Intermittent Fasting during COVID-19 Self-Quarantine days
How is your lockdown going during the COVID-19 outbreak?
Bored. Frustrated. No gym. Nothing productive to do. Binge-watching Netflix. Well, this may be the time you needed the most to work on yourself, focus on your self growth.
Before I talk about Intermittent fasting, I would like to talk about the present lifestyle of most of us all over the world. We all have our routine of 3 major meals (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) with some snack meals in between.
- Have you ever thought of breaking this routine and creating a custom routine of yourself?
- Have you ever noticed yourself eating just because it is time to eat and not because you are actually hungry?
- Have you ever just felt bored and ordered food ?
Boredom leads to eating disorders. Eating when you aren’t hungry is equally harmful as drinking and smoking. It is an addiction.
What is Intermittent Fasting ?
I have been a big fan of Intermittent fasting from almost an year now. I have seen great results in terms of productivity and my lifestyle. Intermittent fasting is basically eating between a fixed period of time and fasting for rest of the time. The fasting hours can vary from 16 to 24 hours. Some follow longer fasts as well for about 48 to 72 hours. The fasting hours mainly include drinking water, black coffee or green tea, limiting the calorie intake to less than 100 calories. Also, it is not mandatory to fast everyday, it is okay to fast for 20 hours on one day and 16 hours the other and some days even going back to 3 meals-per-day routine. It is all up to you and flexible enough.
How Intermittent fasting is beneficial ?
Our body does a lot of work which includes functioning of our digestive system. If we constantly feed food to our body, it will only spend time on digesting the newly fed food, most of the time ignoring the half digested food of our previous meal which directly goes into storage as fats. Our body takes maximum of 12 hours to digest a single meal, if you fast for 16 hours we allow our body to digest our food and also give ample amount of time to clean out damaged cells and toxins, helping us regenerate newer, healthier cells. Also when body is in need of food, we have a huge storage of fats which can serve as energy source to our body when we aren’t eating food for longer time. This is called Autophagy (Self-Eating)
The Science and Benefits of Fasting
- Weight loss
- Longevity
- Boost biological processes
- Lower Risk of disease
- Maintain a Healthy Brain
- Turbo charge your cells
The first couple of weeks can feel very challenging since your body is trying to adjust to a newer lifestyle but once you get through it, fasting will feel more like a habit. For greater results, fasting can be combined with some functional training/cardio/weight lifting which can help reduce more fat. There are different protocols of Intermittent fasting that can be followed, the basic being 16-8 where you can eat your last meal by 8pm and fast over night and break the fast at 12pm the next day, which basically means you need to skip a meal or two.
Breakfast is the important meal of the day. You shouldn’t skip it.
Not really. It is just a myth. Science has evolved and studies say that skipping breakfast doesn’t have any affect on your weight nor does it make you fat or burn your stomach with acids. For more information, refer to the link given here, 11 Myths about fasting and meal frequency
How is Intermittent Fasting beneficial during Self-Quarantine days ?
Let’s talk about how fasting can be useful during the COVID-19 isolation period. As most of us are following social distancing and working from home during this virus outbreak, a lot of us might be spending time with their loved ones and taking time to learn new skills, but over a period of time, boredom will hit you. And as we all know, boredom results in eating disorders. A few of us, sometimes, wait for the time to have their next meal.
Most of us might be worried about gaining a lot of weight due to lack of workout since we do not have access to gym. Intermittent fasting can help us keep a watch on our increasing weight when combined with a minimal amount of home workouts following any online workout video. This way, you won’t gain a lot of weight, when you go back to your office routine.
- Eat only when you feel like. Your body can give you hunger signals according to its schedule but try drinking water and see if you still get those. In case you still get the signals, you should have the food.
- Keep yourself hydrated all the time during the fast, helps in detoxification too. No restrictions on the amount of water though.
- Make sure you eat sufficient nutrients when you are in feeding hours which prevents you from having any deficiencies.
- Intermittent Fasting saves a lot of time, money and energy spent in cooking, groceries shopping, cleaning etc.
To start with, a 12 to 14-hour overnight fast is simple and available to everyone with no risk. Longer fasts are often helpful. However, if you have any medical conditions, are pregnant, or underweight, it’s best to consult with a doctor or nutritionist before starting to fast.
Issues that might come up in the first few months of fasting
Everyone is different genetically and metabolically. Some do well with intermittent fasting, others might not. Some people report headaches and fatigue or mood swings, which can be reduced by keeping yourself hydrated all the time. Some can have :
- Insomnia - This can happen due to caffeine or lack of carbs. Try cutting your caffeine intake in half if you’re a caffeine user or having 30 extra grams of carbs with the last meal of the day.
- Food cravings — These may happen because you’re hungry, but they’re usually psychological in nature. The best way to deal with food cravings is to refuse to give in to them. The longer you stick to your diet, the easier it gets as the food cravings start to fade.
Start Fasting Today
Intermittent fasting is simple in principle, but in practice… it’s also pretty simple. You can easily plan out your intermittent fasting schedule in half-hour or less, which means you can start fasting today and complete your first full sixteen hours of fasting tomorrow. When we all gave a break of polluting our nature for a few days, we observed a better climate and atmosphere, similarly you will observe a cleaner gut and detoxified body along with many other benefits, when you start giving your digestive system a break and let it heal you in a much better way.
For more information on IF and to see how IF has impacted peoples lives, Refer to this sub reddit : Intermittent Fasting on Reddit
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This is the first time I’ve written something on Medium, so all feedback is appreciated. If you have thoughts on how this can be improved or have recommendations of what else I can share, let me know!
Wishing you amazing results with Intermittent Fasting. Also be safe and let us fight this dangerous COVID-19 together by building our immunity.
