Can You Lose Weight With Intermittent Fasting
There is growing research that intermittent fasting is at least as effective for weight loss as other diet plans.
The primary way that intermittent fasting helps you lose weight is by creating a calorie deficit.
A calorie deficit occurs when you burn more calories in a day than you eat.
All of the intermittent fasting approaches involve skipping meals and snacks to some degree, which results in fewer calories consumed over time.
Additionally, your body also adjusts hormone levels during a fast to burn more fat.
As previously mentioned, when your body is cut off from the calories in food, it will start to burn body fat to meet energy needs, ultimately helping you lose weight.
One 2014 review article found that intermittent fasting resulted in a 3 to 8% reduction in weight over 3 to 24 weeks .
A different review study from 2011 showed that intermittent fasting resulted in a weight loss of 4 to 8% from baseline after three weeks .
Furthermore, the researchers noted that fasting caused less fat-free tissue loss compared to a daily calorie restriction.
This means that participants who fasted lost less muscle mass than those on the traditional diet .
A more recent systematic review from 2020, which consisted of 27 separate studies and 944 participants, found that intermittent fasting resulted in a weight loss ranging from 0.8% to 13% of baseline weight .
Plus, the researchers noted that much of the weight loss from intermittent fasting was from fat loss .
Intermittent Fasting May Have Different Effects On Men And Women
Just as fasting has different effects on people, fasting can cause varying responses between men and women.
- Women may not be able to suppress their hunger as easily as men can.
- The nervous system of men undergoes fewer changes, and thus causes less stress than seen in women.
- The reproductive system of women may be more affected than in men .
- The gonadotropin-releasing hormone in women can be affected as such that it results in more discomfort than men feel when fasting.
Remember, there are specific points women need to keep in mind when considering the fasting lifestyle. Some women experience changes to the menstrual cycle and may find it hard to get pregnant because of the irregularity. The gonadotropin-releasing hormone may be affected, and that can cause problems with your fertility cycle.
If you see any of these issues, take a break from fasting or revert to a more comfortable-for-you method like the Alternate Day Method.
How Safe Is Intermittent Fasting
The 12 hour intermittent fasting Keto or Ketogenic diet and other carbohydrate-restricted diets aim to achieve ketosis, which is an accumulation of acidic ketones in the blood. As much as the outcomes are great, ketosis can cause liver, brain, and kidney damage. It is unsafe for individuals with chronic disorders such as diabetes and heart disease. Your blood sugar should also be stable for you to follow this diet plan. Therefore, it is important to discuss with your doctor and seek guidance from a licensed dietitian before beginning 12 hour intermittent fasting.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Fasting
- What can you drink while fasting?
Generally, you can drink plain water, unsweetened coffee, and various teas. If youre not sure if you can make it, you can try dirty fasting and enjoy drinks that contain less than 50 calories during your fasting windows, such as water with lemon or bulletproof coffee.
- Should you mix intermittent fasting and exercise?
Combining fasting with exercise is generally a great way to boost your metabolism and improve your overall health. Everyone should increase their heart rate for 150180 minutes per week or about 30 minutes per day to stay healthy. However, if youre trying more strict fasting regimens such as the Warrior diet, you shouldnt train too hard.
- What is dry fasting?
Dry fasting is a dangerous practice that eliminates not only food but also water from your diet. It isnt recommended for most people, as dehydration raises multiple health issues.
- What can you eat or drink while on intermittent fasting?
Fasting works best if you follow a balanced, high-quality diet. You can achieve it by following a simple proportion. Half of your daily food intake should include non-starchy vegetables, a quarter of it lean protein, and the final bit should consist of whole grains or starchy vegetables. You can easily follow it if you visualize this proportion on your plate.
- Can you chew gum while fasting?
- Can you drink green tea while on intermittent fasting?
- How to gain muscle while intermittent fasting?
Key Takeaways:
Can You Workout During Intermittent Fasting To Lose Weight
Yes, fasting is all about weight loss and health benefits. If you combine your healthy eating routine with your workout, it will help you lose weight faster.
During, initial days of fasting you may feel little difficulty as your body will be adjusting to new eating routine. But once you are all set with your new fasting pattern, it will not create difficulty during the workout.
