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Note from GGS: The line between disordered eating behaviors and eating disorders can be a tenuous one, and disordered eating is the greatest predictor of developing an eating disorder, such as (but not limited to) Binge Eating Disorder. If you suffer or suspect you may suffer from Binge Eating Disorder, we encourage you to seek professional help through the resources shared at the end of this article.

In the previous article of this series, I went through six essential tips to help you stop binge eating behaviors. Today, I’m sharing six more tips to help you deal with difficult emotions, feel back in control, and stop letting food rule your life.

Plan for Pleasure

If, at the end of a meal, all you’re planning on doing is the washing up, then you’re not really going to want to stop eating. Eating is pleasurable — washing up isn’t.

So once you finish a meal, it’s a great idea to put any leftovers out of sight, then move straight into a fun activity. What are a list of (low energy) activities that you enjoy and can do right after eating? Here are some examples:

• Look at images of cool stuff on the internet.
• Watch your favorite comedy show.
• Go for a walk, feeling your feet on the ground, and the wind flowing through your hands. Really take in and notice the surroundings.
• Listen to funny, interesting podcasts.
• Play an instrument (your own voice is an instrument, I promise you).
• Write, doodle or draw.
• Spend time with someone you love.
• Listen to some seriously epic music while breathing deeply.
• Take a shower or a bath.
• Read a book. (I recommend something truly healing and inspiring.)
• Listen to the sounds of breathing, gentle rain or heartbeats.

If you’re anything like me, then you may struggle with resting and giving yourself downtime, but it’s super important that you do.

For instance, I like drawing, so I used to start drawing after dinner. But then, of course, I put all this pressure on myself to actually achieve something each evening, or to improve my technique. Before I knew it, I was back in the kitchen eating, trying to deal with the difficult emotions of procrastination, fear of failure, never amounting to anything, and… yeah, you get the idea.

Give yourself permission to chill.

It might be useful to write out a plan or checklist for the evening. For example:

• Straight after dinner, I will _____________ (e.g., listen to loud music and breathe deeply. This will get you out of the inertia of wanting to keep eating.)
• Then, I will ______________ (e.g., draw, putting no pressure on myself.)
• When I feel the urge to binge, I will ________________ (e.g., hold my breath for 10 seconds and remind myself that I am safe and I will never have to restrict.)

Don’t expect the urge to binge not to arise. Come up with a plan so you can deal with it in the most effective way possible, and actually write it down. Don’t just think it. Ink it.

Step Off the Bathroom Scale

Every week, I’d almost cover my eyes, terrified of what the number was going to say. Whether it was “good” or “bad,” it would affect my entire day. And in response to whatever the scale said? That’s right: I’d eat.

The scale is full of emotion for so many people. Maybe it’s time to stop creating a time of day where you brutally judge yourself. Maybe it’s time to stop putting your self-worth into a number. Maybe it’s time to stop using an external measurement to gauge “how you’re doing.”

Stepping off the scale means you can focus on what actually matters: how you feel.

It means that, instead of using an external number, you can adopt a well-being mindset:

“I eat in the way I want to take care of this body. I’m sleeping better. I’m seeing my energy and strength go up. I feel happier, and more at ease in myself.”

Personally, I set up a Google form with a series of questions, and emailed it to myself each week. The questions were:

• How light and energetic have I been feeling?
• Have I been eating lots of colorful vegetables?
• How is my overall happiness?
• How is my peace around food?
• How frequently do I feel joy in my life?
• What is the quality of my self-talk?

This way, I could focus on important things while tracking my progress without any of the emotions that are tied into weighing myself. After all, how you’re feeling is what really matters. The number on the scale is meaningless.

Make Sure You’re Eating Enough

“Woah, woah, Maria, you’re crazy! I’m definitely eating enough… have you seen the amount of food I binge on?”

