If you could only do one thing to increase your lifespan, sleep better, lose weight, and increase overall mood and happiness…
… would you do it?
And what if it could actually save you both time and money?
Even better, right?
That’s what we thought too.
But does such a magic pill exist?
As a pill, no.
Not even thesupplements we sell fit all the criteria above.
So what are we talking about?
According toDr. David Sinclair, if you could only do one thing to get all the benefits listed above, it would be to…
EAT LESS OFTEN
Not necessarily eat less…
EAT LESSOFTEN
Disappointed?
Rather have a pill?
We get it.
But more and more research is proving that eating less often unlocks all kinds of health benefits.
If you’ve heard the term Intermittent Fasting (also known as “IF”) then you’ve heard about eating less often.
There are many different methods used in IF but all of them mean eating less than what most people consider normal or even “healthy.”
Then again, when have the “normal” or the “masses” made the best decisions or been on the cutting edge of what actually works?
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Quite simply instead of eating whenever you feel like it, you cycle between set times for eating and not eating (fasting).
We do this naturally when we sleep.
And, as first responders, we do this unintentionally when we have a particularly busy shift and literally don’t have time to eat.
Intermittent Fasting is just being more intentional about when you eat and when you don’t and eating less often. There are several different eating patterns which we’ll describe below.
First, let’s talk about…
Why Intermittent Fasting?
For starters, fasting has been around for thousands of years. It’s mentioned in nearly every major religion.
Plus, fasting is just how all humans used to eat when food wasn’t available 24/7. Back then, especially in winter, if you ran out of food, you didn’t eat until the next time you could kill, gather, or grow something.
Today, we can gather all the food we want (or can afford) at the local grocery store, or restaurant, or convenience store, or food truck or… well… you get the point.
Here arefour big reasons to consider fasting on a schedule:
So, if you want to live a longer, healthier life without carrying around all those extra pounds, intermittent fasting might be worth considering.
The 3 Most Popular Intermittent Fasting Timelines
As intermittent fasting gets more and more popular, more and more variations are popping up.
Even so, the 3 most popular seem to be…
The 16/8 Timeline:You eat all your meals and snacks in an 8 hour window and then don’t eat for 16. Most people just skip breakfast on this plan. The most common 8 hour eating window is noon to 8pm. You can back it up an hour or two in either direction. For instance, 11-7 or 1-9.
The idea with the 16/8 is to bookend a few hours on either side of your sleep to trigger the many benefits of fasting which seem to kick in around 12 hours.
The “5:2” Diet: On this one, you eat normally 5 days per week and then on two other days of the week you only eat 500-600 calories. Also, these two days are NOT to be back to back.
Eat-Stop-Eat: With this plan you stop eating all food for 24 hours once or twice per week. For instance, you might have dinner Sunday night and then not eat anything until dinner Monday night. You can do this once or twice per week.
One of the guys on the Thinline team actually combines 16:8 daily with the Eat Stop Eat. HIs routine is that he eats around 11:30 each day until about 7:30. And then from after dinner to Lunch Tuesday (36-40 hours) he’ll eat nothing. Then back to the daily 16:8 schedule.
He said he wouldn’t recommend trying that out of the gate and that it took him a while to work up to that schedule.
What’s Really Going on with Intermittent Fasting?
The truth is all of these plans work because you’re eating less often.
And when you consistently eat less often, you give your body a set time to repair itself. Because, if your body is always processing food, it doesn’t have the time or resources to clean up the cells.
Fasting is shedding light on why so many of our diseases today are food and overeating related.
When you eat less often, you also tend to eat less.
Think about it…
If you eliminate breakfast you’re easily NOT eating 400 calories a day. Over the course of a week, that’s 2800 calories. Over a month, that’s 12,000 calories.
Now, when you consider a pound of fat is ~3500 calories, you can see how just by skipping breakfast, you can either lose (or not add) 3.4 pounds of fat per month.
Finally, as mentioned above, by eating less often, you give your body time to repair and eliminate damaged cells. Most research seems to agree this cleaning process only happens after about 12 hours without food.
Additional Resources
There are millions of pages and articles and videos online about the ins and outs of fasting. And we certainly can’t cover everything in this article.
So, we decided to link to some of our favorite resources for you.
Books…
The Complete Guide to Fating by Dr Fung - If you could only use one tool and only listen to one voice, this would be the book and the guy. His other book The Obesity Code is also very good and very eye-opening.
The Miracle of Fasting by Paul Bragg - This is a quirky little book by the guy who madeApple Cider Vinegar famous. It’s not a book you sit down and just read. It’s more like a compilation of all kinds of things Dr. Bragg learned and experienced with fasting.
Video…
This video from Dr. David Sinclair is probably one of the best overall videos on why you might want to consider intermittent fasting.
App…
The Zero Fasting app is a great tool for tracking when you last ate and when you can eat again. The free version gives you the timer. The paid version gives you a few more features and access to lots of articles.
We could go on for days with resources but these few above are all you really need. Anything else is just more of the same.
The Bottom Line
Intermittent Fasting is a proven tool for increasing longevity andoverall health while also reducing excess weight.
It’s simple to do and, unlike most diet plans, can actually save you money.
