I was chatting with a few members the other day about their progress during the Quarantine, and the common theme of struggle was eating. It’s always the eating isn’t it lol.
Too much snacking, eating out of boredom, not wanting to cook, or ordering food all the time. Sound familiar?
Hey, this isn’t easy for anyone, I get it, you’re not alone. Don’t think anything is wrong with you; this is new territory for many people.
So that begs the question…
How do you eat during the Quarantine?
Right off the bat, all diets work if you stick to them, BUT the goal is the find a way of eating that puts in you a caloric deficit but doesn’t leave you feeling deprived all the time.
What I have found that works best for most people that are the Shelter-at-home order is Intermittent Fasting.
IF (intermittent fasting) is where you decrease your feeding window down to 8, 6 or even 4 hours
Most people tend to eat for, roughly, 16 hours (assuming you sleep for 8), but with IF you’ll cut that in half; by decreasing your eating window, out of default, your eating less food, which in turn equals fewer calories.
If you have followed any information about IF, you’ll see there are many ways to do this, but I want you to keep this simple.
Give yourself a 6-hour window (if that stresses you then go to 8 hours), and you pick when you want your feeding window to be.
I know I know there are some IF zealots that swear you can’t eat or drink a thing as soon as you wake up and must fast until 1 pm AFTER you midday workout for hormone optimization.
Well, for right now, this isn’t about optimizing hormones but about helping you stop eating so much food during your downtime; plus, as you lose weight, your hormones will begin to optimize naturally.
Here are my recommendations:
- If you HAVE to eat breakfast in the morning (which is perfectly fine), then start eating when you wake up and stop for an early dinner, or late lunch say 3 or 4 pm,
- Or, if you don’t have to eat when you wake up then wait till lunch to start and stop eating about 6 pm
- Or, you can split the difference and have a late breakfast (10 am) and stop eating by 4 pm for an early dinner.
*These don’t have to be set in stone, they are just guidelines to give you some ideas.
It doesn’t matter what you pick; pick the one that is easiest for you to do and start.
Personally, I don’t eat until 1 pm and stop at 8 pm, this allows me to get in three solid meals, and when you’re eating three solid meals (protein, carbs veggies), you don’t want to snack.
What you will find is that it will take you about 5-7days to get used to this new way of eating, but afterward, it will feel like second nature.
A few IF tips:
- Find what’s easy for you, don’t force a time (such as you HAVE to eat when you wake but decide to skip that)
- Eat 2-3 WHOLE meals (protein, carbs, veggies) of nutrient-dense foods before you even think about eating snacks or sweets. Think healthy natural food.
- Don’t think that you can eat whatever you want during IF, still eat good healthy food and eat a LOT of it; no one got fat on lean meat and veggies.
- Drink plenty of calorie-free fluids to help curb some hunger, I’m not saying drink tons of diet cokes but don’t feel like you can’t have one. I find that mineral water works best.
- Coffee is fine
- Stay busy when your not eating, focus on work, kids, hobbies, anything but keep busy, so you don’t eat out of boredom.
If your finding that somedays you struggling then give this a shot, so far the members we have following this are still seeing results 🙂
In Health and Awesomeness,
Travis Merritt, BS, CPT, (and other letters behind the name) is the Owner of Rowlett Transformation Center in Rowlett, TX.
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