This is a video about my own personal experience.

Now, in case you missed the Med School Insiders video, let's get the terminology straight right from the get-go.

Usually, when people are talking about intermittent fasting, or IF, they're usually actually referring to time restricted feeding.

Time restricted feeding is when you only allow yourself to eat during certain hours each and every day.

I do also do intermittent fasting, which is a, for me, a 48-hour fast once every couple months, and we'll get to that shortly.

Now, I am speaking about my own experience.

I am not saying whether you should or should not do either IF or TRF.

I am recommending that you speak with your physician first.

Now, I'm all about health optimization.

Ever since I was hospitalized as an 18-year-old for an acute flare of IBD,

I mean, thankfully I haven't had any hospitalizations since,

but I just realized how fragile and important health is.

I prioritize it because when you don't have your health, nothing else really matters.

So, I've experimented with so many different diets.

I've tried specific carbohydrate diet, I've tried plant-based diet, I've tried gluten-free diet.

I even experimented with some keto.

All for the sake of trying to minimize my symptoms and do what is best for my health, for my gut, just to live a healthy life.

Now, what I was doing up until that point was dietary restriction, limiting what I do and do not eat.

And that's what most people think about when they're thinking about dietary interventions.

But I hadn't really considered time restriction until 2017.

I mean, until that point, I really thought it was just just for people that needed to lose weight.

And, if anything, at that time, I actually wanted to bulk up, you know, hit the gym and put on some mass.

But, as you've seen on the Med School Insider channel, I started learning about some of the other health benefits of time restricted feeding.

And, more importantly, what actually got me over the... over the edge is realizing that it could help me with my IBD symptoms.

Now, granted, over the last several years, I've experimented a lot to figure out what works and what doesn't, so my IBD is, admittedly, extremely well-managed.

But, there are still, occasionally, days where I am symptomatic and I want to minimize those symptoms as much as possible.

Now, by restricting the amount of time I ate each day with time restricted feeding, I would have fewer abdominal symptoms and spend less time on the toilet.

Who would've thought?

Now, when I first decided to try it, I was rotating on orthopedic surgery.

Even though I was in plastic surgery residency, you still, especially during the first year, you rotate on different services, just like you do in med school.

So, I skipped breakfast, and then, by the time I actually get to eat food, it's probably 2 or 3 p.m., because you have cases, often back-to-back.

And then, even between cases, the time is so limited; you need to go check in the next patient, and if you do have time to eat, it's usually just a small snack.

So, I'm, like, snacking at 2 or 3 p.m., and then my feeding window closes at 7 or 8 p.m. because, I mean, it's kind of short, but I don't want to eat too late at night.

because, these days, I'm sleeping around 10 p.m., waking up at 3 a.m., so I don't want to eat too late.

Trying to sleep with a full stomach is just not comfortable for me.

Long story short, I tried this a few times.

I was losing way too much weight way too quickly because I couldn't fit enough calories in a few hours.

So, I just, kind of, gave up on it.

But in early 2019, I decided I'm gonna give it another shot.

After all, I'm working for myself now, so I do have complete control over my time and when I do and do not eat.

I started with the standard 16/8 time restricted feeding protocol.

Meaning that, for 16 hours, I would not eat, and then I would eat everything in 8 hours, and outside of that, it's only water, nothing else.

And that came down to 12 to 8 p.m. every single day; pretty easy.

Adherence wasn't a problem; I actually kind of enjoyed it.

I noticed a few things immediately.

First, I was spending less time worrying about food, eating food, prepping food, cleaning in the kitchen, whatever, and that was awesome.

I do love food; don't get me wrong.

I love, like, give me some good omakase, I'm in heaven.

But if I could have it my way, I would not eat for 5 days and, hopefully, not feel hunger.

And then, on the weekends, just enjoy, you know, a culinary experience with friends and family.

So, eating is almost like a chore at times.

You know, I want to do other things; maybe I want to work on Med School Insiders or build MEM or go cycle or hang out with friends.

But food takes a lot of time.

Now, second, I experienced pretty immediate improvements in my IBD symptoms.

Again, pretty well-managed, but every now and then, maybe I'll eat some Thai food, a little bit spicy, and I pay the price the next day.

But with time restricted feeding, my digestive system wasn't working nonstop, right?

I was only eating for a shorter period each day, and therefore, the gastrocolic reflex wasn't always in action.

Third, sometimes it was challenging, but I found that it was rewarding to build the discipline of saying "no" to food and then being mindful of the experience of hunger.

Think of it as, like, discipline training or mindfulness practice.

The way I see it, discipline breeds discipline.

So, if I'm more disciplined in one domain, it can actually help me in other domains as well.

And now, when I'm on a plane and they go around offering pretzels or peanuts or cookies or whatever, it's a lot easier for me to be like, "Nah, not interested."

Now, I've experimented and changed a few things since last year.

One is that my circadian rhythm is very much shifted, so I wake up around 5 or 6 a.m. and I go to sleep around 10 or 11 p.m. on most days.

And for that reason, I actually shifted my feeding window to start at 11 a.m., and now, I generally try to stop eating by 6 p.m., sometimes even 5.

So, rather than 16/8, I'm doing more of a 17/7 or an 18/6.

Now, I've also changed what I eat.

I'm normally doing just 2 meals per day and each of those meals is now a lot larger than they were in the past.

So, my breakfast⏤haven't changed my breakfast in... in months, and I love it; it's awesome.

So, I have Dave's Killer Bread.

So, 3 pieces of this toast and then avocado, smoked salmon, 3 individual sunny-side-up eggs, and a side salad, usually one of those pre-made kits, and then 2 cups of almond milk.

In total, it's generally about 1,300 to 1,400 calories and maybe I'll have, like, a banana or some fruit as dessert afterwards as well.

Then, if I get hungry before dinner time, I will sometimes have a smoothie with plant-based protein powder, banana, frozen berries, etc.

I generally try to avoid that, though; I'll usually just try to have dinner sooner.

And dinner is very varied, but these days, I'm essentially always just cooking for myself; I'm not really eating out.

So, it's usually chicken, veggies, and quinoa in various combinations and preparations.

Now, I've also experimented with intermittent fasting in the form of water-only fasts for a couple days once every few months.

Now, I do want to get up to 72 hours, not only because it's a challenge, but because you reach some important physiologic benchmarks.

So, for example, you deplete your glycogen, you inhibit mTOR, you activate AMPK.

And then, because your glucose and insulin is at lower levels, you also increase autophagy and then inhibit senescent cells.

Now, if you're going to do multi-day fasts, you definitely want supervision from a physician because you gotta worry about electrolytes, minerals, things like that.

Anyway, that is my experience; hope you guys enjoyed it.

Let me know if you've tried TRF or IF down in the comments below.

Much love, and I will see you guys in that next one.