Many of you might have read my post from a month ago titled “Have You Heard About The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting?” If you read to the end, you would have seen that it wasn’t just academic—I planned to put it into practice myself. As I stated: “Today I started with a ten-hour eating window (8am-6pm), which I plan to keep up for a week. If all goes well, I will reduce to an 8-hour window (10am-6pm) for one additional week. Then I will move to a 6-hour window (12pm-6pm) indefinitely. For the record, I am starting at a weight of 172 pounds, and I hope to see positive results within about a month. I will let you know how it goes.”

So far, I would have to say that I am very impressed with the results.

For starters, I found it fairly easy to adjust to a 6-hour eating window—much easier than I expected. Cutting off eating at 6pm (after dinner) and not starting up again until noon the next day (with lunch), for me, took away after-dinner snacking, midnight snacking (formerly a regular habit), and breakfast (which for me was just a piece of fruit). I found that I wasn’t hungry in the evenings, and that my snacking probably wasn’t out of hunger to begin with. I do often think about grabbing a snack, but—when I remember my window—it is fairly easy to resist temptation. I find that the urge passes, and as time goes on, I feel the urge less. It has now become my normal eating pattern. The hardest part for me is not having breakfast in the morning. Even though I had a relatively light breakfast habit, waiting until noon was tough—especially at first. Now I start the day with a mug of black coffee and I am getting used to it.

Limiting my eating window naturally led to me eating less, without the hassle of keeping track of my calories or what I am eating. My lunch and dinner are the same as before, and the fruit that I used to eat for breakfast is now my afternoon snack. Cutting out snacking outside of the window is the sole source of reduced calories.

So what you are probably wondering is: “did I lose weight?”. I am happy to say that after one month of intermittent fasting, I have lost 5 pounds. And pants that I bought only recently are now loose around my waist. I think this is a sign that I am primarily losing belly fat. I now weigh 167 pounds, which is close to my previous goal of 165. I now think getting to my supposed ‘ideal’ weight for my height—155 pounds—is now within reach. Over the previous 3 years, I bounced between about 172 and 180 pounds without being able to break below that.

So how am I feeling? Aside from off and on hunger pangs in the morning and increased feelings of occasional lightheadedness, I feel pretty good. And the first month is supposed to be the toughest.

As for the other benefits of intermittent fasting, I think I would need to get some blood tests done to see if there is any difference. With regard to any anti-aging benefits, I think it is too early to tell.

Based on my results so far, I would encourage others to try intermittent fasting as well. It really wasn’t as hard as I expected, and I am seeing a quick improvement. I will keep you updated going forward on my progress, as I plan to continue indefinitely.