On Sunday, November 11, Trina and I started the Alternate-Day Fasting Diet. Yes, the name on the diet sounds pretty crazy, and when I step back to think about it, it is a pretty crazy concept for the Western culture we live in. As I'm writing this post, I am drinking a morning cup of coffee and enjoying the end of a 36-hour fasting cycle.
For a little history of how this journey started, I have a colleague, Ken, who lives near Manchester in the U.K. who had been on a diet where he and his wife would fast twice per week. He said they get about five-hundred calories on the fasting days. They had been having good success with it. I asked Ken where they got the idea from and he said it was a BBC documentary. Since BBC documentary's are usually top notch, I did a quick YouTube search and found it ("Eat, Fast, and Live Longer"). In classic BBC style, it was incredibly informative. Topics included pros and cons of the calorie restricted diet, fasting, and intermittent fasting, and featured mostly research done in the U.S. that I had never heard of previously. I don't expect this research will make the U.S. news until someone figures out how to make money on the diet, probably through supplements if I were to guess. I learned the "5:2" diet that Ken and his wife are using is a version of the Alternate-Day Diet.
I then started doing research on the web and found some information on fasting protocols and a little bit on the Alternate Day Diet. Turns out there are a handful of intermittent fasting type diets of which the Alternate Day Diet is just one version. Turns out in the U.S., a physician named James Johnson has written a book called, The Alternate-Day Diet, and completed some clinical research to support the diet. Besides losing weight, other health benefits include reduction in symptoms of asthma, arthritis, and auto-immune disease. To summarize the protocol, "fast" and "feast" days are alternated. That means we spend 36 hours in a fasted state (including the two nights) and 12 hours eating whatever you want. Most of the information on the Alternate-Day Diet are from blogs and websites in the U.K. that popped up after the BBC show aired.
For me, the first few fasting days were especially tough. It basically comes down to me being so spoiled that I had not felt hunger in years (if ever), and my body didn't like it. By the third fasting day, things were a lot better and I actually have found that I enjoy fasting days. It is amazing how much time is wrapped up in planning, eating, and cleaning up after meals. I didn't foresee fasting causing a productivity boost.
There have been a lot of interesting discoveries from this diet already. Having experienced a little bit of hunger, I realize how much excess food I eat. My feast days aren't near as "feastive" as I was expecting. My food choices tend to be healthier than I would expect. I have found I really enjoy having a cup of coffee in the morning and getting work of some sort done. Trina and I have lost some weight, also, and seem to be feeling more energy.
It is still very early and, though I really like the diet, the jury is still out if Trina and I will continue on with this diet. We are still learning a lot and seeing how it works out after a month or so. I just realized yesterday that Dr. Johnson's advice on recording what is eaten is likely invaluable and I'll be starting to do this more religiously. I'm working on coming up with the five go-to low-calorie meals that Dr. Johnson says are great to have on fasting days (salads and Miracle Soup are my first two). My goal is to check in every so often with updates on our experiences on this diet.
Time to go break the fast with some breakfast... *grin*
For a little history of how this journey started, I have a colleague, Ken, who lives near Manchester in the U.K. who had been on a diet where he and his wife would fast twice per week. He said they get about five-hundred calories on the fasting days. They had been having good success with it. I asked Ken where they got the idea from and he said it was a BBC documentary. Since BBC documentary's are usually top notch, I did a quick YouTube search and found it ("Eat, Fast, and Live Longer"). In classic BBC style, it was incredibly informative. Topics included pros and cons of the calorie restricted diet, fasting, and intermittent fasting, and featured mostly research done in the U.S. that I had never heard of previously. I don't expect this research will make the U.S. news until someone figures out how to make money on the diet, probably through supplements if I were to guess. I learned the "5:2" diet that Ken and his wife are using is a version of the Alternate-Day Diet.
I then started doing research on the web and found some information on fasting protocols and a little bit on the Alternate Day Diet. Turns out there are a handful of intermittent fasting type diets of which the Alternate Day Diet is just one version. Turns out in the U.S., a physician named James Johnson has written a book called, The Alternate-Day Diet, and completed some clinical research to support the diet. Besides losing weight, other health benefits include reduction in symptoms of asthma, arthritis, and auto-immune disease. To summarize the protocol, "fast" and "feast" days are alternated. That means we spend 36 hours in a fasted state (including the two nights) and 12 hours eating whatever you want. Most of the information on the Alternate-Day Diet are from blogs and websites in the U.K. that popped up after the BBC show aired.
For me, the first few fasting days were especially tough. It basically comes down to me being so spoiled that I had not felt hunger in years (if ever), and my body didn't like it. By the third fasting day, things were a lot better and I actually have found that I enjoy fasting days. It is amazing how much time is wrapped up in planning, eating, and cleaning up after meals. I didn't foresee fasting causing a productivity boost.
There have been a lot of interesting discoveries from this diet already. Having experienced a little bit of hunger, I realize how much excess food I eat. My feast days aren't near as "feastive" as I was expecting. My food choices tend to be healthier than I would expect. I have found I really enjoy having a cup of coffee in the morning and getting work of some sort done. Trina and I have lost some weight, also, and seem to be feeling more energy.
It is still very early and, though I really like the diet, the jury is still out if Trina and I will continue on with this diet. We are still learning a lot and seeing how it works out after a month or so. I just realized yesterday that Dr. Johnson's advice on recording what is eaten is likely invaluable and I'll be starting to do this more religiously. I'm working on coming up with the five go-to low-calorie meals that Dr. Johnson says are great to have on fasting days (salads and Miracle Soup are my first two). My goal is to check in every so often with updates on our experiences on this diet.
Time to go break the fast with some breakfast... *grin*
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