How Does The 1: 8 Diet Work
The 16:8 diet works on an hourly basis. So each day you can eat within an 8 hour time frame and fast for the remaining 16 hours. The best part? You dont have to restrict your calories when eating during the 8 hour window. As long as you eat healthily in your 8 hour time frame, youll see the weight drop off.
Experts say that the 16.8 diet restricted schedule gives our bodies the chance to process the nutrients stored in foods and burns away calories. Plus, you wont go hungry like you do on those two fasting days on the 5:2 either.
As Tom Jenane, nutrition and fitness expert explains, The 16:8 diet is a brilliant form of intermittent fasting that has proven results in a number of cases.
Jennifer Aniston is a famous fan of intermittent fasting.
As well as Jennifer Aniston, other Hollywood names who have seen success after following the 16:8 diet include Hugh Jackman, who reportedly used the diet to get in shape for his Wolverine films and actress Jennifer Love Hewitt.
/10what’s The Most Difficult Part Of Being Overweight
The feeling of not being in control of myself- body and mind was the most difficult part for me. All my life, I have taken control of every situation and tried to fix things. I saw this as another problem that needed to be worked on and fixed.
What shape do you see yourself 10 years down the line: I want to continue my healthy food habits and fasting regime, increase my muscle mass and keep body fat content low. I also want to be able to do intense functional exercises overtime like pulls ups and different forms of push ups.
What Is Intermittent Fasting And Why Would You Do It
Intermittent fasting is not a diet, it’s a pattern of eating. It’s a way of scheduling your meals so that you get the most out of them. Intermittent fasting doesnt change what you eat, it changes when you eat.
Why is it worthwhile to change when youre eating?
Well, most notably, its a great way to get lean without going on a crazy diet or cutting your calories down to nothing. In fact, most of the time you’ll try to keep your calories the same when you start intermittent fasting. Additionally, intermittent fasting is a good way to keep muscle mass on while getting lean.
With all that said, the main reason people try intermittent fasting is to lose fat. We’ll talk about how intermittent fasting leads to fat loss in a moment.
Perhaps most importantly, intermittent fasting is one of the simplest strategies we have for taking bad weight off while keeping good weight on because it requires very little behavior change. This is a very good thing because it means intermittent fasting falls into the category of simple enough that you’ll actually do it, but meaningful enough that it will actually make a difference.
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How Does Intermittent Fasting Work For Weight Loss
Intermittent fasting was working perfectly for me, and it was easy to follow. I began to think more deeply about why it was working. Was my body changing because I was fasting for those 16 hours each day, or was it simply a trick I was playing on my mind to eat fewer calories? And if it was a trick, would my mind eventually figure it out?
In general, I think intermittent fasting helps people get more in touch with their needs, Varady says. Weve become accustomed to eating or drinking something every couple of hours. Wed never even noticed when were actually hungry or full. So when you go for longer stretches of time without eating, all of a sudden, your body becomes more attuned to it.
In my case, intermittent fasting made me more aware of my tendency to emotionally eat. Getting up early to get my young son to school, it wasnt as if I wanted to have that bagel and soda. I felt I needed that sugar rush to wake me up and get me going. Exercise replaced that without my needing to ride a sugar roller coaster every day.
Alternate Day Fasting : 2 Method
Some people fast on alternate days to improve blood sugar, cholesterol, and weight loss. A person on the 5:2 method eats 500 to 600 calories on two non-consecutive days each week.
Some alternate-day fasting regimens add in a third day of fasting each week. For the rest of the week, a person eats only the number of calories they burn during the day. Over time, this creates a calorie deficit that allows the person to lose weight.
Resources on the Eat Stop Eat, Warrior, and Leangains fasting methods are available to purchase online.
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/6feeling Hungry All The Time
Whether you choose to follow the 16:8 fasting method or 10:14, restricting your mealtime, in the beginning, can be difficult. You may feel famished and low on energy all the time. Your body will feel confused due to the new eating pattern and would need time to adjust to it. But if you would successfully stick to the plan in the first week, you will be easily able to sail through it. With time you will easily be able to manage this new eating pattern.
Health Benefits Of Fasting
The big benefit of picking intermittent fasting for your nutrition plan is its so sustainable. With other diets youre either constantly counting calories, can only eat certain foods, or always cutting macronutrients. For example, the keto diet is quite effective for weight loss but the fact that you have to cut out your carbs forever isnt a sustainable diet for the majority of people . I mean imagine never being able to eat pizza, pasta, cookies, cereal, beer, wine, etc. ever again.
With intermittent fasting the big thing you have to be mindful of is to not eat during your fast. This is so simple anybody can follow it long term. But that doesnt always mean its easy. There are times when youre going to get hungry and tempted to eat. And then there are other times when social situations put you in a sticky position that practically force you to eat.
