What Can : 12 Intermittent Fasting Offer You
Since 12:12 intermittent fasting is among the least restrictive types of IF, it bears minimum risks. But that is not the only benefit of this nutritional approach. Here is what 12-hour fasting has to offer:
- Improved longevity
- Improved longevity
- Better physical performance
These are only a few of the health benefits of 12:12 intermittent fasting. Here are some other pros of this weight loss tool:
- Easy to follow. This type of IF is very easy to follow, and you are unlikely to suffer from hunger pangs during your fasting period. You can have breakfast at 8 am and eat your dinner before 8 pm.
- Affordable. You choose which food you will eat yourself, so you can plan your menu in such a way that there would be no need in buying expensive products or supplements.
- Encourages healthy sleep. The more you sleep the less time you have to fast. In such a way, 12:12 intermittent fasting encourages you to sleep a healthy 7-9 hours a day.
- Safe for health. This dietary approach is among the least restrictive weight loss methods. It offers you gradual and sustainable weight loss and encourages a healthy lifestyle.
You Are Eating The Wrong Type Of Food
Many other diets come with a list of foods that you can and cannot eat. However, that is not how intermittent fasting works.
Intermittent fasting lets you eat anything you would like within a specific eating window.
Because intermittent fasting does not restrict your diet, it is easy to slip right into unhealthy feeding habits. Binging on unhealthy processed foods even if it is only in your eating window could be responsible for your slow results.
Stuffing too many calories during your eating periods is also counterproductive.
During your intermittent fast, consider changing your meal plan. Toss out the unhealthy processed food and switch to healthier options. Think of foods like whole grains that are rich in dietary fiber.
Furthermore, sugary foods could send your blood sugar levels through the roof and contribute to reduced insulin sensitivity.
Staying away from sugary foods protects you from sugar highs and the sugar crash that results after. It also helps keep your blood sugar within the normal range.
Choosing A Fasting Schedule: Faqs
What Can I Eat?
You need to eat healthy and nourishing foods during your feeding window. Even if youre on a limited-calorie fast, choose nutritious whole foods to maximize the benefits of your program. Also, low-carb and Ketogenic diets may be synergistic when combined with an IF schedule for general health and managing type 2 diabetes.
What Can I Drink?
Hydration is also key when it comes to fasting. Not only does water maintain crucial bodily functions, but it can also effectively curb hunger pangs. If you wish to add a flavor to your fasting routine, black coffee, tea, and other zero-calorie drinks are all fair game. Youll have to pass on the alcohol though.
Can I Take Supplements/Medication?
You may also be wondering about supplements and medication on your IF schedule. In some instances, it is recommended that these are taken with food, in which case you can include these within your feeding window. If you have any doubts about taking either during a period of fasting, we recommend consulting with your health professional.
Is fasting different for women?
Both men and women have been fasting successfully throughout human history. Some research, however, suggests small differences in how women fast. For instance, in one study, men had better muscular adaptations to exercise in a fasted state, while women did better in a fed state. Another study found that a two-day-fast provoked a significant stress response in overweight women. This hasnt been shown in men.
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Might Go Against Your Intuition
Intermittent fasting requires discipline, restraint, and planning ahead.
For some people, using those tactics to keep your calorie intake within a designated time frame is no problem, but for others, it might feel unnatural at first. This may be especially true if youre used to relying on your intuition to decide when to eat.
Further, if you prefer not to follow a strict schedule, you might find intermittent fasting frustrating.
Whats more, if your schedule tends to vary from day to day because of work, family, or other obligations, keeping your calorie intake to a designated time frame could be challenging.
What Is The Best Intermittent Fasting Plan For Weight Loss
Dr Sam Watts, founder of Mind Body Medical , tells Live Science that there are two clear leaders when it comes to intermittent fasting styles. Lots of clinical evidence exists around the potential weight loss benefits of different intermittent fasting plans, he says. For quicker and more profound weight loss, the alternate day fasting plan is arguably the most effective. A less-extreme and thus easier-to-adopt approach is the 16:8 model. This is a time-restricted eating version of intermittent fasting that involves consuming all of your calories in an eight-hour window and fasting for the remaining 16 hours.
This approach has consistently been shown to induce significant and progressive weight loss in an arguably more sustainable model.
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How To Find The Best Method For Beginners
Although approaches exist that fit most people, its perfectly reasonable to experiment in the beginning.
After all, your body and daily schedule are unique, so its not always the same method that can best fit that routine.
For example, you can start slowly with a 12/12 day plan, as this is an effortless way to get started for most people.
You stop eating a few hours before bedtime and postpone breakfast for a few hours after waking up.
If that works well, extend the fasting window the next day and repeat the process until you arrive at a daily schedule that works for you.