I hear you, but if you aren’t eating adequately in between those binges, then your body will continue to want to binge. Is it possible to get three decent meals in per day? Try not to overthink it, just try to get a good mix of protein, carbs, fats, and veggies. Use a 1 to 5 hunger scale to guide you, where 1 represents feeling very hungry and 5 represents feeling stuffed.

Restricting after a binge only perpetuates the cycle. Try to be kind to yourself, no matter what has happened.

Pop Open the Hood

Eating when you’re not truly hungry means you’re eating because you’re trying to manage some kind of emotion. Boredom, procrastination, happiness, anger, disgust, tiredness, sadness, these are all reasons people eat.

If you’re finding it difficult to just “will yourself away” from food, then be prepared to do some internal work.

Emotions are completely human and natural, and they need to be felt to run their course. I know: you want to be happy all the time, but that’s just not how life works.

By acknowledging how you’re feeling, and by communicating it in a healthy way, you can reduce the intensity of difficult emotions, and the desire to eat in response to those emotions.

Have you ever walked into a dark room, and you thought you could see a shape in the darkness… you thought it was a person, that there was someone in there with you? Then, you switched the light on, and you realized it was just a coat, or some other, harmless object?

When you can’t see your emotions clearly, they become this scary shape in the darkness. But when you turn on the light, you actually realize that they aren’t as scary as they seemed. You realize you’re stronger than you thought, and you can manage whatever is happening. It might not be pleasant to sit with sadness, and pain, but it is manageable.

So take a long, deep breath. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Then ask yourself:

• What emotions are present right now?
• What sensations are here in my body?

You might begin to notice that your emotions aren’t permanent. They come and go. And the more you can pay attention to them, the less scary they are.

Another way of becoming aware of what’s going on for you is to take a piece of paper and write down anything and everything that comes to mind. Don’t judge it, just get it down on paper.

I often find out that if I write down all my thoughts and worries in the moment, they don’t seem as scary on paper as they did unsaid and unheard in my mind.

Reaching out and talking to others is also a great way to let your emotions be heard.

Stop Dieting

There’s a ton of studies showing that dieting is highly correlated to binge eating. This quick overview of one of those studies was eye-opening for me.

During the Minnesota Semi-Starvation Experiment [1], the top 36 mentally and physically fit males were hand-picked from 400 Civilian Public Service members (the CPS was an alternative to military service in the U.S. during WWII). These guys were followed for three months before the experiment started to make sure they fit the criteria. Each man was then put on a strict, 1,540 kcal diet for 24 weeks.

Here’s what was reported:

Physical Complaints

At first, the men noticed some physical changes, before constantly complaining that they felt cold, tired, and hungry. They began to have trouble concentrating. They felt dizzy. They had headaches.

Food Was Always On Their Mind

The men became obsessed with food. They talked about it, daydreamed about it. They spent a ton of time planning what they would eat and how they would distribute their calories throughout the day. Food became the most important thing in their lives. They started collecting cookbooks, hoarding, sneaking food, and bringing it to their beds at night.

Emotional Disaster

As the study continued, these guys didn’t just become tired and irritable (which all of us have experienced when we’re slightly hungry). They completely lost their sense of humour, their ambition, as well as their interest in their work and their friends.

They became anxious and apathetic, and started to experience depression, hypochondria, as well as a decreased sex drive. They felt inadequate, and they couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything but food.

Two of the men had to spend time in a psychiatric hospital, and one began to physically harm himself. Each one of them grew self-critical, and began to experience distorted body images. These deprived, starving men actually reported feeling overweight.

Binging and Blaming

Several participants binged on food, and then immediately blamed themselves. One man ate multiple ice cream sundaes and chocolate malts, then stole some candy. He finished off the binging episode by eating several raw swedes (the root vegetable, not the people from Sweden… though it’s fairly grim either way!). When he confessed to the experimenters that he’d broken the rules, he began to verbally demonize himself in front of them.

