Category: Women’s health

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Menopause symptoms, signs, weight gain

Menopause symptoms and the associated signs of menopause are part of a woman’s natural reproductive cycle.
During the early teens, your ovaries will start releasing an egg every month. If the egg is fertilized, pregnancy occurs. If there is no fertilization the egg dies. The uterine lining (endometrium) which was built up in preparation for pregnancy, breaks down and sheds – menstruation.

menopause symptoms

Hormones of the menstrual cycle

There are 4 main hormones involved in the menstrual cycle:

  1. estrogen
  2. progesterone
  3. follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)
  4. luteinizing hormone (LH)

The two that concern you most with regard to signs of menopause and symptoms of menopause are estrogen and progesterone. The menstrual cycle can be divided into 3 parts:

  1. pre-ovulation
  2. post-ovulation
  3. menstruation

What happens in different phases of the menstrual cycle?

In the pre-ovulatory phase, the developing egg releases estrogen mostly. This causes the endometrium to proliferate and thicken. In the post ovulatory phase, progesterone is secreted in increasing amounts from the corpus luteum which is left in the ovary after ovulation.


It acts to increase the blood supply to the endometrium making it water-logged and rich in nutrients. If pregnancy does not occur, the corpus luteum dies through lack of stimulation from a growing fetus. Following this, the secretion of estrogen and progesterone goes down.

The endometrium does not have enough hormonal stimulation to thrive and starts to break down shedding the top 2 layers and leaving the basal layer intact. This is referred to as menstruation. In the absence of pregnancy, this cycle occurs roughly every month (22-35 days).

What happens at menopause?

There is a limited number of eggs in the ovaries and as you get older, more and more of them die off. By the time you’re in your 40s, most of the eggs have been released during ovulation or died and the few that are left are usually of poor quality. Ovulation may not occur every month and the length of the menstrual cycle gradually increases. Menstruation becomes irregular until eventually periods stop altogether.

How does this lead to menopase symptoms?

During this time of irregular ovulation/menstruation, there is marked estrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate a lot. Estrogen levels tend to be higher than those of progesterone, leading to the use of the term ‘estrogen dominance’ to describe this imbalance

Without a corpus luteum there is minimal secretion of progesterone. However, estrogen is still produced (in the fat cell for example) from conversion of androgens (male sex hormones) produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands. Menopause symptoms and menopause signs are thus caused by several factors:

  1. imbalance between estrogen and progesterone
  2. progesterone deficiency
  3. estrogen deficiency

Common menopause symptoms

The following list of menopause symptoms and menopause signs is very long and far from exhaustive. Fortunately, no woman will have all the menopause symptoms and signs and some women are fortunate enough to have relatively mild menopause symptoms.

  • hot flashes (the most common menopause symptom, affecting about 85% of women)
  • depression
  • forgetfulness
  • headaches
  • inability to concentrate
  • irritability
  • mood swings
  • chest pain
  • palpitations
  • sore breasts
  • irregular/heavy bleeding
  • vaginal dryness
  • itchy vulva
  • loss of sex drive
  • slower sexual arousal
  • painful intercourse
  • constipation
  • abdominal bloating
  • irritable bladder
  • frequent bladder infection
  • frequent urination
  • increased facial hair
  • thinning hair
  • itchy skin
  • brittle nails
  • pins and needles
  • sore muscles
  • stiff/swollen joints
  • back pain

These menopause symptoms occur at various times. Early symptoms of menopause include irregular or heavy vaginal bleeding while menopause symptoms like thinning of the hair and brittle nails may not occur for several years after the menopause.

Menopausal weight gain (also known as middle age spread) is common from about age 40 and onwards. At this time you may find yourself putting on weight or find that it becomes difficult to prevent weight gain post menopause even though you are still eating the same amount of food.

Menopausal weight gain- middle age weight loss

Causes of menopausal weight gain

Menopausal weight gain doesn’t appear overnight. During the years leading up to menopause you may put on about a pound a year.There are several reasons for this :

  1. You tend to be less active as you get older.
  2. Your body needs less energy as you get older so you burn fewer calories.
  3. Over time your muscles become replaced with fat, which burns fewer calories than muscle.
  4. You tend to eat more.
  5. Your genes may play a role. If your parents had trouble with weight, especially with fat around the tummy, you may too.
  6. Hormonal changes may contribute.

