Intermittent Fasting During the Holidays Made Easy: Dr. Mindy Pelz’s 3 Tips for Weight Loss Success
Discover 16 and 8 intermittent fasting and other tips to enjoy treats and still lose weight this holiday
Think it’s impossible to truly enjoy your favorite holiday treats while crushing your weight-loss goals? Intermittent fasting not only makes it possible, it makes it easy. “Fasting is at its absolute best during the holidays,” says women’s health expert Mindy Pelz, D.C., author of Fast Like a Girl and Eat Like a Girl. “You can literally have your cake and lose weight too. It gives you food freedom.” Bonus: There are different ways to fast, so you can pick the option that best suits your life—and still slim down up to 21x faster than on traditional low-cal plans. Just ask Gina Williamson, 60. After decades of failed diets, she indulged in Christmas goodies as she shed 72 pounds and turned her health around. Read on for her inspiring story on using intermittent fasting for weight loss and to discover the best twist on fasting for you.
What is intermittent fasting and how does it work?
For those who don’t know, intermittent fasting simply means skipping or dramatically reducing food intake during designated times each day or week. This can help us eat less, of course, but it goes beyond that. Dr. Pelz explains that mini-fasts create a little stress inside us, “which prompts the body to adapt and get stronger.” Kind of like workouts for our cells.
There’s more. The longer you fast, the more likely you are to trigger autophagy, a metabolic state that helps humans thrive during times of scarcity by turning cellular waste and even entire dysfunctional cells into fuel. “Cells emerge rejuvenated,” says Dr. Pelz. “You’re literally making your aging cells young again.”
Woman's World Answers
The benefits of fasting include everything from improved skin and immunity to better hormonal balance and a speedier metabolism.
Now, you may be worried even a short fast will be hard for you. “It gets easier and easier,” promises the doc. First, as our body turns stored fat into fuel, it creates compounds called ketones that suppress appetite. And as fasting strengthens cells, they better regulate hunger hormones. So appetite stays down. Even as you break your fast, you won’t scarf down everything in sight.
Important note: Intermittent fasting is not right for everyone, including folks with certain health conditions and anyone with a history of eating disorders. Get your doctor’s okay to try the approach.
Dr. Mindy Pelz’s holiday-ready intermittent fasting options
Here, Dr. Pelz walks us through holiday-friendly fasting options. Just choose the one that seems to fit your life best…
Option 1: 16 and 8 intermittent fasting
There are several eating patterns with intermittent fasting, but the most popular is the “16 and 8” fasting (also called time-restricted eating or TRE), which involves timing your calorie intake so it comes within a specific window each day. Many people find an 8-hour eating window followed by fasting for 16 hours eels easiest while still getting great results. So, for example, you might limit meals and treats to an 8-hour window between 11 am and 7 pm; for the remaining 16 hours (which includes hours you’re asleep), you’d only allow yourself zero-calorie beverages like water and tea.
Evidence published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging in 2018 found this method is very sustainable and yet sparks up to 10 times more weight loss than a regular diet.
Why this method could be best for your weight loss goals
Worth noting: 16 and 8 is popular, but there’s evidence that anything from a 12-hour eating window to a one-hour eating window can work. Dr. Pelz says you can ease into TRE, starting with a longer eating window (like 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.). Once you’re in a groove, experiment with shorter windows to find one that feels good and still moves the scale. “You also get to choose where your eating window goes—and it doesn’t have to be the same every day,” she notes. “You can schedule your fasts to accommodate holiday events.” Not only is the flexibility great, Dr. Pelz says shifting your eating windows keeps your body guessing and can further stimulate metabolism. One reader lost 21 pounds in a month!
Option 2: Alternate-day fasting
This variation has you go back and forth between a day or two of normal eating, and a day of modified fasting, when you keep intake at 500 to 1,000 calories. (On fasting days, you’ll want to stick to light but filling options like egg white omelets, cottage cheese with fruit and chicken-veggie soup.)
Alternate-day fasts help you consume fewer calories than normal for about 36 hours at a stretch, which triggers autophagy. In one study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2018, “People were eating all the wrong things, yet every person lost weight and saw cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar improve,” says Dr. Pelz, noting that, in terms of health benefits, alternate-day fasts tend to beat time-restricted eating.
