Consistency is key
Picking up where we left off last week talking about eating a full, nutritious breakfast, let’s talk about your overnight fast, and when you break it. (break+fast = breakfast.)
When you eat and how much you eat can vary depending on your goals.
For example, someone who weight trains 4 days a week early in the morning may want to eat later in the evening the night before or wake up early and eat to fuel their workout.
Someone looking to maintain their weight and body composition might stop eating early evening and break their fast in the late morning to keep insulin levels low.
In general, for someone who is struggling to lose weight, has crappy energy and may be dealing with some chronic health issues, setting consistent eating and fasting windows is key to success.
For one thing, setting a consistent time to start and stop eating each day means that it becomes a habit with less effort.
Your body’s circadian rhythms appreciate consistency, so your day / night hormone cycles, which moderate things like insulin and cortisol, are better balanced and functional.
Basically, your hormone cycles know when to expect glucose (when to be ready with the insulin) and when to switch over to hormones for resting and repair, like melatonin.
Obviously, you don’t eat while you sleep, (you don’t, right?) so your body uses this extended not-eating time (fasting) to repair, recycle, and get rid of all that cellular garbage.
Your body needs that time. And it needs all eating-related activities to be finished to get it done. Without that repair, recycle and disposal time, inflammation and oxidation can run rampant and hormones can get out of whack.
So when you give your body a consistent window of time every day to know when to expect when eating will start and stop, you’re keeping those rhythms optimized and hormones working properly.
That means that you’ll be in good shape for storing glucose where it belongs, which keeps inflammation and oxidative damage down.
It also means that your body knows when to get you ready to sleep, hopefully setting you up for a good night's rest. (We’ll talk about sleep more in another email.)
We all fast overnight, the only questions are for how long and is it the same every night?
For most of us, we probably get anywhere from an 8 to 10 hour fast, depending on how long you sleep each night.
What makes the difference is being intentional and setting consistent times when you start and stop eating each day.
If you’ve never intentionally fasted before, starting at 10 hours is pretty attainable, but do what works for you.
The key is setting a time at night when you stop eating, that means all eating. The popcorn and cookies at 10pm count as eating.
I recommend you stop eating at least 2 hours before bed, so if you normally hit the hay about 10pm, stop eating by 8pm.
Then decide on a time when you will start eating again. Let’s say you wake up at 6am, and eat breakfast around 7. (You’re eating something with protein, fiber and fat, right?)
If you stopped eating at 8pm and you started eating again at 7am, that is an 11 hour fasting window. Not bad!
Some folks like to push it out to 14 or 16 hours each day. Which is fine if you can do that, but a lot of people might struggle to wait that long to eat and would have better energy if they ate something a bit earlier.
What’s important is to find a fasting / eating window that you are comfortable with and that you can stick with consistently.
It might be tempting to try and push that fasting window to use a few extra calories. Which is fine, just don’t push it to the point where you feel weak or lethargic.
Can you work up to a 12 hour fasting window, or even 14? Sure, again if that works for you and your goals.
The main thing is to set a window and stick to it… consistently.
Women: You may want to slightly change your windows based on your monthly cycle, with a longer eating window in your luteal phase than the rest of the month.
Y’all, setting a consistent eating / fasting window is a key tactic for balancing your blood sugar, boosting your energy and fighting inflammation.
I also totally understand that doing that work yourself can be frustrating and discouraging.
Which is why you have me!
In your personalized coaching program, we set up an eating window that works for you, that you can stick with. Plus we work toward tons of other small, achievable steps that get results and move you closer to your goals.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to hit REPLY to this email. I love hearing from you!
Ready? Let’s go!
コメント