If you are worried about losing muscles during intermittent fasting should concentrate on eating protein-rich food during the eating window.
If you are eating proteins, you are less likely to lose muscles during this fasting pattern.
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Change Your Eating Pattern
I often say that in my articles, but intermittent fasting is all about habits. Its not something you have to constantly be mindful of like counting calories or doing low-carb diets.
Youll have to be mindful at first of course, but once the lifestyle is implemented, youll follow it without thinking about it much, since you wont be hungry during your fasting window and, most of the time, you will be when its time to eat.
So you will have created a habit. As I already stated: the body adapts. Itll adapt to this habit, but itll also adapt to your weight-loss and screw up your progress.
If you can do it, try changing your eating pattern. Its not always easy to do depending on your lifestyle. But you dont have to stick to it to very long, the idea is to stress the body and force him to get out of its comfort zone.
This means if youre doing 16:8 intermittent fasting and you dont eat from 8 pm to noon the next day, skipping breakfast, try skipping dinner for a while.
You finish your lunch at 1 pm and you dont eat again before breakfast. This way you could even reduce your eating window from a few hours.
This can be hard since if youre used to eating dinner, youll get pretty hungry in the evening. But again, you dont need to do that for very long, a couple of weeks might be enough.
When getting back to your usual eating pattern, this could be enough to get through your plateau.
/10lessons Learnt From Weight Loss
Maintaining a healthy body is empowering. It transcends to body and soul and gives one an enriching experience. Make small significant changes to your lifestyle, start with what you find to be the easiest to incorporate. Ditch the habits that do not serve you. My family’s support in my journey was very crucial for me. So keep good company who celebrate this new person you are becoming, and be open and giving to anyone who wants to have an insight on your journey. I believe if I can inspire even one person out there to be a healthier and fitter version of oneself, I have put a positive footprint on this world.
DISCLAIMER
These views are not generic in nature. Weight loss results vary for individuals and the views shared in this article offer no guarantee of specific results. The content is not intended in any way as a substitute for professional advice.
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What Is Clean Or Dirty Fasting
Surprisingly, you can follow a clean fasting schedule or play it out a little bit dirty.
These terms refer to defining what kind of foods break the fast. The clean path defines a zero-calorie approach: you cannot drink or eat anything other than water, plain black coffee, green tea, or any type of herbal tea.
While dirty fasting, you might consume drinks that contain less than 50 calories, such as lemon water, coffee with MCT oil, bone broth, or zero-calorie drinks. You might even enjoy a piece of gum or an occasional mint.
Both of these methods are valid. As a beginner, you might want to start fasting dirty and go clean once you get a handle on your new routine.
Who Should Not Do Intermittent Fasting
Well, if you suffer from high blood sugar, have heart issues, or any serious health conditions then refrain from making any significant changes to your dieting without first seeking professional guidance from a doctor and nutritionist.
Intermittent fasting can be dangerous for some people who have diabetes and heart issues due to the restriction of nutrients for an extended period of time. And those with heart issues should be careful to maintain healthy electrolyte levels.
Also, those with eating disorders should not do a fasting regime without consulting with a doctor because a lack of self-control is a big issue for many sufferers which can be detrimental to health. But on the other side of the spectrum, if you know that you may not possess the discipline to be consistent then you might want to implement a typical calorie-restricted diet until you develop better habits conducive to sticking with the eating regime.
Another group who should not attempt to implement intermittent fasting is pregnant women since it may adversely impact the function of ovulation and menstruation according to one study.
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Whole Foods And The Gut
Whole foods are loaded with fibers that are sometimes lost during processing or refinement. Fiber is essential for a healthy gut because aside from its traditional roughage reputation, it also feeds the healthy bacteria in your gut, providing a whole host of other benefits.
They also provide a lot of variety, which the gut loves. The more variety, the better. So, even though you might fall in love with certain recipes, its important to mix up the kinds of whole foods you eat to maintain a healthy gut. Aim for 30 different whole foods each week. Its easier than you think!
