‘Intermittent Fasting’ is NOT FASTING

The 16:8 “not eating to eating windows” technique, where you don’t eat for 16 hours and then eat during the next 8-hour window, is NOT FASTING.

Having said that, it is however a great “Meal Timing” technique to help you build up to fasting and it has shown that it does have very positive benefits.

The main reason for this is because most Americans like to graze all day long and that is a problem. NOT snacking all day will result in improvements almost immediately. Even if people don’t use the 16:8 window technique, and simply STOP SNACKING, they usually see benefits quickly, and may even start losing weight.

WHY? Because they stopped GRAZING!

Just like the first step to sobriety is to stop drinking/using, the first step to detox is to stop pumping your body full of unhealthy stuff.

We don’t announce to the world that we’ve discovered this new way of life called sobriety because to get there, we simply need to stop excessive drinking and using and start living a healthy life.

The same applies to food. We don’t need to call 3 meals per day or Intermittent Fasting (16:8 eating window) a new way of eating, because it is actually simply a return to the way we should have been eating all the time.

It’s like certain breakfast oats-based cereal claiming that has been shown that it will reduce cholesterol along with exercise: There are MANY things that can be done to reduce cholesterol in someone that has HIGH cholesterol when it is paired with exercise. It’s actually the exercise that is doing the hard word and when the cereal is used to replace a bowl of cereal with a lot of sugar, donuts, pancakes, pancakes, fancy coffee or milkshake drinks, or any other junk…..YES, you will improve! That’s no surprise, but it wasn’t due to the oats-based cereal.

I have been using and teaching fasting for helping with metabolic and weight issues for a very long time. Intermittent fasting is traditionally done by doing water fasts for 24 hours or more, multiple times over a specific period, hence the intermittent element. It is NOT simply skipping breakfast daily, which I DO NOT promote.

In our programs, we work from 3 meals per day to meal timing (Intermittent Fasting) and start fasting on a planned ROTATIONAL basis. We have built this up to 3, 5, 7, and 12 days. For some very specific cases, and definitely, NOT for all cases, we have even gone as far as 30 days.

My point is that we use rotation to fast intermittently over a period of 6 months. Everything is planned out and the exact detail depends on the individual and their situation, values, goals, and abilities.

At the end of the day, the only reason I get upset and rant like this, or even bring it up is that I believe that true fasting can be very powerful. It can actually heal many metabolic pathways that cause things like weight gain, weight loss resistance, hormonal issues, diabetes, insulin resistance, cardiac issues, and much more.

When people then simply start skipping breakfast and think they are “Intermittent Fasting,” or doing actual fasts, they just may be missing out on the profound opportunity to do life and health changing true fast or fasting rotation. When I post about fasting, people often say, “Oh, I already fast, I use the 16:8 IF model.”…….grumphhh

In my best Eeyore voice, “Thanks for listening.”

We can do better my friends!