Day 33 - Fasting

Lisa commented on my myth busting blog post yesterday with a very interesting article on the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle (not diet) of "fasting". According to Wikipedia and as the author talks about, fasting is the act of willingly abstaining from all or some food, drink, or both, for a period of time.

In the article, the author did some serious research on nutrition and dieting and provides some very convincing evidence to the benefits of fasting. To summarize, his main point is the fastest and most proven method of weight lost is caloric reduction, and by fasting you are significantly reducing your caloric intake for the day. Doing so, does not send your body into "starvation mode" as many would think. Fasting just allows your body to catch up with itself. The author talks about how our bodies are either in fed or fast mode; when we think we're hungry, in actuality, our bodies haven't even had the chance to go into fasting mode, so it is just burning the calories/fat you consumed that day instead of consuming the calories/fat you are storing. So when you fast, you give your body a chance to get some work done.

The author advocates for a 24 hour fast once or twice a week. For example, have your last meal at 6pm and then do not eat again until 6pm the next day. Seems doable when you think about how much time you'll be sleeping during that 24 hour fasting period!

As scary as fasting sounds, I encourage you to read the article! I'd love to talk to someone who has tried this or something similar!

Yesterday's Recap:
2/16

Breakfast: Banana and one hard boiled egg
Lunch: Small salad and unsweetened apple sauce with cinnamon
Snack: Apple and nuts
Dinner: (thanks Seffff) Tilapia, couscous, and zucchini
Water: five 24 oz. bottles

Exercise: about 35 minutes on the treadmill and 10 minutes core workout