How To Begin 5 2 Intermittent Fasting
You will begin by eating normally for 5 of the days each week. By eating normally, we encourage you to eat a clean, healthy diet that is filled with whole foods, healthy meats and pastured eggs.
For the 2 fasting days, you will eat 1 meal consisting of 600 or 500 or 2 meals each day consisting of 300 or 250 calories each.
Again, you can also drink water, coffee and other drinks that have no calories.
What Is 20/4 Intermittent Fasting
Successful weight management is based on counting calories. If your goal is to slim down, you need to reduce your caloric intake and create a caloric deficit if you want to bulk up, you need to make sure that you eat a calorie surplus and if you simply want to maintain your current weight, you continue following your regular diet. But what if you dont like counting calories? Is there a diet that can help you reach your weight goals without having to track the energy contents of your every meal? Luckily, there is! The so-called diet in question is known as intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that has been widely accepted by many people trying to lose weight. Of all the different methods to do it, intermittent fasting 20/4 is one of the stricter versions. What are some intermittent fasting 20/4 benefits? Is intermittent fasting 20/4 everyday healthy and sustainable long-term? Read on to find out this and more.
The intermittent fasting 20/4 method is also known as The Warrior Diet. This diet was created in 2001 by Ori Hofmekler, an Israeli Special Forces member turned health and fitness author. It is important to note that the warrior diet is not based on science but rather a deduction of Oris experiences while he worked in the military .
Also, some supporters of this eating pattern claim that humans are natural nocturnal eaters and that eating at night allows the body to gain nutrients in line with its circadian rhythms .
How To Start Intermittent Fasting
Heres the bottom line when it comes to intermittent fasting: Theres really no wrong answer here. Just pay attention to how your body responds to what youre doing, and consult a dietitian or doctor with any concerns over potential negative side effects. You might want to:
- Test your glucose and ketone levels and monitor your glucose-ketone index for changes.
- Consider your carb intake. Eating lower carb helps reduce any hunger pangs when starting intermittent fasting.
- Start with the 16/8 window first and make changes from there based on what works for your lifestyle and schedule.
Adjust what youre doing as needed. Also, keep in mind that life changes can happen, so you might find its better to tweak your eating window over time or be a little more lenient at certain periods.
Give yourself time to adjust to the schedule of intermittent fasting too. Some people adjust easily within a few days, while others need a couple of weeks to get used to it.
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Cons Of 1: 6 Intermittent Fasting
For those who are used to eating all day long, limiting your meals and snacks to a six-hour window may seem impossible. It can also be tough if you have to consume a ton of daily calories, as you might find it hard to eat as many as you need without feeling stuffed. If you’re going from 16:8 to 18:6, it’ll take a week or so to get used to cutting your eating window by two hours. Also, if you don’t make a point to eat enough calories or eat enough protein and healthy fats, 18:6 may cause you to feel hungry or tired.
Any form of intermittent fasting, especially 18:6 since it’s stricter, could potentially be a trigger for unhealthy behaviors for those with a history of eating disorders. Lisa Eberly Mastela, MPH, RD, told POPSUGAR that any form of IF should be done under the supervision of a registered dietitian, and any diet that encourages a restrictive eating schedule really should be approached with caution from the start. You might be fine doing a less rigid form of intermittent fasting, such as 16:8, but if you have any doubts, it’s best to talk to a doctor or dietitian, and, if you have a history of disordered eating, a therapist. Intermittent fasting shouldn’t negatively affect your life.
Intermittent Fasting Good For Reversing Insulin Resistance And Muscle Building
You may start intermittent fasting because you want to reverse your insulin resistance. That objective might take you a little longer to achieve, so you could be fasting intermittently for say 5 6 months.
If your objective is to build muscle with intermittent fasting, then it may take you as long as 4 6 months or even longer. With muscle building, you will want to consider adding a workout regime to the fasting.
You also should consider doing your workout routine which must include resistance training towards the last 2 hours of the fasting window to accelerate the process.
In essence, I am saying the workout should be the last activity you do before you resume eating. That has been shown to be very effective.
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Is 16/8 Intermittent Fasting Right For You
16/8 intermittent fasting can be a sustainable, safe and easy way to improve your health when paired with a nutritious diet and a healthy lifestyle.
However, it shouldnt be viewed as a substitute for a balanced, well-rounded diet rich in whole foods. Not to mention, you can still be healthy even if intermittent fasting doesnt work for you.
