Intermittent Fasting Journal – Week 22

Donna Reish, author of Donna’s Intermittent Fasting Course, blogger, and IF teacher, teaches how to get started with Intermittent Fasting with this episode of IF Primer. She gives steps for starting, including understanding how we lose weight and inches with IF, choosing your IF protocol, deciding on speed of starting for yourself, and planning your fasting window and feasting window. Donna introduces the various protocols of IF and how they affect weight loss, food in your feasting window, and how they put you into fat burning sooner or more frequently. She encourages listeners to start at the pace that they desire–quickly with more hunger at first but white knuckling through the first two weeks until your hormones are balanced and your body is trained to burn its own fat or slower with fewer hard days at first (but taking longer to get into fat burning). Donna also emphasizes the importance of planning your time during the fast and planning your food during the eating window so that you create that calorie deficit that is needed (but not so drastic that you are not able to keep your fasting hours). She reminds listeners to get her free Intermittent Fasting Start Up Charts, to read about how to fast well at her blog, and/or to sign up for her upcoming IF Course.

A. Understand How You Lose Weight and Inches With IF

1. Body becomes a fat burner

a. Fast-induced ketosis

b. Body goes into fat burning between 12 and 16 hours of IF (sooner if you eat fewer carbs or if you eat keto in your eating window–not mandatory…fat burning just happens sooner in those cases)

c. Body uses the fat on your body after it has used the previous day’s food/glucose/glycogen YAY!
d. Only does this because we are not spiking insulin and glucose during the fast!

2. Small Calorie Deficit Created

a. Eating within boundaries (i.e. not grazing or eating from open window to close!) will help us create a calorie deficit that also results in weight loss

b. We want to create a small calorie deficit by just skimming off some of our normal caloric intake (too much of a calorie deficit will cause us to not be able to fast as long or as well)

3. Body Recompositioning

a. As body burns its own fat for fuel, it retains muscle

b. Muscle looks great; fat does not; recompositioning makes us look smaller, lose inches, and wear smaller clothes

B. Decide (or Consider) Eventual Fasting Protocol You Will Likely Choose

1. 16:8–16 hours of fasting; 8 hours of eating…usually requires counting of food, such as keto diet, low carb, WW, My Fitness Pal calorie counting, etc. since eating window is pretty long

2. 19:5/20:4/22:2;23:1–longer fasting hours and shorter eating window (often called OMAD–see below)

3. OMAD–One Meal a Day….most people eat a snack and a meal (with or without dessert)…works wonderfully with no additional counting as long as you are planning your eating and not grazing!

4. OPAD–One Plate a Day

5. Others that I do not follow—EOD (Eating every other day); 5:2 (eating only 500 calories on two days and normal on other 5); EF–Extended Fasting

C. Decide How Long You’ll Take to Get to Your Protocol

1. Slow

2. Fast

3. With a little fat or natural sf sweeteners (like stevia, etc.)

D. Plan Your Days With Fasting Window and Feasting Window

1. No grazing!

2. Stay busy during fast

E. Get Support and Knowledge

1. Join FB groups

2. Get my FREE start up charts!

3. Join my FB Group—Donna’s IF Group

4. Sign up for my IF Class Wait List

F. Healthy Supplementation

1. Visit our store
2. Vitamins With Aloe for Absorption/bioavailable nutrients
3. Plant-based omegas with no fishy taste!

Below are a couple of links to books I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links below I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!