My love of food is obvious to anyone who knows me. I always thoroughly enjoy eating out with family and friends. And a meal without dessert is nowhere near as much fun. Unfortunately as I age I cannot eat as much without seeing it land on my middle. I have resumed jogging after decades of avoiding it, upped my walking minutes per day, pushed myself to hike more frequently, incorporated push ups, sit ups, plank and wall sits into my weekly routine, yet still it creeps. So my best friend in Germany suggested intermittent fasting. Ugh!
The theory is that you want your body to utilize fat for fuel rather than the food you have just eaten, and that in doing so, it somehow cleanses your cells and permits you to live longer with less diseases. There have been studies in mice that show less food intake per day lengthens your life span. That reminds me of the fellow who goes to his doctor and asks him how to live a long life. The doctor says to quit smoking, drinking and eating fried food. The man asks if that will prolong his life. The doctor says “it will definitely feel longer.” I was at the optometrist the other day, who is incredibly healthy. He told me that we should stop eating when we feel 80% full because that is the trigger for enough food. Again, ugh!
So I am trying intermittent fasting to determine if it stops the weight creep. There are many ways to go about intermittent fasting. The easiest is 12 hours of fasting and 12 hours of eating. I could do that. The problem is that method apparently doesn’t have the same benefits as a longer fast. So you move to 14 hours of fasting and 10 hours of eating. Again, I could do that. Again, the problem is that method apparently doesn’t have the same benefits as a longer fast. Remember how much I love to eat and you start to see the problem. My girlfriend fasts for 16 hours and eats for 8 hours. I find that very difficult. By the time 16 hours is up, I am starving and focusing almost exclusively on food. The next school of thought is to fast for 24 hours at a time once or twice a week. Now we are just getting crazy!
So I have implemented the Simplify 15/9 plan. 15 hours of fasting and 9 hours of eating. We will see how it goes and whether the fasting plus all the increased physical activity can make the newly arrived belly fat disappear. Studies show that between 45 and 55 years of age, women gain an average of 11 pounds. Once more, ugh!
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