While others stole food from the trash, some of the men had to quit the study because their binging became so frequent they simply couldn’t stick to the diet.

When the experiment ended 24 weeks later, the men were allowed to go back to eating normally. Except, most of them couldn’t. Many of them had lost total control of their hunger signals, and “ate more or less continuously.”

One reported eating massive five- or six-thousand calorie meals, and then snacking only an hour later. Another man ate so much the first day after the study, he had to be taken to hospital to get his stomach pumped. They reported not being able to satisfy their psychological hunger, no matter how much they ate.

One went on a year-long binge, putting on substantial weight. Just months earlier, this man had a healthy relationship with food. He was hand-chosen for being exemplary, and yet in 24 weeks, he had been completely changed.

This kind of study would not be allowed to take place today, for the “unethical, inhumane treatment of subjects” and yet many of us do this to ourselves, year after year.

I hope this study highlights to you that diets don’t work because they:

• Intensify cravings
• Make you preoccupied with food
• Disconnect you with your natural hunger cues (making you eat when you’re not hungry, and eat more than you need)
• Increase emotional, physical, and psychological distress, and the likelihood that you’ll eat in response to that stress.

It’s time to stop restricting. Give yourself permission to eat any food you want. Give yourself permission to eat any time you want. Instead of counting calories, start using the hunger scale as a guide to start listening to your body again.

I know this sounds like a scary step, but it is the best, and fastest, way to end binge eating. Since you have permission to eat anything, any time you want, the cravings for your kryptonite foods will decrease to a manageable level.

Forgive Yourself

No matter what happens, you must forgive yourself, over and over again. What would you say to a friend who was going through the same thing? There’s no way you’d call them the names you’ve been calling yourself.

You’re learning, and you’re trying to change behaviors. Change is hard. You will fall down, but the sooner you can get back up again, the quicker you’ll be able to move forward. Instead of beating yourself up about failure, could you use it as a learning experience?

So when you’re lying in bed, stuffed to the stomach, cursing yourself for “blowing it yet again,” is it possible to soften? Can you say:

“Actually, this is a great reminder that I don’t want to be doing this anymore. In the moments leading up to this, I didn’t use the skills I’m learning, but it’s OK. My body will forgive me, and I’ll be hungry again at some point. And when I am, it’s another opportunity to listen to that hunger, and to nourish myself and fuel my body in the way that I choose.”

That’s the brilliant thing about the human body: you’re going to get hungry every day, so you get the opportunity to practice these skills every day! And, like anything, if you practice enough, it will eventually become second nature. You’ll be able to eat intuitively, listen to what your body needs, and start living your life again.

To Sum It Up

You’re always in control of your actions, even if it doesn’t feel like it. By stopping any food restriction, you can accelerate this feeling of control.

Be prepared to do some internal work on your emotions: acknowledge how you’re feeling by observing your thoughts (and how they feel in your body), writing them down, or talking to someone.

And remember: progress isn’t linear. You’re practicing something new, and trying to change a behavior. Change is hard, so forgive yourself, no matter what.

Resources

Binge Eating Disorder is a clinically diagnosed eating disorder, and warrants professional help. If you find yourself unsure about your own behaviors and would like to learn more or find help, please consult the resources below:

• National Centre for Eating Disorders (United Kingdom)
• National Eating Disorder Information Center (Canada)
• National Eating Disorders Association (United States)
• National Eating Disorders Collaboration (Australia)

Reference

1. Keys, A., Brožek, J., Henschel, A., Mickelsen, O., & Taylor, H. L., The Biology of Human Starvation (2 volumes), University of Minnesota Press, 1950.

The post 6 More Tips to Help You Put a Stop to Binge Eating appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

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Quinoa has come a long way in the last few years — all the way from the back shelves of health food stores to national supermarket aisles. Its high protein content, sweet and nutty flavor, and delicate texture have made quinoa a popular substitute for starchier pasta and rice — though once you try it, you’re not likely to think of it as a “substitute” again! Quinoa is an easy grain to love.

