The different types of fasting

Welcome back to another episode of how to twenty-something, today’s episode is all about the different types of fasting, where I’m going to explain to you who should be fasting and why as well as how to make it healthy and not disordered depending on the type you are choosing

And this episode actually came from one from one of you from months ago after receiving a question about fasting in my dm’s and I said this would make a fantastic episode topic

So here we are

Oh and before I forget, I want to remind you that tonight, as in if you’re listening to this episode the day it drops, Monday, April 29th at 7:30pm I will be hosting a free workshop to help you overcome your biggest fears be able to conquer anything you set your mind to because fear is no longer holding you back

It’s taking place on zoom for one hour on a Monday night and I would love to see your face in the zoom room so head on over to jessdiamondcoaching.com/fearless and sign up before it’s too late

Now back to the topic of today’s episode, fasting

What is it, how can you incorporate it, and how to avoid abusing it

To begin, fasting is abstaining from food and or drinks for a set period of time

This could mean a couple hours to several days and all come with different reasons and benefits as well as risks if not conducted properly

Intermittent fasting is probably the one you are the most familiar with and can range in timing by a lot

You could do a 16:8 fast where you go without food for 16 hours usually including your sleep time and then eat in an 8 hour window, this is referred to as the leangains protocol but no one really calls it that

There’s the warrior version of this which is fasting for 20 hours and eating for 4, usually directing your food consumption to the evening time and is inspired by the eating patterns of ancient warriors, hence the name

With this one they say you can eat raw fruits and veggies and some meats in the 20 hour period but most people refrain from eating at all

And there’s a 5:2 diet where you eat normal for 5 days and then drastically cut your calories down, if not completely fast, for 2 non consecutive days

But here’s the problem with intermittent fasting.. Most people who go for this style of eating do not consume the right amount of nutrition to have this be a healthy alternative

They use it as a way to justify skipping meals instead of focusing on reaching their macro and micronutrients

Which only enhances the risk for developing, if not encouraging, disordered eating habits

One of my aunts has a history of diagnosed anorexia nervosa and does use the term intermittent fasting as a way to reason that barely eating throughout the day is actually healthy

When it’s not, she’s severely limiting her food consumption because of her relationship to food and her body

A lot of people will also disrupt their intermittent fasting schedules for holidays or special occasions and times when stress is really high and therefore negate any of the potential benefits that come with this style of eating

Another negative effect of fasting is it can trigger cravings because you are depriving yourself of food and ignoring your body’s natural hunger cues so when it is time to eat you over indulge on high calorie, unhealthy foods during your eating window

It creates a very imbalanced relationship with food and goes solely off of time.. Which back in cavemen times, you know I love referring back to that time period from an evolutionary standpoint, but back in cavemen times we couldn’t tell time!!

Your body can’t tell time, it goes off of circadian rhythm which is largely influenced by the sun or day time and night time 

And intermittent fasting creates this disconnect between what your body is communicating to you and how you’re choosing to respond

Thereby placing an unnecessary stressor on your body

Now there are benefits to intermittent fasting which I will get into in a moment, but before I do that I want to say that females should not intermittent fast, at least not all the time, because it is a very regimented diet and operates on a strict 24 hour cycle

Women do not operate on a 24 hour cycle and we require different nutritional needs at different times in a given month, so when you abide by such a forced way of eating, that doesn’t take your hormonal needs into consideration, you end up fucking up your hormones

Women also require different nutritional needs and intermittent fasting, when done improperly, as in you just decide to cut out a meal, robs you of a lot of these necessary nutrients that would otherwise come from food

So if you do choose this style of eating for whatever reason you really need to be more cautious as to what it is you are eating during your eating window

As in you need more nutrient dense foods

Intermittent fasting for both men and women can be good for weightloss in the short term but not the long term because of the metabolic adaptations that occur when you go to decrease your calories

Remember, your body is really really good at adapting to whatever you tell it to so if you are sending a signal saying you don’t need as much food anymore then your body will conserve it’s calorie burning processes or become really good at not burning as much calories throughout the day because it knows it won’t be replenished with as much food

This is what makes weight loss more difficult over time

So you might find yourself with less energy to move around your place and clean it up or find it difficult to go from errand to errand on the weekend

If you’re a fidgator you’re probably going to fidget less or slower because that burns calories too

And then worst of all, your body is going to get rid of your muscle if you stay in this process of undereating for too long because muscle is expensive tissue to hold on to and upkeep meaning your body burns calories to preserve your muscle

So if you told your body that it needs to learn how to exist on less calories, then it is going to pair down muscle to keep you alive

Another drawback with intermittent fasting is if you are truly abiding by it then you are to be eating in the same window every day and fasting in the same window every day so it’s a very strict method to consuming food that it starts to take away from your quality of life