How to avoid middle age spread

The formula for losing weight and preventing weight gain is quite simply. If you take in more calories than you use up, the excess calories will be stored as fat. So to lose weight, you need to use up more calories than you eat.
Sounds a lot easier than it is!

So what do you do?

  1. Get moving. – Even if you eat the same amount of food but you increase the amount of exercise you get, you should lose weight. It is important to combine aerobic exercise with weight training for best results.
  2. Eat less. – There are 2 ways of looking at this. You can look at this in terms of the quantity of food that you eat or in terms of the number of calories in your food.

You should avoid ‘energy dense’ foods. These are foods that have lots of calories crammed into very small quantities of food. Things like ice cream, chocolates, soft drinks (sodas), fries e.t.c. fall into this category. A plate of veggies will definitely contain less calories than a bar of chocolate or a can of soda and will be more filling and chock full of vitamins and minerals.

On the other hand you could reduce the size of your portions which may leave you feeling hungry leading to snacking later on.
The6 tips to avoid it

Don’t let weekend weight gain ruin all your hard work!

You’re usually a bit stressed out during the week trying to juggle all your responsibilities. You do your strength training and cardio religiously. You pass on the creamy, rich desserts and you eat lots of fruit and vegetables. You control your portion sizes and make sure to drink lots of water.

You’re there for your spouse, partner, kids, family, colleagues and just about everyone else that needs or wants a bit of you for one reason or another. So the weekend is the time to let it all hang out and relax right? This might be the only time you have to give yourself some love. But guess what? What you eat while you’re chilling out may be the cause of your weekend weight gain.

On weekends, you may have more time to prepare sumptuous meals (my family looks forward to their saturday breakfast!)If you’re at home, remember that idle hands need something to keep them busy.

It’s easier to pig out on fattening snacks and unhealthy treats while you’re watching tv or reading a novel or magazine for example. Going out is another pitfall because you may be less conscious of what and how much you’re eating while you’re chatting and having a good time.

With all this, some people may eat more than 800 extra Calories over the weekend. This can add up to an extra 5.5kg (about 12 pounds) of weight a year.

How do you avoid the extra weekend weight gain?

  • Watch your food portions.
  • Go easy on the alcohol which contains a lot of empty calories.
  • Eat more fruit and vegetables.
  • Eat healthy snacks like popcorn, my new favourite. I make my own so I can control how much sugar I put in it and I use olive oil.
  • Watch less tv.
  • Get up and get moving.

Alli for weight loss – how does it work?

Alli is not a new drug. It is the baby sister of the drug Xenical, a prescription drug used to treat obesity. They both contain the same substance, orlistat. The only difference is in quantity. Xenical contains 120mg of orlistat while Alli contains 60mg of orlistat. Alli should be used by overweight adults (over 18 years) as an aid to weight loss together with diet and exercise.

Alli is basically a fat blocker. It works by stopping a substance called lipase from working in your bowel. Lipase breaks down the fat that you eat into little pieces so that it can be absorbed into the body. As the fat is not broken down and absorbed, it passes through the bowel unchanged and is removed when you go to toilet.

How do you use Alli?

Alli is taken with a meal that contains fat up to 3 times a day. You should not eat more than 15g of fat in each meal as this increases the possibility of side effects.

How long should you use Alli?

The manufacturers suggest that you may only need to use it for 6 months as that is when most of the weight loss occurs.

What are the side effects of Alli?

Side effects are more common when you eat more than the recommended 15g of fat per meal. However, they can still occur even if you are within the recommended limits. They include

  1. frequent bowel movements
  2. very soft stool and even diarrhea
  3. gas
  4. oily discharge from the anus
  5. bowel movements that are hard to control

Who should not use Alli?

You should not use Alli if you:

  1. are not overweight
  2. are taking cyclosporins
  3. have had an organ transplant
  4. have trouble absorbing food (malabsorbtion)
  5. are using medication that thins the blood
  6. are diabetic
  7. have thyroid problems

Will Alli help you lose weight?

The short answer to that is yes. It is recommended that Alli should be used as an aid to weight loss in combination with a healthy diet and exercise.
But don’t expect the pounds to just fall off! Xenical, the prescription-only, double strength big sister of Alli induced a weight loss of about 6 pounds in one year. At half strength, Alli is expected to produce about half the weight loss, ie about 3 pounds a year compared to expected weight loss using diet and exercise alone.
Another thing to consider – if you stop using Alli, that weight you lost comes right back!

