I was inspired this past weekend on my Catalina trip by the progress a friend has made on his physique. His body looks like a dude half his age. He attributed his success primarily to time restricted eating. Basically fasting for 16-18 hours a day, and only eating within a 7 hour eating window. For him that is 1pm to 8pm.
I was a bit jealous because earlier his year I had incorporated a similar eating approach into my own life, along with a 40 day foray into the carnivore diet, just meat and fats only. My weight dropped to 203 from 227 within two months. Well, I stalled out on my plan and went back to eating whatever whenever, and now my weight is back at – you guessed it 227.
Time restricted eating allows the body metabolic systems to properly rest and regenerate each day. The period of daily fasting also forces the body to utilize fat as fuel everyday, so those systems come on line so to speak. If we are eating all the time then our metabolic systems for using fat as fuel sort of go dormant and get lazy, since we always have carbs and sugars available to burn.
I think that I will restart my daily time restricted eating habit and use the time window of noon to 8pm for eating. The last time I tried this I went from 8am to 6pm, but found some problems with this time frame. For example, in the corporate environment 8am was a good time to be “seen” working – not eating breakfast; and, that it was difficult to stop eating at 6pm because it often precluded me from having dinner with my family, I typically did not get home until 6:30, or, from eating out with friends and clients when traveling.
So, this time the 12- 8pm window will afford me the social opportunity to eat lunch and dinner with others, yet still afford a 16 hour daily fast. And I look forward to the host of benefits that time restricted eating provides – namely getting myself back to 200lbs. I have a half dozen pants that will be much more comfortable if I can drop 20lbs!
Dr. Panda, at the Salk institute in San Diego, is doing the science on time restricted eating. Check him out and check out the work of Rhonda Patrick a nutritionist who promoted this idea; she also provides a tremendous amount of scientific insight, data, and analysis along with her recommendations.
Dr. Panda’s research indicates that the benefits of time restricted eating can offset some of the negatives of a not so great diet. For me, getting disciplined about when I eat is first, then improving what I eat a close second.
Ben Wagner (238)
Member The 365 Commitment
