Why I intermittently fast

Intermittent fasting.

I have gotten a lot of questions about why I intermittent fast. There are numerous reasons. But here is a list of some of the best ones.

How I fast.

There are many different ways to do intermittent fasting. 5-2, 16-8, OMAD, alternate day. My preferred way is a very flexible 16-8/OMAD. The thing is that I usually skip my fasting routine once a week or more. Lunch meetings, parties, weekend brunch and other such things usually take priority.

I try to eat only directly after lunch until I go to bed. Sometimes this is once a day around 8 p.m. or directly when I get home from work, with something small before going to sleep.

This is the key to be able to keep any to diet in my opinion. Being flexible and “getting back on the horse” when you fall down. If I were more strict with my timing windows I probably would not still be doing it.

Pros.

No more lunch box.

I always thought that preparing food for the day, remembering your lunch box, and to bring it home was a nuisance. It seems small. But I really hated spending Sunday evening “meal prepping” instead of relaxing.

No more lunch restaurants.

This is a more obvious one. I save a lot of money on not going out for lunch every weekday. I also get some extra time during lunch to go to the gym during the lunch break.

Serious meals.

I actually really like cooking food. But so much of the food we eat is just to get though the day, and if you are going to cook really ambitious food three times a day you are probably not going to do much else that day. So a lot of times when I get home I like to get really serious with what I cook. Since this is going to be the only meal for today, and probably for tomorrow also.

Health.

While I can’t really say that fasting is better than any other calorie restrictive diet. The health implications of eating less is well studied.

Cons.

Hunger.

This is a very difficult issue. You kind of get used to the hunger after a while. I would not say that you get less hungry though. It just feels less urgent.

The feeling of being faint totally disappears after a while. In the first couple of months I was be pretty close to fainting a couple of times when going especially hard in the gym. But your body adapts to it.

Intermittent fasting won’t give you superpowers. It won’t give you “more energy” or make you any smarter. But I feel like it’s the easiest diet to follow given my life situation.