But lets say you go out with friends for dinner and end up eating and drinking until midnight. The good part with intermittent fasting is you just restart your fasting clock and wait a little longer to eat the next day. Its not like every other diet where you mess up by eating the wrong kind of food and then all your results go out the window.
So with intermittent fasting, you can keep your motivation going even if you have a little slip-up. If you ever have trouble with the hunger pangs during your fast then you could drink some of my approved fasting drinks:
- zero cal sparkling water
- water
1 day: 0.5 2 pounds
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What Are The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
Weight loss isnt the only benefit of IF. Fasting is a practice that dates back to ancient times, and in some cultures is still practiced regularly.
Health benefits are a pleasant side effect of IF, and many of those perks can affect womens health specifically.
Musculoskeletal health. This includes conditions like osteoporosis, arthritis, and lower back pain. Fasting has been shown to promote hormone secretion from the thyroid. This can promote bone health and help prevent bone fractures.
Metabolic health. Some women go through menopause in their 50s. Menopause can cause changes in your body that increase belly fat, insulin, and glucose. Fasting can help you decrease your blood pressure, cholesterol, and belly fat, which can improve insulin sensitivity. Fasting can also keep your metabolism on track as you age.
Mental health. Fasting has been shown to promote mental health. It may reduce anxiety, depression, and the emotional roller coaster that can go hand-in-hand with menopause. Fasting has also been proven to improve self-esteem and reduce stress.
Other proven benefits of IF include:
- Improved memory
Choose Your Best Protocol
Krystal began her intermittent fasting journey about a year ago, and she experimented with various protocols until she found the right protocol.
I alternate what kind of fasting I do. Sometimes I stick with a traditional 16:8 fasting period, other times I will do a longer time frame, she says. My longest fast was five days.
Though five days might seem a bit overwhelming to a beginner, Krystal urges readers to find whats best for them. For her journey, Krystal admits, I read a lot about the health benefits of fasting, plus with following a ketogenic diet fasting came naturally as my hunger levels decreased.
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Examples Of Different Intermittent Fasting Schedules
If youre considering giving fasting a shot, there are a few different options for working it into your lifestyle.
Daily Intermittent Fasting
Most of the time, I follow the Leangains model of intermittent fasting, which uses a 16hour fast followed by an 8hour eating period. This model of daily intermittent fasting was popularized by Martin Berkhan of Leangains.com, which is where the name originated.
It doesn’t matter when you start your 8hour eating period. You can start at 8am and stop at 4pm. Or you start at 2pm and stop at 10pm. Do whatever works for you. I tend to find that eating around 1pm and 8pm works well because those times allow me to eat lunch and dinner with friends and family. Breakfast is typically a meal that I eat on my own, so skipping it isn’t a big deal.
Because daily intermittent fasting is done every day it becomes very easy to get into the habit of eating on this schedule. Right now, you’re probably eating around the same time every day without thinking about it. Well, with daily intermittent fasting it’s the same thing, you just learn to not eat at certain times, which is remarkably easy.
Weekly Intermittent Fasting
One of the best ways to get started with intermittent fasting is to do it once per week or once per month. The occasional fast has been shown to lead to many of the benefits of fasting we’ve already talked about, so even if you don’t use it to cut down on calories consistently there are still many other health benefits of fasting.
How I Lost Weight With Intermittent Fasting
Ive had a weight problem all my life. I never ever, ever thought Id ever get a handle on my weight. I could never understand why I balooned so much. I ate and exercised the same like the thin folks. In fact, I would work out six times a week, doing RPM and the weight would not budge.
Around 2012, I began researching aggressively about why weight loss wasnt happening for me despite implementing all the right advice. At that time I was at my worst nearly 95kg in weight and I was tired all the time.
What I discovered was this: All the diet advice out there was wrong. I realised that weight loss was all about the hormones, and what we eat influences our hormones to a huge degree.
Following the Paleo diet helped me shed significant amounts of flab, but not enought to get me out of the chubby zone.
Truth was, I liked food too much to control my carbs 100% or eliminate wheat from my life, so my weight would yo yo depending on how strict I was. I briefly was a svelte 65kg in 2012, but gained almost 15kg by the time I returned to Malaysia in 2015. I wasnt as bad as I was in 2012, but I was by no means in my best shape. By 2016, I more or less resigned myself to forever having to watch what I eat.
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How To Start Intermittent Fasting
There is more than one way to start intermittent fasting, which is great because every BODY is different. The key is to experiment and listen to your body to see what works best for you. Here are some of the ways to get started:
- 16:8: You eat all of your daily calories within a shortened period and fast the rest of the time.
