Life In the Fasting Lane: How to Make Intermittent Fasting a Lifestyle – and Reap the Benefits of Weight Loss and Better Health by Jason Fung MD, Eve Mayer, and Megan Ramos ($14.99 for the Kindle edition on Amazon) is a non-religious book about fasting, weight loss, and improved physical health. I have personally experienced significant positive results from following the book’s advice. Therefore, I include this review as a part of my minister health blog. Although the book is not about ministry or church leadership, it IS relevant to THIS minister’s health (and quite possibly relevant to the health of many other ministers). As author Gary Thomas convictingly writes, “Christians who don’t take their health seriously don’t take their mission seriously.”
Health Wake-up Call #1:
About ten years ago, I began experiencing the symptoms of type-2 diabetes. I bought a blood glucose meter, and to my dismay, discovered my blood sugar had skyrocketed to over 400. At the urging of my oldest daughter (a registered nurse), I drove to the local hospital and spent most of Easter Sunday in the ER where the dreaded diabetes diagnosis was confirmed. Hoping to avoid the need for insulin injections, I immediately began to change what I ate. I cut way back on sugary, starchy, high-carbohydrate foods. As a result, I lost over 120 pounds and saw my blood sugar return to normal, non-diabetic levels.
Health Wake-up Call #2:
As many of you know, most people regain all of the weight lost during a diet, often adding additional pounds. However, I managed to keep off a total of 87 pounds for an entire decade. However, the scale was slowly creeping in the wrong direction. Therefore, a second wake-up call occurred when I was hospitalized in August of 2020. Tests indicated I was also suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. At this point, avoiding sugary, starchy, processed food was helping me maintain most of my original weight loss. However, low-carbohydrate eating alone was not enough to help me resume significant and sustained weight loss. Therefore, I discovered hope, help, and a new chapter of ongoing weight reduction through the insights in Dr. Jason Fung’s book.
Written by a Unique Team:
Jason Fung is a medical doctor and kidney specialist. Megan Ramos is a medical researcher who also has seen a personal reversal of her type-2 diabetes, and Eve Mayer is a best-selling author and entrepreneur who underwent three gastric weight-loss surgeries before finding lasting weight loss success through the power of intermittent fasting.
What is the Big Idea?
The big idea, scientifically speaking, is that our bodies are always in either a “fed” or “fasted” state. According to Dr. Fung, as long as our bodies are in the fed state, we cannot burn any stored body fat. However, once we are in a fasted state, our bodies can use up glycogen (stored in the liver) and then move on to burning body fat. According to the authors, the fat-burning mode begins after fasting for about sixteen hours straight.
A Simple Plan to Ease into Intermittent Fasting
One of the most practical and beneficial portions of the book is a simple plan to ease into intermittent fasting in the most painless way possible.
- Step One: Stop Snacking. “The rules are simple. Eat three meals a day until you are full. Each meal should take no longer than one hour, and you get to choose the time of the meals. You get to pick the food in the meals.” This step means no snacks (gum, candy, mints, juice, regular or diet sodas, or food of any kind) between meals. However, if this step is too hard, the book suggests eliminating between-meal snacks one at a time over a period of a few weeks. Please note that if you simply stop snacking after dinner, you immediately begin fasting for roughly 12 hours every night.
- Step Two: Skip Breakfast. I know, like me, you have probably been told, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” However, it is probable that breakfast cereal companies are the authors and promoters of this line. The word “breakfast” originated as the name of the first meal of the day – when you “break” your nightly “fast.” This second step suggests you simply delay your first meal of the day until noon. Your lunch becomes your “breakfast” and you find yourself fasting 16-18 hours each day. Therefore, your body briefly gets into the “fasted state” and fat-burning mode.
- Step Three: Skip Lunch. This step involves occasionally increasing your fasting to 24 hours. The authors write that “skipping lunch after not eating breakfast only adds about six more hours of fasting. For most people, it also isn’t nearly as traumatizing as they think it will be. Plus, you only have to try for one day. The following day, you can go back to the eating schedule you normally follow.”
There are additional “how-to” steps for moving up to a 36-hour fast as well as advice and instructions about how to do longer extended fasts. However, the book makes it plain you can choose to implement intermittent fasting at any level you find beneficial and practical. Many people only go as far as skipping breakfast on a regular basis. Eve Mayer observes, “I’ve seen these people lose weight, get off medications, and change their lives for better.”
My Results (Your mileage may vary.)
My medical doctor has been thrilled with my weight loss. (Anyone with medical issues like diabetes should consult with their doctor before embarking on a fasting regimen.) By just skipping breakfast, and being somewhat mindful of what I eat at mealtimes, I have lost over 40 pounds during the past 6 months. However, my progress remains slow and gradual – about 1 pound per week on average.
My Word for the Year
Many people ask God for a key word at the beginning of each new year. “Discipline” is my word from the Lord for 2021. When the Lord whispered this word into my spirit, my first thought was, “Lord, I’d like a different word!” However, I DO believe the personal discipline of intermittent fasting is one key to improving my physical health. It’s exciting to think that if I continue to lose just one pound a week during 2021, I will be back to what I weighed when Carolyn and I got married over 46 years ago!
A Highly Recommended Read:
Jason Fung is one of my favorite medical authors when it comes to physical health and wellness. I own and have read a number of his other books, including The Obesity Code and The Diabetes Code. (Almost all of Dr. Fung’s books remain consistently among the best sellers in Amazon’s Health, Fitness & Dieting category.) I find Dr. Fung’s logic clear and his scholarly scientific explanations compelling and unassailable. Therefore, I highly recommend Life In the Fasting Lane: How to Make Intermittent Fasting a Lifestyle – and Reap the Benefits of Weight Loss and Better Health.