How Should Truckers/Drivers Smartly Do Intermittent Fasting

Life has never been easy for anyone.

No matter what kind of job people are engaged in, most of them will get some occupational diseases someday due to the long-time accumulation of some habits formed in the process of their work. As for over-the-road truckers and drivers sitting behind their steering wheel all day long, weight loss has never been easier. That’s why it’s dramatically common to see truckers or drivers with large bellies. Are they going to suffer from obesity and other complications throughout their lives? If so, their lives seem to be too painful and tedious. Is there a possible way for them to cast off obesity and embrace a healthy body? Of course, YES.

If one or some of your friends is/are taxi drivers or truck drivers, doing intermittent fasting regularly can be a good choice for them to drop pounds, as well as to keep slim.

Why Weight Loss is Especially Difficult for Truckers or Drivers?

Have you ever found a strange phenomenon in life that nearly all truckers and drivers are obese? Well, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), the obesity rate of adults in the United States is nearly 40%, making the US “the fattest country” in the world. Among them, over 90% are truckers or drivers.

Here are several reasons why weight loss is especially difficult for truckers and drivers.

Keep Sitting for Too Long

Driving for a long time can be boring but keeping sitting in front of the steer for a long time is even more tedious. Without sufficient exercise, the calories drivers have taken in cannot be consumed, and are changed into fat. For over-the-road truckers and drivers, the calories will be easily converted into fat mostly stored in their thighs, stomach, and buttocks because of their sedentary job style.

Irregular Diet and Lifestyle

Because of an emergency towards a target place and the inconvenience of dieting during the process of driving, drivers can only eat cheap fast food like hamburgers and chips in a roadside restaurant when they are hungry and need to hurry. Meanwhile, they have no time to cook breakfast and lunch at home, so they cannot get sufficient nutrients. Even homemade food is well prepared by their family or spouse, it seems impossible to carry it all the way drive since it’s not easy to keep it fresh all the time. What’s more, long hours of driving at night block them from getting enough sleep which certainly counts against weight loss.

Insufficient Water Intake

Water is not only the source of life but also an essential drive to drop pounds. Water intake enables people to easily feel full by propping up the space with their appetite reduced in the meantime. For those working in an office, it’s quite easy and natural for them to drink water whenever they feel thirsty. Unfortunately, it seems difficult for truckers or drivers on the road. On one hand, it’s dangerous to drink water while driving. On the other hand, too much water intake forces them to frequently find toilets along the whole way. That probably stops them from hurrying to the target place in time.

Limited Workout and Constant Stress

When you get tired from work, will you go out for exercise and get some fresh air to relieve your stress? Physical exercise is not only conducive to relieving pressure, but also maintains the body shape. But drivers don’t do that because most of them conform to irregular lifestyles. In order to avoid accidents, drivers always keep a high degree of tension in mind. Unfortunately, they have no chance to relax during and even after work hours.

Why Intermittent Fasting is Fit for Truckers or Drivers to Drop Pounds?

Intermittent fasting is the practice of maintaining zero or very low-calorie intake for a set amount of time periodically. Periodicity means not fasting all the time. This can be one day a week or one day a month, but not several days in a row. This is very different from the traditional diet of fasting or starvation. Intermittent fasting typically involves not eating for 18 to 36 hours.

As is known to all, it usually takes four to five or even seven to eight hours for truckers or drivers to transport goods. Such special work makes truckers or drivers fail to eat as the normal dieting schedule, but it is very suitable for them to take intermittent fasting because they have sufficient time to fast. According to the definition of intermittent fasting, the one who engages in intermittent fasting is asked to intake zero or very low calories for a couple of hours. Truckers or drivers can accept it easily because they have already been used to such an eat-stop-eat habit.

Intermittent Fasting: Eat-Stop-Eat Rule

Generally speaking, as you stop eating, your body will go through 6 phases as is introduced below.

  • Phase 1 (0-4 Hours). Blood Sugar Rises.
  • Phase 2 (4-8 Hours). Blood Sugar Drops.
  • Phase 3 (8-12 Hours). Blood Sugar Settles Down.
  • Phase 4 (12 Hours). Fat Burning.
  • Phase 5 (13 Hours). Ketone Levels Rise.
  • Phase 6 (24 Hours). Autophagy.

According to the 6 phases, it can be learned that the working principle of intermittent fasting is to prolong the time between your meals so that enough time is provided to burn your stored fat. Normally, most people have three meals a day and they don’t stop there. Sometimes, they consume snacks most of which are unhealthy, filled with sweeteners easily leading people to become fat.