Since you have to subtract 8 hours of sleep, 12 to 16 hours is not long to wait for a meal. Accordingly, its easy to experiment with classic intermittent fasting, where you still eat every day.
Start Slow Take Your Time To Get To A Full 12 Hour Fast
There is no reason you need to start out fasting for the full 12 hours. This is not a sprint, its a marathon. It takes time for your body to adjust to not eating especially if you typically have an evening snack or grab breakfast right when you wake.
For me, I typically take my evening supplements around 9pm. Then, I wake up slow and take my time getting ready in the morning.
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We Asked Nutritionist Kerry Torrens For Her View
Is it safe?
Much of the emphasis of these diets is on the fasting stage, but in order to be a safe, effective and healthy style of eating, the food consumed during your eating windows needs to be of high nutritional value. Aim to include essential fats from oily fish, nuts and seeds, lean sources of protein, wholegrains and starchy carbs and plenty of fruit and vegetables to supply dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals.
Is it effective for weight loss and is it sustainable?
Studies suggest that when you compare IF with daily calorie restriction it is equally as effective at promoting weight loss in those who are overweight and obese. Results will vary, however, dependent on your individual circumstances and the amount of weight you have to lose. How effective it is in the longer term will depend on your ability to maintain this style of eating going forward. This is because IF is not so much a diet but rather a programme of eating, which means sustaining the weight loss is all down to how well you adapt your eating patterns in the long term.
How do different versions of IF compare?
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Who should be more careful when considering fasting?
Please note: if youre considering attempting any form of diet, please consult your GP first to ensure you can do so without risk to health.
Intermittent Fasting Rules & Benefits
Ive written an entire article on intermittent fasting for women that explains the many benefits. The unique advantage of the diet is that it does not require harmful calorie restriction to see results.
Ive also written about what you can eat or drink while intermittent fasting with a suggested list of the best food and drinks to include in your diet for optimum health.
The main point here is that intermittent fasting can be extremely beneficial for women. The practice can easily be fit into any schedule and allows us to stay fit and healthy without sacrificing calories.
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Calibrating Your Fasting Protocol
The smart way to calibrate your fasting protocol is by easing into it. Start with a 12 hour fast and scale up from there until you find a program that works best for your body.
Heres how that might look schedule-wise on a week-by-week basis.:
- 1 week of 12-hour fasting
- 3 days of 13-hour fasting
- 3 days of 14-hour fasting
- 3 days of 16-hour fasting
- 3 days of 18-hour fasting
- Once you have established which IF protocol works best for you, you can then maintain this level, listen to your body, and adjust if needed.
If you experience discomfort at any level, drop back down to a more sustainable routine.
Remember that the goal isnt to fast as long as possible or shed pounds as quickly as you can. The aim is to find a sustainable intermittent fasting schedule that suits your lifestyle and individual health needs. To keep things simple, you can use a diet tracker app like Carb Manager to help implement and maintain your custom intermittent fasting program . This way, you can record all your essential health metrics in one place. Once you have established your routine, you can sit back and reap the rewards of your progress.
How Does The 12/12 Method Work
There are many types of intermittent fasting. For example, in 16:8 method , you are allowed to eat 8 hours a day and eat 16 hours fast.
If you decide to follow 5:2 intermittent fasting, you eat five days a week normally and then fast for two days.
The 12/12 method is a bit easier to implement. As the name suggests, you are allowed to eat 12 hours and then start 12 hours fasting phase, seven days a week. So if you have breakfast at 8am in the morning, you are allowed to have dinner until 8pm in the evening. After that, the food is discontinued, only water and unsweetened tea are allowed.
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Clearly Intermittent Fasting Benefits Extend Well Beyond Weight Loss
I do a form of intermittent fasting myself and use it as a tool with many of my Nutritional Therapy clients especially those with insulin resistance, stubborn weight gain, PCOS , and acne since these are all closely related to blood sugar levels.
These may be among the reasons youre interested to try it out too!
/8my Workout And Fitness Secrets
Because the gym didnt work for me, I just did a basic home workout wherein I did a lot of cardio. My diet was the biggest change that helped me.
I also believe there are no specific secrets to losing weight. Just plain old hard work and dedication will get you there. As they say, consistency is key.
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Keeps Cells Healthy And Vibrant
When we fast we give our body time to rest and repair, tending to natural processes put in place to keep our cells healthy. Autophagy is an example of a process our body naturally undergoes to keep our cells healthy and in turn, keep us healthy!
Autophagy is the process our cells go through to remove waste and dysfunctional cells to help our body clean out damaged cells and regenerate new and healthier cells. Evidence suggests when we intermittent fast, we increase the frequency of this process, so our body works harder to remove any unwanted junk and dysfunctioning cells .
