About My Experiment
Hi there. This is a blog about my experience with early time-restricted eating, ie not eating past 3 or 4 in the afternoon for 5 or so days a week.
Why would anyone do this? Well, there's a lot of evidence to show that having a daily fasting period is really good for us, and it looks like keeping the eating window to earlier in the day is more beneficial than not eating in the morning and having a window from 12-8, for example. When the eating window is earlier in the day, we produce less cortisol in the evening (cortisol is great for laying down belly fat) and we have a greater amount of BDNF and other anti-aging factors. I'm simplifying, but this is what I have read in several recent studies.
Beyond that, my own personal experience over the years has been when I eat less in the evenings, my weight tends to go down. More recently, I've experimented with eating all my calories before 4 pm and then eating all my calories in a more "normal" time window, say before 7 pm. When I eat in the earlier window, I can eat the EXACT same number of calories, say 1900, and lose a half pound a day. When I eat those 1900 calories spread out up till 6 or 7 pm, I don't lose weight, or I slowly gain it.
What follows is a little history of my weight and relationship with food. If this bores you, skip to the last paragraph!
I've been trying to lose weight for the past few years. I've always struggled a little with my weight. My family has a history of alcoholism and food addiction. I believe my brain is pre-disposed to medicate with food. I was a chubby pre-teen, who normalized body weight during the teen years, but my relationship with food was terrible. I dieted and got on the binge/starve train. This really didn't do anything for my health or my weight. In my early 20's, I realized I was suffering with depression, and began taking Wellbutrin. This STOPPED the food obsession in its tracks and for the first time in my life I had a normal relationship to food. I suddenly realized exactly what I wanted to eat and when, and I as soon as I had enough, I simply stopped eating. It was like a miracle. I lost a significant amount of weight and felt good, although at times I did take it too far with not eating.
I moved to England, and the doctors there could not prescribe me the Wellbutrin anymore. My bingeing returned with a vengeance, and I gained weight rapidly. I worked really hard on addressing the root of the binge behaviors with intuitive eating and while that did help, I continued to gain weight. I started on Paxil and my mood thank god was helped significantly, but with the Paxil came some crazy sugar cravings. No longer binge eating, but I would hit the vending machine at least a couple of times a day for some candy or chocolate.
Then came a move back to the US. No longer on my Paxil, my mood tanked, I started bingeing again (I believe this was my brain's attempt to normalize my moods) and I gained even more weight and was feeling absolutely terrible. Went back on Wellbutrin with the same experience as before- no more food obsession and returned to a weight where I felt and looked good.
I went off the Wellbutrin during my first pregnancy. My pregnancy was healthy, but the birth traumatic and I unknowingly suffered with severe post-partum depression and anxiety for about 18 months. It finally lifted at that time, and I joined weight watchers and began daily morning runs, starting with jogging only a block at a time and walking for three alternating. Weight watchers worked well for me because the points plus system allowed me to eat whatever I wanted, so I never felt restricted, but the pounds began to come off and I built my running up to 3 miles at a time and got to a weight where I felt good and thought I looked good as well.
Second pregnancy went well and had no issues after the birth. When my daughter was a couple of years old though, I started to suffer with severe PMS, or PMDD. I'd always suffered pretty badly with PMS, but at this point I found myself turning into someone else for at least 10 days before my period, having extreme food cravings, physical symptoms and rage, which is very unlike me. I did not want to be that person around my kids, so I tried going back on Wellbutrin, which this time, didn't seem to work well for my mood and I ended up back on Paxil, which was amazing for about a year until I suddenly put on 10 pounds in one month and no amount of calorie restriction would budge that number on the scale. I had already held on to 10 extra pounds after the pregnancy so this extra 10 was pretty unwelcome. I switched to prozac, which didn't work as well, and the same thing happened after one year- I gained 8 pounds in one month. I should mention I wasn't doing anything differently when these sudden weight gains occurred. Anyone who has had experience with SSRI's may know that this type of weight gain is a common side effect. I was also experiencing other unwanted side effects, so I started weaning the Prozac and started a very small dose of Wellbutrin. Once the Prozac was discontinued, I began a microdose of Naltrexone as well. I have an auto-immune skin disorder and had wanted to try low-dose Naltrexone which turned out to significantly improve that, as well as making me feel a little better mood wise. My dose of Wellbutrin is half of what it was previously, so my plan is to see whether I can work up to the full dose of 300mg that I used to be on. I do not suffer anymore with binge eating and I eat healthy most of the time except for a few days around my period when all hell breaks loose. I may write a bit about some of the things that help with that (fasting is one of them).
I am now at my heaviest non-pregnant weight. I work out most days of the week, but that does nothing to help me lose weight. I am reasonably fit, but I hate the way my clothes fit and I don't feel right in my body and haven't for a long time. Calorie restriction seems unsustainable and also I don't wish to slow my metabolism over the long term. This has led me to an interest in fasting- also the anti-aging effects as I'm in my early 40's now and wish to keep my skin looking good for as long as possible.
I've read a lot about fasting and have tried things like Prolon's five day fast with good results. I have experimented a little, as mentioned above, with the times of my eating windows and compared with calorie restriction, which seems to allow me to lose 3 or 4 pounds a month which I regain before and during my period. I've tried doing things like a 5:2 or alternate day fasting which is pretty torturous, in my opinion, and the weight loss for me is similar to calorie restriction. During this last year, I came across a book called The 3pm Secret, which recommends an early eating window, and studies about an early eating window, and felt drawn to experiment with this method.
So the point of this blog is to share my experience with early TRE, and keep me accountable, as I need that. My search for information and support online hasn't turned up much so I thought maybe if I share my experiment it may help someone else who's considering trying this. I plan to stop eating each day at 3 or 4 pm, except for weekends or social engagements. I will document my experience for the next month and let you know how it goes.
