Someone asked me about my thoughts on intermittent fasting so I’m gonna share them with you.

First of all: Just because I do not practice what’s typically understood under the term „intermittent fasting“ does not mean that you shouldn’t do it. Everyone is different, it may work super well for you. It also depends on what situation you are in. What time you get up, go to bed, what job you are in, where you live etc.

So why do I not practice intermittent fasting?

1. I LOVE breakfast, I always did. It’s truly something I look forward to in the morning. I also get hungry quickly in the morning. Even if I don’t feel hungry directly after getting up, the hunger will kick in after at least an hour of being on my feet. When I leave the house without breakfast for a blood test for example, my stomach starts to complain after a short while and I feel super low, shacky and grumpy.

2. To me personally it makes a lot more sense to not eat as much/too late at night than to not have breakfast. At night I will just go to bed soon anyway so why would I need a lot of food? On the contrary, my body needs the energy during the morning and lunchtime to get me through the day.

3. I found out that for me personally it’s way better to have 3-4 smaller meals than 2 huge portions. I know that you can also eat more meals with intermitted fasting but a lot of people seems to eat 2 huge portions and I just don’t feel good with stuffing my face like that anymore. I did it years ago when doing dinner cancelling which is pretty much the same (and still makes more sense to me tbh) just the other way round.

4. I know that a lot of people who do intermittent fasting eat „breakfast“ around 12/1pm and because they often have quite a huge portion and don’t get hungry that soon again, their dinner is also quite late. For me personally as someone who usually goes to bed around 10-11, dinner at 8 is already very late for me and I just don’t like eating that much shortly before going to bed.

5. Considering the fasting period itself: I agree that it’s good for your body to have a longer time without food to get a break from digesting and focus on other processes. However, I don’t see why you need to fast from night ‚til noon when you can also have a fasting period from late afternoon/early evening to morning. As far as I’m informed, in intermitted fasting it says you should have a fasting period of around 14-16h. I rarely have my dinner later than 6-7 in the evening, sometimes even at 5 now that I don’t come home from work late anymore. So let’s say I eat my last meal at 6, that would make a fasting period of 14h if I eat again at 8 in the morning.

6. I’m very happy that after years of dealing with an unhealthy relationship with food, I found my way back to intuitive eating which definitely is not the easiest thing. I’ve been eating intuitively for around 3-4 years now again and I rarely don’t want to risk losing my healthy and relaxed relationship with food again with following any rules. I just want to eat the way I feel like eating and listen to my body. I also have days when I only have a very small breakfast and my „real“ breakfast is around 11, for example when I only have fruit or a smoothie in the morning and a good portion of pancakes as second breakfast. As I mentioned before, it also depends on where you live. I’m sure that when I’m in a hot country again, I’m gonna have dinner later because it’s simply too hot during the day to eat a lot, it’s been like that in Morocco for example. So yes, I just want to listen to my body and let it adjust naturally to my current situation without having to stick to certain rules.