The Greatest Benefit of Intermittent Fasting Is Not Weight Loss

It is its ability to boost your discipline

There was a time in my life I was not happy with the way I looked. I had the distinctive skinny fat look that is so typical of a guy just after puberty. I vividly recall how much I hated the way I looked during my first years in college.

In all fairness, I was pursuing the validation of people of the opposite sex. The extra fat built around my waist was not helping my self-esteem, and it was negatively impacting my relationships.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands, and do something about this issue. So, I first tried doing lots and lots of cardio. That didn’t help much. By the end of it I was exhausted and couldn’t focus for the rest of the day.

I then decided I should experiment with different kinds of diets. I tried paleo, keto, carb and carnivore diets, which were, in the end, ineffective.

My love handles were winning the fight.

At some point, I stumbled upon a new fad, at the time, called intermittent fasting (referred to as IF, from now on). I remember watching the Hodgetwins for their workout routines and advice on building muscle. They both practiced IF and had seen great results.

I decided to give it a try.

Now, after about 10 years of practicing IF, I can say that it helped me get in shape. But it also helped me with something even more important: my discipline.

Here’s how you can use intermittent fasting to boost your willpower.

First things first: what is intermittent fasting?

In short, IF is the practice of not eating during the majority of a day, and assigning certain windows during which consuming calories is allowed. IF can vary from being a relatively relaxed process with large eating windows (e.g. 8 hours), or more hardcore (4 hour eating windows or even frequent full day fasts).

The non-eating window obviously includes the period where you sleep. Having cereal or a sandwich with you morning coffee is called having a breakfast, because you are breaking last night’s fast.

So, IF basically means purposefully avoiding eating for large amounts of time. Practicing it automatically eliminates having lots of snacks between your meals and waking up in the middle of the night to satisfy a growling stomach.

OK, but what are the actual benefits of this eating restriction?

There is, indeed, merit in going through the majority of your day with no food in your stomach. Many studies have found that IF can boost your metabolism, regulate your insulin levels, and could lead to a better heart health, among other benefits. While research on the topic is still ongoing, its health benefits seem to be quite substantial.

Lastly, it is important to note that IF is not a diet, at least not in the conventional sense. As per Merriam-Webster, a diet is:

“a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight”.

IF, on the other hand, only regulates the periods of time during which you can consume calories, not the calorie quality and quantity itself.

So, IF is not a diet. It’s a way of restricting all your eating into small chunks of time, as opposed to eating whenever.

Resisting a growling stomach

While the physiological benefits of IF are the primary reason why anyone would go through it, I think its biggest benefit lies in its willpower-building properties.

Picture a scenario where you just started IF. After the first hours of food deprivation, your mind will start imagining delicious meals and mountains of food. Your stomach will make the starvation it is going through obvious, with the corresponding audible signs giving your struggle away. At first, you might feel, or think you are, a bit weak.

However, after the first week or so, your body adapts. You develop a new way of living, whereby food doesn’t have to come into your system every couple of hours. You start enduring this voluntary starvation a bit better.

There are two adaptations that take place at the same time:

1. Your body gets used to it: Slowly your energy levels become balanced. Your stomach makes less noise, knowing that food may delay slightly, but will ultimately show up to fill its contents. After some time, you may observe other benefits of the practice such as fat/weight loss or more energy.
2. Your mind gets stronger: As time goes by, your brain gets used to the new status quo. It thinks “there is a specific, designated time period within which my caloric needs will be met. I can wait just a little longer”. It knows you’re not facing a life or death situation. And it can endure the hunger, making it (and you) stronger and more focused on the task at hand rather than on what’s on the menu.

That mental boost is what makes IF so freaking powerful!

Resisting a biological urge and delaying gratification will inevitably increase your discipline levels tenfold. After a 24-hour fast, you will have achieved resistance to distractions, inner perseverance and zen-like mastery of your mind.

Plus, if you can go 24 hours with no food, guess how many other things you can achieve that previously seemed unattainable!

Embracing voluntary discomfort

A crucial premise of modern IF practices is the fact that our ancestors went through prolonged periods of (involuntary) starvation. They didn’t have the technology and resources available today, to be able to have a constant supply of food. They would often go with no food for days. Some of them would inevitably lose their lives to hunger.

It was, however, that very strong resistance to starvation that led our species to success on this planet.

If you think about it, this is exactly what IF aims to replicate: a condition where nourishment is postponed as a means to build up mental resistance. Nowadays, especially in developed countries, that abstinence is most likely chosen, and not imposed by circumstances. Food is more abundant than it used to be 10.000 years ago.

As a result, IF is a low risk / high reward kind of activity. Sure, having your stomach sound like a washing machine in your office or class may get you some weird looks, but that’s as bad as it gets.

Keep in mind that willpower is like a muscle. The more you get yourself into uncomfortable situations, the more you can endure the initial urge to quit. Building your resistance towards hunger is a good way to train that muscle.

In a world of abundance and instant gratification, perhaps some deliberate discomfort is what we need to get our mental resistances up and running.

And remember, sometimes all it takes is resisting the urge to eat the marshmallow!

If you like what you read, you may also like some of my other stories:

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