Why would anyone do this? Well, there's a lot of evidence to show that having a daily fasting period is really good for us, and it looks like keeping the eating window to earlier in the day is more beneficial than not eating in the morning and having a window from 12-8, for example. When the eating window is earlier in the day, we produce less cortisol in the evening (cortisol is great for laying down belly fat) and we have a greater amount of BDNF and other anti-aging factors. I'm simplifying, but this is what I have read in several recent studies.
Beyond that, my own personal experience over the years has been when I eat less in the evenings, my weight tends to go down. More recently, I've experimented with eating all my calories before 4 pm and then eating all my calories in a more "normal" time window, say before 7 pm. When I eat in the earlier window, I can eat the EXACT same number of calories, say 1900, and lose a half pound a day. When I eat those 1900 calories spread out up till 6 or 7 pm, I don't lose weight, or I slowly gain it.
What follows is a little history of my weight and relationship with food. If this bores you, skip to the last paragraph!
I've been trying to lose weight for the past few years. I've always struggled a little with my weight. My family has a history of alcoholism and food addiction. I believe my brain is pre-disposed to medicate with food. I was a chubby pre-teen, who normalized body weight during the teen years, but my relationship with food was terrible. I dieted and got on the binge/starve train. This really didn't do anything for my health or my weight. In my early 20's, I realized I was suffering with depression, and began taking Wellbutrin. This STOPPED the food obsession in its tracks and for the first time in my life I had a normal relationship to food. I suddenly realized exactly what I wanted to eat and when, and I as soon as I had enough, I simply stopped eating. It was like a miracle. I lost a significant amount of weight and felt good, although at times I did take it too far with not eating.
I moved to England, and the doctors there could not prescribe me the Wellbutrin anymore. My bingeing returned with a vengeance, and I gained weight rapidly. I worked really hard on addressing the root of the binge behaviors with intuitive eating and while that did help, I continued to gain weight. I started on Paxil and my mood thank god was helped significantly, but with the Paxil came some crazy sugar cravings. No longer binge eating, but I would hit the vending machine at least a couple of times a day for some candy or chocolate.
Then came a move back to the US. No longer on my Paxil, my mood tanked, I started bingeing again (I believe this was my brain's attempt to normalize my moods) and I gained even more weight and was feeling absolutely terrible. Went back on Wellbutrin with the same experience as before- no more food obsession and returned to a weight where I felt and looked good.
I went off the Wellbutrin during my first pregnancy. My pregnancy was healthy, but the birth traumatic and I unknowingly suffered with severe post-partum depression and anxiety for about 18 months. It finally lifted at that time, and I joined weight watchers and began daily morning runs, starting with jogging only a block at a time and walking for three alternating. Weight watchers worked well for me because the points plus system allowed me to eat whatever I wanted, so I never felt restricted, but the pounds began to come off and I built my running up to 3 miles at a time and got to a weight where I felt good and thought I looked good as well.
Second pregnancy went well and had no issues after the birth. When my daughter was a couple of years old though, I started to suffer with severe PMS, or PMDD. I'd always suffered pretty badly with PMS, but at this point I found myself turning into someone else for at least 10 days before my period, having extreme food cravings, physical symptoms and rage, which is very unlike me. I did not want to be that person around my kids, so I tried going back on Wellbutrin, which this time, didn't seem to work well for my mood and I ended up back on Paxil, which was amazing for about a year until I suddenly put on 10 pounds in one month and no amount of calorie restriction would budge that number on the scale. I had already held on to 10 extra pounds after the pregnancy so this extra 10 was pretty unwelcome. I switched to prozac, which didn't work as well, and the same thing happened after one year- I gained 8 pounds in one month. I should mention I wasn't doing anything differently when these sudden weight gains occurred. Anyone who has had experience with SSRI's may know that this type of weight gain is a common side effect. I was also experiencing other unwanted side effects, so I started weaning the Prozac and started a very small dose of Wellbutrin. Once the Prozac was discontinued, I began a microdose of Naltrexone as well. I have an auto-immune skin disorder and had wanted to try low-dose Naltrexone which turned out to significantly improve that, as well as making me feel a little better mood wise. My dose of Wellbutrin is half of what it was previously, so my plan is to see whether I can work up to the full dose of 300mg that I used to be on. I do not suffer anymore with binge eating and I eat healthy most of the time except for a few days around my period when all hell breaks loose. I may write a bit about some of the things that help with that (fasting is one of them).
I am now at my heaviest non-pregnant weight. I work out most days of the week, but that does nothing to help me lose weight. I am reasonably fit, but I hate the way my clothes fit and I don't feel right in my body and haven't for a long time. Calorie restriction seems unsustainable and also I don't wish to slow my metabolism over the long term. This has led me to an interest in fasting- also the anti-aging effects as I'm in my early 40's now and wish to keep my skin looking good for as long as possible.
I've read a lot about fasting and have tried things like Prolon's five day fast with good results. I have experimented a little, as mentioned above, with the times of my eating windows and compared with calorie restriction, which seems to allow me to lose 3 or 4 pounds a month which I regain before and during my period. I've tried doing things like a 5:2 or alternate day fasting which is pretty torturous, in my opinion, and the weight loss for me is similar to calorie restriction. During this last year, I came across a book called The 3pm Secret, which recommends an early eating window, and studies about an early eating window, and felt drawn to experiment with this method.
So the point of this blog is to share my experience with early TRE, and keep me accountable, as I need that. My search for information and support online hasn't turned up much so I thought maybe if I share my experiment it may help someone else who's considering trying this. I plan to stop eating each day at 3 or 4 pm, except for weekends or social engagements. I will document my experience for the next month and let you know how it goes.
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