Does Intermittent Fasting Work?
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between eating and fasting. Maybe you haven’t intentionally tried intermittent fasting before, but have you skipped meals in the past? For many of our clients, it’s either breakfast or lunch. Think about how you felt. Did you notice how hard it was to pay attention during a work meeting? Were you distracted by thoughts of donuts in the breakroom? Did you snap at your spouse or kids when you got home? Later that night did you wake up at 2:00 a.m. and raid the refrigerator so you would be able to fall back asleep? These are signals from your brain and body that you need to eat.
At Nutritional Weight & Wellness we know that everyone's biochemistry is different. There are many people who do just fine, feel great, and improve their health through fasting. However, after working with people for more than 30 years, we believe that for our client population it frequently is not the right choice.
For those clients who have tried it with less than favorable results, that's most often due to hormones. Our hormones are fragile, especially women’s, and even more so women of childbearing age. Any huge disruption in our daily diet threatens to throw our hormones completely out of whack. When people undertake the 12 or even 18 hours of intermittent fasting their bodies get a huge stress signal message that screams “Starvation!”
Effects of Intermittent Fasting
As a result, everything slows down, which is the opposite of what we want when weight loss is the goal. Metabolism slows down, thyroid hormone production slows down, the immune system slows down, and estrogen and progesterone levels slow down. All of this leads to weight gain or the inability to lose weight. Those who have tried intermittent fasting often notice that their brain function slows down. They feel cloudy or easily distracted. That slow brain function could be because you can only think about food … “When can I eat? Where’s the next meal? Is it time to eat?” … and that cycle continues until you finally eat. Likewise, brain function can slow down as a result of the insomnia often associated with intermittent fasting. No doubt we have all experienced a night of poor sleep and the foggy thinking that comes the next day. Insomnia is another stress response, and happens when the body wakes you up in the middle of the night or prevents you from falling asleep in the first place. This is your body’s way of trying to tell you, “Go eat!”
Tired of Starving? Try Eating Real Foods in Balance
Enough doom and gloom! While there is no quick fix when it comes to health and weight loss, there is real food – and it’s much more satisfying than any starvation diet. At Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we full heartedly believe in the power of real food, as do the thousands of clients we’ve served. Every day our nutritionists and nutrition educators teach clients how to eat real food in balance. What we mean by that is eating a healthy fat with animal protein and a quality carb at every meal and snack. Doing this will keep blood sugars level, which then keeps insulin levels balanced, and your metabolism running.
To learn more about how real food is the key to weight loss, listen in to a popular Dishing Up Nutrition podcast detailing Nell’s 90-Pound Weight Loss Journey or read about the five weight loss tips participants learn in our Nutrition 4 Weight Loss program.
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