I have heard of people losing 10lb in 8 weeks and other similar stories. Some people that have tried almost every diet they have come across without success have been able to lose weight with Alli. It works in your intestines and not in the brain or anywhere else so you won’t get the jitters like with some other weight loss aids. It has worked for lots of women, it may work for you too.

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Natural progesterone cream – questions and answers

What is progesterone and USP natural progesterone?

Progesterone is a steroid hormone produced from cholesterol in the ovaries by the corpus luteum (the tissue that is left behind after ovulation). It is also produced in the adrenal gland in smaller quantities. It is converted in the body to produce other steroid hormones like estrogen, testosterone, cortisol and androstenedione.

The main aim of progesterone in women is to sustain any pregnancy that may arise from fertilization of the egg released from the ovary during ovulation.

natural progesterone cream

Progesterone is manufactured from Diosgenin, a substance found in Mexican Wild Yam and also from soybeans. It is converted to bioidentical progesterone in the laboratory.

USP stands for United States Pharmaceutical grade. This means that the progesterone is extracted under the strictest conditions to ensure that it the same as the progesterone that is produced in your body by the corpus luteum and that it is of the highest quality.

You may see wild yam creams or those with mexican yam extract. These are a total waste of money! They contain only diosgenin which is cheaper than bioidentical progesterone. It cannot be converted to progesterone in the body. It will not improve your symptoms.

What are the side effects of progesterone? Should I expect the same from a natural bioidentical progesterone cream?

The side effects associated with progesterone are usually found with the synthetic progesterones known as progestins. Manufacturers take the bioidentical progesterone produced from plant sources and change the structure to achieve various results e.g. give it longer lasting effects. The body recognizes these substances as foreign and so reacts to them in various ways leading to side effects.

The use of synthetic progesterone and congestion symptoms are quite common. The usual side effects are:

  • storing of excessive salt in the body. This leads to fluid retention which causes symptoms of congestion such as painful breasts, generalized bloating and weight gain
  • depression and mood swings
  • migraine headaches
  • inability to sleep properly
  • loss of sex drive
  • heart problems
  • kidney problems
  • low blood sugar levels
  • acne
  • skin rashes
  • premenstrual discomfort
  • hair loss
  • excessive hair growth

On the other hand use of bioidentical natural progesterone has virtually no side effects. At the most, using too much causes drowsiness which is easily reversed by decreasing the dose.

What should I expect when I start using natural progesterone cream?- What are the side effects of bioidentical progesterone?

If your body has very low levels of progesterone, the body tunes down your estrogen receptors making them less sensitive to the estrogen in the body. This is to avoid the negative effects of excess estrogen. When you start using progesterone cream, the body “tunes up” your estrogen receptors. You may start to notice some symptoms of estrogen excess. These include:

  • Water retention (making you feel bloated)
  • Painful, swollen breasts
  • Headache
  • Temporary increase in the thickness of the lining of your uterus

Don’t be discouraged. Most of these symptoms disappear within 2 or 3 months. To get the most out of your progesterone cream, follow the instructions closely and be consistent. Watch your symptoms. As they lessen, you may try to reduce the dose of cream you apply. This way you can try and find the minimum amount your body needs.

If you feel sleepy all the time, you may be experiencing symptoms of high progesterone. You may need to reduce the dose. If your symptoms aren’t improving you may not be getting enough progesterone and may need to increase the dose.

When you’re gettiing started, allergic reactions to the progesterone cream may occur. After the first few applications or if you have recently changed your brand of cream, watch out for side effects which may not be directly related to the progesterone. They may occur if you are using a poor quality cream which may be high in impurities and oils that can cause allergic reactions.

The signs of allergy may range from mild

  • redenning/peeling of the skin
  • rashes and
  • itching, to severe
  • dizziness
  • palpitations.

Stop using the cream immediately and see your healthcare provider.

Be sure to buy a good quality cream from a reputable vendor.

Cream progesterone vs oral – which is better?

Progesterone cream can be applied to the skin to relieve many symptoms associated with menopause. It is absorbed into the fat under the skin from where it goes straight into the blood stream from where it circulates to the rest of the body to carry out its effects.

Relatively small doses such as those found in over-the-counter, non-prescription, bio identical progesterone creams can still be effective in relieving menopause symptoms.

When progesterone is taken by mouth, like everything else you swallow, it is absorbed into the blood and taken to the liver. Here more than 3/4 of it is removed and converted to an inactive form leaving only a small amount of progesterone to act in the body. This means that much larger doses are required to achieve the same effect as what you get from applying it to the skin.

