The question is being asked if it is safe to exercise and also intermittently fast. First, let’s get something straight. If you don’t eat breakfast and you work out first thing in the morning you’re exercising in a relative fasted state. Hardly anyone would question a person’s ability to do this. It’s not that hard.
While there are lots of different ways to do it—the 16:8 diet, OMAD (one meal a day), the 5:2 diet—the basic idea of intermittent fasting is to your limit your eating to a particular window of time. After trying a bunch of different protocols, I finally settled on 18:6, meaning I fast for 18 hours a day and eat during a six-hour window, from 2 to 8 p.m. each day. From an eating standpoint, it was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done; I’m not usually hungry until about then anyhow.
Yet there was one thing that’s always bothered me. How was it affecting my body when it came to exercise? I work out six days a week, doing a mix of cardio, yoga, and weight lifting. My workouts are non-negotiable, as they are essential to dealing with my lifelong depression and anxiety issues. While I’ve always felt fine working out in a fasted state, I’ve wondered if maybe I was doing some kind of long-term damage and just didn’t realize it yet. So I decided to find out.
Women’s Health
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