Meaning, if your window is say 12-8pm and your friends want to get brunch at 11 or go out for drinks at 9 then technically you can’t also eat and drink with them

When I was first becoming a coach, I had a client who was intermittent fasting and would run into these issues and he would choose to break his fast earlier or extend it later

I really tried to help him see other ways to eating healthy and not over indulging and we did make some great progress in that realm

Especially because he realized how this style of eating was affecting his quality of life and his relationships 

The final thing that you should be very cautious of, is that intermittent fasting promotes disordered eating behaviors as i briefly mentioned a few moments ago

Not in everyone, but the skipping meals and not eating enough during your window promotes this risky relationship with food

Women are statistically more prone to developing an eating disorder than men are which is another reason as to why intermittent fasting might not be the best option for a female

Now regardless of anything I say, please consult a professional or your health care provider before making any decisions.. I’m just here to present you with information and tools and debunk some misguided information I see on the internet

Because your favorite social media influencer hides the potential drawbacks and only talks about their unique benefits

But just because it worked for them does not mean it’s going to work in the same way for you

Everyone is different, everyone’s body is going to respond differently, so it’s important that you have all of the information to make an informed decision that is going to work best for you

That being said, here are the benefits to intermittent fasting

It is helpful with initial weight loss solely because you are reducing your overall caloric intake

You are restricting your eating window so you are naturally going to consume less food which will then lead to weight loss, not necessarily fat loss but overall weight loss

As a result, there is evidence of using intermittent fasting to help with visceral fat loss which is the fat that hugs your organs not the fat on your love handles

And you want to decrease your visceral fat so you can have healthy organs and not be at risk of developing heart disease at the age of 30

Intermittent fasting is also helpful if you have a pesky habit of returning to the pantry throughout the evening, after you’ve had dinner and like to late night snack

This time restricted window prevents you from giving in to your habits which is also helpful when trying to lose weight because now you’re not consuming those extra couple hundred calories well into the evening

So from a habit changing standpoint it is extremely beneficial

Honestly the biggest benefit I’ve heard from intermittent fasting is improved cognitive function

This does not happen for everyone, but there have been numerous reports of improved concentration, memory, and overall brain health during the fasting times

This is due to the increase in a specific protein in your brain that supports health and function called brain-derived neurotrophic factor

There’s a podcast I listen to where one of the hosts loves to fast when he has a big event coming up and fasts through the event because he feels sharper and can think a lot more clearly

Personally, when I fast I feel groggy and lightheaded and am only thinking about wanting food

Intermittent fasting has also been proven to decrease inflammatory markers in your body which is very helpful for people with any auto-immune disorders and help with their quality of life

Basically, intermittent fasting is more beneficial if you are incorporating it to promote health and not so much for long term fat loss

When it comes down to you as the individual it’s really up to you to see what works and what doesn’t and just try it out with an open and curious mind to learn more about your behavior around food as well as how you feel when you do fast

And regardless of the time chunk you select please focus on eating the right amount of nutrients for your body’s needs and consult a professional if you need help as this is not something you should go into blindly

But those are the pro’s and con’s for intermittent fasting

Another type of fasting is a 24 hour fast all the way up to a 72 hour fast and this one has nothing to do with weight loss and more to do with your relationship to food

So this is good for someone who is a time based eater, meaning it’s noon so you’re going to have lunch, rather than listen to your body’s hunger cues you watch the time for when to eat next

When you take a healthy break from food you allow yourself to change the way you think about food and time and more about your own body’s signals

This type of fasting is also beneficial to my emotional eaters

So if you gravitate towards the kitchen when you’re bored or stressed or sad, then using this mechanism can also help you break your relationship to food and find other ways to help you cope with your current emotion

You’ll see 24 hour fasts in a lot of religious practices or as a way to reset your system and how you interact with food

In fact, you’ll see a lot of different types of fasting across different religions 

For example, in the Jewish Religion, you fast for 24 hours from sundown to sundown during Yom Kippur as a way to atone for your sins from the prior year as it occurs directly after the celebration of the jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah. It’s a religious practice to wipe your slate clean and ask for forgiveness 

In the islamic religion, you fast during the month of Ramadan from dawn to sunset as a way to purify the soul, strengthen your relationship with Allah, and be more mindful of one’s actions, thoughts, and behaviors. Similarly, to the Yom Kippur, Ramadan is also an opportunity for Muslims to seek forgiveness for past sins and make positive changes moving forward

In Christianity, you fast during Lent, not in the same way of not eating any food, but you are fasting from certain foods such as dairy, meat, or sweets as a form of self-discipline and spiritual reflection and also as a way to focus on repentance, forgiveness, and bring you closer to God – it’s to prepare your heart and mind for a season of spiritual growth and renewal that is symbolized by the celebration of Easter