Using USP natural progesterone cream is preferable. It allows you to get a dose of progesterone that is close to what your body would be making naturally before menopause. Also, side effects from progesterone cream are minimal, at the most you will experience drowsiness if you use too much.

I have light pink spotting after use of progesterone suppositories – what’s wrong?


Progesterone suppositories supplement any progesterone in your body bringing levels back to normal. It normalizes the endometrium (lining of the womb) by causing shedding of the excess layers that are built up by unbalanced estrogen.

This shedding appears as spotting or what is known as breakthrough bleeding which may resemble a light period. Many women experience this as a side-effect of progesterone suppositories.

There is no cause for alarm. The spotting usually subsides within 2-3 cycles.

Does progesterone cause ovarian cysts?
Progesterone does not cause ovarian cysts. It helps them to resolve (shrink) by normalizing hormonal imbalance which can cause ovarian cysts.

Can progesterone cause hair loss?

Hair loss is a common symptom associated with the post-menopausal years. It comes in various forms:

  1. hair becomes thinner and lighter coupled with difficulty in styling,
  2. alopecia where the hair actually comes out from the roots leaving bald patches and
  3. male pattern baldness where hair is lost at the temples and the crown of the head.

The low estrogen levels associated with menopause cause weakening of the connective tissues from breakdown of the collagen, protein and elastic fibers in it. These are what gives your skin, hair and nails their strength and suppleness.

Can progesterone cause hair loss if used to treat menopause symptoms? On the contrary, progesterone helps to your body’s normal hair pattern. It helps to normalize zinc and copper levels which are essential for healthy hair.

Guidelines for using natural progesterone cream

You can use natural progesterone cream to manage a number of problems that are related to hormonal imbalance.

  • General guidelines for using natural progesterone
  • PMS
  • Hysterectomy
  • Premenopausal women
  • Fibrocystic breast disease
  • Endometriosis
  • Menstrual migraine headaches

How to apply natural progesterone cream

  • Spread the cream thinly over a large area of skin for maximum absorption.
  • Make sure skin is clean and clear of cosmetics. Do not apply other skin creams in the same area on the same day.
  • Apply to areas like the breasts, chest, inner thighs, buttocks and neck where skin is thinnest.
  • Don’t be concerned about getting the exact amount of cream correct. The progesterone is absorbed continuously from the skin.
  • If you are using a large dose, split it. Use 1/3 of the dose in the morning and 2/3 at bedtime. The higher dose is especially useful if you have trouble sleeping at night.
  • Buy good quality bioidentical progesterone cream from a reputable vendor. You have to be careful for the following reason
    1. the cream will not be effective if it is not suspended in the right medium
    2. creams containing mineral oil will not be absorbed properly
    3. the progesterone in some creams is not properly stabilized so it breaks down fast, making the cream useless
    4. some products containing wild yam extract don’t contain any progesterone
    5. some creams contain other chemicals that may cause allergic reactions and rashes

Dosage guidelines for bioidentical progesterone cream

PMS

Start counting with the first day of your period as day 1. Starting on day 12, apply 1/2 teaspoon of cream morning and night until day 26. If your period starts before day 26, stop using the cream. Once you see your period, start counting day 1 again, then start the cream on day 12. This dose should help relieve your symptoms much faster. When they are less severe, you can reduce the dose to 1/4 teaspoon twice a day.

Hysterectomy

Whether your ovaries have been removed or not, choose a day of the month (the 1st day is easiest to remember) and count it as day 1. Start applying the cream on that day,1/4 teaspoon morning and night until day 25 when you stop. From day 25 to the end of the month do not apply any cream. Start again on the 1st day of the new month. If you have just had a hysterectomy, you may double the dose to 1/2 teaspoon twice a day for the first month if your symptoms are very severe.
If you experience severe hot flashes and vaginal dryness, you may wish to use a combined estrogen/progesterone cream.

Premenopausal women

Whether you are menstruating regularly or irregularly, use 1/4 teaspoon bioidentical progesterone cream twice daily starting from day 12 (the 1st day of your period is day 1). Stop applying the cream on day 26. When you see your period start counting again until day 12 then start applying the cream again.
If you have irregular periods, it may take up to 3 months for them to become regular.

