Intermittent fasting is an easy approach and is currently one of the world's most popular health and fitness trends.
It has many health benefits and weight loss advantages, which involves making a conscious decision in producing eating patterns involving eating and fasting. It is less about the foods you eat and much more about the program you consume them.
The History of Intermittent Fasting
Many ancient healers have considered fasting as the best self-healing remedy and can be used by many religions across the world. Starving is an involuntary action with unhealthy results because of malnutrition.
Fasting is a voluntary activity with a planned eating routine for health benefit benefits. This could not be any farther from the truth. The notion that eating three times a day or the concept that six small meals are a perfect strategy is a complete fantasy. Published data shows that ADF is an efficacious dietary method because of its ease of compliance, greater fat‐mass reduction and ability to promote weight loss.
IF is all about conditioning your body to use your energy differently by easily accessing and burning fat. Without getting too mad into the science, our body has the capacity to store energy in two ways. It can be saved as Sugar or Fat. Sugar storage is restricted and can only take so much, any excess is then stored as Fat, which has an infinite storage.
When our body uses energy, it first accesses our Sugar storage and when there's nothing there, the body goes into the long-term storage and burns Fat for energy. Think of Sugar as if it’s stored in your wallet, it is simple to get money if you want.
Fats, on the other hand, are similar to a bank and it takes some effort to find money. For the majority of us, our body is largely utilizing Sugar for energy and it infrequently taps into our Fat for energy.
The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
By always eating, the food we eat contributes to replenishing our sugar storage, leading to always available sugar reservations. They do not need to if your body continues to replenish our glucose reserves.
However, when you sast, let's say 16 hours, this elongated time without food, your body has used all of the Sugar storage and is then forced to use Fat storage for energy.
Intermittent fasting provides MANY health benefits beyond just losing weight. Fasting heals your body to enhance general health. The benefits of fasting are many and supported by published research: It is easy to follow and matches a number of lifestyles.
- Increased energy and enhanced awareness (body is using more fat as energy over sugar reservations)
- It helps boost wellbeing and promotes a long life (anti-aging)
- It may increase insulin sensitivity reduction levels of insulin
- It may lower cholesterol/HDL
- It causes less muscle loss
- It has evidence of efficacy in weight loss and maintenance
- Intermittent fasting has been demonstrated to encourage reduction of fat mass
Our body is typically using sugar for energy around 12 hours and if you're Fasting for 16 hours, then your body is burning fat for energy that the remaining 4 hours. The tail end of a Fasting cycle, your body/mind will be telling you how to eat. But you're fine; your body has lots of energy (fat).
Types Of Fasting
The most common intermittent fasting diet protocols could be grouped into three categories: Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF) or 16:8, Whole-Day Fasting or 5:2 and Alternate Day Fasting (ADF). There are other methods but these are the three which appears to be more popular.
Time-restricted feeding (TRF) or 16:8 entails a set daily fasting period and shortened eating, For instance, the 16/8 method entails daily fasts of 16 hours (14 for women).
On each day, the person fasts for 16 hours every day and eats a normal quantity of calories throughout the leftover eight hours of the day, typically following the same schedule every day. Many prefer this process as it means that you are eating the exact same way daily without experiencing the ups and downs.
Whole-day fasting or 5:2 specifies different ratios of fasting for non-fasting days, like the 5:2 diet. This entails eating 500-600 calories for 2 days of this week but eating normally the other five days. The fasting days are typically not back-to-back but instead spread out within the week.
Alternate day fasting (ADF) entails a 24-hour quickly followed by a 24-hour non-fasting interval (consume on Day 1, quickly on Day two, eat on Day 3, quickly on Day 4, etc.). Alternative-day fasting has a individual consuming no more than 500 calories on the “fasting day”, and whatever they need the next.
By choosing to quickly for 23 hours with one meal every day, it helps for long fast intervals on a consistent basis. As an extra plus, published research demonstrated ADF may assist with cardio protection, protect learning and memory performance, and help prevent several health difficulties.
Of course, for all these choices, it's important to eat healthy foods throughout your eating window. This will not work if you eat a lot of junk food or excessive amounts of calories. The most important takeaway is that success relies on establishing a set “fasting” & “non-fasting” program and sticking to it for a time period.
This is SIGNIFICANT… and beating your internal “Dennis the Menace” is important to achieving the health benefits of Intermittent Fasting. Being mentally strong in addition to taking the perfect supplements and/or drinks can help get you through this important point. Your body and mind will be screaming at you, “YOU NEED TO EAT!”
Do not worry, your body has lots of energy and it is running from sugar reservations and your body is based on this. We will need to push your body to utilize fat for energy and getting beyond your cravings make this happen.
Recommendation: In the morning, drink water, tea, coffee, or take supplements and remain active until 12:00 pm. If exercising is part of your everyday regimen, exercise 1-2 hours until 12:00 pm or before your first meal. You can expect to get a clear mind and improved production throughout the morning.
Here's my specific procedure: I drink one glass of water first thing in the morning together with taking a Garcinia supplement to help handle my cravings and accelerate fat burn. Coffee was not an option for me because I'm not a big coffee drinker.