Why this method could be best for your weight loss goals
If you’re game to experiment and find low-calorie foods that keep you comfortable as you use this method, the trade-off is full days of unrestricted eating plus enhanced health benefits. “You can go to a holiday party and eat whatever you want one day, fast the next day and still get incredible results.” Dr. Pelz relies on the strategy herself: “I feast all day on Christmas, then fast on the 26th. It lets me enjoy myself and stay really healthy.”
Option 3: The 10-day feast
Researchers looking for a real-world–friendly way to treat type 2 diabetes decided to test this twist on fasting. The idea is that you stick to 850 calories a day for five consecutive days. But then your calories are unrestricted for 10 days in a row. How’d the test go? Findings were published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2023. After six fast-and-feast cycles over three months, 50 percent of type 2 diabetics came off their diabetes meds, and 70 percent reduced their meds—that’s compared to just 2 percent in a group consuming a standard diet for type 2 diabetes. The fast-and-feast group also lost a whopping 21 times more weight. Wow!
Why this method could be best for your weight loss goals
Time it right, and this style of fasting allows you to eat without calorie restriction from Christmas Eve until January 2 while briskly losing weight. And if you have blood-sugar concerns, you can also set yourself up for very nice health improvements in 2025.
Dr. Mindy Pelz’s salt hack to make fasting easier
Most of us have so much extra fuel stored in our fat cells that we won’t run out during a short fast. So why can we sometimes feel ravenous? “It’s often because we need more electrolytes,” explains Dr. Pelz. Turns out, converting stored fat to fuel “requires electrolyte minerals like magnesium, calcium and sodium,” says Dr. Pelz. If we run low, we feel hungry, foggy and tired. Replenishing your minerals alleviates these symptoms. “It lets you comfortably fast a lot longer.”
An informal study conducted in the journal Australian found getting more electrolytes lowers hunger by up to 47 percent. Feel hungry during a fast? Put a pinch of mineral-rich Himalayan sea salt on your tongue or sip a no-sugar electrolyte drink. Dr. Pelz and Gina like LMNT electrolyte drink mixes (DrinkLMNT.com).
Can you really eat anything you want when not fasting?
Yes and no, says Dr. Pelz. Studies show fasts rev up metabolism and improve hunger, so many people still burn excess fat while eating normally and even indulging during non-fasting periods. That said, an overload of high-calorie foods will stall the scale. Rather than a free pass, think of fasting as a tool to help you succeed while using a relaxed approach to eating.
Dr. Pelz offers this advice to stoke progress during the holidays: First, focus on protein and veggies at sittings that aren’t special. And when you want to treat yourself, eat veggies and protein first. (Example: nosh on shrimp and crudités at a party before you hit the dessert table.) “This increases GLP-1, a hormone that helps you enjoy food without overeating,” she says.
Success story: How Gina Williamson lost 72 pounds with intermittent fasting
Gina Williamson was put on her first diet at age 5; she tried plan after plan as an adult. Nothing worked well—not even meds she was eventually given for a slow thyroid. “At one point, I actually gained 20 pounds while working out like a beast and eating like a bird,” recalls the North Carolina grandmother.
Then last year, as Gina was trying to shape up before knee surgery, she stumbled on a YouTube video about fasting. “At my church, we fast for spiritual purposes. So I had an idea of what it would be like,” she says. Drawn to the idea, she tried a 6-hour eating window. “I ate healthy—no sugar, fried food or processed food. I’d have hunger pangs for 15 minutes here or there, but they’d pass. I lost the first 30 pounds like nothing.”
Yes, she had some cravings initially. “But as time went on, I started to appreciate my food more. I would sit down to cauliflower rice with roasted chicken or a big steak dinner. I ate until I was full. It felt so much more satisfying than before,” she shares. It also made her appreciate special treats more. Like the coconut cake her family makes every Christmas, with flavors and textures that now seem to explode in her mouth. “Fasting gave me freedom to eat foods I love, and then there’s a reset button to keep me healthy,” she says.
Is she still using the six-hour window? Inspired by Dr. Pelz, “I decided to mix it up. Some days I’d do longer fasts, and once a week I barely fast at all.” It has proved to be the perfect approach for her body. Today, Gina is down 72 pounds, off blood-pressure meds and no longer has prediabetes or a fatty liver. “I feel amazing,” she says. “It has been life-changing!”
Conversation
All comments are subject to our Community Guidelines. Woman's World does not endorse the opinions and views shared by our readers in our comment sections. Our comments section is a place where readers can engage in healthy, productive, lively, and respectful discussions. Offensive language, hate speech, personal attacks, and/or defamatory statements are not permitted. Advertising or spam is also prohibited.
