A guide to riding chicken buses in Central America

Should You Try Intermittent Fasting While Travelling?

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This is the latest entry in my “Ask a Travel Blogger” series — send some questions in or I’ll have to keep making them up!

Should You Try Intermittent Fasting While Travelling?

I’ll start this answer with a disclaimer: I’m not an expert on Intermittent fasting and I know very little about healthy living, dieting or exercise. I’ve been loosely doing Intermittent Fasting for a few years now and I reckon it has some unexpected benefits for travellers, especially ones that move around a lot.

Intermittent Fasting (restricting your eating to a specific time period each day) seems to be growing in popularity. For me, I generally eat between 1pm and 8pm. I’m sure I’d get better results if I didn’t binge on chocolate right before 8 pm, but I’m happy enough with it. I’m not really interested in talking about the health benefits though — I’d rather go into how convenient it can be for travellers.

A Slave to My Stomach

During the vast majority of my travels I’ve gone with the classic three meals a day + lots of snacks and soft drinks kind of diet. It was fine most of the time, but it would always be a hassle when I had some early morning transport to catch. I’d start to get really hungry about an hour after I got up, meaning I had to eat something urgently.   Anything. Seated in dark train stations in India at 5 am or getting off a night bus in South America at 6 am, I’d be ravenous.

At that hour, it was often biscuits, little sponge cake things or chocolate bars. This will be familiar to (unorganized) travellers who take lots of early morning busses, trains or flights.  The food you eat at 6 am at a train station is rarely the breakfast of champions.

If it was a long ride I’d often have some kind of biscuit for breakfast before getting on the bus, then another pack for lunch, or maybe I’d mix it up with some chips or a snack during small stops. In India I’d lose my seat on the bus if I got off during stops, so it was biscuits and cakes most of the time.

Taming the Hunger

This all sounds horrible and unhealthy, which is why Intermittent Fasting seems so attractive. If I didn’t have to eat until 1 pm then all the hassle and unhealthy eating would be avoided. These days I can play a whole round of golf in the morning before eating lunch at around 1 pm — it’s a level of control over my stomach that I never thought I’d achieved.

You can of course change the times — maybe eat your first meal at 10 am (you want to take advantage of free hotel breakfasts after all) and finish up at 5 pm — 6 pm.

Do Your Own Research

I know this is an awful phrase to use in 2022, but it’s relevant here. If you’re considering doing Intermittent Fasting, do some research and maybe talk to a doctor. I’ve also read that it’s not as recommended for some women, so also look into that.  But, if you want to control your stomach a little better on your next trip, it’s something to consider!

Are you planning a trip this year? Let me know in the comments below!

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Jon Algie

A travel blogger from New Zealand who hates talking about himself in the third person and has no imagination when it comes to naming websites.

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