Emily Arger, Certified FASTer Way to Fat Loss Coach

For some, intermittent fasting can mean a significant lifestyle change that can have challenges to implement. I myself have struggled a bit with hunger and fullness at inconvenient times throughout my few days on intermittent fasting. I chatted for a few minutes with Emily Arger, Certified FASTer Way to Fat Loss Coach and creator of the 7-day Whittle Your Waist Mini-Course. Emily coaches women on following an intermittent fasting lifestyle and also provides 25-30 minute home workout plans to these ladies. Check out her answers to some of my questions about intermittent fasting:

How did you first learn about intermittent fasting?

I actually heard about it before I had my kids – I read a book called Eat, Stop, Eat by Brad Pilon about the benefits of fasting. It’s a great book, but it was actually a bit different from what I teach now. I read it and it was intriguing, it was different. At first it was never something I intended to coach. I thought people might think I was crazy, because we are so ingrained with the idea that we need to eat 5-6 meals per day. It wasn’t until much later that I actually picked it back up again, after my kids were a little bit older.

What made you want to teach intermittent fasting?

I had done a lot of measuring and using containers to portion foods and I was so over that. I kept asking myself if that was a lifestyle that I wanted my clients to live forever, and the answer was no. When you master the intricacies of intermittent fasting – making sure you get in your macros and eat enough – and once you adapt to [intermittent fasting], there is so much freedom in it. That’s why I wanted to start sharing that with the ladies I work with.

What is your favorite thing about intermittent fasting?

Honestly, the ease. The ease and freedom of it. The ladies who go through the first few days of Whittle Your Waist start off thinking that they can’t do it, but once they adapt to it, they love the freedom of it. They say, “Hey, I’m not that hungry and I’m not spending my entire day thinking about food anymore.”

What do you see as the biggest challenge of intermittent fasting?

I think it’s definitely making sure you’re getting enough. I know that sounds crazy, but once you get used to it, it can be tempting to get to 10 am or noon and say, “Hey, I’m not hungry yet” and they try to push that window a little bit farther, but when they start so much later, it’s a big challenge to get say, 1800 calories in in only 6 hours. It’s important to plan things out, especially at the beginning, and get a coach if you’re struggling to meet all your macronutrient and micronutrient needs in such a small window.

What’s your #1 piece of advice to someone wanting to try intermittent fasting?

I would say to seek out the scientific-based research on it, because we’ve been inundated with these myths like “you have to eat every 2-3 hours” or “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” It’s important to read the research yourself to understand the benefits of intermittent fasting and how it’s good for you. Otherwise, you’re going to read a magazine or something that tries to tell you that what you’re wanting to do isn’t right and it gets confusing. It’s important to ground yourself in the research so you can really understand why intermittent fasting works and what it does for your body.

Yesterday was my first day following an intermittent fasting lifestyle. I’m using a 16:8 protocol – if you want to know more about that, you can read my last post here. I chose to make my eating window from 10 am to 6 pm. Read on to see how the first day went!

6:30 am Woke up. Usually this is when I get my breakfast ready, but not today! Got my boys sent off to school.

7:00 am Made and drank some green tea. Since I’m a big breakfast eater I was a little concerned that waiting until 10 am would be a struggle. I made genmaicha green tea because it’s made with toasted rice and has a bit of a savory flavor – I thought maybe it would help trick me into thinking it’s a little more substantial. Then I got to wondering: genmaicha has actual bits of toasted rice steeped in it…does it have calories or carbohydrates?? Had to look it up. Good news – it has neither! Genmaicha is good to go during my fasting window.

7:30 am Had my first teeny desire to eat. Drank more tea.

8:00 am This is my normal workout time. I decided to postpone it half an hour so that I could eat right after my workout. In the past I haven’t done well working out on an empty stomach. We’ll see…

8:30 am Workout time. Tummy is growling big time…I’m 32 oz. of tea in. This not eating has been great for my hydration!

10 am Food! Finally! Toast with avocado, poached egg, curry, and garlic.

10:30 am Still feeling hungry – I went ahead and made my typical post-workout protein smoothie and drank it. Still not totally satisfied.

11:45 am Ate lunch – leftover salmon, stuffing, and salad. Still not satisfied…this is getting old already. I need to work on adjusting my portions to fit a smaller eating window.

2:30 pm Feeling hungry, ate a yogurt.

4 pm Realized I have to start dinner soon if I’m going to get it ready, take my son to practice, and eat before 6 pm. That will take some getting used to!

