Intermittent Fasting Results – My 1 Month Diary

After hearing so much about it, I wanted to check out intermittent fasting results for myself. I kept a diary about how I felt every day, so you can figure out if intermittent fasting might be what you’re looking for. 

Intermittent fasting is a verrrrry big trend in the weight loss community right now, and it comes with a huge fan base, who all sing its praises. On top of that, new research suggests it could help with brain function and may even help you live longer [1] [2]. 

With all that in mind, I simply had to give it a go and see the intermittent fasting results for myself. 

So, I’m a big eater. The thought of not having breakfast each morning generally makes me feel uneasy, and I invariably feel unwell and even a little dizzy if I miss it. With that in mind, going for intermittent fasting results for 1 month was no easy decision.

Despite that, I gave it my best shot and I’ve broken down how I felt into weeks, so you can get a good idea of what to expect with intermittent fasting for women. Before we get started though, we’re all here for the weight loss results. Check out just how effective it is and whether it could be worth it for you. 

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Intermittent fasting results – weight loss. Did I lose weight?

In short, yes. When it comes to weight loss, intermittent fasting did the trick. 

By sticking to the plan I chose (outlined below!) I managed to cut my calorie intake down and lose a healthy 4kg (around 9lbs) in four weeks! This might not sound huge, but I find it difficult to lose weight and have been in a bit of a rut for ages, losing a pound here and there and gaining it right back again. So I’m more than happy with my intermittent fasting results. 

But, by using this format of eating, my intermittent fasting results really help me get rid of the excess weight I’ve been hanging on to for about 6 months! 

I won’t lie, it did take some getting used to and, as with anything that’s worth doing, it wasn’t always plain sailing, but I have to say, when it comes to my own intermittent fasting results, weight loss is definitely on the cards. 

Check out how I did it below and see if you can achieve the same intermittent fasting results. 

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What is intermittent fasting and how did I do it?

There are a lot of different ways to tackle intermittent fasting. From cutting out a single meal in the day, to cutting out food for a full 24 hours, there are quite a few formats to choose from.

I went for 16:8 fasting for 1 month, as I can hardly go a morning without eating, I thought it would be unlikely I’d last a full 24 hours.

Basically, 16:8 fasting means you can eat for 8 hours of the day, and for the remaining 16 you don’t touch a morsel. If you think about it, that’s about the equivalent of sleeping all night, then not having breakfast. So as far as fasting goes, it’s not the most intense format, but the intermittent fasting results online show great weight loss! 

One thing to note with my 16/8 fasting, is during those eight hours you should eat as you normally do, without compensating for not eating at breakfast. So the aim is to be cutting your calories down by not eating for 16 hours. Therefore, you shouldn’t be shovelling in the food during your eating 8 hours to make up for the missed meal, as this won’t give you any intermittent fasting results.

Instead, think about what you’d normally eat and make healthy choices. During my eight hours, I ate two hearty meals that were packed with veggies, proteins, healthy fats and loads of vitamins. I also had two snacks during this time. Think a mid-afternoon banana and a high-protein yogurt after my evening meal. 

That way, I didn’t end up over-eating during my feeding hours and I felt more energetic and healthy as I was eating nutritious meals. 

I wasn’t counting calories as such, but I knew that, by cutting out one of my three meals a day I was extremely likely to be in that all important calorie deficit.

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Tracking intermittent fasting results

If you want to see how well this is working for you, I’d also recommend you track your results. And not just on the scales either. Take progress pictures of your body from front and side and snap the same picture once a week. 

I did this and it really helped me get an idea of how much weight I was losing as I went. Numbers on a scale can be hard to translate into what that means for your body! By doing this, you should really be able to see your intermittent fasting results in action. 

To help keep track of how I felt and the changes I saw in my body, I also kept an intermittent fasting diary. This way I could look back on all elements of my 16/8 fasting results, 1 month from now.

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My 16/ 8 Fasting Results – 1 Month Diary 

Week 1

Needless to say, this was the most difficult part of my intermittent fasting weight loss journey. As someone who usually struggles getting up the stairs in the morning before a good bowl of oatmeal, I knew this new eating format would take some getting used to – and I was right. 