Increased autophagy may play a role in protecting us from several diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, inflammatory diseases, and cardiovascular diseases .
How Does The : 12 Diet Work
Intermittent fasting relies on the feed-fast cycle. With regular food consumption, the main source of our energy is sugar, but when fasting, the blood sugar levels drop. This drop stimulates our body to utilize its storage of fatty acid as a source of energy . This cycle is known as the feed-fast cycle.
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Prolonged Fasting For 3
This involves going with no calories for 3-5 days. These types of fasts are usually done under medical supervision. All studies of prolonged fasting allow up to 500 calories during fasting days. These calories should come from low-protein, low-carb foods. This usually means vegetable juices and vegetable soup, averaging a total calorie intake of 200250 kcal and 2535 g of carbohydrates per day. Our CEO does quarterly 5-day modified fasts in which he eats 2 cups of mixed greens with olive oil and a handful of almonds for a total of 250 calories.
Do not attempt a multi-day fast with water only. All clinical trials of multi-day fasts involve at least minimal calorie and micronutrient intake.
What Is Ketosis And How Will I Know That Im There
Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body starts to break down and burn fat. Ketosis is characterized by the production of ketone bodies in your liver, which include acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate and the breakdown product of acetoacetate, acetone.
If you have water fasted for over 12 hours, you are likely in at least nutritional or light ketosis! Your liver glycogen has been depleted. Your body is producing ketone bodies as an alternative fuel source for your brain through the breakdown of fat and fatty acids. You can also reach ketosis with an alternate day fasting or 5:2 protocol with up to 500 calories per fasting day, but its best if these calories come from low-carb or keto-friendly foods.
The best way to measure ketosis is through a blood ketone meter or a breath ketone meter. You can measure your ketone levels to see if anything you are drinking during your fast is kicking you out of ketosis. Urine ketone strips are not very accurate. They dont detect all forms of ketone bodies, such as the important beta-hydroxybutyrate or BHB. So the best bet is to grab a blood ketone meter like Keto-Mojo, or a breath ketone meter like BIOSENSE.
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Eating Three Mealsa Good Approach
With this approach, you eat three meals during your eating window: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Does this sound familiar? This way of eating was considered normal until the food industry successfully convinced us a few decades ago that we have to eat at least every 2-3 hours.
Nowadays, many people eat 14 times per day or more: breakfast, second breakfast, some cookies with coffee, lunch, cookies with coffee after lunch, another coffee break with cake, a snack before dinner, dinner, multiple snacks after dinner before going to bed,…
You can see already that eating only three meals with no snacks in between is a completely different eating behavior. It also significantly affects hormonal levels and improves overall health.
The benefits of eating only three meals per day were nicely demonstrated in a very well-designed study with type 2 diabetes patients .
34 participants were randomly divided into two groups:
Both groups consumed the same food and the same number of calories. The only difference was the number of meals they ate.
In comparison, the 6-meal groupgained 0.3 Kg. Fasting blood sugar decreased by 23 mg/dl, while the other parameters remained constant.
What Eating Window Do You Start With
I eased into intermittent fasting by starting with a 12-hour eating window. So 12 hours where you can eat and 12 hours of not eating .
Minimize and Streamline: For me, starting with this time-frame was fairly seamless. Because of my shifts at the hospital, I was already used to thinking about things on a 12-hour timeline. Start here first.
There are many studies that have shown a 12-hour fasting window just as effective as a 16-hour fast and is enough time to provide health benefits! So dont get discouraged when you hear people chatting about their 20 hour fasts. You will get there.
Use a schedule to figure out what works for you and make small adjustments as you go.
This 12/12 schedule might feel easy at first. Thats ok! Dont forget all the other things you need to be working on for your health during these easier, longer eating windows.
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Restrictive Eating Can Influence Disordered Eating
Any diet that supports skipping meals or restrictive eating can trigger some not-so-great food relationships. Especially when the positive weight loss effects are directly impacted by not eating, or restricting food intake.
This isnât a great mindset to go into fasting with and can lead some people to take intermittent fasting too far, developing disordered eating patterns, or getting caught up in a yo-yo dieting cycle.
Not to mention that not eating enough calories each day to meet your basic needs can lead to nutrient deficiencies, decrease your immunity and create havoc in your body.
Make sure youâre being honest with yourself before trying any kind of fasting practice and consult with your practitioner beforehand as a mindful or intuitive eating approach may be a better option.
Whatever your reason for wanting to intermittent fast, remember to incorporate basic nutrition principles including calorie control and a balanced diet to set yourself up for success.
Going rouge during your non-fasting periods can sabotage any hopes you have for reaping the health benefits when intermittent fasting.
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