See the video!

Several of us here at The Kitchn like to make a big pot of quinoa on the weekends and eat it throughout the week with curry, grilled vegetables, or braised meat. It’s one of the most delicious, fast-cooking (not to mention healthy) lunch staples we know. Here’s how to cook great quinoa — not mushy or bitter, but delicate and perfectly fluffy.

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While slow cookers are a boon for big-batch meals, I take mine out at least once a week when cooking dinner for my small family of two (twice if you count meal prep!). It doesn’t matter how many people you’re cooking for — the slow cooker is one of the most helpful tools in the kitchen to help you get dinner on the table.

Here are 10 of my favorite slow cooker recipes that are perfect for two.

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There’s no denying that creamy chickpea dip (known as hummus or hommus!) is downright delicious. Whether we’re craving a savory afternoon snack or packing for a picnic in the park, hummus and pita chips is practically a universal favorite.

In what was one of our most favorite taste tests yet, staffers in our office tried seven national brands of traditional hummus. Keep reading to find our thoughts on all seven brands, as well as our most favorite hummus of the bunch.

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So you finally got a slow cooker — congrats! Whether you decided to buy one or received it as a gift, you’re probably eager to start breaking it in. So where to begin? Here!

These 10 recipes are fit for newbies like yourself. They show the breadth of what the appliance can do and are nice and easy, which means they’re well-suited for beginners.

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Ever since Amazon bought Whole Foods (for a whopping $13.7 billion!), the online retail giant has been working to bust that silly-but-accurate “Whole Paycheck” nickname.

Amazon started by slashing prices on small items like whole-trade bananas, avocados, brown eggs, and rotisserie chickens. There have been additional price cuts on other everyday items, and Amazon just announced another sweet deal for Prime members.

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When you cook up perfectly tender, creamy macaroni and cheese in the slow cooker, it can feel you’ve won the dinner Olympics. You’ve got a dinner everyone will love while the slow cooker did all the work. Pasta in the slow cooker has a few pitfalls, though — it can either be undercooked or overcooked, depending on just a few subtle changes.

These three tips will protect you from sad slow cooker pasta and make you a champion of dinner once again.

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I am not a morning person. At all. Most people know this about me — including my sister, who has felt my pre-caffeinated wrath on many occasions. As a result, she generously gifted me a cold brew coffee device this past Christmas. The gift has truly been life-changing. Or at least morning-changing!

The gift? The BRUMI bottle, which I religiously use two different ways.

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This is an updated version of a Dear Mark column from 2012. You can find the original version archived here. The below has been completely updated for 2018.

The blank slate hypothesis has fallen. Everyone comes into this world imbued with attributes, characteristics, and predilections that are uniquely theirs. We’re all humans, but we’re a diverse bunch, and that makes it interesting. And though it also makes giving cookie cutter health advice impossible, I just take that as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd and provide actionable advice that genuinely helps real people.

A perfect example is biological sex. Anyone who’s lived with the opposite sex, been married, or had kids of different sexes knows that males and females are different—on average.

There’s a ton of overlap, don’t get me wrong.

We all need fat, protein, and carbohydrates. We all have the same requirements for sustenance and wellness. We all breathe oxygen, get stronger and fitter when we work out, use the same neurotransmitters, and produce the same hormones. The biological basics are identical.

It’s the details that differ. And matter.

Take fasting.

Fasting As Hormetic Stressor and the Influence of Biological Sex

Men and women both need to enter a “fasted” state in order to burn body fat. This should go without saying, but regularly undergoing periods where you’re not inserting calories into your mouth is an absolute requirement for weight loss and basic health, no matter your sex.

These periods are called “fasted states,” and they begin as soon as you stop processing the energy from your meal. An “intermittent” fast is an extended period of not eating done for the express purpose of weight loss and other health benefits. 

