Intermittent fasting is one of those few things in life that are actually easy to do—and stay committed to—for all the health benefits it delivers.
- First off, IF is free. It doesn’t cost you extra money. And on some days, it helps you save money.
My method of intermittent fasting is to cut out dinner.
So, that’s one meal I don’t need to worry about anymore. Also, that’s a meal I don’t have to pay for anymore.
- Secondly, Intermittent Fasting reduces decision fatigue: you don’t have to worry about what you’ll eat when you’re fasting.
In today’s world, we never really get hungry anymore.
On top of the three meals we eat, we grace and snack all day.
And because of the lack of hunger, the decision on what to eat gets more difficult.
This indecision gets more complicated when you consider the availability of varieties of dishes that are pulling our attention.
These days, we dedicate a lot of mental resources to making the trivial decision of what to eat.
But when you’re fasting, you don’t have to worry about what to eat.
And during your eating window, you don’t need to think too much about what to eat because you’re hungry anyway.
- Thirdly, IF is simple to plan and execute.
If you think about it, you’re already practicing IF on days when you come home late from work.
Maybe you’re too tired to cook, or you didn’t have the time to do grocery shopping—so you chose to go to bed without dinner.
It’s easier to implement something that you do occasionally rather than something that feels foreign to your body system (like going on a keto or a low carb diet).
- And lastly, IF is flexible
On days when you miss an eating window, you can just declare that day as a fast-free day and pick it up tomorrow.
Or, you can just adjust your eating window to your last meal.
It’s as simple as that.
While NoFap has helped me remove an energy vampire (in the form of PMOing) from my life, adding the practice of IF also raised my energy level.
Here’s why:
Have you noticed how you get tired or sleepy after a meal?
And if you’re observant, you’d have noticed that the duration of the fatigue corresponds to the size and the type of food you just ate.
This fatigue/sleepiness is mainly due to your body’s digestive process that gets triggered after a meal.
Your digestive system dedicates energy to this process; hence, the fatigue.
Also, in this digestive process, some sleep-inducing hormones are secreted by your body; hence, the sleepiness.
When you’re fasting, you’re giving your digestive system a break.
This saves you from the secretion of those sleep-inducing hormones.
And the energy you’re supposed to use to digest the food becomes available to you for usage in another area of your life.
I didn’t reduce my caloric intake when I was fasting.
The trick is I cram as much food as I can within my short eating window.
This is because my goal with intermittent fasting is not to lose weight, but to reduce my body fat.
The fat I targeted (the most) with my intermittent fasting was my belly fat.
That was why I specifically chose to skip dinner with my fasting plan.
And it worked!
While there’s no difference in my caloric intake, I’m leaner (especially in the belly), and people have complimented me on it.
Talking about the body changes that come with intermittent fasting, this is another benefit I got from the practice.
With IF, my body was feeding on stored fat. And this made growing muscles more effortless.
I didn’t change my exercise and lifting regimen, but I noticed that the muscle gains in my arms and stomach were rapid than before.
Maybe I’m noticing the muscle gains because of my leaner physique, or because I’m rapidly converting the fat to muscle.
Either way, I can’t complain.
This is the BIG ONE.
If I were to pinpoint the biggest benefit I got from practicing intermittent fasting with my NoFap, this would be it.
Now, you might be wondering what insulin resistance is, and what it’s got to do with anything. Here’s the short answer;
There’s a nasty skin problem called Acne which 9.4% of the global population suffer from.
The idea is if you’re constantly having acne breakouts, and you’ve used every doctor-recommended approach, and the acne is still there, then, it’s highly likely that you’re insulin resistant.
The solution to this type of acne problem is dietary.
Watching what you consume and when you consume them is important to cure this acne problem.
I happen to fall within the percentage of people battling with acne.
I’ve had acne from the age of 13 years or so. The type of acne I have is the big disgusting type that breaks out like twice a month.
I’ve thrown every doctor recommended face cream and drug at it—but the acne never yielded.
My first visible victory on the acne front came about when I started long-term NoFap three years ago.
NoFap significantly reduced my acne.
Maybe because I was retaining the skin-nourishing nutrients in my body, and not wasting them by jerking off.
But, I occasionally get one or two zits that hurt and take forever to heal.
What I’ve noticed since doing intermittent fasting is that I have a period (like three weeks to one month) when I don’t get the occasional zits.
And when I do get the zits, the sting isn’t there. And by the third day, the zit’s healed.
You might not appreciate this benefit of IF, but I can bet that those that are also struggling with acne will surely do.
If you’ve been on NoFap for some time, you’d know that one of the withdrawal symptoms of NoFap is a reduction in the quality of your sleep.
And in some cases, insomnia.
This is another reason why I decided to be skipping dinner with my intermittent fasting system.
That means that I’ve eradicated the close-to-bedtime consumption of the food and beverages that often affect my sleep.
Foods and beverages like caffeine, green tea, a big meal, and so on.
Since starting IF, my sleep hardly gets interrupted anymore. I fall asleep quicker when I hit the bed.
And when I wake up in the morning, I usually feel well-rested.
Your willpower system has been likened to a muscle that gets strengthened the more you use it.
And what better way to strengthen your willpower muscle than resisting the urge to eat.
I’ve noticed an increase in willpower and an increase in the ability to start a habit and just stick with it.
But I can’t entirely give Intermittent Fasting all the credit with this increase in willpower.
Because I do a lot of willpower exercises like; NoFap, exercising and lifting every day, and meditating every day.
What I can authoritatively say about IF is that it played its role in increasing my willpower.
Especially, the willpower to resist making unhealthy decisions around the food I eat.
IF gave me more control over how healthy I eat during my feeding window.
And at the very least, IF gave me the awareness of the unhealthy choices that I can make, and that I sometimes do make.
A lot of studies have shown that fasting rewires the brain in a good way.
And the effects of this rewiring is an increase in focus and concentration, reduction in brain fog, and improved memory.
When you fast, your brain produces more BDNF—which is responsible for helping you make new associations and build neural pathways FASTER.
And much of everything we do in the course of our day boils down to the neural pathways we’ve built to that specific habit.
You have a specific pathway that gives you the ability (or the inability) to focus on the things that matter.
As I practice IF, I’ve noticed a clearer mind early in the morning and late at night.
My ability to focus on what matters during the day has also increased.
NoFap Intermittent Fasting likely side-effects on your NoFap
As good as intermittent fasting is for your health, if you’re combining it with NoFap, then it might hinder your NoFap success.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t do IF on your NoFap at a point, I just want you to be aware of these things so that you can prepare your mind.
Doing this, you won’t be taken by surprise when these things happen and eventually lead to your relapse on NoFap.
My advice for you is if you’re just starting NoFap, you should give IF a try and if it’s affecting your NoFap, you can stop. Till the time that you’ve become competent at NoFap and you can better handle the cravings for ■■■■.
That said let’s look at how Intermittent Fasting can affect your NoFap;
Cravings for ■■■■ might increase when you fast
The brain needs glucose to properly run your willpower system.
So, in the later hours of your fasting window, it’s possible that your ■■■■ cravings increase and it’s likely you give in easily to those cravings.
But these hunger bouts happen in the early days of your fasting practice.
The more you do intermittent fasting, the more your body adapts to your new eating pattern. And the less you feel hungry in the later hours of your fasting.