Fibrocystic breast disease

Use 1/4 teaspoon of cream twice daily from the middle of your cycle till you have your period, then stop, repeat again from midcycle. After 3 to 4 months, symptoms should have improved so the dose can be reduced.

Endometriosis

Use 1/4 teaspoon daily starting from day 8 to the end of your cycle. Once symptoms are reduced you can start applying the cream from day 12 until your period starts.

Menstrual migraine headaches

Use the cream for the 10 days before you expect your period e.g. if you have a 30 day cycle, start on day 20, a 26 day cycle, start on day 16 etc. Use 1/4 teaspoon twice daily.
When you get the familiar feeling or aura that comes before your migraine, apply 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cream every 3-4 hours until symptoms have subsided. Applying the cream directly to the neck or temples may bring faster relief for hormonal headaches.

 

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Intermittent fasting for health and fat loss – a beginner’s guide

Want to know how intermittent fasting can transform your health? How it can help you lose weight fast even without exercising? How it can help you lower you blood sugar and lower your blood pressure? Yes? Then keep reading. This is not hype, it’s not theory, it’s real.

Sooner or later, everything old is new again.

– Stephen King

Fasting is not some new, mind-boggling discovery, it’s been around forever. I’m not sure there is any Nigerian who hasn’t heard about fasting. Most of us know about it in a religious context. In the bible, Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. Major religions the world over encourage their adherents to fast for spiritual benefits.

But people don’t really think about fasting in terms of health benefits. I have been doing intermittent fasting (IF) for a few years now and it has been wonderful for my health. I’ve lost weight and kept it off. I have more energy, I feel more alert and awake during the day and I sleep better at night. Intermittent fasting has become my default daily setting.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting means choosing not to eat or drink anything containing calories for several hours or days. It is not starvation, it is not a diet but a way of eating (or not eating 😉 ). The main focus of intermittent fasting is on when to eat . For years there’s been mountains of advice about what you should be eating, most of it heavily influenced by big food producers in the United States, but that’s a story for another day!

There hasn’t been much talk about when you should eat. What you eat is also important in intermittent fasting, more so for some people than others. Assuming you eat dinner at 8pm and you don’t eat again until 8am the next day, you have fasted for 12 hours. After all, what is breakfast? It’s the morning meal that breaks your nightly fast. So you can see that (unless you’re a midnight-snacker) most of us fast for a good number of hours every day without even thinking about it.

How does intermittent fasting work for weight (fat) loss?

Every time you eat or drink your body produces a hormone (chemical messenger) called insulin. Insulin’s job is to push the food you have eaten into your cells as fast as possible, to be used as fuel or to be used for other bodily functions. Any food you don’t use immediately is converted to fat and stored.

If you’re not eating, your body does not produce much insulin so there is no fat storage. To survive, your body release 2 other hormones called growth hormone and glucagon. These messengers tell the body to use the fat that is already stored in your body and burn it for energy. Yippee! That’s what we all want isn’t it? Yes it is.

Intermittent fasting for insulin resistance

One of the most damaging states your body can be in is one of insulin resistance. Many of the chronic diseases we suffer from in the modern world have been linked to insulin resistance. This includes:

  • type 2 diabetes (the end point of insulin resistance)
  • heart disease
  • high blood pressure
  • Alzheimer’s dementia – (Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Memory loss is an example. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia.)

Intermittent fasting can help increase your body’s sensitivity to insulin.

But you have to keep eating and drinking to keep your energy levels up

Ummmm…. not really.

As long as our eyes are open, our mouths are open.

-Dr. Sachin Panda, renowned circadian rhythm researcher

Each time you eat, especially if it’s sugary, processed or very starchy food, your body releases lots of insulin. The idea is to get the food out of your blood stream as quickly as possible and into your cells.

Seeing as you’re not going to use all that food immediately, your body stores it as fat, ready for when you need it. Your blood sugar crashes and you start feeling irritable and uncomfortable and hungry again. Then you start looking for something else to eat and the cycle starts all over again.

Because you’re eating constantly, your body never gets a chance to use up the energy that’s already stored away as fat. You just keep adding to your fat stores. Intermittent fasting helps you to break that cycle. Not eating allows your body to use the fat that you have stored away for energy.

What are the advantages of intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is FREE.

intermittent fasting saves money

In fact it may even save you money. If you eat fewer meals you may end up spending less money on food. If you are on a tight budget you may be able to spend the same amount of money on food while increasing the quality of your food.