By definition, a fast is a hormetic stressor—a stressful input (no food) that in the right dose triggers an adaptive response that makes us stronger and healthier. Fasting triggers Nrf2, the “hormetic pathway” also triggered by other hormetic stressors like exercise, polyphenols, and radiation. Nrf2 initiates a series of defensive and adaptive mechanisms that help you respond to the stress and buttress your body against future stressors. But with too large a dose, a hormetic stressor can become a plain old stressor—one that overwhelms our defenses and harms us.

Making matters more complicated, the size of a hormetic dose is relative. What’s hormetic for me might be stressful for you. Many different variables affect how much of a hormetic stressor a person can tolerate.

With fasting, perhaps the most important variable to consider is your biological sex.

This really does make intuitive sense.

Biology cares most about your fertility. Can you reproduce? Can you produce healthy offspring that survive to do the same? These things come first.

And from that perspective, a woman’s situation is more precarious than a man’s.

You have a finite number of eggs, or “chances.” Men have an almost infinite supply of sperm.

When you are preparing to get pregnant, your body needs extra nutrients to build up a reserve and “prime the pump.”

When you are pregnant, the growing baby needs a reliable and constant stream of nutrients for almost a year. After a man gets someone pregnant, his biological involvement with the growing baby is done. What or when he eats has no impact on the survival of the growing baby.

After you’ve given birth, the growing newborn needs breastmilk. To make that milk requires additional calories and extra doses of specific nutrients. Modern technology allows us to skip nursing and go straight to the bottle, but your body doesn’t “know” that.

It all points to women being more finely attuned to caloric deficits. For example, women’s levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, are quicker to rise after meals.

This isn’t just relevant for parents or parents-to-be. Even if you’re not interesting in getting pregnant and having kids, or you have children and aren’t planning on any more, the ability to do so is strongly connected to your health. Reproductive health is health. As far as your body’s concerned, having kids is the primary goal and you need to be ready to do it as long as you’re able.

Where does fasting come in?

Fasting is simulated starvation. Amidst the most critical junctures of the reproductive process, even a single skipped meal can register as trouble. The problem with intermittent fasting is that it’s not just a one time thing. It’s a regular occurrence. Depending on the schedule you follow, you might fast every day, every other day, or once or twice a week. To the mostly unconscious body whose primary concern is your fertility, that can be alarming.

What does this mean for women interested in intermittent fasting Unfortunately, there aren’t many studies examining this question in women. There are a few, and I’ll get to those. First, let’s move to animal research.

What Animal Studies Tell Us

In male rats:

No matter the duration or degree of nutritional stress, a male rat’s brain chemistry responds with similar changes. Nocturnal activity and cognition stay fairly stable, regardless of the intensity of the fast. If you push the fast long enough, males will get a little wonky and frantic, but overall they maintain pretty well. It’s like they’re equipped with the ability to handle nutritional stressors.

In female rats:

Any degree of nutritional stress (fasting or mere caloric restriction) causes increased wakefulness (during the day, when they normally sleep), better cognition (for finding food), hyper alertness, and more energy. In short, female rats become better at finding and acquiring food when they fast, as if their bodies aren’t as well-equipped to deal with the stress of going without food. They also become less fertile, while the males actually become hornier and more fertile (probably to account for the females’ plummeting fertility). Ovary size drops (bad for fertility), adrenal gland size increases (which in rats indicates exposure to chronic stress), and menstrual cycles begin to dysregulate in proportion to the degree of caloric restriction.

One recent study found that placing young rats of both sexes on an intermittent fasting schedule had negative effects on fertility. While the male rats had lower testosterone, the female rats stopped ovulating, had trouble sleeping, and experienced ovary shrinkage.

