What Is Intermittent Fasting How Does : 8 Intermittent Fasting Work
7 Day Intermittent fasting diet meal plan All about the IF diet
The Intermittent fasting diet meal plan offers a time-restricted eating pattern.
So, how does this work? It recommends consuming food for only 8 hours of the day and avoiding food for the remaining 16 hours.
Some studies suggest that this method works by supporting the bodys internal clock, the circadian rhythm.
The easiest way to follow the diet is to incorporate this 16-hour fasting period into the time you sleep.
You can make the interval period coincide with the time of the day when you are active.
However, stopping eating 2-3 hours before going to sleep will be beneficial for your health, quality sleep, and weight loss.
So, should nothing be consumed in this 16-hour fasting period? Of course not. You still need to drink lots of water.
Apart from that, you can drink as much tea as you want .
Also, you can drink unsweetened coffee. But thats all. You cannot consume anything that is not zero in calories.
In addition, supplementing this diet with light exercises will always give better results and will bring you the result you dreamed of faster.
This applies to every diet you follow. Now lets look at how we should eat in the intermittent fasting diet meal plan day by day.
According to ClevelandbLab intermittent fasting also helps lower blood sugar levels.
Best Intermittent Fasting Apps To Track Fasting
Sometimes technology can really be our best friend and help us stick to our commitments.
If you need extra support or simply want to make your life easier, there are a number of intermittent fasting apps available on the market to help you out.
We have reviewed several apps and made our list of the best intermittent fasting apps. Heres our top 2:
- Life Fasting Tracker
You can find a comprehensive review of all 6 intermittent fasting apps here, to get more information on the pros and cons of each fasting app, costs, and other features.
How To Start & How To Do Intermittent Fasting
One of the reasons I personally think Intermittent Fasting really took over is because of how easy it is to start it.
Literally, the only thing you should really decide before you start is which Intermittent Fasting schedule type you are planning to follow.
And before you make this decision, it is important to understand the various types of Intermittent Fasting. Thats how you will find the one that works the best for you and fits your unique lifestyle.
For your convenience, here are the most popular Intermittent Fasting Schedules.
Also Check: Best Fasting Method For Fat Loss
The Best And Worst Diets For Sustained Weight Loss According To Registered Dietitians
So, does it actually lead to weight loss? Anecdotal evidence has led proponents of the plan to believe so. For the people who can adhere to IF, it does work, Kumar says. But fans of the approach claim theres so much more to IF than just a lean body. Lori Shemek, PhD, a nutrition and weight loss expert in Dallas and author of How to Fight FATflammation, explains to clients that IF may improve their insulin sensitivity , reduce inflammation, and boost longevity by bettering the health of your mitochondria , she says.
Choosing A Time Window
To get started, begin by picking an 8-hour window and limiting your food intake to that time span.
Popular 16/8 time windows include:
- 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Many people prefer to eat between noon and 8 p.m., since you need to fast only overnight and skip breakfast but can still eat a balanced lunch and dinner, along with a few snacks throughout the day.
Others opt to eat between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., which allows plenty of time for a healthy breakfast around 9 a.m., a standard lunch around noon, and a light, early dinner or large snack around 4:30 p.m. before starting your fast.
However, you can experiment and pick the time frame that best fits your schedule.
It may help to set timers at both the beginning and the end of your eating window to remind you when to start and stop eating.
Also Check: Keto Diet Plan Intermittent Fasting
Fastic: Free Fasting App
In intermittent fasting, you not only have to do fast, but the more important thing is to load up your body with healthy food. The Fastic app consists of over 400 recipes that feature healthy and filling ingredients that provide you with all the nutrients your body requires. You also get information on how the body works during the fasting window and give you access to other unique features like a step counter. Fastic is a free fasting app that you can install on Android and iOS. However, the prime membership of this app starts at $11.99 for one month, which gives you access to complete recipe books and daily challenges for keeping you motivated.
How Does The 1: 8 Diet Work
The 16:8 diet works on an hourly basis, so each day you eat within an 8-hour time frame and then fast for the remaining 16 hours. This works for weight loss as it “helps you eat fewer calories while boosting metabolism slightly,” says Sawyer.
She adds, “It’s a very effective tool to lose weight and visceral fat. After hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat – sometimes referred to as ‘metabolic switching’.”
Research has shown this switch is a natural process that happens when the body runs out of energy from food. The body changes its energy source from glucose that’s stored in the liver to ketones, which are stored in fat cells. While the body is getting its energy from glucose it’s maintaining or gaining weight, but when the switch happens weight is lost.
Calorie-restricted diets like the Fast 800 work in a similar way. So what’s special about the 16:8 diet?
