How Simple Intermittent Fasting Helped This 51-Year-Old Woman Lose 176 lbs in One Year
Fasting rejuvenates cells, so Karen lost huge but has very little loose skin
A few years ago, you’d often find Karen Heffernan lying in bed, too uncomfortable to move. Stress eating had pushed her weight over 374 pounds; she’d developed depression, joint pain, sciatica and a hernia that her local specialist refused to treat “basically because I was too fat,” recalls the human resources specialist from Glasgow, Scotland. Hoping to get her life back without gastric bypass or meds, she turned to the internet. She found exactly one option that hadn’t already failed her: simple intermittent fasting. Today, Karen, 51, is down 207 pounds and wants to pay it forward by telling everyone about the “19:5 fasting approach” that transformed her health.
Simple intermittent fasting: Getting started
Many of us think we could never fast. Others, including Karen, attempt the easiest type of fast—time-restricted eating or TRE, a method that gently stretches the duration between your last bite one day and your first bite the next—doubting it’ll have much impact. Karen had actually given in and scheduled a consultation for gastric bypass. While waiting for the appointment, “I knew it wouldn’t bother me to have breakfast later in the day,” she recalls. And, as someone who grazed all night, “I thought the structure could benefit me.”
Karen eased in, initially eating for 12 hours a day and fasting for 12 hours (which included the hours she was asleep). “I quickly got up to a 14-hour fast,” she shares. She later switched to a 16-hour fast and tried to make healthier choices during her 8-hour eating window. Ultimately, she found her “sweet spot” was 19:5 fasting—or fasting for 19 hours and eating between 2 pm and 7 pm.
Woman's World Answers
When Karen saw the surgeon after six weeks, she was down 21 pounds. “He said I was doing better than most people who got the procedure.” He advised her to skip it, and she happily obliged.
Expect these powerful benefits from 19:5 fasting
A study in the journal Nutrition and Healthy Aging found TRE can help women slim down up to 10 times faster than a traditional eating style. Wow! Here, fasting expert Andrew Belaveshkin, M.D., PhD, author of The Right Food at the Right Time, helps explain why it can work so well. He credits the following:
It shifts you into an automatic calorie deficit
In one University of Illinois test, folks using Karen’s style of TRE ate 550 fewer calories a day while enjoying meals with no limits. Why? “Narrowing your eating window naturally reduces snacking and meal frequency, leading to a calorie deficit without the stress of constant restriction,” explains Dr. Belaveshkin. His advice: “Count hours, not calories.”
It rewires your brain
Beyond eating less, “TRE helps create a consistent rhythm around food, trains you to ride out cravings and pushes you to find alternatives to snacking when you’re bored or tired,” says Dr. Belaveshkin. “You build habits that do the heavy lifting, rewiring your behavior at the root. That’s how lasting change happens.”
It boosts fat burn
We eat so much and so often these days, our bodies struggle to burn all the blood sugar made from our food. And chronically high sugar can cause cell damage and hormonal chaos that wrecks health and blocks fat burn.
TRE to the rescue. It gives our systems a break, allowing them to heal. How well does it work? Research published in the journal Nutrition Metabolism found that when type 2 diabetics use TRE, levels of insulin—a hormone that promotes fat storage and stalls fat burn—improve 330 percent!
How 19:5 fasting helps prevent loose skin
One more benefit of TRE: “It activates autophagy, the body’s internal recycling system,” Dr. Belaveshkin explains. Basically, you burn cellular waste, damaged cell components and damaged cells for fuel while fasting. This reboots the whole body. Everything from immunity to metabolism and brain function improves. Preliminary findings published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine even suggest fasting can help renew skin. “I don’t have much loose skin,” adds Karen. Experts confirm that’s another benefit of autophagy!
Karen says this fasting app was her secret weapon
“I studied behavioral science at university, so I knew I’d need support to stay on track,” Karen says. She found the Simple app, which seemed perfect. It offers cool tools like a timer to track eating windows, instant feedback on meals based on cell-phone snapshots and an AI coach that gives pep talks and personalized tips. (Many features are free; premium options cost $10 to $26 per month.)
“The app prompts you when a fast is ending or starting,” says Karen. “I’d put my meals in, and it would make suggestions like ‘Try a salad with that.’” She was also reminded to sneak in movement, which helped her progress from walking just 500 steps a day to over 15,000 (plus mini strength-training sessions and spin classes.) “It helped me get in a new routine, which was the most important thing.”
Karen’s final results—and why she wants everyone to consider 19:5 fasting
Was Karen’s intermittent fasting journey always easy? No. Besides learning to cook, avoiding late-night snacks was an adjustment. She says sipping lots of sparkling water helped. “Within three weeks, I didn’t have strong cravings anymore. The whole thing was very manageable.”
She adds that there’s no strict dieting required. She simply started trying to eat things that were more nutritious. “If I want a croissant, I’ll have it. I just do it between 2 pm and 7 pm,” she says. She can even shift or lengthen her eating window to accommodate dinner out or a vacation. It’s both liberating and slimming.
Karen’s first fast was in July 2023. By July 2024, she was down 176 pounds. She’s lost 31 pounds since, her mood soaring and health issues disappearing. “I got phenomenal results in a short time,” she says. “I want people to know that even if you feel debilitated by your weight like I did, this is a very simple thing you can try.” One that might turn your health and your whole life around!
Additional reporting by Cailey Griffin
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