Intermittent fasting is the term for a specific way of timing your meals. In general, it means that you do not eat for a few hours. This is very healthy for our bodies, especially the liver. What exactly intermittent fasting looks like, depends on who is teaching it.
In general, giving our bodies a break from having to process food is healthy, as long as you do it right. If you are a woman, please read to the end of the short post, because we have to fast differently.
Benefits
Digesting food is work for our bodies. They have to take the food apart, move it along from the mouth to the stomach and into the intestines. Our bodies have to extract nutrients, distribute them to the cells and filter out any waste products.
It’s a lot of work. If you eat more carbohydrates than your body needs, the excess goes to your liver, which is already busy with digestion and then has to process these excess carbohydrates on top of that. That’s stressful. Intermittent fasting gives your liver a break.
Types of fasting
Fasting means not eating for a while. There are different types of fasting, like for religious reasons when people do not eat during the day or leave out certain foods.
Some people exchange their normal diet with a different kind of food. A juice fast is an example. Intermittent fasting means that you do not eat for a few hours every day, or if you are a woman, most days of the month (see more below).
Fasting, including intermittent fasting, is often celebrated as a way to lose weight. I do not recommend ever changing your diet in order to lose weight because when you do that, you just practise being controlling and dissociate yourself from your body. What I want to help you with is to work with your body because that is the key to a happier life. So how do you use intermittent fasting to help yourself?
Keep it simple and make it easy
Integrate intermittent fasting into your day. Make it a routine. All your liver needs is some time off to take a break. Ideally, you want to not eat for 14 hours straight.
What you do during this time is irrelevant so make it easy for yourself and your body. That means have an early dinner and a late breakfast so that you spend most of your 14-hour break asleep.
Give your body some time to get used to the rhythm and if you feel like you are starving, eat! Always listen to your body first. When you eat, have food you enjoy! And plenty of it. Fasting is not about self-torture. It’s about nurturing your body.
Never fast in the week before your period!
This is extremely important. If you want to make intermittent fasting a part of your daily routine, make sure that you do not practise it in the week before your period. During this week, our bodies have to produce a specific hormone. This hormone production is switched off if we go for more than 12 hours without food.
Not getting enough of this hormone has horrific consequences, like hairloss but also extreme exhaustion. I learned about intermittent fasting from a man so I had no idea that my routine was making me sick. Then a friend shared an episode on the Mel Robbins Podcast with me. Please watch it.
During the week before your period, you also experience a strong urge to eat carbohydrates and sweet food. I go through kilos of fruit before my period. If you are in tune with your body, just listen to it and carb up during that week. Look for the recipes tagged as “carb up” here on the page if you want suggestions.
If you are not certain that you will notice or listen to your cravings for carbs, mark the week before your next period in your calendar. Make sure that you eat regularly and never go more than 12 hours without food, even if you need to snack. Fasting during this time is extremely unhealthy for women.
Fast safely
If you have friends who like intermittent fasting or are thinking about any kind of fasting, please share this article or the podcast episode 6 Intermittent Fasting Protocols for Fat Loss, Mood, Energy, and Improving Your Overall Health with them. Let’s make sure we all fast safely.
Intermittent fasting is very healthy, energizing and just an easy way to help out our bodies. I have been intermittent fasting since 2022 and can highly recommend it. I also never fast during the week before my period.
Instead, I carb up. That’s why I learned more about healthy carbs and am regularly adding high-carb recipes to this page. Eating should never be about restriction or self-punishment. Food is nourishing the body and soul. Intermittent fasting done right is one way of taking care of yourself. And that is what really matters.
The Dodo Munches cannot and does not contain medical/health advice. The information is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Please read the full disclaimer here.