5:30 pm Ate dinner – whole wheat pasta, chicken breast, and roasted vegetable sauce. I got a little panicky about the thought of not eating until 10 tomorrow so I overdid it a bit…I had two bowls of pasta then chased them with some apples and caramel sauce. I ended up hitting my protein goal for the day but being a bit behind on calories (200 calories), carbohydrates (20 g), and fat (12 g). I felt stuffed.

7:30 pm I’m still stuffed, but it’s nice to be all done with worrying about cooking, cleaning, and snacking so early in the night.

Intermittent fasting is a big time buzz-phrase these days. I see people posting about it on Facebook and Instagram, some of my fitness-savvy friends advocate for it, and I read an article about it in Women’s Health magazine. I’ve seen a teensy bit of research floating around but I’m ready to dig in and really see what it’s all about and whether or not it’s something I might incorporate into my practice.

Today I started my own intermittent fasting experiment. I will be trialing an intermittent fasting lifestyle for the next 3 weeks to practice it, research it, and teach you about it! Along the way, you’ll get all the details of how I’m feeling, whether or not my weight, measurements, blood pressure, or heart rate change, and how cranky I am (I’ll let my husband score that one – for objectivity’s sake). For today, let’s go over some basics of intermittent fasting:

What is intermittent fasting?

Boiled down, intermittent fasting basically means alternating between eating normally and restricting your food intake on a regular schedule. This manifests in many different styles. Some of the more popular protocols are detailed here:

• 16:8 or 20:4 – This is a daily goal to limit time spent eating during the day, making the nighttime fast longer. In a 16:8 schedule, people fast for 16 hours each day and limit their eating to an 8-hour window each day. This is the protocol I will be using. In a 20:4 schedule, people fast for 20 hours per day and limit the eating window to 4 hours.
• Alternate-day Fasting – I’ve read about a few different schedules under this name, but the most common is a 5:2 schedule. In a 5:2, you would eat normally 5 days of the week, and 2 days during the week (you can split them up) you fast entirely or restrict intakes to 500 calories per day.
• Extended Fasting – In extended fasting, folks avoid eating or restrict the types of foods they eat for longer periods of time, anywhere from 2 days to several weeks or months.

Can you eat anything during the fasting period?

That depends on the type of protocol you’re following, but best I can tell, most protocols recommend only calorie-free beverages like black coffee, tea, or water during the fasting period. Anything with calories breaks the fast.

Are there limits to what you can eat during your eating window?

Generally, no. Most websites and researchers recommend eating healthful foods, of course, but there are not too many limits. Some protocols advocate for tracking what you eat to make sure that you meet your macronutrient (carbohydrate, protein, and fat) needs during the eating window. Other plans allow intermittent fasters to eat however much they choose. The end goal is to eat as much food as you need, just in a shorter period of time.

What are the benefits of intermittent fasting?

There have been many claims about the purported benefits of intermittent fasting. I’m working through the research on a bunch of them and I will let you know what I find out in a future post (edit: here’s a link to my post on research)! In what I’ve read so far, supporters of intermittent fasting report improvements in:

• Focus, productivity, and mental performance
• Stress resistance
• Longevity
• Resistance to chronic diseases like diabetes, cancers, and Alzheimer’s
• Fat loss, especially belly fat, while maintaining muscle mass
• Inflammation levels
• Blood pressure and heart rate

How does it do all that?

Honestly, I have a bit more research to do in this area but I will keep you up to date as I learn more. In the initial articles I’ve read, the authors credit ketosis as the cause of many of the benefits listed above. When humans fast for or avoid carbohydrates for a prolonged period of time, they basically run out of glucose energy from food, so the liver starts producing ketones to use as an alternative energy source. It’s sort of like a tank of gas on a hybrid car – if the battery runs out, you can run on gasoline instead. What I need to learn now is why supporters of intermittent fasting believe these ketones are so beneficial. I have some reading to do!

What changes will you be making?

I’m starting out by using a 16:8 protocol and setting my eating window from 10 am to 6 pm. There will likely be a little trial-and-error involved, I imagine. I’m keeping my workouts the same (30 mins cardio, heavy weight lifting, and 30 mins yoga 5 days per week) and eating the same types of food I usually do. I expect that I may have to play with my workout schedule a little bit since I haven’t done well with working out on an empty stomach in the past. Tune in tomorrow to see how I did on my first day!

Thanks for your votes! You have selected my next diet – intermittent fasting!

Starting Monday, I will follow the intermittent fasting lifestyle for three weeks. There are many possible ways to implement intermittent fasting, and I will be researching and detailing them in the days to come. Stay tuned to learn more about this popular diet!