I tried a diet that celebrities are obsessed with, but I'll never try it again

pulse

December 14, 2017 5:47 PM

Intermittent fasting has been popular for some time now. It helps you lose weight, and also may increase productivity. Here's why I won't try it again.

Intermittent fasting has been popular in Silicon Valley for some time now. It helps you lose weight but also purportedly increases productivity. Here's why I won't try it again.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Manny Ocbazghi: I went on a very popular diet in Silicon Valley that celebrities like Hugh Jackman, Terry Crews, and The Rock swear by. It's called intermittent fasting, so it's more of a fast than a diet. It's supposed to help you lose weight. Reportedly, it also increases your productivity and clear-mindedness.

So I downloaded this app called Zero, which makes it really easy to track your progress. It shows you the amount of time you've been fasting and it gives you little messages when you’ve completed your goal. I chose the most common fast which is from dinner to lunch. I didn't eat from 8 p.m. to noon the next day, which is 16 hours. It’s easier because you're asleep for half the time.

At the beginning it was really hard: I just felt so hungry all the time. It was really a strain on my body I think. It made me realize that I kind of mindlessly eat a lot. Whether I'm at work on the computer or at home bored, I'm always snacking on something.

After three weeks I lost 4 lbs., so that aspect of the fast worked, but everything else didn't work. There was no increase of productivity, and I didn't feel any clear-mindedness at all. It's annoying because there are parts of the day where you feel really tired and you need a little bit of motivation, so I was hoping this fast would fix that but it didn’t. It felt like a huge waste of time. I put in a lot of effort, and there was no reward at the end of it.

If you're trying to lose weight, there are easier ways that don't require you to starve yourself. If you're trying to clear your mind or increase productivity, I would actually suggest eating.

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