Intermittent fasting requires alternating between fasting and eating times-and it has become quite common recently. Not only was it the “trendiest” search word on weight loss in 2019, but it was also featured extensively in medical journals.
“There is some good scientific evidence suggesting that circadian rhythm fasting, when combined with a healthy diet and lifestyle, can be a particularly effective approach to weight loss, especially for people at risk for diabetes” (Harvard Health Blog, 2018)
Intermittent fasting is not a diet but a pattern of eating, where it has tremendous benefits namely; Energy, brain power, and weight management. Intermittent fasting is a wonderful way and it can be achieved very easily.
Intermittent fasting is a great way to get the weight you want without the need to go on diet or cut your calories. Actually, you will be keeping your calorie count the same because you will be eating bigger meals during a shorter period. The good news is that you will not lose muscle mass, on the contrary, you will be able to keep your muscle mass while getting lean.
Furthermore, the thing that makes intermittent fasting different from common diets is that it is easy enough to do it, but significant enough to make a difference. Unlike other diets, it helps you get rid of the bad weight while keeping your healthy weight.
In this post, we will shed a light on how intermittent fasting for weight loss works, its benefits, and different fasting schedules
How Does It Work?
your body goes through two states every day, and that is the fed state and fasted state. The fed state is when your body is digesting and absorbing food, where this state starts when you begin eating, and lasts for up to 5 hours. So, during this state is hard for your body to burn fat due to the high level of insulin.
After that, your body goes to what is known as the post-absorptive state, where your body is not processing food. In this state, your body starts to transition to the fasted state, where it is much easier for your body to burn fat because the level of insulin in the body is low.
Since the absorptive state lasts u to 12 hours, it is rare that your body is in the fat-burning state. That’s why many people choose to start intermittent fasting because it helps their bodies transition to the fasting state easily without the need to change what they eat or cut down their calories.
The health benefits of intermittent fasting:
There is no doubt about the tremendous benefits of intermittent fasting, where many studies show that it is a great way for weight control, the health of your body, and the health of your brain. Some even suggest that it will help you live longer. Here is the list of benefits of intermittent fasting:
1- It helps your body detox and rejuvenates itself.
2- It helps lower your blood insulin and sugar levels
3- It improves your concentration and mental clarity
4- It increases your energy and improves your cholesterol profile
5- It reduces inflammation
6- It reduces the risk of cancer:
“Fasting may help with cancer treatment. There is a growing body of evidence supporting the role of fasting in both cancer treatment and prevention” (medical news today, 2019)
7- It is much easier and simpler than diet:
It can be easily implemented once the person gets over the idea that he/she needs to eat all the time, where it considered an effective strategy for weight loss and it can be easily quickly adapted
The benefits of intermittent fasting are a lot, but we listed few of them above. Addition to these benefits, fasting offers many advantages that are not available in typical diets and makes the process of losing weight so simple.
Different schedules of intermittent fasting:
1- Daily Intermittent Fasting:
The daily intermittent fasting model was popularized by Martin Berkhan, where it uses 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hour eating period. It does not matter when you start your 8 hours eating period. Do whatever works for you.
Some people tend to choose the time from 1 pm to 8 pm because it allows them to have lunch and dinner with their friends and loved ones. It will be easy for you to get into the habit of daily intermittent fasting because you are probably eating at the same time every day without thinking about it. The only thing that you need to do in intermittent fasting is to learn not to eat at certain times during the day.
2- Weekly Intermittent Fasting:
If you would like to get used to intermittent fasting, then I recommend that you start doing it once a week or a month. Even if you do not want to use it for cutting calories or losing weight, fasting a few days monthly has many health benefits as we mentioned earlier.
What I am saying is, it good to develop the habit of fasting let’s say 3 days each month for the sake of keeping your body healthy.
The weakly intermittent fasting schedule allows you to eat every day while reaping the benefits of fasting for 24 hours. It works this way: Let’s say that your lunch on Tuesday is your last meal of the day. You then fast until lunch on Wednesday.
With this plan, you eat your normal 3 meals per day, and then pick a day, where you skip breakfast and lunch till the next day. It is better to skip the two meals every three days which means that you will be fasting one day per week.
3- Alternate Day Intermittent Fasting:
The alternate day intermittent fasting schedule allows you to get long periods of fasting on a consistent basis while eating one meal every day of the week. For example, let’s say that you had dinner Wednesday night, then you do not eat again until Thursday evening. On Friday you would eat all day then start the 24 hours fasting cycle again after dinner on Friday.
Generally, this type of intermittent fasting schedule is used often in research studies, where it is not popular as the daily and weekly intermittent fasting schedules. However, if you fast several days a week for 24 hours a day, then it would be very difficult to eat enough on your feast days to make up for that. As a result, I think it’s a safer idea to try intermittent fasting on a daily basis or fast a single 24–hours once a week or once a month.
Conclusion:
whenever we talk about losing weight, there are many options available for us. intermittent fasting is one of these options though it is totally different from any typical diet out there.
I would recommend that you give it a try not only for losing weight but for your overall health since intermittent fasting has tremendous benefits.
If you have tried it, I would like to hear about your experience, please comment below
Other Options To Lose Weight:
if this diet does not work for you, there are always other ways in which you can lose weight and lead a healthy lifestyle. For more details check the to[pics below:
- Simple Guidance For You In The Different Types Of Diets
- Here’s What you need to know About Dukan Diet Phases
- The Complete Mediterranean Diet Guide
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