Now, I’ve done intermittent fasting (IF) a few times in the past, notably during covid out of necessity to stretch the groceries we had as we were only going one once a month to stock up. It’s a simple thing really – just don’t eat breakfast and stop eating at 6:00 pm every night. The food window was 12-6 and you can easily get all the food you need with a healthy lunch, a sizeable snack and dinner.

I had tried it in fits and starts before then – mostly inspired by a few Netflix documentaries I saw on the health benefits of fasting – specifically around autophagy and its role in disease control and weight loss. Armed with the knowledge that it was not just a diet but a way of aligning with how our bodies worked I did it for over two years until about halfway through 2022. I’m not sure what happened but I just kinda gave up on the idea and started eating breakfast again and sneaking in late night snacks.

I realized with this challenge that yes, I’m 50 now and the risk factors for certain diseases start rising – and I should be leaning into IF / periodic long fasts as a way to help control these risk factors. So I made sure there was a section in the goals for both of these fasting methods.

for the IF I used the free version of the zero app to help track the times. It’s pretty simple interface and allowed me to log fasts with a simple click of a button and it also tracked a countdown to my goal and when I started the different phases in a fast (glucose depletion, fat burning, autophagy). I found it helpful to keep me on track as I’d need to physically get my phone and click the button admitting that I didn’t fast as long as I wanted so it was a nice deterrent. I also used the streaks app to track how many days in a row I was doing (I used this app for most of my 30 day / 2 week goals) and getting to see that streak climb was another deterrent. I mean every little bit helps!

The first few days were filled with morning hunger pangs but on the third or fourth day my body remembers this is something we’re doing and I’m fine. I don’t feel hungry until lunch and I stop craving snacks at night. A week in and it was becoming routine again and something that I automatically did without thinking about it too much.

At the end of thirty days I felt a bit better – not much weight was lost (around 5 pounds) but I wasn’t focusing on lowering my caloric intake too much as I was playing basketball and training for a 5K and running a caloric deficit during this time would have impacted those activities.

I know that the things happening in my body during a fast have longer term metabolic effects so I wasn’t expecting some miracle where I suddenly felt 25 again but I was content with the knowledge that I was doing something good for my body.

After the 30 days I continued as best I could – usually doing IF during the week and enjoying a breakfast on Saturday morning (usually an egg sandwich on a bagel). Yes, there were days when I ate a snack late a night or grabbed some breakfast on the way to work because I was really hungry but overall I’m working IF into my life again and I hope to keep it that way for the foreseeable future.