Mistakes & Hurdles
Over-indulging is a frequent mistake for most people when they first begin doing IF. I need to admit, I had been guilty of this. Following your Fasting period, knowing that what you eat isn't as rigorous as other diets, you enter “beast” style and eat like there is no tomorrow.
You want to have self-discipline and eat normally. After a couple weeks, you will begin getting used to it and wind up eating regular… but you will need to be sure at the start you control this. Otherwise, you are contradicting what IF can do for you.
Selecting The Wrong Plan This is a frequent mistake for some, choosing the wrong strategy that does not match your schedule leading to failed effects.
Take the time to check at the top IF plan that will work with your program. The 16:8 is the most common and the one I selected for my program. I'd Fast from 8:00 pm to 12:00 pm the following day, skipping breakfast.
Note: For females, it is advised to do a 14:10, 14 hours quickly and 10-hour ingesting window. I began with a 14-hour fasting initially and slowly moved to 16 hours. Skipping breakfast was simpler for me and did not cause a problem when coworkers and friends wanted to have dinner or lunch… it fell within my eating pub.
Make no mistake about it, the first couple of weeks when fasting will be a difficult challenge, both physically and emotionally. The GOOD NEWS is… if you get beyond this stage, it becomes a lot easier.
Here are some of the tips that helped me get in the groove and enjoy the benefits of fasting and I think they can help you to:
Staying Hydrated:
This should help remove some of the appetite which seems first thing in the morning. Bear in mind, after sleeping, you might wake up dehydrated. And if you are dehydrated, your body may send you hunger signals, which feels nearly identical to hunger signals.
It helps me to have something with flavor, so I add a lemon, lime, or orange wedge into my everyday water bottle.
Use Appetite Suppressant Supplements:
Garcinia Cambogia provides a special compound named HCA (hydroxycitric acid) that targets fat production in the body. There's lots of science on HCA that says it helps boost serotonin, making you feel less hungry.
Caffeine is a natural appetite suppressant and will help keep your hunger at bay. Just ensure that you consume any drinks with stimulants a couple of hours before bedtime, otherwise, you might be awake all night long.
I recommend you avoid caffeinated low-calorie soft drinks. They have loads of artificial sweeteners and will only undermine your weight loss efforts.
Keep Busy:
When you are busy, you won't be focusing on food or desire. I really found I was more effective and had more energy when my belly was not stuffed. It's common to believe you're hungry once you feel bored. Distracting your brain can block it from believing that your body is hungry.
One of my very best suggestions is to take your children outdoors rather than watching television with all those food advertisements and cooking shows. It will benefit both them and you!
Non-Fasting Days:
When it's time to break your fast, concentrate on “normal” meals. To put it differently, have the exact same type of meal you would have if you're not fasting. No gigantic foods or junk food. Instead, concentrate on high protein foods and eat slowly.
Protein takes longer to digest and consume compared to other nutrients so that you'll feel full longer.
Start Slowly:
I can't emphasize this enough. For me, the best way to start integrating an intermittent fasting strategy into my life was to gradually delay breakfast. Too frequently, getting up and grabbing something to eat is a habit, not a necessity.
I know many think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that could be true for children. But I discovered that by delaying eating in the morning, I had been more successful in my fasting program.
Stay Positive:
As with several things, the very first time is the hardest. But fasting makes easier after a couple of sessions. It took me a couple weeks of intermittent fasting to get in the groove. Now I really look forward to giving my body a break from eating!
Allow yourself at least two weeks to completely adapt and experience all of the health benefits of fasting. I picked the Time-restricted feeding (16:8) method of Intermittent Fasting as I believed it was the ideal schedule for me. 16 hours Fasting with a 8 hour eating period.
My Fasting period from 8:00 pm to 12:00 pm the next day. I'd eat from 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm every day. I began my mornings by drinking a 12 ounce glass of water. I'd take an appetite suppressant a couple of hours afterwards, Garcinia Cambogia, which actually helped curb my appetite together with helping with the fat burning process.
I need to confess; this was my saving grace to getting beyond my food cravings a while. I'd drink 2-3 cups of hot green tea before lunch.
When I did work out, I attempted to do it an hour or 2 before my first meal at 12:00 pm. This enabled me to take advantage of accelerated fat burn during the vital stage of Fasting.
At 12:00 pm, I would eat a moderate meal such as poultry or fish and vegetables. With IF, eating some fatty foods is welcomed so when it comes to poultry, eating wings and legs is just fine. Red meats (beef and lamb) are perfectly okay; I just don't eat red meats.
Throughout the afternoon, I would snack on some nuts such as almonds, fruits, or a cup of yogurt. My dinners did not change too much from lunch… fish (tilapia, salmon, mackerel), chicken (grilled, baked) and salads/vegetables (grilled, steamed).
Right before bed, I would take an Acai Cleanse supplement to detox and discard some excess waste from my system through the evening.
Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss Health Benefits Final Words
You need to be honest with yourself about the way you live and which sort of intermittent fasting weight loss health benefits will work best for you. Give it a shot if you haven’t tried it yet!
