Intermittent Fasting To Reduce Calories, Hmm?

Have you seen the latest blog post from Protein Power author Dr. Mike Eades on a subject known as “intermittent fasting” (IF)? It has generated the most comments that he has ever received on any subject he has previously written about at his blog. If you haven’t seen it for yourself yet, then click here to go read it right now and come back. Go on, I’ll wait for you…

Okay, so what did you think? I like it a lot better than the traditional fasting methods of one day on, one day off because you would go through a longer period of time between meals. But the IF plan that Dr. Eades suggests is more practical.

Here’s the schedule:

Day 1 – Eat food anytime until 6:00PM and stop eating
Day 2 – Don’t eat until 6:00PM
Day 3 – Eat food anytime until 6:00PM and stop eating
Day 4 – Don’t eat until 6:00PM

So forth and so on. Of course, you aren’t CONSTANTLY eating on the days you stop eating at 6:00PM, but rather you are eating as you normally would when you are hungry. And, for the sake of his experiment with IF, Dr. Eades even said feel free to eat WHATEVER you want. That’s right, you can even eat chocolate cake if you wanted to. However, he did recommend people stick with low-carb foods and IF to maximize the impact of this way of eating, especially for weight loss.

I especially enjoyed this lesson from IF that Dr. Eades shared:

“One of the things MD (Mary Dan Eades) and I took away from our IF experience is the idea that we don’t have to eat three meals per day. We now often skip lunch and don’t seem any the worse for it. Sometimes we get up and get going with all our projects and don’t eat breakfast. We try to skip a meal here and there because figure it’s probably good for us. When you get used to it, you don’t really even think about it. And it’s good for you. Don’t take my word for it–look at the medical literature.”

Hmmm, interesting. I’ve been noticing lately on the weekends when my schedule is not as planned as it is during the week that I tend to eat fewer meals than on weekdays. Perhaps I should practice skipping meals, hunger notwithstanding, as well rather than eating simply because it is lunch or supper time.

For those of you who are people of faith and believe in God, fasting is actually something Christians are encouraged many times in the Bible to do from time to time. Aside from the obvious physical advantages to fasting, the spiritual implications of doing without food and other such necessities of life for a period to spend time praying on behalf of others in intercession is a sign of maturity in your walk with the Lord.

In fact, a few years back when I worked in a Christian bookstore, there were several books about fasting including one entitled “Fast Your Way To Health.” This idea of fasting has been around for a while, but many are unwilling to give up food even for a day here and there. How sad.

What do you think about this? I for one think it is fantastic and am willing to do it myself once I get one question answered about it from Dr. Eades himself (who is responding to EVERY post about this, by the way!): What about my exercise routine? How can I get in my 30-45 minute workout on the days that I don’t eat until 6:00PM? I can’t exactly hop on the elliptical machine on an empty stomach now, can I? I’m awaiting his reply.

Has anyone tried this IF plan yet? If so, tell us about your experience. If the ultimate goal is to eat less calories, then perhaps implementing a fasting schedule like this one could enable you to reduce your caloric intake and you are still eating every single day. What a concept! Are you ready to start livin’ la vida intermittent fasting?

9-18-06 UPDATE: Like I said in this post, Dr. Mike Eades is answering EVERY comment with a personal response and here’s what he posted at his blog to me about my exercise concerns:

Hi Jimmy–

MRE

I had certainly thought about reserving exercise for the days I would be eating, but I may give it at least one or two times on the “off” days just to see how I feel. I workout pretty vigorously and burn upwards of 700-1000 calories during my cardio. Without a meal before doing exercise like this, I’m sure I would collapse. But we’ll see.

What I did this morning was wake up very early in the morning and went to the YMCA to get a workout in before work and then I’ll also do ANOTHER workout session this afternoon on my lunch break like I always do. Then when I am on day two of the IF tomorrow when I am not eating until 6:00PM, I don’t have to push myself to get the exercise in since I’ll have an extra session under my belt from the previous day.

So, yes, I am going to try IF for at least a week. I officially start my IF program today and will stop eating entirely at 6:00PM tonight. Then I will go without food until 6:00PM Tuesday night. We’ll see what happens and I’ll keep you and Dr. Mike posted. Anyone else gonna try this with me?

9-18-06 UPDATE: I had one more question for Dr. Eades regarding protein shakes.

Here’s what I wrote to him:

Does a protein shake count as food or drink? In other words, can I drink an Atkins shake on the mornings I am supposed to be fasting or not?

Here was his speedy reply:

Hi Jimmy–

MRE

Well, then, I ALMOST fasted the whole day sans my Atkins shake at 5:15 this morning. I was still plenty hungry by the time the fasting ended at 6:00PM. I took care of that problem in short order.