-credits to sgh.com.sg-
It's been nearly a year since my last post on my Intermittent Fasting journey, which means I've been IF-ing for more than a year! So if you happen to be an IF newbie, you might want to check out my 1st post, which will cover what's IF basically about, the different types of fasting methods, and my results after being on IF for just 3 months.
A main reason why I've decided to do an update now is because of the current Covid19 situation, whereby most people are currently on quarantine/lockdown with a drastic decrease in their daily activities plus constantly surrounded by food, may want to jump straight into some hardcore fasting out of desperation to lose or even maintain their weights.
I will like to say that this update will not be touching on how much more weight (or body fat) I've lost since the previous post, because I've totally stopped tracking (haven't stepped onto the scales for over half a year!) and further weightloss is no longer my goals.
But just to get it out of the way, here's my current physique update.
Albeit very badly taken, plus also taken right after a grueling abs workout, hence the muscle definition.
I DO NOT LOOK LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME (Eg. after a meal).
I'm still tracking calories, because CICO (calories in calories out) is King. It's the very basic of everything related to weight management, be it weight loss, weight gain, or weight maintenance. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT let anybody (cough cough Dr.... cough Fung's.... cough followers) tell you otherwise and believe that 'calories do not matter'. Because if calories really don't matter, we can easily be eating 10,000 worth of calories from the 'right' food everyday and not put on weight.
Does that sound possible?
Weight management is simply CICO; but it's just that CICO is not that simple.
But that aside (and I'm definitely not qualified to tell you more about how CICO is not that simple), the main point of my update is to touch on how IF (16:8 and up) has affected my body, and ladies do take note!
-credits to mindbodygreen.com-
What I've not mentioned in my previous post, was that being on 16:8 (actually it was a range of 15:9 to 18:6 throughout the week) kind of wreck havoc on my menstrual cycle. Just 1 month after being mainly on 15:9, my period (which has been dead-accurate my entire life till then) was late by 3 days.
"Huh, just 3 days? What's the big deal?"
Yes, it started with just being 3 days late. But for someone whose period is so accurate that you can even estimate roughly the time of the day it'll start, 3 days is a huge deal. And the delay just got longer and longer over the months, until I'm eventually 70+ days late, and that's 3 cycles late!
I don't know how you ladies view your monthly periods, although I've came across a few who would gladly lose them for weight loss. But to me it's simple. When your body starts to shut down their reproductive system, it's definitely in trouble and you're no longer in a state of optimal health.
And sacrificing your health for weight loss just makes no sense.
In addition, a study (conducted on rats, not humans) has shown that the ovaries of the female rats shrunk after fasting (eating every 2nd day) for 12 weeks.
Many "help" on those Facebook IF groups insist fasting itself is meant to heal our body and so it shouldn't adversely affect my period, and it's probably a drastic caloric reduction that made me lose my period. But I know better, because I've been tracking what I'm eating even before starting IF and so I know, very well, that the only change has been fasting.
And so I decided to cut back on IF and see how it goes, and went back to 14:10 for 5 days a week and 12:12 on weekends. True enough, just 2 months of cutting back on fasting and I'm back on track (for regular periods), yay!
And just to add on, due to the circuit breaker situation, I've unknowingly increased my fasting hours back to 15:9 for last month and my period, although still accurate, has been cut short by more than half of what's normal for me. So 14:10 is really the sweet spot for me.
So ladies, do listen to your own bodies and decide what's the best fasting hours for you. You do not have to do 16:8, 20:4 or even OMAD just because your best friend is doing so. Don't get intimidated or pressured to increase your fasting hours just because a random insensitive prick on your Facebook IF group says "14:10 is not even fasting, I wake up, freshen up and it's already 17 hours gone."
(yes, I've really received such rude judgmental replies from people who don't even know me on some groups, pfft!)
Our bodies are all different and we'll all react differently to the stress (yes, fasting is a form of stress!) inflicted onto our bodies due to fasting.
Last but not least, if you're intending to start your IF journey now, when you're still pretty much cooped up at home and constantly surrounded by just food and TV shows, I'll suggest that you put it off first. Or you may just start with switching up your diet and start to make healthier food choices instead. I'm definitely no IF guru, but it also doesn't need to take me 1 year to realise that Intermittent Fasting is NOT for the brand new, been-eating-crap-their-entire-life kind of newbies who are constantly craving sugar.
I have to say that IF itself is NOT a diet, but if you're jumping onto the IF bandwagon to lose weight, then it IS a form of diet for you. And all diets are doomed to fail if they're not meant to be sustainable, and an all-in (or all or nothing) approach to a new lifestyle is doomed to fail. Being pressured to not eat during your fasting hours and forcing yourself to only eat clean (eg. refraining from all "bad" foods even when you're craving for them like crazy) when you can finally eat is definitely not something sustainable.
However, if you feel that you're already quite on track with leading a healthy lifestyle and think that the best time to start is now, perhaps DoFasting App can be of a great help to tide you through these tougher times, not just with helping you to track your fasting hours but also give you some ideas on your home workout routines and delicious recipes with all the calories and macros listed out for you! We all know weight management is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise, right?
And just to show off some of my #healthyeating stay at home lunch these days during Circuit Breaker...
Sweet potato pancakes with baked fish and parmesan vegetables
Marmite oatmeal with baked fish, edamame and egg
Prawn Zoodle Pasta
Egg, Ham & Cheese Muffin using a 2-ingredient Banana Flour Bread
Sweet Potato Zucchini Hash with Baked Eggs.
Till then,
Mia Foo
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