What Human Studies Tell Us

One study found that while IF improved insulin sensitivity in male subjects, female subjects saw no such improvement. In fact, the glucose tolerance of fasting women actually worsened. Another study examined the effect of alternate day fasting on blood lipids. Women’s HDL improved and their triglycerides remained stable; men’s HDL remained stable and their triglycerides decreased.

Later, both obese men and women dropped body fat, body weight, blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyercides on a fasting regimen. These people were obese, however, and perimenopausal women were excluded from the study, so the results may not apply to leaner people or women in the perimenopausal window.

One study compared continual calorie restriction (lower calories a little bit every day) to intermittent calorie restriction (lower calories a lot every once in awhile, similar to fasting) in overweight and obese women. Both groups lost a similar amount of weight, but the intermittent restriction group lost significantly more lean body mass. As I’ve always said, the kind of weight loss we want isn’t “weight loss.” It’s fat loss and lean mass retention (or gain). 

In the only heretofore extant human study on fasting and chemotherapy, seven females (including a 44-year old woman who was likely premenopausal, given when menopause usually onsets, though it wasn’t explicitly stated) and three males found that IF improved their tolerance to and recovery from chemotherapy.

Takeaway: male and female (mostly middle-aged, though that’s the population that generally gets cancer and undergoes chemotherapy) chemotherapy patients appear to benefit equally from IF.

What About the Effects of Training While Fasted?

One study looked at healthy men and women doing moderate intensity morning cycling either fasted (overnight) or fed (ate breakfast). Although both men and women displayed greater increases in VO₂ max and resting muscle glycogen concentration in response to fasted cycling training, only men showed greater skeletal muscle adaptations when fasted. Women had better muscle adaptations when fed.

Another study placed both fasting and fed overweight women on an interval training protocol for six weeks. Both groups improved body composition and oxidative capacity to an equal degree. Being fasted or fed had no effect.

It’s sad to say, but that’s about it for fasted training studies in women. The vast majority deal with men.

How About the Psychological Effects Of Fasting?

In women, a two day fast shifted nervous system activity toward sympathetic dominance. Even though their cognitive function was unaffected, they were stressed out. In men, a two day fast shifted nervous system in the other direction, toward parasympathetic dominance. They were well-rested and relaxed. Their blood pressure dropped. Their cognitive performance improved.

How About Autophagy?

One of the main benefits of intermittent fasting is an increase in autophagy, the process by which our body clears out cellular debris and repairs damaged cellular structures like mitochondria. A decrease in autophagy is usually linked to increased aging; an increase in autophagy tends to stave off the ravages of aging. Fasting-induced autophagy is usually a good thing.

One of the most commonly-cited papers in  the intermittent fasting literature is this one, which shows how short term fasting induces “profound” neuronal autophagy. Only that might not be true for both sexes; another study shows how while “male neurons” respond to starvation as we’d expect—by undergoing autophagy—”female neurons” respond by resisting autophagy.

Less autophagy isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Certain diseases take advantage of the autophagy process, turning it against us by clearing out and killing healthy cells, and women tend to be less vulnerable to these diseases. But if you’re a woman aiming for autophagy, fasting may not be as reliable an induction method.

My Conclusion…For Now

As it stands right now, I’d be inclined to agree that pre-menopausal (and perhaps peri-menopausal) women are more likely to have poor—or at least different—experiences with intermittent fasting (at least as a weight loss tool). That said, it appears to be a potentially gender-neutral therapeutic tool for chemotherapy, cancer, and age-related neurodegeneration patients.

So, Who Should and Who Shouldn’t Consider Fasting?

Have my recommendations changed?

If you haven’t satisfied the usual IF “pre-reqs,” like being fat-adapted, getting good and sufficient sleep, minimizing or mitigating stress, and exercising well (not too much and not too little), you should not fast.

These pre-reqs are absolutely crucial and non-negotiable, in my opinion—especially the fat-adaptation. In fact, I suspect that if an IF study was performed on sugar-burning women versus fat-adapted women, you’d see that the fat-burning beasts would perform better and suffer fewer (if any) maladaptations.