Though 16/8 intermittent fasting is generally considered safe for most healthy adults, you should talk to your doctor before giving it a try, especially if you have any underlying health conditions.
This is key if youre taking any medications or have diabetes, low blood pressure or a history of disordered eating.
Intermittent fasting is also not recommended for women who are trying to conceive or those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
If you have any concerns or experience any adverse side effects while fasting, be sure to consult your doctor.
16/8 intermittent fasting involves eating only during an 8-hour window and fasting for the remaining 16 hours.
It may support weight loss and improve blood sugar, brain function and longevity.
Eat a healthy diet during your eating period and drink calorie-free beverages like water or unsweetened teas and coffee.
Its best to talk to your doctor before trying intermittent fasting, especially if you have any underlying health conditions.
The Dangers Of Intermittent Fasting
- Categorised Bulimia Nervosa, Other
Intermittent fasting is a predetermined period where an individual purposely doesnt eat food. From a 12-hour fast to alternate day fasting, many kinds of intermittent fasting diets are becoming increasingly popular. Health professionals argue that intermittent fasting is not necessarily dangerous, but many also agree that intermittent fasting is not safe for everyone.
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Is Intermittent Fasting 1: 10 Beneficial
Any type of fasting is more beneficial than eating throughout the day and night.
Availability of food and changing lifestyle has made it possible for us to eat anytime we want. This can cause an excess of calories, which ultimately leads to weight gain.
There are several benefits of intermittent fasting 14:10, such as:
- It is easier to do. If you sleep 7 hours each day, doing intermittent fasting 14:10 requires only 7 extra hours of fasting. This certainly looks more attainable, as it has little impact on your daily schedule and social life.
- Nightly fasting for 13 hours or more reduces the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity.
- If you want to level up to the 16:8 method or 24-fasts, intermittent fasting 14:10 can be an excellent starting point.
- Because it has an eating window of 10 hours, you will be less likely to experience common side effects, such as hunger pangs, headaches, and increased irritability. Even if you experience some, they will be less severe and more manageable.
/8intermittent Fasting Mistakes To Avoid
Whenever you think about losing weight or shedding a certain amount of kilos, you first list down the kind of diets you can follow and the exercises you can perform. Out of all the diet programmes, intermittent fasting is one of the most popular, which is more like a lifestyle rather than a diet.
Several researches have shown that intermittent fasting not only aids your weight loss goals, but also reduces your risk of different health conditions, which is absolutely fantastic! However, following an IF diet is not as simple as it seems. There are many ways it can backfire, which is why you must pay attention to the many mistakes you can make while following such a diet.
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Weight Loss / Weight Management From Fasting
In general it takes between 6 to 8 hours for the body to burn through its glycogen supply. When glycogen is depleted the body will then turn to the energy stored in fat cells.
Eating throughout the day makes it much harder for the body to burn fat. Extending the time between eating with 12 hour intermittent fasting will force your body to tap into stored fat reserves.
Who Shouldnt Try Intermittent Fasting Because Of Safety Concerns
The following types of people should avoid IF:
Also, people who need to take medication with food should eat at regular intervals so as not to miss a dose, according to Harvard Health.
Its a good idea for everyone whether you have any of the conditions listed above or not to check with a doctor before starting to fast, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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How Much Weight Can You Lose On 1: 8 Diet
To lose weight on the 16:8 diet, its important to match the fasting with healthy eating and exercise. If done so correctly, theres a typical weight loss of around seven to 11 pounds over a ten week period. This is according to a review of 40 different studies published in Molecular and Cellular Endocrincology who found that on average, someone weighing just over 90kg would lose 5% of their total body weight in the ten week period.
A 2018 study published in the Journal of Nutrition and Healthy Eating revealed that the 16:8 diet plan can help people lose weight, without having to count calories as the 8-hour fast produces the same kind of calorific restriction and weight loss.
However, whether theres a distinct weight loss advantage achieved on the 16:8 diet compared to other diets remains to be seen. Some studies have demonstrated that theres almost no difference between people who do intermittent fasting compared those who count calories and cut back on unhealthy food.
Any Intermittent Fasting Method Can Work
The best fasting method is the one you can stick with until you reach your goal.
Any intermittent fasting method can work for you. And to be honest any diet can work also. Intermittent fasting is one that suit many people due to flexibility and ease of implementation. Which makes it easier to stick with in the long run.
But any diet can work for weight loss. Be it Intermittent Fasting, Keto, Paleo, Vegan or Weight Watchers they all can work.
