Tag: weight-loss

Intermittent Fasting

I’ve been reading a lot about intermittent fasting and how it can help with weight loss as well as gut health. There are three basic types of fasting:

  1. Time restricted eating. The model I have read most about is eating during an 8 hour window of the day (i.e. 10AM to 6PM) and fasting the remaining 16 hours. There are all kinds of variations on this but all of them require a fasting window of time longer than the eating window.
  2. Fasting by day. This means eating normally a specific number of consecutive days/week and fasting or severely restricting food intake on the remaining consecutive days. The most common plan I’ve found for this is to eat normally for 5 days and then fast or eat limited amounts of food the other 2 days of the week. I personally think this would be hard – I get cranky when I’m hungry!
  3. Eat – stop – eat model. This model says you can eat normally but pick 1 or 2 days of the week to completely fast.

I’m most interested in trying the first kind of intermittent fasting. Given that my normal sleep pattern is 6-7 hours/night, it should be pretty easy to manage fasting 12 or more hours a day. Are you interested in giving this a try? Here are some links to give you more info:

Wellness Wednesday – Steps

Welcome to Wellness Wednesday and today I’m thinking about how many steps a person really needs. The rule of thumb is supposedly 10,000 steps a day – which for me translates to about 4 miles/day. That’s easy to attain right now while I’m on my “corporate hiatus” but what about when I start work again? Is 10,000 steps really the right amount for me?

The Mayo Clinic says that the average American walks around 1.5 to 2 miles/day – or maybe 4,000 steps. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests the better number might be a minimum of 7,500 steps to see health benefits. Although of course the health benefits increase as the number of steps increase.

Here’s what I can tell you from my personal experience. I started walking a minimum of 2 miles a day last August and I am a faithful Apple Watch wearer so I have solid statistics on my step count and other health metrics. In July, I averaged 6,967 steps/day and in January, I averaged 11,462 steps/day. In July, my resting heart rate was 53 beats/minute – which was good for a woman my age. But now? It’s 46 beats/minute. Generally, a lower heart rate at rest implies more efficient heart function and better cardiovascular fitness – which can help translate to a better, longer life.

And while I’m still struggling to manage the weight I have gained over the last few years (thanks menopause!), walking is helping me burn a lot of extra calories. Apple defines “active” calories as energy burned over and above what you need when you’re at rest and in January, I averaged 503 active calories/day. I’m using this information to help me figure out what my calorie consumption can be to lose weight. According to my watch, at rest I burn about 1,600 calories/day. Add the 503 in active calories and I can consume 2,100 calories a day without gaining weight. 

My extra steps translate to hundreds of extra “active” calories/month – and with a pound of human fat equaling around 3,500 calories, those extra steps can translate to lost pounds quickly. So join me for the cardiac, weight loss and mental health benefits of walking. GET THOSE STEPS!!!

Image from Prevention Magazine