- 5:2: You eat normally five days a week. On the other two days, you fast by eating between 500 and 600 calories.
- Alternate Day Fasting: You alternate a day of eating normally with a day eating 25 percent of your typical daily calories. A study found that obese adults following an alternate day intermittent fasting schedule lost up to 13 pounds over 8 weeks.
If intermittent fasting causes fatigue or other negative symptoms, try fasting just once or twice a week, and build up from there. As with any diet or exercise plan, consult your healthcare provider to determine whats best for you.
How Much Weight You Might Lose Through Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting, in which you consume calories only during specific eating windows, ramps up the weight loss potential as well. A 2014 report from the journal Translational Research states that the average intermittent faster might drop between 0.55 and 1.65 pounds a week.
Besides losing weight, you can also reduce belly fat through intermittent fasting, says that same study. The rate of belly fat loss can be anywhere from 3 to 8 percent in up to 24 weeks.
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My Style Of Intermittent Fasting: The : 3
Ive adopted whats called a 4:3 style of IF. This simply means, I eat 4 days during the week and fast 3 non-consecutive days of the week.
This is what my 4:3 weekly schedule looks like:
SUNDAY: Eat Day // I eat as I normally would throughout the day and I begin my fast at 9 pm PT .
MONDAY: Fast Day // On fast days I only drink coffee, tea, non-caloric drinks and water . I add a little half & half in my coffee, and those are the only calories I consume on fast days. If/when I feel hunger pains on fast days, I drink a bottle/can of sparkling water and that helps me get through the day.
TUESDAY: Eat Day // I break my fast at 9 am PT. I eat my full day of meals. The total calories I eat is my TDEE range. I use this tool to calculate my TDEE: I start my fast again at 9 pm PT.
WEDNESDAY: Fast Day // Same as Monday.
THURSDAY: Eat Day // Same as Tuesday.
FRIDAY: Fast Day // Same as Monday & Wednesday.
SATURDAY: Eat Day // Same as Tuesday & Thursday.
SUNDAY: Eat Day // Same as Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday.
In summary: MWF = Fast Days, TuThSaSu = Eat Days. Repeat every week and you will see and feel the difference.
For the visual types, this is what my schedule looks like:
I start my fast at 9 PM and end the day after next at 9 AM, but these time frames can also be changed. Some of my friends prefer 7 PM/7 AM, 8 AM/8 PM, etc. to better accommodate their work/family schedule.
My Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle: How I Dropped 50 Pounds
Updates :
- This guide has now passed 2,000,000 views! Big thank you to everyone who continues to share it
- Ive now lost 64 lbs to-date! to see my day-to-day journey with Intermittent Fasting & get tips/advice.
- Interested in fasting with me? Join my 30-day Starter Challenge or 8-week Lifestyle Challenge & optional private Facebook group. Over 3,000 people have completed it! Next kickoff is on Monday, learn more:
- I was interviewed by Megyn Kelly live on The TODAY Show about my Intermittent Fasting Journey. Its one of the most-watched videos on YouTube on the topic with over 3,000,000 views. You can watch it here!
Hi there My name is Sumaya and thanks to Intermittent Fasting , in 7.5 months Ive dropped 50 pounds, 10.5% in body fat and 40 inches around my body.These results are entirely as a result of IF as I was unable to exercise for the first several months due to a fractured foot.
After college, I spent at least 5+ years in the overweight category before spending another 5+ years in the obese category . Im now officially in the normal weight category .
I tried everything from Jenny Craig/Weight Watchers to going to the gym 45x a week to weekly meal prep. While I did see some results, I eventually couldnt keep up with it and then yo-yod. IF has been the simplest and most manageable way I have found to improve my health .
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Make The Calories Count
Not all calories are the same. Although these fasting methods do not set restrictions on how many calories a person should consume when fasting, it is essential to consider the nutritional value of the food.
In general, a person should aim to consume nutrient-dense food, or food with a high number of nutrients per calorie. Though a person may not have to abandon junk food entirely, they should still practice moderation and focus on more healthful options to gain the most benefits.
Fasting has several effects on a persons body. These effects include:
- Reducing levels of insulin, which makes it easier for the body to use stored fat.
- Lowering blood sugars, blood pressure, and inflammation levels.
- Changing the expression of certain genes, which helps the body protect itself from disease as well as promoting longevity.
- Dramatically increases human growth hormone, or HGH, which helps the body utilize body fat and grow muscle.
- The body activates a healing process doctors call autophagy, which essentially means that the body digests or recycles old or damaged cell components.
Fasting dates back to ancient humans who often went hours or days between meals as obtaining food was difficult. The human body adapted to this style of eating, allowing extended periods to pass between food intake times.
Research also shows fasting to be beneficial for the management of metabolic syndrome and diabetes,
