I imagine that feeling our greatest comes after we be taught to listen to our bodies—and one factor I’ve personally noticed over time is that I’m my most vibrant after I cycle out and in of intermittent fasting. After I’m in step with a rhythm that works for me, I’ve regular vitality, better digestion, and I discover it simpler to keep up my weight with out stressing over each chunk.
However right here’s the important thing: I’m not inflexible a couple of fasting schedule. If I get up actually hungry, I eat. If it’s the week before my period, I skip fasting fully. Intermittent fasting, for me, is about listening to my physique and tapping into that instinct—not “forcing” something.
My present method is usually impressed by Dr. Mindy Pelz’s ebook, Fast Like a Girl. Her analysis is all about how ladies can quick in a means that helps our hormones, relatively than working in opposition to them. I loosely sync my fasting habits with my menstrual cycle: throughout many of the month, I normally comply with a 16:8 quick (an 8-hour consuming window, so between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., for instance). Through the luteal section (the week earlier than my interval), I don’t quick in any respect. Throughout my follicular section, I wish to experiment with a barely longer quick, when my vitality naturally feels larger.
This versatile method has been such a game-changer for me. However it’s not simply anecdotal expertise—there’s actual science behind why intermittent fasting can assist ladies’s well being, increase longevity, scale back irritation, and convey a complete host of different well being advantages.
To assist us dig into the analysis, Lauren Zielinski, MSN, CNM, an authorized nurse, midwife, and ladies’s well being knowledgeable shares sensible recommendation to method intermittent fasting in a grounded, supportive means.
Lauren Zielinski, MSN, CNM
Lauren Zielinski is an authorized nurse-midwife with over 11 years of expertise in ladies’s well being and beginning. She studied drugs at The College of Colorado-Denver with a give attention to neighborhood well being and beginning heart work.
The Science Behind Intermittent Fasting
“There’s an abundance of analysis behind intermittent fasting,” Lauren shares. “And whereas it can result in weight reduction, the advantages run a lot deeper. Analysis has proven its means to “clear cells,” improve longevity, and reduce the chance of frequent ailments like diabetes and coronary heart illness. Intermittent fasting retains your DNA and cells wholesome, and may decelerate the getting old course of. I’d argue that it’s the closest factor to the fountain of youth.”
Lauren explains that intermittent fasting isn’t a fad—it’s been studied at main analysis establishments together with USC’s Longevity Institute and Harvard College. Research hyperlink it to improved metabolic well being, diminished irritation, higher brain function, and elevated longevity.
How Fasting Really Works within the Physique
On a traditional day, your physique makes use of glucose from meals for vitality. However once you quick, it shifts from burning sugar to burning saved fats—a course of known as metabolic switching (a time period coined by Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Mark Mattson, Ph.D.).
This change doesn’t simply assist with fats loss. It triggers a cascade of mobile advantages. As fasting continues, glycogen shops deplete, and your physique enters ketogenesis—releasing ketones into the bloodstream. These ketones:
- Improve the physique’s defenses in opposition to oxidative stress
- Assist take away or restore broken cells
- Enhance blood sugar regulation
- Improve stress resistance and scale back irritation
Much more fascinating: ketones stimulate the discharge of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic issue), a molecule that strengthens neurons and neural connections, supporting reminiscence and cognitive well being.
“Consider fasting as a mini ‘spring cleansing’ on your physique,” Lauren says. “You’re giving your system a break from fixed digestion, which permits your cells to restore and regenerate.”
The Distinctive Concerns of Intermittent Fasting for Girls
Whereas intermittent fasting can profit practically everybody, ladies’s hormones make it particularly necessary to method it with flexibility. Lauren emphasizes: “Girls aren’t simply smaller males. Our hormonal fluctuations all through the month imply that fasting can really feel superb at sure occasions and depleting at others.”
Right here’s a simplified information based mostly on what each analysis and many ladies (together with myself) have skilled:
- Follicular section (Day 1–14): Estrogen is rising, vitality is larger. That is typically the very best time to attempt longer fasts (14–16 hours).
- Ovulation: Proceed reasonable fasting if it feels good, however hearken to your physique.
- Luteal section (the week earlier than your interval): Cortisol is extra delicate, and your physique may have extra nourishment. This can be a nice time to ease off fasting or skip it altogether.
- Menstrual section: Many ladies really feel higher with light fasting or none in any respect throughout their interval.
This cyclical method is what’s labored finest for me. It’s additionally what Mindy Pelz and plenty of hormone consultants advocate: honor your cycle, relatively than pushing by means of it.
The Lengthy-Time period Advantages of Intermittent Fasting
A 2019 New England Journal of Drugs assessment of fasting analysis discovered important, wide-ranging advantages, together with:
- Cognitive operate: Improved reminiscence and psychological readability
- Coronary heart well being: Higher blood stress, ldl cholesterol, and resting coronary heart price
- Metabolic well being: Improved insulin sensitivity and diminished danger of Sort 2 diabetes
- Bodily efficiency: Enhanced endurance and lean muscle preservation
- Longevity: Improved mobile restore mechanisms which will sluggish getting old
For me, these advantages present up as sustained vitality, higher digestion, and feeling extra in tune with my physique’s cues.
The right way to Begin Intermittent Fasting Gently
When you’d like to offer fasting a attempt, right here’s Lauren’s aware method:
- Start with 12 hours between dinner and breakfast.
- After every week or two, prolong to 14–16 hours if it feels good.
- Keep hydrated—water, black espresso, and natural teas are your finest mates.
- Concentrate on nutrient-dense meals throughout your consuming window to assist hormones and blood sugar stability.
- Give your physique 3–4 weeks to adapt. “It’s regular to really feel drained or irritable at first,” Lauren says. “That normally passes as your metabolism adjusts.”
And maybe most significantly: it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. When you get up hungry, eat. In case your physique wants extra gasoline throughout sure phases of your cycle, pay attention.
When to Keep away from Intermittent Fasting
Whereas intermittent fasting will be useful, it’s not proper for everybody. Lauren advises in opposition to fasting should you:
- Are beneath 18
- Are pregnant or breastfeeding
- Have a historical past of consuming issues
- Have diabetes or different blood sugar issues
All the time test with a healthcare supplier earlier than making main adjustments to your consuming routine—particularly when you have underlying circumstances.
Meals Freedom, Not Restriction
For me, intermittent fasting isn’t about restriction. It’s about discovering a rhythm that helps my vitality, temper, and hormones—and being versatile when my physique wants one thing completely different.
Lauren sums it up completely:
“When achieved thoughtfully, intermittent fasting is usually a highly effective instrument to assist ladies’s well being, however the secret is flexibility. Our hormones are dynamic, and our method to fasting ought to be, too.”
References & Sources:
- Pelz, M. Quick Like a Lady (2022)
- Mattson MP et al. “Intermittent Fasting and Human Metabolic Well being.” New England Journal of Drugs, 2019.
- Nationwide Institute of Well being. “Ketogenesis and Mobile Stress Response.”
- USC Longevity Institute; Harvard Medical Faculty research on metabolic switching.
This submit was final up to date on October 24, 2025, to incorporate new insights.
