why I started eating breakfast again after 3 years fasting

Anyone who knows me and my insane schedule knows for the past 3 years I have been a hardcore intermittent faster. 2 meals a day, fast from 6pm-12 noon the next day. I came across  the fasting strategy while learning about weight loss and trying to stay lean through the year with minimal effort. A lot of people used it as a “cheat” to eat good meals but stay in calorie restrictions. Seemed like my kind of strategy since I have a hard time giving up calorie dense foods. At the time 3 years ago I was about 210 pounds. still in decent shape but my workouts and diet still needing tweaks. I was looking for something to help me finally bust through my fat loss plateau and fasting was that final solution. Without hesitation I ditched breakfast ( which for me at the time was mostly garbage food anyway like the majority of the population ) and started my new fasting lifestyle, I was dedicated like no one else. Nothing broke my fast until noon. It didn’t take long until I saw incredible results. I really enjoyed it. Not worrying about eating in the morning and just having water, coffee and  no crappy food made me feel great.

Fasting was amazing. I went from 210 pounds to 190 within 2 months. I then developed a special HIIT cardio routine to do in the morning while fasted and dropped all the way down to 170! My best shape ever. as you can see in one of the pics I share a lot.

I was finally lean like I wanted! I was never a huge guy but I got to look like I was in petty good shape. I continued this for three years. Relentless in trying to get to 7% body fat.

Fast forward to just  recently and like most things you throw at your body it starts to adapt. It did take awhile but it seemed I was starting to get low energy in the morning, my fat loss had stalled, my strength was starting to buy back some of the progress I made and I was finding the fasted period a bit of a rough go. I started always thinking about food, hunger crept up every morning, I could tell something just wasn’t working anymore. I hadn’t changed my training, in fact I was doing man different routines and always pushing myself. My diet was spot on ( as I am now a vegan ) it just seemed like I had to work really hard in the morning to get through. Fasting was becoming a chore.

These are the symptoms that a re pleading  for a change. After three years, I ate a solid breakfast one day after I was just so sick of it.. I felt amazing again! I adapted back to three meals a day with a nice hardy breakfast and I haven’t felt better again. I have been eating breakfast for about 6 weeks now again.

You see, I think like most people, I got stagnant. Stuck in my routine without giving my body a break to change and adapt again. 3 years is a long time to stick to anything! I am always consistent when I commit to something, but I am a little stubborn to admit when I need a change of something I have committed too. takes me awhile to accept the new behaviour. It was just time for a change.

By eating breakfast again I have kept my body guessing. I know will be going on a cycle for fasting of 3 months off 6 months on to reap the benefits and have my body always trying to adapt and change. I see that to much of a good thing can be bad. fasting is an amazing tool for fat loss, cravings and learning how to stay disciplined, it was just time for a break.

So some advice for your diet and training no matter how great something is working, change it up. Don’t get stuck in routine for so long to realize that its just no fun and you aren’t seeing results anymore. Commit to allotted  time lines for your cycles of training and diet and then change it up completely. You can have every intention of going back again to successful routines but give your body something different occasionally. As the saying goes, nothing fails like success. I know when I go back to fasting in the new year I will push past all my plateaus again and re enjoy that part of the journey once again, only this time I will know when its time to adjust and change.

to your journey

Justin