5 Lessons I Learned During Intermittent Fasting
By: Elisabeth Kuhn
Tags: Life, Intermittent Fasting, Health, Weight Loss, Fasting

Have you tried intermittent fasting? Or does the mere idea of fasting turn you off? It seems, that lately, a lot of people talk about intermittent fasting, and some of them promise incredible results. Well… Those might be an exaggeration.

Here’s how I got involved, and some of my key learning lessons.

I have diabetes. And one of the most powerful diabetes eating plans (or should I say not-eating plans) is fasting. Not that everyone agrees.

But when I came across it in Dr. Fung’s Diabetes Code, I paid close attention.

Of course, there was another reason I was attracted to intermittent fasting: I wanted to lose weight. Once I realized that fasting didn’t necessarily mean that I would have to fast for days at a time, I decided to give it a try.

Basically, the easiest and most popular version of intermittent fasting means scheduling an eating window and a fasting window every day. So how long would these windows have to be? The most popular plan suggests 8 hours of eating and 16 hours of fasting, but some people start with a shorter fasting window. So I decided to experiment.

For me, the easiest way to get started was skipping breakfast. I’m not much of a breakfast eater to begin with. Unfortunately, the reason for that was that I had a habit to eat late at night, and even in the middle of the night. No wonder I wasn’t hungry first thing in the morning.

To make fasting work, though, those nightly munch fests had to go. So I worked on it, and gradually got used to not eating late at night.

And at first, my weight did go down, for a while. But then, I discovered Crystal Light, along with Diet Snapple, especially the singles-to-go version. They were mighty tasty and had zero calories. After a while, I could go through a pack of them in a day. In fact, I was guzzling those drinks all day and all night long, especially during my fasting window.

And one day I noticed that my weight was creeping up again. That wasn’t good. I was eating less than ever, and yet…

Enter the Fasting Challenge

One day, I came across a message on Facebook about a two-week Fasting Challenge. I knew the organizers from my past involvement in internet marketing, so I sent an email asking about which version of intermittent fasting they were doing. Ellen, one of the organizers, replied that they were doing the 16–8 plan, which means eating for 8 hours a day, and fasting for 16. That’s what I wanted to do, so I signed up.

The Clean Fast

I was immediately in for a shock. They practiced something called a clean fast. This meant that during the fasting window, only water, unflavored green tea, and black coffee were allowed. No coffee with cream. No Crystal Light. Oh no!

But I decided to go with it. My Crystal Light habit had gotten really out of hand, and it was time to break it. In the meantime, I had also learned that all that aspartame really hurts the gut flora.

As for coffee, I only like it with cream. Ellen said I’d learn to love black coffee, but so far I haven’t. No problem. I just skip it during the fasting window. After all, green tea was allowed, and so I have that, along with the water.

The Eating Window

While the rules about fasting were strict, there were few rules about eating. I had been on a low-carb and/or keto diet for years, and planned to maintain it. It has helped me to keep diabetes somewhat in check, along with the medications I was taking. So I was glad there was no pressure to do anything else.

However, the organizers were big into vegan eating, and that caused a few problems. Their recipes were totally unsuitable for my own eating plan. They included cake recipes with lots of sugar and flour, along with luscious photographs. Then there were fruity drinks with lots of fruit and/or sugar, plus pasta, pizza, and other dishes high in starches. I skipped them all.

The actual rules were to eat until I’m satisfied but not stuffed. That was it. There were no rules about what exactly to eat, other than that it should be natural and relatively unprocessed. But what exactly is “satisfied”?

And there was a question I didn’t think of asking: “How often should I eat during my eating window?” Some of the members were experimenting with the OMAD version, which means having one meal a day, but that wasn’t something I wanted to do.

What about weight loss?

The main reason why I was fasting was to lose weight. But nothing happened. I did fit into a slightly smaller pair of pants after a while, but still… The weight stayed steady and then, it even went up a few pounds. From fasting! That wasn’t what I had planned.

And I wasn’t the only one who had that problem. The organizers focused on “non-scale” victories. And yes, there were some of those. I slept better, and felt better during the day. But still…

What was stopping my weight loss? Curiously, suggested problems included eating too many calories OR eating too few. But no specifics were forthcoming.

Learning from Apps

I had started tracking my fasting with the Zero app. That was actually helping quite a lot with keeping track of my eating and fasting windows, and it kept me motivated. It also offered a few interesting articles.

And when the calorie issue came up, I added the Lose It app, where I listed all my food.

I was definitely not eating too little. But I also stayed within the range that should have allowed me to lose at least a little weight. But then I noticed a potential issue…

My Big Mistake

I was taking the phrase “eating window” entirely too literally. I was eating (and adding items to my list) throughout the window: three meals, a snack or three here and there, all within 8 hours. Hmmm.

Doing some research on YouTube, I came across Dr. Ekberg’s videos and discovered that I needed to cut down on the number of times I ate. Sure, I could eat a meal towards the beginning of the 8-hour window, and one at the end. Maybe even a snack.

But I had to remember the effect that eating had on insulin. Every time I caused my insulin to spike, the additional insulin laid down more fat. What’s worse, that fat would go right to my stomach.

And yes, even aspartame and Splenda caused insulin spikes, along with some gut flora damage. Even though I hardly use any artificial sweeteners anymore, even during my eating window, it will take some time for the damage it has already done to reverse.

One good thing about my diet… keto or low-carb meals cause a much lower insulin spike than carb-rich meals, so I know that I have at least one advantage here.

What I’ve learned so far.

Here’s what I’ve learned about fasting so far that might help my weight move in the right direction:

Meal frequency: One meal at the beginning and one meal at the end of my eating window. Maybe a snack. And no drinks that wouldn’t fit in my fasting window in between. The good news is that fasting makes this fairly easy because I’m hardly ever hungry during my fasting window. The main danger is mindless eating or social eating. No more artificial sweeteners: I still have a lot of protein bars that have been sweetened with Splenda. There’s even some stuff with aspartame. But I mostly stopped eating them, and I stopped replenishing that supply altogether. Now, I’m super careful about buying only things that contain no artificial sweeteners at all. Stick with keto: In order to keep my insulin as low as possible, I’ll also stick with keto or at least a low-carb plan. It has definitely helped so far, and my blood sugar is doing well. It even keeps hunger under control. That’s what I’ve been doing so far, and will continue to do. I’m glad that my favorite experts, Dr. Fung and Dr. Ekberg agree. That helps my motivation when I’m tempted to slack off. Add exercise: I haven’t been moving enough, so I’ll add some walking and weights. I just got myself a step counter and will start using it. Decrease stress: Stress also causes insulin spikes, according to numerous experts, including, yes, Dr. Ekberg. So I’m going to try to keep it as low as possible. Among the things I do to lower my stress levels are meditation, breathing exercises, and reading for pleasure. I’m sure the walks will help as well.

As of today, I have reached 50 days on my Zero fasting app. And as of today, I’ll diligently follow the five learning lessons above. I’ll limit my eating to 2 meals a day with the occasional snack, but never more than one. All my meals will be low in carbs as well.

I’ll also avoid artificial sweeteners, and add a walk and some weight or strengthening exercises several times a week. And finally, I’ll do at least two of the three things that I’ve found effective for lowering my stress.

I can hardly wait what the results will be when I hit day 100 in the zero app! I know I’ll feel better and healthier, but I’m pretty sure that my weight will finally start moving in the right direction as well.