I Tried Only Eating In An 8 Hour Window - Here's What Happened

But does intermittent fasting really work?

UNSPLASH / THE 5TH

The premise is simple: eat whatever you want (yay)... but only for eight hours a day (oh). WH investigates whether this new form of intermittent fasting gets results.

It’s 9pm and my boyfriend is sitting opposite me devouring dinner. I, on the other hand, am clutching a glass of water, my last meal a distant memory at 5.45pm and my next not till 10am tomorrow.

I’m on week four of possibly the simplest diet I’ll ever follow: the 16:8 – or eight-hour diet. I can eat anything and everything, as long as I consume it all within one eight-hour window per day, then give my body 16 hours off food.

It’s intermittent fasting in its latest guise. You probably gave the 5:2 diet a go: five days of eating normally and two days on 500-600 calories. The 16:8 is another way of doing what our ancestors often did.

‘In our evolutionary history, we never had regular meals,’ explains nutritionist Petronella Ravenshear. ‘The idea of set mealtimes is relatively new.’

Time-restricted feeding goes against the popular ‘eat little and often’ wave of nutritional advice – research has suggested eating multiple small meals a day maintains a healthy metabolism and stabilises blood sugar levels.

However, in a new study, the 16:8 was found to be effective at both reducing fat percentage and maintaining healthy muscle mass. And further research found it could prolong your life by allowing your body ‘rest’ time – called autophagy – to do its ‘housekeeping’: killing off bad cells and regenerating the useful ones.

‘Fasting also increases a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which helps with memory, learning and cognitive function,’ says Ravenshear.

INTERMITTENT FASTING:
THE REALITY

I set my eating window from 10am to 6pm. Even though I didn’t change my diet (a typical day would be porridge with fruit and nuts at 10am, a chicken stir-fry at 2pm and salad topped with avocado at 5.45pm), only consuming food between set hours came as a shock. Despite snacking on fruit and chocolate (give a girl a break) and upping my water intake to three litres, my stomach frequently growled and I got crippling headaches.

But within a couple of weeks, my body had adapted and I felt less bloated and more energised. Plus, it’s pretty hard to overeat when you only have eight hours, so the inches gradually fell away.

Weekends were tough. All that extra time to notice you’re not eating, and the antisocial aspect of not being able to make it to brunch and dinner. The pay-off is that you’re only restricting when, not what you’re eating. And fasting for 16 hours isn’t as daunting as it sounds when you factor in sleep.

But Ravenshear stresses the importance of not taking the eat-whatever-you-like approach too literally. ‘This diet isn’t a free pass to eat biscuits and pies,’ she says. ‘Fill up with protein-rich ingredients and healthy fats and avoid the empty calories in sugars and refined carbs if you want real long-term results.’

INTERMITTENT FASTING:
DOES IT WORK?

So what are intermittent fasting results? After eight weeks, I’d lost 4lbs, 3.5in from my waist and 2in from my hips – plus I felt more confident. But above all, I discovered how mentally strong I can be. Turns out you can have your cake and eat it (so long as it’s in your eight-hour window).

That said, I'm not sold on the sustainability of this diet plan. So much fun happens after 6pm.

INTERMITTENT FASTING:
THE RESEARCH

So what's the actual research behind intermittent fasting—does science believe it can work, or is it just another wellness fad sure to shade from the limelight as quickly as the Atkins diet?

Whilst the number of studies carried out on the matter is still fairly limited, one 2017 study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that those who followed a fasting diet every other day or a restricted calorie diet every day lost the same amount of weight. However, it's interesting to note that 38% of the fasters dropped out of the trial, which may reflect how unattainable the approach is long term.

On the other hand, several studies have found fasting to promote fat loss. One study inInt J Obesity found intermittent fasting to be more effective for fat loss in young women than a calorie controlled diet and further improved insulin sensitivity. Similarly, a study published in the journal Free Radical Bio Med saw those following a fasting diet lost 8% of their body fat over the course of eight weeks, whilst at the same time lowering their inflammation, oxidative stress and asthma levels. Interestingly, they also ranked higher on quality of life symptoms at the end of the eight weeks.

And another study published in the J Nutr Biochem journal concluded that fasting could reduce stress, promote quicker learning and memory function and stereotypical improve biomarkers of disease.

A nutritionist's verdict? Give it a go. Nutritionist Resource member Ruth Taylor said: "Intermittent fasting is proving to be a simple and safe method to help support weight loss and can also help reverse type two diabetes for some people. It is an easy to adapt method of eating that fits in with most lifestyles."

So there you have it. Would you try it?

Article source: https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/food/healthy-eating/a706882/intermittent-fasting-results/