Common If Protocols Include:
14:10 or 16:8: The 14:10 is probably the easiest schedule to follow. It asks you to fast for 14 hours, then allows you to eat as you typically would for the next 10 hours. With the 16:8 protocol, you fast for 16 hours and have an eating window of 8 hours. You can easily practice both by skipping breakfast or eating an early dinner the night before.
One Meal a Day : This protocol has a fast-to-eat ratio of 23:1 you fast for 23 then eat all your nutrients in a one-hour window. Its not for everyone, since its very restrictive. But if you choose to try it, you can schedule your eating window during dinner time, or any time that works best for you.
5:2: The 5:2 protocol allows you to eat as you typically would five days a week, then fast completely or consume minimal calories on the other two days. Fasting days dont need to be consecutive, and most people allow at least one typical eating day between fast days.
So how do you know which protocol is right for you? It will depend on your body type, schedule, and preferences. Your experience with fasting, and whether youre male or female can play a role as well. Women generally have a more challenging time fasting for long periods, so if youre female, its best to begin with one of the more moderate fasting protocols.
Start with small changes, like pushing your breakfast back an hour or two so you ease your way into fasting. As your body adjusts and becomes more comfortable with fasting, you can work up to longer fasts.
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How Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Lose Weight
There are many different ways to lose weight.
One strategy that has become popular in recent years is called intermittent fasting .
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that involves regular, short-term fasts or periods of minimal or no food consumption.
Most people understand intermittent fasting as a weight loss intervention. Fasting for short periods of time helps people eat fewer calories, which may result in weight loss over time .
However, intermittent fasting may also help modify risk factors for health conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, such as lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels 30002-0/fulltext” rel=”nofollow”> 2,
There are several different intermittent fasting methods. The most popular ones include:
- the 16:8 method
- Eat Stop Eat
- alternate-day fasting
All methods can be effective, but figuring out which one works best depends on the individual.
To help you choose the method that fits your lifestyle, heres a breakdown of the pros and cons of each.
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.
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Cut Down On Carbohydrates
If youre interested in intermittent fasting, you must have heard about low-carb diets, such as Atkins or Ketogenic diet.
They are insanely famous because theyre really, really effective at weight loss and some type of low-carb diet is often combined with intermittent fasting to help lose weight, treat obesity, or even type 2 diabetes.
If you implement intermittent fasting without changing much of the way you usually eat, the first thing I would advise you to is to cut down sugar and refined carbs to a minimum.
Therearemanystudies that have been conducted on low-carb diets, they all prove that you can lose weight, promote fat burning, boost your metabolism, even more than with just IF.
I know a strict low-carb or keto diet can be very hard at first and is not an easy one to follow while keeping a social life. If youre serious about your goals, you should definitely look into low-carb diets.
But you can also just cut down carbs on an everyday basis. Try not eating bread, pasta, or rice during weekdays, and also stay away from any type of sweets.
And again, this doesnt mean you always have to eat that way now, you can try making a habit of reducing carbs, or simply reduce them for 2-3 weeks and see if thats enough to kick you out of your plateau.
How Often Can You Do Intermittent Fasting
This also up to you. There are no set rules on how often you can do intermittent fasting for. You can have an initial phase where you hit your goals after a couple of weeks. Then have a break for say 3 months and eat the routine way for the 3 months.
Then, re-start intermittent fasting again for another 3 months, have a break for 3 months and do the same thing again.
You can use a 2 month ON, 2 months OFF model, 4 months ON, 4 months OFF . Do this repeatedly. No rigid rules about how often you can fast intermittently.
If the question is about how often to fast during the week, it would depend on the IF plan you adopt. The 5:2 requires you to fast 2 days a week . Alternate day fasting is as the name suggests, every other day.
The 2 days you fast in the 5:2 plan are not actually a total fast. It only requires you to hold back on your calories to 500 Calories for those 2 days.
The true 24-hour fast may require you to do this twice or three times a week, if you can handle that frequency.
If you cant, even one day a week is okay until you get comfortable with it and you can then try 2 days a week.
Even one day a week is certainly better than what you are currently doing. It will still work. Its just going to take longer.
So, if you want to know how many weeks to do intermittent fasting, all I can say is theres no one size fits all approach.
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