Read Also: How Does 16 8 Intermittent Fasting Work
Fasting For A Week: Detailed Plan
Intermittent fasting refers to an interval that is comfortable for you. Many people find it easier and more habitual to skip breakfast but difficult to refuse dinner after a hard day. Below is an example of an intermittent fastingmenu for weight loss. There is no breakfast in this example, but you can easily pick snacks by adding cheese, eggs, or porridge to your taste.
Monday
- Lunch: chicken with brown rice
- Snack: granola, yogurt, 2 dark chocolate pieces
- Dinner: baked turkey with vegetables
Saturday
- Lunch: vegetable salad with chicken and mushrooms
- Snack: fruit, yogurt, a handful of nuts
- Dinner: fish baked with vegetables
Sunday
- Lunch: whole grain pasta with beef stew
- Snack: yogurt, granola and berries
- Dinner: grilled seafood and fresh vegetables
Why Does Intermittent Fasting Help You Lose Weight
So why does this way of eating help you lose weight? Because it lowers your insulin levels, which reverses the fat-storing process.
Let me explain this process:
The food you eat gets broken down by enzymes in your gut. Sugar is one of the nutrients it gets broken down to. This sugar plays a crucial role in your body: Its used to supply you with energy.
But heres the thing: Most of the time, you make more sugar than the amount of energy you need. What happens to the sugar thats not needed?
Your body stores it as fat, so you have energy at your disposal at a later time. Insulin plays a vital role in this process. Its needed to bring the sugar into your fat cells and keep it there.
Because youre not eating anything on a fast, your insulin level goes down. As a result, fat cells will release stored sugar to be used as energy. And, voila, you lose weight.
But Intermittent fasting has also shown to affect other hormones:
Recommended Reading: Is Fasting Best Way To Lose Weight
Can Intermittent Fasting Cause Hair Loss
Intermittent fasting, or IF as it’s often called, is a popular weight loss strategy used by people who don’t want to or aren’t ready to make significant changes to their diet. IF involves a shift in your typical eating schedule, making it more approachable for people trying to lose weight. IF is an extremely popular form of weight loss, but can this popular diet cause hair loss?
Read on to learn more about IF, how it might affect your hair growth cycle and the best products to combat thinning hair naturally.
What Isintermittent Fasting Meaning
It is an eating pattern in which a person can refrain from consuming any calories for an extended period of time. Usually, this interval lasts between 12 and 40 hours. In this process, water, tea , coffee, and other calorie-free beverages are allowed but no solid foods or calorie-containing drinks are permitted.
Lets understand this process with the help of a suitable example:
On Sunday, you finish dinner at 7 p.m.
On Monday: You will not eat again until 7 p.m.
Tuesday, you have completed a 24-hour fast. Many people choose to fast from lunch to lunch or from breakfast to breakfast.
But have you ever wondered which time frame works best depending on the individual?
Lets have a look at the most popular five eating patterns for adding such fasting to your diet:
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Is Intermittent Fasting Safe And Healthy
Yes, intermittent fasting does havea lot of benefits. We talk about them in our 21-Day Intermittent Fasting Challenge a lot.
In general, Intermittent Fasting is safe for most people, but you have to know the risks too.
It is also a good time to say that this article should and does not intend to replace advice from your doctor and you should always consult your physician before planning any fasting and especially extended fasting .
Now that we made it clear, here are some of the cases that does not go well with intermittent fasting:
- if you have a diabetes
- if you take medications for blood pressure or heart disease
- if you are pregnant or breastfeeding
- if you have a history of disordered eating
- if you dont sleep well
- if you are under 18 years old
Also, you should be a lot more careful if you are practicing extended fasting, which depending on the source you follow will be continuous fasting for either anything more than 24, 48 or 72 hours. There is a general consensus that any fasts longer than 72 hours should be done under strict medical supervision.
Life Intermittent Fast Tracker
This app works best for tracking IF schedules as it allows the users to set their goals and the length of fasting periods. If you are following the keto diet in an intermittent fasting manner, this app can help you track the time when your body enters ketosis. Moreover, you can connect with your friends who are using the app for fasting together, and it helps in motivating each other. The life fasting tracker app is free, and you can install it at any time. However, you have to pay $2.99 per month for the premium version, which unlocks customized fasting schedules.
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Potential Side Effects Of Intermittent Fasting
A general rule for fasting is that sometimes people get mild symptoms. These symbols indicate that you should immediately break your fast. But fortunately, these are very rare. If you want to continue your fast it is crucial to plan ahead and anticipate how you will respond if you do experience side effects while fasting.
So, lets learn how you can understand you need to stop fasting immediately:
What Are The Different Types Of Intermittent Fasting
Now that you know all the health benefits, youre probably starting to wonder what ways you can do Intermittent Fasting. There are many ways to do IF.
