Donna is the Intermittent Fasting guru on our team! She gives you all the basics here.

Intermittent Fasting is not so much an eating protocol as it is a way of life. It is simply eating during certain hours (much fewer hours than we traditionally do) and not eating during certain hours (much more than we traditionally do).

 We usually look at IF in terms of “fasting hours” and eating hours. When someone says they fast 16:8, this means that they fast sixteen hours and eat eight hours out of every twenty-four hours. Others might do 19:5 (fasting 19; eating 5) or even 20:4 (fasting 20; eating 4).

 Intermittent Fasting promotes weight loss or weight management. (My husband and I have lost nearly 170 pounds in the past two years on it!) But it is also incredibly healthy, even potentially warding off diseases, bringing insulin down to healthy levels, clearing up brain fog and other brain issues, and much more. We feel amazing on IF!

 There are primarily five ways that people lose weight/control cravings/reduce inches on IF:

 1) We Lose Weight When Appetite Correction Sets In

 After 3 to 4 weeks of consistent Daily Intermittent Fasting, a process

called Appetite Correction sets in. During the first few weeks, people

wonder how they will ever lose weight eating everything they want during

a three five , four, or five hour eating window. However, Appetite Correction

happens when we balance our hormones through Intermittent Fasting and we

quit wanting to eat everything in sight.

Appetite Correction is a built in monitoring system, a natural boundary

for us without us having to count anything or try to manipulate our food

too much. We crave healthier foods with Appetite Correction, and by

eating healthier foods, we are not eating as much junk. This results in

weight loss. Moreover, Appetite Correction causes us to just be “done”

eating when we would normally keep on eating more desserts and more

treats at the end of our eating window.

 2) We Lose Weight When Fat Adaption Happens

 Daily Intermittent Fasting causes us to become Fat Adapted. Fat Adapted

means that each day during our fast, we use up our circulating

glucose and/or glycogen stores and start burning body fat rather than

burning the food we just ate. That is, the food we ate yesterday gets

burned up during the fast somewhere between the 12 and 16 hour mark, and our body

goes into Fat Adaption where we burn our body fat for fuel.

This is when real weight loss occurs because this is similar to when the

body goes into ketosis during a low-carb diet (keto diet). Our body

moves seamlessly from burning circulating glucose and glycogen stores

into burning its own body fat for fuel. Usually someone has to follow a very

low-carb diet, such as 20 to 30 carbs a day, and/or much interval and

high intensity exercising in order to burn body fat. Daily Intermittent

Fasting does it for us naturally.

3) We Lose Weight When We Organically Eat Fewer Treats

 When we start to do Daily Intermittent Fasting consistently, the

combination of Fat Adaption and Appetite Correction and seeing our body

shrink through fat burning causes us to organically eat more healthily.

We stop wanting junk food as much, though we have the freedom to have

treats, and we do not overeat as much.

Treats become just as they were intended to be – treats. We do not

eat so many of them so that we have way too many calories in any given

day. We organically and naturally eat better, and we lose weight in the

process.

4) We Lose Weight When We Naturally Eat Fewer Carbs

 A smaller eating window of three, four, or five hours will naturally

yield fewer carbohydrates. It is thought that the average person eats

300 or 400 carbohydrates in any given day. A short eating window will

often find the Intermittent Faster eating between 100 and 150 carbs per day.

While 150 carb sounds like a lot of carbs compared to the keto diet of 30

carbs, the fewer carbs we eat (along with moderate protein), will

reduce the amount of circulating glucose and the amount of stored

glycogen. This means that we will go into that Fat Adaption, or body fat

burning, earlier….sometimes even at the 12 hour fasting mark for non-keto people.

5) We Lose Weight Over Time When We Create Even a Small Calorie

 Deficit and Then Have Motivation From the Weight Loss

When we have shorter eating windows of three, four, and five hours, and

we also have Appetite Correction, we will have a calorie deficit many

days of the week. So even without considering being Fat Adapted, eating

fewer carbs, consuming fewer treats, having Appetite Correction, etc.,

we are creating a calorie deficit every week.

If a person stays on Daily Intermittent Fasting consistently, overtime,

that person will naturally lose weight from a small calorie deficit in

addition to all of the other perks of weight loss that occur with Daily

Intermittent Fasting. And….weight loss breeds more weight loss. Success leads to more success.

 I love helping women lose weight and feel great! Get free videos, charts, and more when you subscribe to my website: donnareish.com

 I teach fasting, weight management, food choices, and life coaching skills at my blog AND in my private FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/318664198605086/?epa=SEARCH_BOX