Sundays are always a good day for me to fast because there are not too many strenuous work activities to be conducted on this day and I assume that this may be true of many others. But perhaps not, so I’ll speak of my own experience in order for you to gauge how you can mix fasting with exercise.
I don’t do this every week but when I do I might have my meal around 8pm so I have enough time to digest my meal before going to sleep. At around 10pm I will read in bed and then I will let myself drift off. If I’m feeling a bit hungry while reading, I’ll think of all the food I’ve just eaten and then realise I don’t actually need any more. Trust me, by the time it reaches morning, you’re not that hungry. So why eat first thing in the morning if we’re not hungry? If we can wait a while before consuming food we’re effectively prolonging the fast and burning more fat.
At around half nine or ten I’ll cycle up to the athletics track and do some weights in the gym, gym without weights, some sprints or a mixture – whatever I fancy. Cycling there and back takes a combined total of about 40 minutes and I’m usually chatting to people there so the workouts are not that strenuous. Maybe aim to spend 30 minutes of hard intense workouts in the gym and the other hour and a half chatting with other people. Yes you heard it right; an effective gym session can be completed in as little as 30 – well 10 minutes or less to be precise. But enough of that; that’s for another article.
By 12:30, I’ll be ready to go home and I haven’t been feeling hungry because I’ve been occupied chatting and exercising. I think that’s a factor for overeating – boredom. Was the workout harder because I had less dietary carbohydrates in my system? Of course, but it’s meant to be and you’ll have burned so much more body fat working harder than someone who ate cereal and drank a sports energy drink while training so remember to keep it intense and fast.
It’s now 1pm and I’m wondering what to do, I haven’t eaten for 17 hours, so I take a shower, get changed and prepare something to eat and I’m tucking in at two, don’t be afraid to eat generously now – Paleo food of course – and there we have it – an 18 hour fast with exercise.
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Here's Arthur de Vany in great condition in his seventies. Intermittent fasting worked for him and I learned from the master, so now it's time for all of us to get results. |
