What is time restricted eating to me
Time restricted eating is focused on when you eat rather than what you eat, it is about targeting an eating period between 8 and 10 hours. I tend to target 9 hours and stick to that 5 days a week, the other two days I am less strict although I always aim for a 12 hour window even on the more relaxed days.
But why do this, I hear you ask
Well, let me start with one reason that didn't come into my reasoning, that is weight loss, I just want to get that out of the way now.
Before starting I wasn't looking to change the way I eat but I heard Rhonda Patrick on the Joe Rogan Experience pod cast, it was episode 1054
After listening to this pod cast and doing some other reading on the topic (Lookup Dr Satchin Panda) I felt it may help me with the following:
- falling asleep faster
- feeling rested when I wake up
- heartburn in the evenings
- feeling lethargic mid afternoon
- illness (colds and alike)
- attention span
Did it work, would I recommend it?
Yes, for me it worked, I sold a friend of mine on the idea, he implemented it and has also had really good results. But... It was surprisingly hard to do, I tend not to eat until 11:30 / 12 pm now, but I used to start my day with a cup of tea, giving that up and replacing it with water was two weeks of pain, headaches and loss of concentration, I imagine this was my body craving some caffeine first thing in the morning. The next thing that I started to miss was snacks in the evening, when on my laptop or watching some TV after my eating period was up, to be honest this is still something that can be hard today, only on occasion now though.
The benefits are tremendous, for the first time in a long time I am able to lay down at night and fall asleep within 30 mins ( I used to lay for hours trying to fall asleep), I now regularly have very vivid dreams, which was an unexpected side affect, although it was said to be possible I had not had vivid dreams regularly since I was a kid, so never expected that to happen.
- Heartburn, gone.
- Lethargic afternoon feeling, gone.
- Attention span back on point.
- Not had a cold in 4 months, lets give that one another year and see how it pans out.
So for me it has checked all the boxes I started doing it for, as a result I don't see myself stopping.
I would 100% recommend it, be prepared for the tough times and the cravings for food outside of hours, stay strong.
weight loss
Although I did start this looking for weight loss it has been a nice side affect. I have lost just over a stone over the last 5 months. I have not changed my actual diet, there might be some truth in the theory that by reducing eating hours food intake is also reduced. I didn't measure my intake before I started so I cant say if this is true.
I believe with some additional exercise added I could lose the additional stone Id like to drop without too much issue, I will be doing that soon, just waiting on an injury.
What are your experiences?
I would be interested to hear your experiences, is there anything you want me to go into more detail on?
I plan on writing a much more detailed post to look at the science that backs this up and explain at a biological level why this change can have such an effect, would this be of interest?