But here are some of the most common ones:
1. The 12-hour fast: The 12-hour fast is one of the easiest types of IF. All you have to do is eat ALL of your meals within a 12-hour timeframe. So, if you eat breakfast at 8:00AM? You would have your last meal at 8:00 PM. 2.The 16/8 Method: The 16/8 method is similar to a 12-hour fast. But, instead, you take all your meals within an 8-hour timeframe. This can easily be achieved by skipping breakfast. So, for example, if you eat your first meal at 12, you would eat your last meal at 8:00 PM.
3. Eat-Stop-Eat: Do one or two 24-hour fasts each week. For example, not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.4. Alternate-day fasting: Alternate-day fasting is where you have a fast day where you consume only 25 % of your normal caloric intake. On this day, you avoid sugars or starches and eat only protein, vegetables and healthy foods. You then have a feed day in which you can eat whatever you want.
5.The 5:2 Diet: On 5:2 diet you eat how you would normally do, but only consume around 500 600 calories on two days of the week.
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What To Drink During Intermittent Fasting
To get all the health benefits of Intermittent Fasting such as fat loss, increased metabolic rate, lower blood sugar levels, boost in the immune system and others, you have to restrict from consuming any caloric food. But you can still consume non-caloric beverages because they do not break your fast and allow you to get all the benefits of fasting.
This is because non-caloric beverages do not cause the release of insulin, and as a consequence, do not interfere with fat burning and autophagy .
This would include:
- Plain black coffee
Got more questions about Intermittent Fasting Drinks? Weve got more information in our blog post What Can You Drink During Intermittent Fasting.
Overeating And Potential Weight Gain
Restricting your intake to just 8 hours per day may cause some people to eat more than usual during eating periods in an attempt to make up for hours spent fasting. This may lead to weight gain, digestive problems, and unhealthy eating habits.
Interestingly, current research doesnt suggest that intermittent fasting leads to any more weight loss than typical diets that recommend overall calorie restriction. Both eating patterns may lead to modest weight loss .
If weight loss is your primary goal, you may therefore prefer to lower your calorie intake instead of fasting intermittently to prevent the overeating that may occur when restricting intake to a certain time window.
Also Check: What To Eat When You Are Doing Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss Plan : A Complete Guide
There are times in life when conventional wisdom literally goes out the window. For many years now, dieticians have advised us to have six small meals a day and, of course, start off with a hearty breakfast. After all, Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam and the Trix rabbit cant be all wrong, right? Many dieticians now feel they are wrong. Individuals are now embracing the ancient ritual of intermittent fasting. Its ancient because it has been practiced throughout most of human history but secret because until lately it has been practically forgotten.
Many people are now rediscovering this ancient practice and realising it can carry huge benefits if done right. Some of these would include increased energy, weight loss, reversal of type 2 diabetes and many other important changes in your life. Top this off with saving time and money and you definitely have a winning combination.
As you can see from the information above, fasting is not some oddball approach to dieting. Instead, it is a time-tested, natural part of everyday life. The key is making this traditional diet work for you. Lets look at some more information and see if this diet is right for your weight loss goals.
Seven Ways To Do Intermittent Fasting
There are many different ways of intermittent fasting. The methods vary in the number of fast days and the calorie allowances.
Intermittent fasting involves entirely or partially abstaining from eating for a set amount of time, before eating regularly again.
Some studies suggest that this way of eating may offer benefits such as fat loss, better health, and increased longevity. Proponents claim that an intermittent fasting program is easier to maintain than traditional, calorie-controlled diets.
Each persons experience of intermittent fasting is individual, and different styles will suit different people.
In this article, we discuss the research behind the most popular types of intermittent fasting and provide tips on how to maintain this type of diet.
There are various methods of intermittent fasting, and people will prefer different styles. Read on to find out about seven different ways to do intermittent fasting.
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Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan
Learn the secrets to building an intermittent fasting meal plan thats easy to follow and that supports your health goals.
In this post, I share everything you need to know to build your own or keep reading to print a done-for-you intermittent fasting meal plan pdf.
The best way to achieve your health goals is to have a plan to get there and, if youre practicing intermittent fasting and want to eat healthier meals or lose weight, having a meal plan is the best way to get there.
There are 3 elements that any meal plan should have it must be easy to follow, it must be kept simple and organized, and must have delicious foods that can be made quickly with easy-to-find ingredients.
Ill share more on how to do this yourself below but if reading that is overwhelming or are new to intermittent fasting, check out my Intermittent Fasting eBook.
Intermittent Fasting Book + Meal Plan
Everything you need to jumpstart your intermittent fasting journey: full eBook, meal plan, plus recipes!
