admit that I was a little nervous at first. What if I get hungry? My brain would scream at me. I might even pass out from starvation (unlikely).

What really helped was that my wife was on board with this idea. In fact, like many of my great ideas, it was really her idea. And I wasn’t going to let her down. So like the good partner that I am, I had a huge lunch that day and went cold turkey. So far nothing special. There are a few more hours to dinner time.

Unfortunately, my wife changed her mind and decided that IF on that day was just not for her. So she decided to cook dinner. The sunken cost fallacy really kicked into high gear here and I just couldn’t give up. I went too far and wanted to try this so bad I figured I can manage without dinner. As a side note, I wasn’t even hungry come dinner time. But you know how it is when you see other people eat.

This was pretty much the hardest part of my experience. I’ve managed skip dinner while watching others eat. The rest was a total breeze. In the morning I had a black coffee and by lunch time I still wasn’t hungry. In fact it was amazing. I haven’t had a drop of food for 24 hours but my body wasn’t falling apart. It was a wonderful experience actually.

Now, an entire week has almost passed and I’m thinking back to Monday, I realize that this could definitely become a new habit of mine. And why not? It seems to be good for you. It makes perfect sense from an evolutionary points of view. My internet heroes are claiming it’s amazing. And it’s damn easy.