In the first 15 days of this month, I worked on my next habit experiment of Intermittent fasting. Though I knew the benefits of fasting before, this was a format I had never tried. Some call it a fad and some call it a breakthrough. My motive was to test whether Intermittent Fast really works. I wanted to see whether I lose any weight and whether I feel any lighter. Lots of home food during lockdown has been making me feel heavy and bloated often.

Rules Of The Challenge

The format I chose for Intermittent Fasting was the 16/8 fast. 16 hours of fast and 8 hours of eating time. I chose to do this for 15 continuous days. My first meal of the day was to start at 12.30 pm and the last at 8.30 pm. In the remaining time window, I would only drink water, tea, or coffee without milk and sugar. I achieved this by skipping breakfast and having just hot water and black coffee instead.

Results Of The Challenge

#1 Felt more hungry

My mornings start early. I am waking up at 5 am as often as I can. This means skipping breakfast was not the easiest thing for me. It means going hungry from 5 am to 12.30 pm. 7.5 hours on water and coffee was not easy. After 11 or 11.30 am, I used to get extremely hungry. I kept looking at the clock to see when the fasting window ends. I used an app for monitoring and setting daily reminders of the fast. But my hunger was the biggest reminder in itself. This made me grumpy quite often too.

#2 Bloating increased

Contrary to most people who write online about their reduced bloating, I felt it increased for me. I was eating home food, working out 5 days, and drinking lots of water throughout these days. So, it made no sense why I still kept feeling so. I felt constantly acidic and bloated. The only explanation was that I was probably eating a bit more than usual. I was compensating for the fast during the 8-hour eating window. I would get so hungry by 12.30 pm that I would invariably eat more than usual.

#3 No weight loss

I do have a weighing scale at home. I try to use it responsibly and not to make myself anxious. During this challenge, I monitored my weight in the beginning and then on a daily basis. At the beginning I weighed 61 kg and I weighed exactly the same after it. There was not even a half kg change. Isn’t that hilarious? All those hungry and grumpy mornings, for no results.

Will I do it again?

Overall, I felt Intermittent fasting was of no help to my lifestyle. I will continue trying it occasionally for a day or two. For example, I would skip breakfast and eat after a 16 hours window when I have eaten too much at a buffet previous night. But other than that, I wouldn’t go back to trying this more regularly.

Read more on my other habit experiments here. Share your experience of a similar fast if you have tried one. Comment on whether you saw any benefits or not.