Day 29: Fast After 5pm

Several weeks ago I did the challenge Fast until dinner. On the day of the challenge, I listened to a podcast on the benefits of fasting. Apparently, most of the benefits don’t materialize unless the fast aligns with your circadian rhythm. In other words, you should eat during the day, and fast in the evening.

If you pay attention to the intermittent fasting world, you’ll notice most people do the opposite. While there are some benefits to an evening feeding, this schedule can also compromise your health, for example, by disrupting your circadian rhythm. To hear the slew of consequences and missed benefits, listen to Dr. Rhonda Patrick on The Tim Ferriss Show.

So for day 29, I finished all my meals by 5:02 pm.

I ate what I normally eat, I just ate it earlier. The other half of my 2 person gang, Shlomo, joined me as well.

4:32pm, Dinner

What I Thought

This was awesome! I’m going to maintain the habit.

I didn’t feel hungry at all. And this makes so much sense. With a daytime-feeding, you sleep through your hungriest hours. Wake up, and it’s time to eat. On the other hand, with an evening feeding, you’ve gone the longest without food right before dinner. So you spend your hungriest hours while you’re awake and doing work.

Normally, I watch a reality tv show when I eat dinner with my spouse. But it was too weird for me to watch trash tv at 4:30pm. So we just ate dinner at the table. Because of this, I consumed no entertainment the entire day beside a non-fiction book and watching fellow discomfort enthusiast Nat Sharpe’s discomfort reel.

The biggest benefit by far was that somehow, I found much more time in the day. Once I was done with dinner, I had finished everything I needed to accomplish. I had 6 hours to do whatever I wanted.

I spent my time:

Having a restricted time for eating, helped free up all this time.

Most people save time by stopping for a quick bite at a restaurant. But I cook all my meals because of my strict diet. As a result, dinner gets in the way of any other evening activities. With this fasting schedule my evenings are totally freed up.

I’m hoping that the fast has a positive effect on my sleep quality. Sleep is something I struggle with. I’m also excited about the other long term health benefits, like reduced risk of cancers and cognitive decline.

Shlomo and I are continuing this fasting schedule.

What I Learned

I was nervous Shlomo wouldn’t be on board. But he thought it was great. Take a risk and assert yourself, you might find that everyone benefits.

Join The Challenge

For more information on the challenge, see the 30DaysOfDiscomfort challenge page.

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