Intermittent Fasting and Gut Health

thesouthernsource

7 years ago

how to improve gut health with intermittent fasting

FASTer Way to Fat Loss® Review

I have officially been doing the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® for 6 weeks now, and I have seen incredible results! I really wasn’t sure how this program would work for me when I initially signed up, but I am really impressed with my progress so far. The intermittent fasting has really worked wonders for my gut health, so if you’ve ever struggled with extreme bloating, gut inflammation and/or discomfort, stay tuned because I think there are some real takeaways for you in this FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program review!

To read more about the basics of the FASTer Way program visit this post.

But First!

Before I dive into my recap, I wanted to let you know how to secure your spot in the next round of FWTFL. Brandi’s groups fill up fast, so reserve your spot while you can! The 6-week course is $199 and you get a personal coach to guide you through the program, as well as access to a special support group, plus an online portal you can access from anywhere with daily meal plans and workouts. Everything you need to succeed!

Here are the things I’ve struggled with the most starting the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program:

Eating 3 meals within an 8-hour window. The biggest part of this program is incorporating intermittent fasting into your lifestyle. Intermittent fasting is a planned eating schedule. On the FASTer Way to Fat Loss®, we do 16/8 schedule, which means we fast for 16+ hours and schedule all meals into an 8-hour eating window. I typically break my fast around noon, which means I eat breakfast at noon, lunch at 2:30, and dinner around 7:00. Eating more whole foods makes you fuller for longer, so a lot of the time I’m not really hungry, but I’m trusting the process and strive to hit my macros for the day.
Drinking Coffee without Creamer. Read more about which creamers to use in order to not break your fast.
Planning my meals ahead of time for an entire week. Once I find recipes that I like and coordinate well with my macros, this will get easier and I can start to repeat meal planning. Follow @meredithtolleson on the MyFitnessPal APP to access many of the recipes I share on my blog.
Tracking all of my food in the MyFitnessPal app. I think this will become easier once I get my meals planned out better. Progress over perfection! I have used it every day, but not perfectly.
Working out 5 days a week. I’ve been getting in 3-4 days per week and I’m proud of that. I love that the program comes with specific workouts for at-home and at the gym.

Here are the things I’ve LOVED about the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program so far:

Planned workouts don’t have to spend hours on Pinterest looking up workouts that I ultimately won’t finish. Each day is planned out and handed right over to you. There’s now a FASTer Way to Fat Loss APP on your mobile phone, so this is where you can access all the workouts and meal plans, etc.
Accountability
Sense of Community
Not a restrictive program/diet – there is wiggle room!
Feels sustainable for the long term
Feel leaner, tighter, and not constantly bloated
Improved Gut health — this is the biggest deal for me! For as long as I can remember I have struggled with a painful gut, irregularity, acid reflux… you name it! I’m still exploring what has been the turning point for me, but being on the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program and practicing intermittent fasting has reduced my stomach pain/inflammation immensely (see photos). We are encouraged to be Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free while on the program and for the most part I have been GF but not dairy-free. Just wanted to note that.
- I think the fasting concept works really well for me. It gives my stomach more time to process the food so it’s not constantly working so hard to digest at all hours of the day.
- - Not sucking in or “flexing” in the photos on the right. True results after only two weeks doing intermittent fasting on the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program!