Another experiment. n=1.
After ending my 51-hour fast, I had that small, healthy salad at Chipotle followed by a light eating day. My weight held steady, but something else caught my attention.
I slept well.
That made me wonder whether the fast deserved all the credit, or whether part of the benefit came from something much simpler: eating well and stopping early.
So I ran another experiment. This time, no long-term fast. Just time-restricted feeding – eating normally, but inside a specific time window, with a hard stop early in the evening. Different tool than fasting, same idea: give the body a real break.
A normal day of healthy eating with protein, healthy fats, and healthy carbs. No fasting. No workout. Just a hard stop at 6:30 p.m. to keep the comparison clean.
The hypothesis: I would sleep well. My recovery metrics would hold up. Late-night cravings wouldn’t show up.
That’s exactly what happened.
Not just because of what I ate. Because of when I stopped.
No hunger. No cravings. Just a good night’s sleep.
Morning results: Sleep Score 89. Lower resting heart rate. Higher HRV. I felt good. Steady energy all day. I woke around 4:15 a.m. to take a leak, then fell back asleep until 6:15 without an alarm. For me, waking naturally is one of the clearest signals that my body got what it needed.
The scale was up two pounds to 150. I also felt a little bloated and constipated, likely from the Chipotle beans after the fast. I did feel better after breakfast, but it was worth noting.
Turns out the lever for late night cravings and sleep may not be extended fasting. It may be stopping before the late-night eating begins.
So now I think of the overnight window as a fast. It’s a mind game, but it works. Fasting kills cravings, and my head doesn’t seem to know the difference.
Eating real food. Stopping by 6:30 p.m. Giving my body the night off.
Another experiment.
Another data point.