There are other religious practices that also incorporate fasting in some way shape or form, but those the are three most widely known

I actually want to piggyback off of Lent because outside of this religious practice, this type of fasting is called partial fasting and it can be done at any time and for any amount of time

This is pretty common if you are someone who is experiencing side effects from foods you’re eating and don’t really know what’s causing these headaches, or bloating, stomach aches, or inflammation, or exhaustion

One of my friends, Courtney, was realizing how awful she was feelings from food and decided to cut out gluten in January and immediately felt better and is now considering getting tested for celiac

My other friend Katie, cut out dairy and gluten when she was suffering with a lot of bloating after eating and wanted to see if those food groups were part of the problem

She discovered she has no issues with gluten but will be dairy free for the foreseeable future

I personally cut out dairy when I was trying to figure out my skin issues back in the winter of 2022 and got lucky that my first guess was the correct one and have now been dairy free since then

Dairy and gluten are the two most common intolerances which is why people tend to start with eliminating those from their diet first when figuring out what’s upsetting their body

But I also know people who will go on a sweets fast for a little or even a coffee fast when you become to dependent on caffeine and need to reset your system

So these partial fasts are beneficial for helping you detach from a specific food or drink you typically eat and have a weaker relationship with or if you need to figure out where all of your health problems are coming from

Again I want to reiterate that none of these fasting protocols have anything to do with long term weight loss or fat loss but for other health factors or from a habit standpoint

Another type of fasting is prolonged fasting and this is where you fast for multiple days at a time and should not be done without consulting a doctor first as you could really mess yourself up with this one

People will typically participate in a prolonged fast when they are trying to promote cellular regeneration

Basically fasting for a longer period of time triggers a process called autophagy which is when the body removes damaged or dysfunctional cells so it’s a disease preventative mechanism that has been proven effective across a couple of different studies

And then like the other types of fasting, prolonged fasting also helps with your eating habits, relationship to food, mental clarity and focus, as a system reset, and as a personal challenge to test your own willpower

The last type of fasting I want to mention is OMAD which stands for one meal a day and it’s exactly what it sounds like

Someone who does omad is consuming all of their nutrients and calories in one sitting with typically a one hour window and then 23 hours of fasting

This of course leads an individual to consume less calories overall which is what will lead to weight loss but it’s the same as going into a caloric deficit only with a lot more discipline and restriction with the time you’re able to eat

This is the most rigid form when it comes to fasting since you are only given one window within a 24 hour time span to eat your food and then you’re done for the next 23 hours

Of course the time you eat can vary but you shouldn’t let it vary too much otherwise you are missing the point of OMAD fasting

The focus of this one meal is that it needs to be super super nutrient dense and it will leave you feeling really full afterwards because of how much you need to consume in one sitting we’re talking around 1500 to 2000 calories at once

I personally would never do this because I hate the feeling of being super full, but like all of these types of fasting you need to consult your doctor beforehand

It is so easy to abuse this type of diet and it can lead to hormonal repercussions, your workouts will need to change, your energy might drop, blood sugar levels drastically spike and drop, increased muscle soreness, increased risk of injury, risk of messing up your metabolism, and so much more

Which is why this isn’t something you should decide to do without research and consulting your doctor

At the end of the day, it’s your body and your choice with what you want to do and there is nothing wrong with fasting, especially every couple of months as a way to reset – but if you are after sustainable weight loss and fat loss then this is not the route for you to do long term

Your body is your temple, this is not a form of punishment or restriction, use it for it’s proper benefits like mental clarity or improving your relationship to food or developing mental discipline, or if you’re curious and just want to give it a try

If you have any other questions about which one you want to try for yourself then please do not hesitate to reach out to me and ask! My email is always in the show notes for you to access but I also want to say that I am not a registered dietitian or a certified nutritionist – I am a nutrition coach so I can give you information and help you decide but it’s your doctor that should be the person to give you the all clear

And ask to get your blood markers and hormone levels tested before and during just to make sure you’re not making an unhealthy decision

But those are the main different types of fasting – we’ve got intermittent fasting, fasting for religious purposes, partial fasting, prolonged fasting, and OMAD fasting

Many options all with similar benefits that has nothing to do with weight loss so give one a try – I know my sister and I fast for Yom Kippur and that’s kind of our once a year fast

But plan out what you’re going to do, when you’re going to begin, and how long you’re going to do it for

Basically, don’t be stupid

And if you liked what you heard please share this episode with a friend or on social media and tag me at coach.jessdiamond when you do

Otherwise this concludes another episode of how to twenty-something I can’t wait to be in your headphones again next week with another brand new episode