I would also caution against the already lean, already calorie-restricted woman jumping headfirst into IF. I mean, fasting is ultimately sending a message of scarcity to your body. That’s a powerful message that can get a powerful response from our bodies. If you’re already lean (which, depending on the degree of leanness, arguably sends a message of scarcity) and restricting calories (which definitely sends a message of scarcity), the response to fasting can be a little too powerful.

I’d also say that daily fasts, a la 16/8 or even 14/10, run the risk of becoming chronic stressors and should be approached with caution by women. Same goes for ultra-long fasts, like a 36 (or even 24) hour marathon.

Most of all, however, I’d simply suggest that women interested in fasting be cautious, be self-aware, and only do so if it comes naturally. It shouldn’t be a struggle (for anyone, really). It shouldn’t stop your cycle or make it harder for you to get pregnant. It should improve your life, not make it worse. If you find that fasting has those negative effects, stop doing it. It should happen WHEN (When Hunger Ensues Naturally), if it happens at all.

Some Warning Signs To Watch For

• Weight Gain (especially in the midsection)
• Insomnia
• Muscle Loss or Reduced Performance In the Gym—It’s perfectly reasonable to suffer in the gym on fasting days, but watch out for persistent strength losses. If your fitness and strength levels are consistently trending downward, fasting may not work for you.
• Infertility
• Loss Of Your Period—Skip meals, not menstrual cycles.
• Excessive Hunger—Feeling peckish is good for everyone and makes food taste better; constant satiation is a trap of modernity. But you shouldn’t be ravenous. Thoughts of food shouldn’t consume you.

The good news is that most of the ill effects of fasting are blatant and conspicuous. They don’t hide. They don’t lurk in the background. They’re really hard to ignore—so don’t!

Some Thoughts For Women Who Want to Fast

Instead of aiming for the longest fast you can tolerate, aim for the shortest fast that gives results. Don’t try to power through a 24 hour fast, braving headaches and foggy thinking and overpowering hunger. Do try eating dinner earlier so you get a good 12 hours of “fasting” simply by going to bed and eating breakfast at a normal time.

Don’t fast unless you have a good reason. Good reasons include:

• Having significant amounts of fat to lose.
• Your oncologist giving you the go-ahead to try using it to improve the effects of chemotherapy.
• Your neurologist giving you the go-ahead to try using it to improve brain function in the face of cognitive decline or dementia.

Bad reasons include:

• Keeping the pregnancy weight at bay.
• Going from 15% body fat to 12%.
• To boost your 5x weekly CrossFit sessions.

Men and women have inherent metabolic and hormonal differences, and it’s evident that these differences in part determine how we respond to a stressor like intermittent fasting. I’ve never prescribed intermittent fasting as a requisite piece of the Primal lifestyle, but rather as an elective addition, a personal choice—only as a potentially therapeutic strategy that each individual must test for him or herself. 

I generally fast when it makes sense – if I’m traveling and good food isn’t available, if I’m just not hungry, stuff like that. I periodically do 16/8 or 14/10 (i.e. eating in an 8 or 10 hour window) and find it works great for me because I am fully fat-adapted. But even I don’t hold rigidly to that. It’s not for everyone. And that hasn’t changed.

That’s it for me, today. What about you? If you’re a woman who has tried fasting, or know someone who fits the description, let us all know about your experiences. I’m intensely curious to hear from as many of you as I can. Thanks for reading.

By the way…because this is an updated version of a previous article (as I noted at the beginning), previous comments will still display. Keep in mind they may refer to the context of that previous article version. 

The post Intermittent Fasting for Women: What We Know Now appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Firm, extra firm, soft, silken — the vast array of fresh tofu varieties can seem daunting. What’s the difference between them, and how do you choose which kind to use in a dish? To help answer these questions, I asked a couple of experts.

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