May 2009 was a tough month for me. I had severe back pain early in the month. The rest of the month I had neck and shoulder pain. With the exception of some light stretching and short walks, I was inactive the entire month. I did not lift weights a single time. My diet did not change. Well, I did eat a lot more carbs on my weekend trip to Vancouver.
By every indication I should have gained weight. I lost 2 pounds. My waist size should have increased. It stayed the same. How did I emerge from a month of inactivity leaner than ever? Intermittent Fasting. I did 5 Intermittent Fasts of 20-22 hours during May.
I discussed Intermittent Fasting in other posts:
- Intermittent Fasting – Fears and Motivations
- Intermittent Fasting – Adventures in Not Eating
- Intermittent Fasting – Tips and Advice
- Intermittent Fasting – 20 Times
Unlike other dieting tips, I suspect that Intermittent Fasting becomes MORE efficient the more you do it. I never had my serum insulin levels tested, but I would suspect that they are lower now that they were after my first month of Intermittent Fasting. I could be wrong on this. It is an avenue of research I will pursue.
We see the cumlative effects of eating 3-6 insulin spiking meals a day. Our population is waddling around overweight and full of inflammation. The pint of ice cream that 20 year puts away is more determinatal to the 50 year old. Why? The media tells us it is age and metabolism. I think is the cumlative decrease in insulin sensitivity.
My old beliefs were that body composition was 50% diet and 50% exercise. I now think it is 80% diet and 20% exercise for men. It is probably 90% diet and 10% exercise for women. Want to lean out? Put down the fork 1 or 2 days each week. You’ll be fine.
If only that were true. I regularly go whole days without eating… And most days I eat around 800 calories. The only thing that this has gotten me is a complete lack of metabolism (its been tested), and the need to wear a sweater or coat in the summer because I’m always freezing.
NonnyMouz, that may be because at 800 calories a day, your metabolism slows down significantly or practically shuts off because your body thinks it’s starving and it’s trying to conserve whatever energy stores it has. If what I read is correct, a body needs a minimum of 1200 calories in a day to not think it’s starving. I suspect that the blogger eats more than 1200 calories a day normally and then once a week or so he fasts. That may be the difference.