Experiment - Intermittent Fasting

Report:

I read about intermittent fasting on Tim Ferriss's blog the other day and thought I would give it a try - for the sake of science, let's say.

Monday:
I had already eaten breakfast when I read the post, but I skipped lunch and ate a fairly sensible dinner at 6 pm. I decided I was going to try the schedule where you eat breakfast and lunch one day and dinner the next. I didn't find that I was particularly hungry, and I enjoyed the burst of energy I got from not eating.

Tuesday:
I ate breakfast and lunch as planned, but work intervened and I got roped into a business dinner at the last minute. So that day was shot. I knew I had another work dinner coming up later in the week so I decided to change to a dinner-only schedule.

Wednesday:
I fasted all day and ate dinner only. I felt great all day. A little hungry in the afternoon, but it was ok.

Thursday:
I fasted all day and ate my business dinner. Everything was good, except I noticed that I was more hungry that afternoon. I hadn't been very good about weighing myself, but it seemed like I'd dropped a couple of pounds - probably water.

Friday:
Fasted all day. By 3 pm I was bloody starving and counting the minutes until dinner. Even though dinner was a little larger than it should have been, I was still hungry when I went to bed. Maybe because I ate at 5pm?

Saturday:
I woke up starving and couldn't take it anymore. The fasting experiment was over. My weight quickly returned to where it began.

Conclusions:

Sure, I know this wasn't exactly scientific, but here are some thoughts anyway. Take them for what they're worth. I actually liked not eating and having extra free time at lunch and breakfast. However, I don't think I could do the dinner-only schedule every day. In future experiments I might try a late breakfast/dinner schedule, or a three-days-on, one-day-off scheme. In terms of weight, I think fasting was a good way to clear my head and get myself out of the snacking pattern I was in. Even though I'm not fasting this week, today I have been more careful about the size of my daytime meals. When it comes down to it, I really felt great when fasting, at least at first.

Bottom line, it's good to remind yourself that hunger is ok now and then.