Dieting Is Hard…Let’s Make It Simple…
If you ever tried dieting, as most people have at least one time or another, by eating a restrictive diet for any length of time…you know how HARD it is.
It slowly wears you down until the inevitable happens…you overeat and abandoned your diet completely.
As hunger can easily break the strongest of willpower. Hunger and the drive to eat is what keeps you alive, so no wonder it is such a powerful force to reckon with. Depending on your willpower, it can be a week or 6 months but hunger usually wins in the end. No matter how much we want to lose that spare tire or fit into that specific item of clothing, or just simply look better.
Since my 30s, I’ve tried many diets like Atkins Diet and many other restrictive dieting programs along with exercise in order to lose weight. I suffered and sure I saw weight loss but it was short-lived
as I eventually went back to eating more food and gaining the weight back. I am in my mid-40s and believe I have found what actually works for me and for most people long term. Either for long-term weight loss or just maintaining weight loss without the suffering of hunger.
Okay, How Do We Fight Hunger?
This reminds me of the question, “How do you fight fire? The answer, With fire”
or
“How do you kill a dragon? With another dragon, of course.”
But in this case, we use an alternate form of hunger called fasting.
So how do we fight hunger? With fasting?
Or to be more specific Intermittent fasting. Yeppers!
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is a current phenomenon that is quickly overtaking the world of fitness and health. More and more people are trying it and seeing the many benefits and ease of intermittent fasting. Most importantly, losing weight effortlessly compared to the old standard of starving yourself method of eating five to six small meals during the day.
Intermittent fasting is waiting longer to eat in the day, thereby extending the fast to anywhere between 10 to 16 hours within a 24 hour day. Thereby, minimizing the number of hours in which you are able to eat. This can be different from different programs, as some want the hours to be around 10 to as low as 6 hours, but the average is usually 8 hours.
So, you have only a time frame of 8 hours when you can eat. This means skipping breakfast and waiting to around noonish to eat or later to consume your first meal.
Example:
- Eat last meal at 9:00 pm
- Wake up at 6:00 am
- First meal at 1:00 pm
- A small snack at 5:00 pm
- Last meal at 9:00 pm
Myths On Dieting
So, why skip breakfast when just about everyone says, breakfast is the most important meal of the day?
Because this is a myth and a lie that has been perpetuated by the media and food companies to increase food sales. Hard cold facts!
Skipping breakfast is essentially what you will be doing. By doing this you reduce your meals from the standard of 3 meals a day or even worse 5 to 6 small meals a day down to just 2 meals a day and a small snack.
Won’t This Make Me Hungrier?
No.
With a good intermittent fasting program to follow, you thereby eat at a caloric deficit easily by first fasting, then by having two larger meals which leave you feeling full. This satiated feeling is very lacking from many many dieting programs that want you to eat the small five to six meals a day. Unable to feel satiated is what leads many people to break their dieting program and destroys their willpower. This is almost impossible to do for long periods of time, as being in a constant state of hunger.
I know what you’re going to ask, won’t fasting for 16 hours be hard?
Nope…
You might experience hunger pains for as little as one day to a week but after that, your body quickly adapts to this way of eating and you don’t have hunger pains. For me, it was two days and after those 2 days, I had zero hunger pains. The human body is amazing and can quickly adapt to changes, trust me it gets easy!!!
Push through those initial days to make dieting and losing weight easier. To read of my personal experience with first doing intermittent fasting head over here, Is Kinobody A Scam?
Ask yourself would you rather suffer through a couple of days of mild hunger pains with a big meal afterward or months of eating tiny meals that never leave you feeling full? Uhmm, I take the first one every time.
There are plenty of tricks also to help extend your fast, see Some Tips On Intermittent Fasting below.
Intermittent Fasting Is A Life Hack
Intermittent fasting makes dieting easier. Almost effortless!
Our ancestors used to eat this way as a way of life, we have forgotten and moved away from this way due to our modern lifestyle and convenience.
Intermittent fasting will make losing weight easier and doable for long periods of time. I have been doing it for more than two years and going strong!
Some Tips On Intermittent Fasting
To help extend your fast many programs recommend you drink a couple of cups of coffee a few hours after waking up. Coffee does a great job of helping extend a fast and staving off hunger pains, especially in the beginning.
Make zero calories liquids your friend. Water, tea, coffee, and sparkling water. If you don’t like drinking plain water much head over to my page, How To Correctly Drink Water…Yep, You Read That Right to get plenty of ideas and tricks to making water taste better and healthier.
A cool little trick is to add a pinch of Himalayan sea salt to some water. This will fool your body into believing you ate something, while also providing some important minerals as well.
Programs That Use Intermittent Fasting
There are many programs that have there own take and rules for intermittent fasting, I will list some of the ones I have purchased and reviewed.
I have written reviews on all of these programs and these programs and each of them have their own unique system to help people lose weight and get into shape.
These are some of the most popular programs that use intermittent fasting.
- Kinobody – This is the program that first introduced me to I.F. The program is designed by Greg O’Gallagher and has nine different programs for both men and women that want a specific look. They match the program to the desired look you want to achieve. This is a very popular program for losing weight and gaining muscle, as this focusing on achieving an aesthetically pleasing physique. Unsure what program is right for you just click the Kinobody Survey link and answer 4 questions to get the right program for you.
- The Warrior Shredding Physique – This is Kinobody’s most popular program.
- The Greek God Physique
- The Superhero Physique
- The Goddess Toning Program
- Aggressive Fat Loss
- Bodyweight Mastery
- Cardio Abs & Mobility Program
- Science-Based Six Pack – This program is designed by Thomas DeLauer and is based purely on scientific research to lose weight and gain muscle. One of the most comprehensive programs I have ever reviewed. Click this link to watch my video on YouTube describing the program. If you find the information helpful, please like and subscribe to my channel. My video review of Science-Based Six Pack Review.
- Eat Stop Eat – This another intermittent fasting based program that is designed mostly around dieting and a little with working out. A good general program that one of the cheapest programs out there. This program also implores fasting for longer than 16 hours.
- The 2 Week Diet – This is a good mix of dieting, exercise with the added caveat of a Motivation handbook. To read more about this program in my review, Is 2 Week Diet A Scam?
Wrap Up
With any of the proven methods listed above and a little effort on your part results will ensue. Pick one, stay consistent with it, and enjoy the results.
Eating at a caloric deficit is one of the sure-fire ways to lose weight and intermittent fasting makes this almost effortless. Instead of fighting hunger pains with diet programs that just don’t work give this form a fasting a try. I know it has changed my life for the better and I think it will for you too.
Have you ever tried intermittent fasting? Have any questions concerning I.F. Comments and questions are always welcomed at HoneBodyMind.com.
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