This is because human physiology and weight loss works the same for every human being.
And all diets and eating systems for weight lsos work on the same major principle of:
*Calories VS Calories Out*
Eat less calories than you burn consistently over weeks and months and you will reach all of your weight loss goals.
Similarly all intermittent fasting methods work in the same way.
Any of them CAN work for you.
But the best one for you is the one you can stick with consistently over time.
This means picking the fasting method that integrates into your lifestyle well.
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Benefits To Metabolic Health
Good metabolic health means having optimum levels of blood sugar , fat , good cholesterol , blood pressure and other markers that indicate your risk of heart disease, stroke and other chronic conditions.
Certainly, from a metabolic point of view we definitely see benefits in intermittent fasting, says Dr Collins. Youre better at clearing, storing and utilising carbohydrate and fat when youre on an intermittent fasting regime, so there are improvements in insulin sensitivity, blood lipids and other cardiovascular risk factors.
Such improvements are evident in lean people as well as those who are overweight, he says. This is possibly because healthy-weight people can still carry harmful deposits of fat in their internal organs, including the liver.
But the effects of weight-loss are difficult to untangle from other processes at play during fasting. Dr Collins is conducting more research to find out whether metabolic health can be improved in people on intermittent fasting programmes without reducing their overall calorie intake.
The Pounds Were Melting Off
So here are a few things about 20-4: its not easy from the get-go. Its basically like eating one meal a day but a very long meal at that.
Peeps this is working for me. Ive lost 6 pounds in 1 month. You may think its not much, but my goal was to lose an overall 18, so Im getting there slow and steady, which I always prefer.
There are a few reasons why I am LOVING 20-4 intermittent fasting:
- Im not a slave to food anymore. I only have to worry about preparing food for myself once a day.
- My stomach has become very small it takes less food to fill it.
- Ive lost the feeling of hunger. I get bearable hunger pangs very occasionally and feel satisfied 95% of the time that Im fasting.
- I feel more in control of my body.
- I can enjoy food that made me feel guilty before, because its all within the 4 hour window. Its infrequent but I do have a sinful sweet here and there.
- Supermarket shopping has gone down from 1x every week to every 3 weeks. Im saving money!
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Intermittent Fasting Works Because You Consume Fewer Calories
Just like any newbie, during my first year of intermittent fasting, I believed that I had discovered the magic formula to weight loss and healthy living.
I would preach to everyone about how this was the only way to achieve their health goals because it worked so well for me.
Over the years, as I experimented more, I discovered that the reason why intermittent fasting can be so effective for weight loss is simply because it forces you to eat less food.
The less food you eat, the less calories you consume and the more weight you lose.
Its really that simple. Its not magic.
Some people who try intermittent fasting dismiss it by complaining that it doesnt work. But, in most cases, they failed to track their calorie intake.
Intermittent fasting is simply another tool to help you reduce the amount of calories you consume. But, if you choose to overeat junk food after your fast every day, you could actually end up putting on more weight than before!
In other words, as Ive said before, the amount of calories you consume every day matters a lot.
Intermittent fasting should not be used as an excuse to indulge in your favourite ice cream or lose discipline with eating healthy.
This is why you could also achieve your health goals by eating 6 or more meals a day.
As long as the total calories you consume every day is less than what you use to move and live, youll lose weight over time.
And Some Of The Donts Of Intermittent Fasting:
2. Do not add a lot of milk to your coffee. Only use half or teaspoon of milk when having tea or coffee. Milk does contain lactose which is sugar. This could derail the plan. Only use a small amount.
3. Use your fasting period to do stuff. Dont sit idle. Getting busy will stop you thinking about food.
4. Dont keep changing your feeding window if you are on the plan that allows food at certain times. If your eating window is between 12 Noon and 8pm, try and maintain that consistency every time. Its all about teaching your body to adapt to a new way of eating and fasting.
5. Do not go to social events where the place will be awash with food on your fast days. The temptation of having so many food choices and so much food around might be too much for you to resist.
6. On your feed days or eating window as the case may be, you should exercise caution in how much food you consume. Theres no need to stuff your face with so much food in an attempt to compensate for the fast period.
It is not a feast or famine ethos and you should refrain from seeing it as such. Eat sensibly!
Above all, be resilient. Its not as hard as it appears. Start small and build up.
If you like your coffee, you may be also interested in the answer to the question: does coffee break a fast?
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