This may include being able to buy more nutritious food like meat and vegetables. Cutting out the numerous snacks during the day – buns, puff puff, groundnuts, biscuits, sweets, chocolates, soft drinks e.t.c. will definitely save you money. Also you don’t need to buy any special shakes, pills or supplements.

Intermittent fasting is simple

Really. Don’t eat. How much simpler can it get? You can drink water, tea or coffee without sugar or milk. Some people drink bone broth. Technically speaking, bone broth does break a fast, but it can help you initially to adjust to fasting.

Intermittent fasting is flexible

You can start when you want and stop whenever you choose. Fasting can fit into your lifestyle and around your commitments. You can choose not to fast if you’re going for a party or if it’s your child’s birthday or you’re going out with friends.

Fasting is useful if you’re travelling (avoid traveller’s diarrhoea and having to poop in the bushes!).You can fast through the day and then eat with your family in the evening. You can fast and still enjoy your family and have a social life. What works for you will be different from what works for someone else. You choose.

Intermittent fasting saves time

You spend less time planning and thinking about what to eat. You spend less time shopping for food and less time cooking it. The time you spend eating can be put to good use elsewhere. If you’re not cooking and eating then there’s no mess to clear up.

You will be more productive

Pleasurable as it is, food can be a huge distraction. After the initial adjustments, you may find that you get more done in your everyday life when you’re fasting. I have been known to clean the house when I’m fasting. I also get more done on this blog when I’m fasting.

But breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

No need to eat breakfast while intermittent fasting
You don’t have to eat breakfast.

Is it really? I confess. I used to be a breakfast evangelist myself, but not anymore. Personally, I rarely eat breakfast. We’ve become almost brainwashed into thinking that:

  • We must eat 3 meals a day.
  • We have to snack throughout the day to keep up our energy levels.
  • Skipping meals is dangerous.

Says who? You don’t have to start eating the moment you roll out of bed. If you are a breakfast person, I have good news for you. You can still do intermittent fasting. You can choose to have breakfast and skip dinner. See what I mean about intermittent fasting being flexible?

Why not eat less and exercise more?

Let’s be honest. I’ve tried that, you’ve tried that. How did it work out? Not well I’m guessing. Otherwise you probably wouldn’t be reading this. And I would still be drinking fat-free milk (yuck!)… trying to count calories instead of making delicious, full fat yoghurt. And living in tracksuit bottoms…because I was working out for about 2 hours every day!

Trying to eat small low-fat meals and exercise a lot may work for a little while. Then it stops working. Your body adapts to survive. You’re hungry all the time and you don’t have the energy to exercise. You put all the weight back on and a little bit more.

Maybe I’m supposed to be this big, you tell yourself. After all, it’s normal to “have body” (i.e. to be plump) in your 40’s. This is too much stress. And you give up. And dive into a tub of your favourite ice cream or a packet of double chocolate chip cookies (my preferred poison in those days).

Health benefits of intermittent fasting

3 popular ways to do intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is a cycle of eating and not eating. The period during which you eat is called your feeding window. There are many different regimens (or protocols) for intermittent fasting. These are 3 of the most popular.

16:8 intermittent fasting (Time-restricted eating (TRE))

Intermittent fasting eating window
You have an 8 hour feeding window.

Here you fast for 16 hours of the day. Then you have a feeding window of 8 hours during which you eat. Anything which you eat or drink must be taken during your 8 hour feeding window, apart from permitted fluids like water.

The hours you sleep during the night can also count towards the 16 hours of fasting. Some people still eat 3 meals during the 8 hour eating window but it is more common to eat less food than usual during the feeding window. Time restricted eating is possibly the most popular form of fasting. Many people skip breakfast and start eating around lunch time.

One meal a day (OMAD) intermittent fasting (23:1)

Some people may call this a 24 hour fast. Strictly speaking you fast for less than 24 hours. In OMAD fasting, you basically….eat one meal a day. This means you’re fasting for about 23 hours each day. You have about 1 hour to eat. It is difficult to eat 3 meals in this small eating window. So you would naturally be eating less food.

Alternate day intermittent fasting

Here you eat one day then fast the next day and eat the day after. This usually gives you at least 36 hours of fasting depending on what time of the day you eat.

The great thing about intermittent fasting is that it is very flexible. You can always try different types to see which one gives you the results that you want. Have you heard of intermittent fasting for weight loss and better health? Have you tried it? What has been your experience? Please let me know in the comments.