Welcome to my 50th month of intermittent fasting! If you’re interested in fasting, I hope that my experience is useful. I’m especially writing this for anybody who is curious about long-term time-restricted eating (TRE).
It might feel scary in the beginning to skip a meal, but your body knows exactly what to do when it can take a break from frequent digesting.
This post is part of a series, so if you want to start at the very beginning, click on over to Intermittent Fasting for Autophagy and Designer Denim, Month Zero.
I update every ten months, so if you just want a peek at the last update – here it is. Intermittent Fasting, Month Forty📍
Welcome back!
The past ten months have been very busy. It’s not every summer that you move to Japan!
I still enjoy daily fasting (a.k.a. not eating all day) to improve my metabolic health. My insulin sensitivity has declined in recent years (I’ll be 40 soon), and my fasting glucose is pre-diabetic. Luckily I do not meet other diagnostic criteria, and I intend to keep it that way.
Month forty was January 2024 for me.
I prefer one meal a day (OMAD). I have zero appetite upon waking, so waiting to eat is very easy.
Typically I fast with black coffee and water until about 4pm (if I’m preparing dinner), or I’ll fast longer if we’re going out to eat. I am still a late night snacker, my weapon of choice is stovetop popcorn.
For the past ten months I have continued to
- keep berberine available. I know it’s good for me, but it’s not a habit right now.
- cook majority of our meals because I love cooking, but also because I am very picky about the molecules that we are using to replenish our bodies. And especially the foods that are rapidly making my kid taller and faster.
- eat and drink daily, just not every waking hour. My body loves the digestive rest, and I like doing things away from the kitchen.
The past ten months have changed
- my clothing sizes (so close to wedding-day size!). I wear smalls and fours regularly again.
- my ring sizes. I can wear my engagement ring again, but not my original wedding band.
- how often I make chili. It doesn’t spike my insulin and makes me feel great, so I have been having fun using different meats and different beans. Yes, fellow Texans, BEANS. Yum.
Between months 40 and 50
- we moved to Tokyo!
- we sold a house, sold two cars, lived in hotels and friend’s basements, bought old Japanese cars, learned to drive on the left side of the road, and got very comfortable with using Google Translate (me especially. Mister Jupiter has been learning Japanese since college and I have a lot of catching up to do if I want to be illiterate).
- I have embraced local flavors and a few habits. I too enjoy long walks to the train station and a nice mushroom hotpot. Throw in some pickled mackerel and I’ll just stay here forever.
➤ Weight
50 Months fasting is a nice little milestone, so I made you a chart of all of my weight data since I started fasting in December 2019.
I still don’t own a scale. And my medications are not calculated on weight, so my own doctor doesn’t weigh me either.
And yes, the graph is correct. In 50 months I have lost 15lbs. My average adult weight has always been about 120lbs (except for that one time I was pregnant). So maintaining an average of 140lbs was just too much for my body. I felt like I was trapped in puffy layers.
I thought that I would be one of those women who shed the baby weight easily. Well, I was not. I did drop most of the extra fluid and inflammation in Baby Jupiter’s first few months, but I got stuck at 140lbs and was not happy or comfortable.
My issue is definitely stress. Stress impacts my insulin sensitivity, circulating glucose, and ability to keep body fat. Medicating my ADHD has reduced my stress significantly. I used to easily sleep at night because I was exhausted from using all of my mental energy to not scream at people all day.
I don’t feel like that anymore, so now I need magnesium or melatonin to sleep. Yay!
I’m only sharing weight at all because I know that so many people are interested in fasting for weight loss, and I like showing that it’s not always that easy. Yes, I have been fasting for years and I love it, but I also had a two year plateau.
I didn’t “give up” on fasting “because it wasn’t working.” Not at all. Fasting helped me put other pieces together that lead to an ADHD diagnosis. Besides, while I love breakfast food as a genre, I don’t wake up hungry. Eating a lot of refined carbohydrates makes me fatigued, and I genuinely prefer black coffee. So even if I “stopped fasting” I would still naturally fast 16+ hours each day because that’s just how I work.
➤ Chronological Timeline
Here’s the fun stuff. I like comparing photos, so I gathered several for you!
^ Love this skirt.
^ Here you can see that I still have plenty of refined carbohydrates and sweets, but unlike previous months I CAN have a few days without them. It’s not hard, it’s just inconvenient for me when I eat with my family who can handle such foods.
➤ Goal Pants
Well, I had two pairs, but since month 40, I’ve been bouncing between a small size four and an average six. My physical size changes quickly in response to heat, stress, or…sliced bread. The bloat is so rapid that I can fast all day in rigid size four clothes, but I need to change into stretchy size six pants after breaking my fast with refined grains.
I might bring them back in the future, but now that I’m able to wear most size fours again, I’m not particularly motivated. Am I in my goal body? Not quite, but I’m close enough.
If you want to see me shrink (or not!), check out my Outfits of the Day.
I take a few photos each month. And will definitely update when I can; I know I’m behind.
Q. Any new plans for the immediate future?
A. No new plans really. As usual I’ll try to have a full fast day sometime, but it’s hard when my kid specifically says that he likes eating with me. We love our family mealtimes.
I’ll try to use my Lumen for a month this year and see what that device says about my metabolic flexibility. I won’t be surprised if I don’t get a “boost day.”
Otherwise, my habits are so sustainable that I don’t have to think about it. That’s why I’m sharing my experience with you. It takes a little practice to get going, but being a little strict in the beginning opens the door for all sorts of flexibility in the near future.
^ Here’s my recorded glucose this year so far. Higher than I like, but still interesting. I look forward to my next CGMs.
^ And now I have a ketone breath meter for fun. Next update’s ketone graph will have more data, and hopefully higher averages too!
If you’re interested in the science and inner workings of fasting, I recommend reading (or listening to)
- The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung
- The Diabetes Code by Dr. Jason Fung
- Fast, Feast, Repeat by Gin Stephens
- Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman PhD
And that’s it for today! I’ve enjoyed sharing my fasting months 40 through 50 with you! I’ll be back in ten months to share again.
If you can’t wait that long, check out Lady Jupiter Podcast – I talk about all sorts of little things including fasting. But I can’t prioritize podcasting either right now. Being a stay-at-home parent is fun, but it is the absolute killer of hobbies for me.
Here’s the internet player if you want to dive right in (opens new tab).
☞ Ready for more? “Intermittent Fasting, Month 60” will be published in December 2024.
.
.
Lady Jupiter 
Kudos to you for 50 months on IF! 👏
LikeLike