Yorktown Resident Sees Breakthrough with Intermittent Fasting

For many years Ralph Milton cared about eating well and staying fit but like millions of people he struggled with his diet and maintaining an optimum weight.

One day in 2015, a customer came into his father’s auto repair shop in Millwood, where he worked for 17 years, and started talking about the benefits and effectiveness of intermittent fasting.

It piqued Milton’s interest, and a week or two later, he started researching to learn more. The simplest explanation is intermittent fasting allows for food intake for roughly an eight-hour window during the day.

“I started researching the science behind it, how it works on the body,” said Milton, 43, now a chiseled, 200-pound Yorktown resident with four percent body fat. “I was blown away. This is going to be tremendous.”

Today, it would be hard to find a bigger proponent for the increasingly popular approach. Milton, who now works at a Croton-on-Hudson car dealership, said that by limiting your meals to between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. or noon and 8 p.m., roughly taking in the traditional lunch hour and dinner time, it helps the body use its fat as the primary energy source.

Furthermore, many health care professionals have agreed that the eating pattern is more effective at stabilizing a person’s blood sugar by increasing insulin levels, reduces inflammation and increases natural growth hormone, he said. That results in higher energy and more sustainable weight loss.

Now, Milton has developed his own plant- and amino-based dietary supplement, called Fit Body Fasting Fuel, a powder that is mixed with cold or hot water and resembles green tea. It is taken in place of breakfast to take the edge off any morning hunger until lunch. He has a patent pending on the supplement.

“So, what I’ve done is basically create a product that not only makes it sustainable and comfortable to fast, but also enhances biologically what’s going on in the body,” Milton said.

But Milton takes it another step – actually a few steps. He has developed three phases that slightly modifies the fasting routine as one begins to drop weight. Phase one begins with 16 hours of daily fasting that starts at 7 or 8 p.m. before the first day. Assuming the scheduled started on a Monday, that continues for 12 consecutive days. The second Saturday is a “refeed day” where you can eat what and when you want.

Following dinner on the refeed day, the 16-hour fast begins but each week should be extended to prepare for the next phase.

After about four to six weeks, Milton said most people are ready for Phase two, where exercise should be incorporated into the schedule three to five days a week for 30 minutes to an hour. Phase two is similar to Phase I for the first six days of the week, but there is the start of a 24-hour fast early in the evening on the sixth day of the week.

Following the 24-hour fast, there should be no carbohydrates consumed with dinner except those found in vegetables.

During all fasts people are encouraged to drink water, tea or black coffee, Milton said. He also uses his Fit Body Fasting Fuel up to three times on 24-hour fast days.

Phase three would be similar to Phase two, with the introduction of two days of no carbohydrates in addition to the 24-hour fast day. This phase should remain in place until the weight loss goal has been attained.

The Maintenance Phase is designed to keep the goal weight. A 16-hour fast is done Monday through Friday with Saturday and Sunday regular food days with three meals each day.

Milton said what sets intermittent fasting apart is its impact on the body’s hormones. He described it not as a diet or an eating regimen but “a lifestyle.”

“The beauty of the lifestyle is that it’s conducive and it’s realistic to sustain for the rest of your life,” Milton said.

The longer a person practices intermittent fasting, typically the less hungry they are, he said. He encourages it for adults who have been through the cycle of multiple diets and failed weight-loss plans.

For anyone with certain conditions or questions, Milton strongly advised speaking to their doctor.

“For anybody over the age of 25 to get in shape, to lose fat, lose stomach fat with a traditional pattern of eating, it’s really a hard task,” Milton said. “With this lifestyle, what it does to your hormones, what it does to the simplifying factor of whether you can sustain it, you can’t compare it.”

For more information on Milton’s supplement and his approach to intermittent fasting, visit www.if4life.com.