For the first few days I think my body was kind of in shock a little. I felt like I was starving hungry and even felt a little sick and light-headed at points as I was getting used to this new way of eating.

But, I stuck with it and on the 5th day I realised at some point in the mid morning that I wasn’t really that hungry. Although I still had pangs, it was nowhere near as bad as it had been and by the end of the week I think I became used to not eating before 12 noon. I was both pleased and surprised with this progress! 

During this time, I was drinking plenty of water and had a cup or two of tea or coffee. By the time midday came around I was pretty starving hungry. Even ‘hangry’ at points! But I did find that by drinking plenty of fluids it helped to fill my stomach and keep hunger at bay. 

Then, when time came to break my fast, I had to resist running over to the vending machine or to the snack cupboard, and stick to my healthy meal plan instead. That can be a pretty difficult mental game to play when you’re feeling hungry, so watch out for that and stick to your plan – it’s not easy! 

For my lunch, I tried to fill up on plenty of veggies, opting for those low calorie, high density foods that are absolutely jam packed with body nourishing vitamins and minerals. 

I’d also make sure to have a good helping of protein from chicken or fish etc. and enjoy a portion of carbohydrates too. Remember, carbs are not your enemy here. They can help to keep you fuller for longer.

Keep snacks on your side too. As I said earlier, don’t go overboard on the treats. I will admit I had a few squares of chocolate and a glass of red wine (during my eating hours!) on the Friday night, but I kept everything under control. Don’t beat yourself up for having some indulgent, but try to keep it to a one off treat, and make healthy choices with your between-meal snacks.

Think fruits, peanut butter on a rice cracker, a handful of nuts or a high-protein yogurt. These should all help you to stay full between meals, which is key for keeping high calorie sweet treats at bay. 

I started off without planning my snacks in order to keep my cals lower and pretty quickly learned that, if I wanted to keep this going, I needed to make sure I had food to graze on for sustainability purposes. If I hadn’t had them I don’t think I’d have made it through the 16 hour fasting window!

Once I had all this sorted (the first week was pretty much a trial and error period, but I stuck with it!) I got to the end of the first week and realised I’d dropped 1kg! These amazing intermittent fasting results fuelled me on to week 2!

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Week 2

By this point, I’d pretty much sorted when I was eating and what I was eating, so from here on in, I didn’t have to focus so much on my food intake – it was all planned out from the first week where I’d had that trial and error period. 

With that in mind, I had a chance to look at how I was feeling. I found that intermittent fasting results were about more than just weight loss.

By this point, I felt like my body had pretty much adapted to the new eating regime and by the middle of week two, my stomach wasn’t expecting food before midday. Such a relief! 

This made life a whole lot easier, as I wasn’t distracted by hunger and I didn’t feel unwell at all. I was happily sipping on my water and coffee each morning, just waiting for noon to come around. 

Don’t get me wrong, despite the lack of hunger, temptation was always there. But I was very dedicated to the routine at this point and didn’t reach out for any breakfast shaped treats! It’s all about building habits for me, so I knew that if I wanted to see those 16/8 fasting results 1 month down the line, I needed to stick to healthy habits earlier on, and it would pay back in the long run! 

I was also feeling quite alert. One of the things I’d read time and time again when researching this project, was that people felt mentally more alert when examining their intermittent fasting results. And I have to agree. 

I started to feel like I was sleeping better and I woke up each morning feeling fresh and ready to take on the day. This feeling lasted throughout the day, even during the morning where I’d previously felt low energy and tired from the hunger.

For someone who could never go out for a jog in the morning without food an hour beforehand, this was a pretty big deal. I always relied on food for energy, but now I was doing fasted training?! Whatever next. 

By the end of the week I had only last another half kilo, but the intermittent fasting results were about more than just weight loss at this point, as I felt pretty great too. 

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Week 3 

Over half way into my self-proclaimed intermittent fasting 1 month challenge, the admin side of things was running like clockwork. 

