I Tried Intermittent Fasting And Here’s What Happened

* UPDATED thoughts on IF can be found on this IGtv*

Oooh boy. This post has been one in the works for literally months. I kept writing and re-writing it because I didn’t want to miss anything, plus I changed my thoughts/views a handful of times. With my stance on Food Freedom I knew I wanted to tread carefully with Intermittent Fasting – both in my own life, but especially in sharing it with you.

Before I go on I want to be as clear as humanly possible that I am *not* an expert by any means. I want this post to be as personal and conversational as possible simply sharing my experience. For the cold hard facts on Intermittent Fasting I am not your girl and encourage you to always do your own research, as well as seek professional/medical advice before making any changes to your health routine. Cool? Cool.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

In short, Intermittent Fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. It doesn’t specify which foods you should eat but rather when you should eat them. It’s a method that people follow for various health and lifestyle benefits, including weight loss.

Instead of beating a dead horse explaining what Intermittent Fasting is, I suggest reading this article on Intermittent Fasting by Dr. Josh Axe. It explains IF in detail + has a helpful infographic with the different variations.

How & Why I Tried Intermittent Fasting

The Intermittent Fasting I experimented with over the last 4 months is the 16:8, which can be described as easily as eating within an 8 hour window (and fasting for the other 16). Depending on my schedule I aimed to eat between 11am-7pm, but I had to remain flexible as I often eat dinner past 7pm. I ate as I normally did before – balanced but no restrictions.

To be clear I did *not* 16:8 IF every single day – I dabbled in and out of it for a few reasons, but usually at least stuck to 12:12 (more on that below). Die hard IFers would probably argue that I didn’t stick to it long enough to experience the full results, but I do very much feel I got enough of an experience to share it with you now (hence why I waited so many months so even write this post!).

As for the “why” – I decided to try it simply because I was hearing/learning so many benefits of IF, especially in regards to having increased energy and reduced inflammation. Some claims even say IF can help you live longer and reduces the risk of cancer. My sister and her husband had been Intermittent Fasting for over a year and swore by it, so they were that final push for motivating me to experiment for myself.

Now I want to address some of the main things I learned from trying IF, as well as whether or not I’ll continue it in my own life. First up is what I think is the most important question…

Can Intermittent Fasting and Food Freedom Coexist?

The million dollar question, right? I REALLY wanted to give a solid “yes” or “no” to this, but if I’m being completely authentic here, I can’t.

In ways I would say yes because Intermittent Fasting is about the timing of when you eat, and does not restrict at all what you’re eating. So one might even argue for an increase in Food Freedom. But on the other side of the coin, IF requires you to sometimes deny your hunger signals, which doesn’t fully align with (my version of) Food Freedom.

I can’t give the answer you may or may not be looking for because the more I experience the ebbs and flows of Food Freedom in my own life and the more I see it play out in the lives of others, the more I realize that it’s going to look different for everyone. There is no “one size fits all” – not even when it comes to Food Freedom.

I think for IF to truly fit into a FF lifestyle, you really have to make it a point to view it as a positive thing you are doing for your body, rather than a negative/rigid set of rules you have to follow. Ingrid De Le Mare-Kenny (who is my favorite “wellness guru” at the moment) chats more in depth about this on this podcast I highly recommend listening to.

With that being said – and I can’t emphasize this enough – if you’re someone with a history of disordered eating or don’t feel like you’re 100% in a place of Food Freedom, I would not suggest Intermittent Fasting for you.

Pros of Intermittent Fasting

Increased energy
This was the main benefit I was hoping for with IF and definitely experienced/enjoyed the most. I’m already a morning-person when it comes to working and being productive, so pairing the fasting state with tons of water and black coffee made me feel superhuman.

Larger meals
This is kind of self explanatory because ya girl just loves to eat! My goal with IF wasn’t to cut calories, so I aimed to eat the same amount of food I normally do, just within a smaller window of time. So naturally my meals were larger than usual. I may have even been eating more calories than before, but can’t say for sure because I don’t count/track anything.

It doesn’t have to be perfect
You don’t have to fast at the same time every day – or even every day, for that matter – for IF to have positive effects. You can also see benefits of IF with shorter fasting periods like 12:12, which I am now tending to lean toward.

Weight maintenance
I don’t think I lost any weight from IF (but not positive because I don’t weigh myself), but it definitely helped me maintain my weight. As just mentioned, I may have even been eating more calories than before but didn’t notice a change in physique.

Improved digestion + reduced bloating
This was a benefit I wasn’t expecting but has definitely been one of my favorites. IF can act as a “digestive rest” for your body, and I definitely felt like I experienced that. My digestion seemed more normalized and I had much less bloating than I used to.

Cons of Intermittent Fasting

Difficult to sync with my lifestyle
This might be more of a #NewYorkerProblem, but I found it really difficult to IF on days that I was out to dinner or drinking late into the night. Of course I could’ve just moved my fasting window to later in the day, but waiting to eat past about noon is really pushing it for me.

Difficult to sync with my workouts
As someone who focuses on strength training & building muscle, I try to eat and consume protein within an hour of working out. I also enjoy exercising in the morning, though, so with breaking a fast at 11am the timing got difficult to manage (i.e. I didn’t want to do a 7am workout and have 3+ hours before I could replenish). I worked around it, but it was still kind of annoying.

There were times it challenged my Food Freedom
Ever since I began my Food Freedom lifestyle, I’ve become extremely sensitive to any bondage that tries to creep its way in and act ASAP to combat it. There were definitely days where I felt the tension between IF and FF, and on those days I *always* made it a point to choose Food Freedom over IF (which is a big reason why I didn’t follow IF religiously over the past few months).

The concerns over hormonal balance
There is some research that shows IF might not be best for women in regards to hormonal balance. This can vary depending on the individual, but as someone with a history of hormone issues and wanting to keep my cortisol levels in check above all else, I will stop IF at the slightest sign of hormonal imbalance. Here’s an article that addresses fasting for women, but it’s also something worth doing your own research on as well.

Will I continue to Intermittent Fast?

Kind of…but not strictly. With my lifestyle and making sure I do everything I can to maintain my Food Freedom, I am not going to implement any sort of super strict style of eating on myself. When it comes down to it, I don’t want anything in my life that could cause me to think about food more or feel like I did something “wrong” if I ate earlier than I should have. Not to mention how important it is for me to keep my hormones balanced.

However, even before trying 16:8 Intermittent Fasting I naturally/unintentionally found myself on more of a 12:12 eating schedule, which did seem to work well for me. While I didn’t experience the maximum benefits of 16:8, it was kind of a happy medium between the pros/cons listed above. I also think that for me and my body, 12:12 is less likely to impact my hormone/cortisol levels.

Moving forward if there are certain days where I feel like doing 16:8 or it comes naturally to me, I’ll do it. Otherwise I will stick to my normal Food Freedom principle of eating when I’m hungry. Since this is still a experiment in my own life, I’ll be sure to keep you posted on if/how any of these views change! I’ll start documenting more on my IG stories, so be sure to follow along @hungry.blonde 🙂

You might also like:
What Food Freedom Looks Like In My Life
Practicing Food Freedom During The Holidays & Special Occasions
What I Learned When I Stopped Dieting
Maintaining Your Food Freedom When You Want To Give Up
How I Lost Weight Practicing Food Freedom
How You’re Probably Sabotaging Your Own Food Freedom