There are different types of intermittent fasting to try when wanting to lose weight. You have probably heard about the famous 5:2 method, where you eat normally for five days of the week and fast for two days, where fasting means a calorie intake of 500 for women and 600 for men. I believe that the man behind the diet, or method if you prefer, is called Michael Mosley. I tried this one a couple of years ago but I found it too hard to settle with such o low intake of calories, especially if I wanted to get some exercise done during one of those fasting days. And it didn't really work for me. I think I compensated my fasting days by overeating on the other days so I didn't lose any weight. To be honest I didn't try it for that long. Anyway, there are other ways to fast. One method I have discovered and that actually works for me is intermittent fasting during certain hours each day. The idea is to only eat during one period of time, your eating window, and fast during the rest of the hours of the remaining day and night. I think that the suggested eating pattern is to fast for 16 hours and eat for 8 hours. Clearly this does not mean that you could eat constantly for 8 hours, LOL, that would be crazy. Just that your eating window lasts for eight hours, but you should still stick with the same amount of calories that you need to get by and lose weight at the same time. The eating pattern could be to eat between 12.00-20.00 and fast between 20.00-12.00. If you think that you are just eating your breakfast, or first meal, at noon instead of in the morning, it's not that hard at all. I, for example, can easily skip breakfast, even if I want to work out in the morning. If I know that I will eat at noon, there is absolutely no struggle at all. And during many of the fasting hours you are asleep anyway. I would definitely not cope without food in the afternoon and I could not live without dinner, and I can have my three meals each day, just starting to eat later. So when I'm trying to lose weight I do this intermittent fast and try to eat low carb food. This is the method I used when I had to lose all the pregnancy weight I was carrying after baby A was born. Other than that I eat a lot and work out of course! What about you? Have you tried this one and what are your thoughts on this method?
//Nicole Hellgren