I was sticking to my 16-hour fasting period, and I was eating healthy foods in my eating window. On top of that my body was in tune with this new process and I was feeling energetic and happy with my intermittent fasting results. The habits I’d built up in the first and second week were proving to be really helpful and temptation was (mostly) non-existent. 

At this point, I was occasionally treating myself to some chocolate on a Friday night and a glass of wine. What can I say, they’re my Achilles heel! Having said that, it was within my eating hours and I wasn’t going overboard at all. I’d have a small bar to myself and a single glass. I’ve got no doubt in my mind my calories were still on track and I felt better for treating myself. I’m only human after all, so I definitely didn’t beat myself up about it. 

The main thing I loved in my third week of tracking my intermittent fasting results was the weight loss. Now well and truly settled into the routine, I lost a kilo and a half of fat!

When I stepped on the scales and looked at my progress pictures, I was truly loving the results. I was looking more toned and had visibly dropped some of the weight I’d be trying so hard to burn before. 

It’s one thing to see the results on the scales, but for me, seeing them in the mirror was the most rewarding part of my 16/8 fasting results, and we’re even 1 month in yet!

If this was the kind of weight loss results I could expect from intermittent fasting, then I couldn’t be happier. 

Week 4 

This really was the home stretch for me. I found the final week easy in terms of sticking to the routine and I kept to my healthy food routine quite easily. Overall, it was the intermittent fasting results that kept me going.

There were points in this week where I did feel like I couldn’t wait for it all to be over because the end was just about in sight, but at the same time I was so impressed with what I’d achieved that I really didn’t want to slip up so late in the game. 

On the last day I measured myself and I’d lost another kilo, which means I’d steadily and easily lost all that weight in just one month. I couldn’t be happier with the intermittent fasting results. 1 month of hard work really pays off!  

While intermittent fasting is no easy ride, it definitely works when it comes down to weight loss if you keep your food intake in control throughout the rest of the day. I found, as someone who struggles with consistently keeping my calories down, it took the complicated calorie counting out of the equation and just made it so much easier, as long as I stuck to my guns and built healthy eating and snacking habits along the way. 

After intermittent fasting – 16/8 fasting results… 1 Month Done!!

As you can imagine, I was super pleased with my 16/8 fasting results. 1 month of really hard work and commitment was all it took to see changes in my body that I’ve been trying to achieve for a while now!

As these intermittent fasting results demonstrate, this option is great for a short term weight loss solution. Especially if you have an event or something to aim for in the diary, like a wedding for example. However, it’s not realistically sustainable for the long term. So once you’ve lost the weight you want to, you should transition back onto a more ‘normal’ diet.

One big concern for me, after my intermittent fasting journey, was putting the weight back on. After all that, I really didn’t want to see all the hard work unravel. So I was really cautious about what to do when coming off of an intermittent fasting diet, and how to keep those results firmly in place.

The pros and nutritionists out there suggest that, rather than just going back to your old ways, you start small and build up to your maintenance calories (or TDEE). Otherwise, our body could try to store the additional calories as it recovers from being in a deficit, which basically means you could gain the fat back. 

After seeing such great intermittent fasting results after just 1 month, I was really keen that didn’t happen. So I took the advice on building back up slowly.

We’ve written up an article on calculating your maintenance calories, or TDEE here if you want to figure out yours! 

I tried this over the course of two weeks, and it really helped to keep the weight off. I didn’t see any additional weight gain and have stayed the same on the scales. I haven’t undone any of my hard work!

Intermittent fasting results – the final word

To start with, I was worried about intermittent fasting. I love food, and rarely miss a meal, so it’s not something I thought I’d be able to do, or stick to. However, I’m so glad I did it. My body adapted well and I ended up losing some really stubborn body fat. 

Turns out it was just the thing I needed to break the cycle of calorie counting and refresh my perspective on a weight loss diet!

And, now that I’ve gradually readjusted my calorie intake, I’ve kept the weight off too. Overall, I’d definitely recommend intermittent fasting for a month if you’re thinking of mixing up your dieting technique!