Truckers/Drivers’ “Free” Lifestyle

Compared with fixed 9 to 5 office staff, truckers or drivers lead a free lifestyle because they don’t and can’t have their meals at the fixed times of a day. After all, their working time is mostly determined by others. For example, cargo drivers’ one-day schedule is determined by the emergency level of the time regulation of the target place. For uber drivers, however, their one-day schedule is determined by passengers. However, the free lifestyle provides convenience to them to implement intermittent fasting.

How Should Truckers/Drivers Smartly Schedule Their Intermittent Fasting Plans?

So, after learning the above relative information, such a conclusion may be made that driving is not an easy task, and weight loss for truckers or drivers has never been easier as well. Nevertheless, is there no way to help drivers lose weight? Obviously, the answer is no. According to above, it has been put forward that intermittent fasting suits truck and taxi drivers well, based on the working principle of intermittent fasting and drivers’ work characteristics. Here are some tips for them to better start intermittent fasting.

Tip 1. Find “regular” among “irregular”.

When talking about the lifestyle of drivers, four main characteristics have been put forward, one of the most obvious is irregular work and rest among them. Irregular work and rest have multiple harms to the human body. First, it is easy to make people angry, causing anxiety and other mental problems. Second, it will lead to abnormal immune cell TH17, thus affecting the entire body’s immune system. Besides that, it will also affect work efficiency seriously. a regular work and rest schedule is very important for people to keep healthy, especially, for those who want to lose weight.

For drivers, however, finding “regular” among “irregular” is the first tip that they need to follow. To find the regular among the irregular calls truckers or drivers to clarify that regular diet should be followed when weight loss is expected. For example, each of the basic and necessary elements that should be covered in each diet should never be missed. For those who have little idea about a healthy diet model, MyPlate model is strongly recommended since it’s easy for you to prepare healthy meals based on its diet structure.

The MyPlate Model

With a healthy diet consumed, to lose weight, the time intervals between meals should be rigorously limited since it’s quite important for intermittent fasting to work on weight loss. For example, write down the specific time for each of your meals and your next mealtime should never be started in less than 4 fours during the eating window.

Tip 2. Select a suitable intermittent fasting plan.

An eating window should be chosen according to your regular work and rest plan. Generally speaking, there are 4 types of eating windows as follows:

16:8

16:8 intermittent fasting schedule requires 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating. Basically, one meal is abandoned when 16:8 is selected as an intermittent fasting schedule and which meal to abandon depends on the specific situation or individual demands. 16:8 is the most popular intermittent fasting schedule and is the start of the majority of fasters.

5:2

As you conform to the 5:2 intermittent fasting plan, you’ll have five days of a normal diet and two with 20% of the ordinary calorie intake. Research by the International Journal of Obesity indicates that 5:2 intermittent fasting helps reduce more weight and fat compared with other intermittent fasting plans.

Warrior Diet

Warrior Diet is an intermittent fasting protocol developed by health and fitness author Ori Hofmekler. The warrior diet requires eating to be done in the evening. Fasters are allowed to eat only a few fresh fruit and vegetables and eat a big meal during the 4-hour window in the evening. Compared with other intermittent fasting plans, the warrior diet is stricter.

OMAD

One meal a day, also called OMAD, is a fasting plan requiring one meal a day. It doesn’t specify what to eat or when to eat but you’re required to eat one meal only in a single day. OMAD is the highest fasting plan that is approximately 23:1 fasting. OMAD isn’t suggested for intermittent fasting beginners since it’s too hard.

For truckers or drivers, 5:2 and OMAD are suggested because it’s still inconvenient for them to conform to a scheduled meal plan that should be followed every day.

Tip 3. Smartly plan your meals.

To ensure weight loss and good health, these foods should be taken in by you every day, if possible.

Fresh Fruits

All the fruits friendly with intermittent fasting are rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and other substances, which can supplement the nutrients needed by the human body and keep the balance of nutrition, thus improving the body’s immunity. In addition, fruits are rich in water and dietary fiber. Not only will eating fruit help you feel fuller and lose weight, but you can also look forward to preventing constipation.

Vegetables of All Types

Vegetables are rich in various nutrients necessary for the human body and are the main source of minerals and vitamins. In addition to supplementing human nutrition, vegetables have a variety of functions of disease prevention and play an important role in health care.

Bottom Line

  • Unhealthy diet and lack of exercise and water intake lead truckers and drivers to gain weight.
  • It’s necessary for truckers and drivers to conform to intermittent fasting since they need to lose weight and they have a flexible lifestyle that is fit for intermittent fasting.
  • Some helpful tips can be followed by truckers or drivers to easily finish intermittent fasting.

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