Intermittent fasting is a prevalent fitness trend nowadays. Studies show that it helps you lose weight and stay fit, can positively impact your life, and even extend it.
What is intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern in which the period of eating and fasting are traded off in shifts. It’s not a diet since it doesn’t change WHAT you eat; instead, it changes WHEN you eat.
Unlike diets, fasting is natural for all living things, even humans. People were fasting thousands of years ago since food wasn’t always readily available and wasn’t a guaranteed resource. Our bodies are very well adapted to fasting.
Even today, many of the major religions practice fasting in different forms, and many people follow them and feel great.
Based on all of this information, we conclude that fasting is less stressful on our bodies than many diets are.
How does it work?
Simply put, when you eat, your body spends a few hours processing the food you’ve recently consumed, taking all the energy necessary from that food. When you fast for a certain amount of time, your body doesn’t have this energy source and has nothing to do but use the fat you have stored.
Our bodies’ reaction to eating causes the production of insulin. The greater our insulin sensitivity, the more efficiently we use the energy from our food. After a period of fasting, we become the most sensitive to insulin. All these changes lead to weight loss and help build muscles.
The benefits of intermittent fasting
Different studies have proven that intermittent fasting helps you stay in good shape, improves your health, and prevents many diseases.
- It reduces the risk of cancer and makes its treatment easier, lessening the side effects of chemotherapy.
- Normalizes blood pressure and protects you from heart diseases
- Reduces the blood sugar level and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes
- Reduces inflammation in the body
- Increases the growth of new nerve cells and improves brain function
- Helps to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease or reduce its severity
- Helps you live longer
Six most popular ways to do intermittent fasting
The 16/8 method:
Your “eating window” lasts 8 hours during the day; the other 16 hours are used as fasting time. During fasting, you can only drink water, tea, coffee, or other non-caloric beverages. Women are generally recommended to fast for a slightly shorter period of 14-15 hours.
When fasting, you can skip breakfast and have your first meal at noon, followed by your last by 8 p.m. Or, if you have your first meal at 9 in the morning, you should stop eating at 5 p.m. Choose the time that best suits you and your daily schedule.
This method of intermittent fasting is the most effortless for most people, so it is the most popular eating pattern.
24-hour fast
Once a week, you stop eating for 24 hours, from dinner one day to dinner the next. Or you can opt to fast from breakfast to breakfast or lunch to lunch. During the rest of the days of the week, you eat normally.
The 5/2 method
Here, you eat usually five days a week and consume only 20-25% of your regular daily calorie intake two days a week.
Fasting every other day
Everything is obvious here: you’re fasting every other day. That means you eat nothing on fasting days or a very minimal amount of food, not more than 20% of your daily calorie intake.
The warrior diet
If you follow the warrior diet, you should have only one 4-hour eating window at night when you eat one huge meal. During the day, you can eat only small amounts of raw fruits and vegetables.
Spontaneous
This fasting pattern suits those who can’t follow the above-listed schedules. From time to time, you may choose to skip meals or have a whole fasting day when you feel like it. It’s all about what best fits your lifestyle and schedule.
Intermittent fasting has already proven its efficiency with many people, and you can see great results after implementing it. But it’s essential to remember that food quality is crucial. You don’t expect to lose weight, gain muscles, and improve your health if you don’t give up junk food and sugar-sweetened drinks.
