Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsGood intro book written in laymen terms. Easy to follow and understand. Sets a foundation.
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2020
I've done intermittent fasting in the past, but without much information or guidance on what I was doing. I have suffered from GERD and it's an endless cycle. The heartburn and reflux cause my stomach to churn and create ulcers and other issues. I take something to keep the heartburn at bay, but in turn, my stomach acid is low and can't digest food. I pack on weight, and my stomach starts churning heavier to try to get the acid going to digest food and then I've got new heartburn.
Intermittent fasting on a 16/8 or even an 18/6 and 20/4 cycle helped me tremendously in the past to conquer some of my worst GERD symptoms. I lost a fair amount of weight, and didn't have to take prescription medication any longer. But, I was winging it and didn't have any framework or foundation. I just kind of went in with an idea of forcing myself to eat in narrower hours. It worked, but I got bored and hungry a ton.
This book lays out a complete framework to help conquer some of the issues along the way such as cravings, getting hungry outside of hours, working through deficiencies and what your body may be telling you it needs, and how to fast properly without causing yourself or those around you concern. It even explores the idea of longer fasts and health benefits. It's written by an RD, so it has it's basis in science. This isn't a complete book necessarily, but it does lay a framework out in laymen terms so that anyone can begin to fast and collect knowledge along the way that won't guide them astray.
The book is fairly priced at $15, however I have to say for it to have so many recipes packed in, there are absolutely no photos through the book. There's a couple chapter photos and a few charts in the pages, but it's sparse. It's hard to go with recipes without an image to make it more appetizing.
At any rate, some of what you can expect inside includes thorough segments on what fasting is, what kind of things you can expect to experience, myths about it, biohacking, working with your bodies clock, working around diabetes and sugar, the benefits of fasting and long term goals, the best windows, and even some meal planning samples.
There's a ton of recipes packed in the book too, so it also gives you some ideas on what to create to help keep you within your window and focused. There's some cool info on the popular bullet proof coffee, as well as full day fasting, every other day eating, and OMAD eating. It touches on social aspects of fasting, busting through plateaus, and even dealing with having a family and multiple styles of eating in the household.
I particularly love the recipe section, but there's plenty of scientific references in the book as well. There's segments dedicated to blog posts, scholarly articles, and references to all of the authors data too. Overall, well written intro book. It's certainly worth a read if you want to fast for health. Health could be diabetes, heart issues, weight loss, or even just like me with learning to reign in debilitating GERD symptoms. I just wish the awesome recipe section had more photos and that there were more data charts and images. Still, valuable intro book with plenty of white page space to make notes and add edits.
