Fast. Feast. Repeat.: The Comprehensive Guide to Delay, Don't Deny Intermittent Fasting--Including the 28-Day Fast Start

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When you read my diet history, it may remind you of your own similar struggle. Yes, I am a real person, just like you. For decades, I tried and tried, and then I tried some more. If sheer effort made you thin, it would have solved the problem much earlier. If you are someone like me, you can relate to the struggle of continuing to get heavier and heavier over time, despite frantically following all the dietary advice that comes our way.

We have a great deal of scientific research that explains how this happens in the body. Some of the earliest research on this phenomenon began in 1944. As World War II came to an end, a scientist named Ancel Keys wanted to take a close look at how the human body responded to extreme deprivation and the subsequent reintroduction of food. He and his colleagues from the University of Minnesota conducted a famous Adjust your fasting. First, make sure you’re fasting cleanly. Second, switch up your fasting rhythms: Try going from TRE to ADF, changing the length of your fasting window, or adjusting when you fast and when you feast.People sometimes think that fasting only helps you lose weight because it causes you to eat less. If you don’t eat for half the day, the thinking goes, you’ll probably end up cutting a few calories. We have a great deal of scientific research that explains how this happens in the body. Some of the earliest research on this phenomenon began in 1944. As World War II came to an end, a scientist named Ancel Keys wanted to take a close look at how the human body responded to extreme deprivation and the subsequent reintroduction of food. He and his colleagues from the University of Minnesota conducted a famous study now known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. ² The topic was of immense interest because they knew that war-torn Europe faced the huge task of refeeding a population who had undergone a period of extreme deprivation due to the war. Prior to this experiment, little was known about the physiological and psychological effects of starvation. So, the purpose of this study was to gain insight into the physical and emotional effects of semistarvation and to see what would happen when food once again became available. Intermittent fasting is an effective method. It’s adjustable, relatively easy, and supports you in weight-loss and longer life. In sum, it seems like a miracle– but it’s not.

Well, it may– however, that way of thinking neglects everything that does fasting unique. Fasting’s method of working is not only making you eat less. It works since it stimulates some of the really important procedures in the body. Do not change what you eat during this four-week period. Adapting to IF is a large change, and another—such as diet change—can overwhelm you and hinder the process. According to Stephens, there are multiple “rhythms” or patterns of fast, feast, repeat that you can use. The two main categories are time-restricted eating and alternate-day fasting. Each has its own benefits and suitable use cases. Time-Restricted Eating (TRE) So? Why do diets like these leave us heavier and heavier over time? Why can’t we succeed, even though we are trying and trying? In their view, ultra-processed foods are by nature unhealthy and we shouldn’t eat them. The researchers argue that such “foods” are created from industrially derived and processed ingredients that leave no real food intact. They argue that a global food industry is steadily replacing traditional, less-processed diets with convenient, cheap, and heavily-processed “food products.”

Disadvantages

Each time you make an adjustment, give your body at least two weeks to adjust before judging how something works for you. Listen to your body’s signals—if you feel great, that’s a good sign. If you feel moody or nauseous, try adjusting your approach again. Shorter eating windows such as OMAD and 19:5 truly have more advantages than longer ones – actually, the study determines that the speed of losing-fat rises importantly after 18-24 hours of fasting.

Fast. Feast. Repeat. has it all! You’ll learn how to work a variety of intermittent fasting approaches into your life, no matter what your circumstances or schedule. Once you’ve ignited your fat-burning superpower, you’ll get rid of “diet brain” forever, tweak your protocol until it’s second nature, and learn why IF is a lifestyle, not a diet. Once upon a time, my entire life was work, advanced education, and my family. My life was out of balance, and I really had to look at what I needed to do to live a more balanced life. I have spent the last several years trying to help others do the same. One of the things I love about helping others is that in my quest to help, I also continue to learn so much about myself, how our bodies function, and how to optimize our mental and physical health. I love to experiment with tools and products that can be used to help people live their best and healthiest lives. Are you ready to take your intermittent fasting lifestyle to the next level? There’s nothing better than community to help with that. In the Delay, Don’t Deny community we all embrace the clean fast, and there’s just the right support for you as you live your intermittent fasting lifestyle. Stephens explains that when it’s time to eat, you can eat whichever foods you want. She recommends following her “delay, don’t deny” principle and eating mainly quality foods.

Notice that Keys used the word starvation to refer to this period of the experiment. Every time I read about this study, it is surprising to realize that the men were fed an average of 1,800 calories of food per day during the period that was the starvation period. If you are a long-term dieter like me, you may look at that number—1,800—and think, WHAT?!?!?! Seriously, 1,800 calories per day was considered starvation level?!?!?! I remember my own low-calorie dieting days, and my calorie target was always to eat 1,200 or fewer calories per day—1,800 seems like a feast compared to the restrictive 1,200 I’d allowed myself. That goes to show that when we follow extreme low-calorie diet plans, we are usually subjecting ourselves to even more restriction than the participants in the most extreme starvation experiment in history were following. Diets don’t work. You know you know that, and yet you continue to try them, because what else can you do? You can Fast. Feast. Repeat. After losing over eighty pounds and keeping every one of them off, Gin Stephens started a vibrant, successful online community with hundreds of thousands of members from around the world who have learned the magic of a Delay, Don’t Deny® intermittent fasting lifestyle. According to Stephens, bitter flavors from coffee or tea don’t activate the insulin response. Nor do non-flavored beverages, salt, or medications. One of the reasons that fasting helps you to lose weight is that it causes the amount of insulin flowing in your bloodstream drop. One of the most common kinds of intermittent fasting is based on an eating window. The meaning of it is that you eat just for a fixed number of hours in a day; outside of your window, taking calories is stringently off-limits.

A different issue is that counting calories teach you to trust external signals about the time of stopping eating, instead of doing what your body itself is directing you. Don’t deny means that there’s no list of banned foods. When it’s time to eat, enjoy what you’d like to—whether it’s a cheeseburger or a salad is up to you. In The Obesity Code, Jason Fung explains that, contrary to popular understanding, obesity isn’t caused by overeating. Instead, overeating is a symptom of obesity. In Fung’s view, the term obesity doesn’t refer to being overweight—rather, it refers to a hormonal imbalance with side effects including persistent hunger and intractable weight gain. It also drives up your set point, the body’s preferred default weight. This imbalance is likely caused by ultra-processed foods.

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Want to learn all of the science behind the clean fast? Read Gin’s book, Fast Feast Repeat , available wherever you buy books. https://www.ginstephens.com/get-the-books.html IF is free. You don’t need to join our community to fast. But if you’re looking for support from a community of like-minded IFers, we are here for you at ginstephens.com/community . Shortform note: While Stephens asserts that you’ll only reap the full benefits of fasting by following her guidelines, other practitioners allow for some consumption during the fasting period. This is because different IFers have different goals: Martin Berkhan, author of The Leangains Method, recommends taking BCAA supplements prior to exercise—his goal is bodybuilding. To better understand how you should fast and feast, consider your own goals: Do you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or simply maintain good health? Depending on the answer, you have more or less room to compromise with Stephens’s relatively strict plan.) Feast on Quality Foods Plus Some Treats In Fast. Feast. Repeat., Gin Stephens explains how intermittent fasting (IF) can help you lose weight, feel better, fight disease, and live longer. Stephens breaks down the cutting-edge science that supports fasting as a powerful practice for overall health, and she explains how to implement intermittent fasting as a sustainable, flexible lifestyle choice. Some of the people don’t eat at all on their down days. Other ones believe that having one small meal that is up to 500 calories so much easier.