How Long To Intermittent Fast For
If you are making a diet plan for a client, shouldnt you have a better information source than so I asked Reddit, gave them no information about you, and they said to do this. That will be ___ dollars, would you like to pay in cash or check
Should you be creating a meal plan for a client when you seemingly know little about it? I mean that with no snark. If someone is paying for your expertise, shouldnt you have some basic knowledge?
I know the basics of nutrition…Ive never had a client that only ate lunch and dinner and only snacked at night…and Ive never really suggested intermittent fasting before to anyone because sometimes I just like to eat food myself lo healthy food that is
I do it until noon. I wake up at 8 do whatever I’m busy with and that helps takes my mind off of eating
If you have a goal weight Im assuming you have a protein target no? If so, how do you reach your goal protein target through that window?
There are some short but very informative books you can read on the subject. I recommend Delay, Dont Deny by Gin Stephens. Definitely do a bit of research before writing a plan for a client.
Until they lose the desired amount of weight and then they should continue to fast to stay at their desired weight.
How Much Weight Can You Lose From Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is not a quick weight loss fix. It might take your body a few weeks to start shedding the extra pounds.
Do not expect to drop up to 20 pounds within your first week of intermittent fasting.
Like many diets, you need to remain consistent and make lifestyle changes to get results.
It might take a few weeks for you to drop your first pound from intermittent fasting. However, once you start, you can expect to lose about a pound each week. Some people can lose up to 10 pounds each month.
Therefore, your body type will determine your results.
Who Shouldnt Try Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting isnt for everyone. You should always check with your doctor before trying a new diet, even one thats proven to be beneficial. The following groups of people should avoid IF:
- People who suffer from diabetes or other blood sugar problems
- Children under the age of 18
- People with a history of eating disorders
- Pregnant and breastfeeding women
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Female Intermittent Fasting Results After 1 Month
First off Ive noticed in my years as a personal trainer and nutrition coach that women tend to lose a little less weight than men with Intermittent Fasting. Im not sure the physiological reasons for this but women just tend to lose a little less than men. But that doesnt make it any less effective for them.
Women tend to lose about 10-15 pounds in their first month using Intermittent Fasting.
If youre a woman then youll also notice a slimmer midsection with less belly fat and a tighter tummy. You can also expect to drop a few pant sizes in one month as your body loses weight and burns off more fat. Plus youll notice your arms and legs will appear more toned than before.
But if you have a lot of weight to lose then women can easily lose more weight than this. 20 pounds can be achieved with Intermittent Fasting in your first month if youre already carrying 40+ pounds of excess weight on your body.
Many postpartum women can lose a good chunk of baby weight they gained during the pregnancy. Lots of women can get back to their pre-baby weight after a few months of Intermittent Fasting.
Make sure you also take a before and after picture to see visual changes in your bodys appearance after the first month of Intermittent Fasting. Measuring your inches as well will help to give you an overall picture of how much weight and fat you lost over the first month of fasting.
Fasting May Improve Brain Health
The Warrior Diet is promoted as a way to improve brain health.
There may be some truth to that based on scientific studies on intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting has been found to benefit the regulation of inflammatory pathways that affect your brain function.
For example, animal studies have shown that intermittent fasting reduced inflammatory markers like interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha , which may negatively impact memory and learning (
5 ).
However, research in this area is ongoing and more human studies are needed to determine the benefits of intermittent fasting on brain health.
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Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is a process that cycles between brief periods of fasting with no food or any significant calorie reduction, this routine does more than help lose weight alone.
Many things happen to the body during intermittent fasting and below are some of the benefits:
- Intermittent fasting prevents diabetes and obesity
- Possibly increased energy
- It may help reduce blood pressure
- Reduces inflammation levels
- It may reduce cancer risk
- Intermittent fasting reduces tissue damage in surgery and improved results.
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.
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You’re Pregnant Or Breastfeeding
Engaging in IF while pregnant or breastfeeding can pose a threat to a child’s development. Calder says, “Pregnancy and breastfeeding require adequate intake of calories for proper development of the baby and milk production. Periods of fasting will interfere with your caloric intake, so pregnant and breastfeeding women should not do intermittent fasting.”
If you’re trying to get pregnant, IF may also not be the diet of choice for you. Bannan points out that IF may also be linked to fertility issues, causing changes in menstruation, disruptions in metabolism, and even prompting early menopause in women.
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.
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Diet Plan: What Can You Eat And What Are The Benefits
The 16:8 diet has been one of the most popular diet plans weve seen in years and with good reason.
The 16:8 plan also called the 8-hour diet is an easier and more consistent way of fasting that avoids heavily calorie restricted days found in other popular intermittent fasting plans like the 5:2 diet or Fast 800 calorie diet.
Studies have shown that intermittent fasting can have benefits on both your body and mental health, as well as being one of the diets that work fast for weight loss.
A famous fan of the 16:8 intermittent fasting plan is Hollywood icon Jennifer Aniston. In an interview with the Radio Times, Jennifer revealed that shes a big fan of intermittent fasting in general but specifically this plan. I do intermittent fasting, so no food in the morning. She said, I noticed a big difference in going without solid food for 16 hours.
Intermittent Fasting Could Make Your Diet Worse
Following on from the previous point, when youre really hungry and break your fast, its easy to overeat unhealthy or nutrient empty foods.
This has been one of my biggest challenges with intermittent fasting.
It takes human discipline to fast every day. But, it takes superhuman discipline to fast and maintain a clean diet every day.
The reason is that when youre fasting, your body is low on sugar and energy. It craves high carb foods with sugar as well.
Whilst, you could still achieve your weight loss and aesthetic goals without eating a clean diet, over the long run this may be detrimental to your health.
The best way Ive found to prevent this overeating tendency after breaking the fast is to design your environment for success and drink as much water as possible throughout the day.
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You Are Not Eating Enough Food
Though it might sound counterproductive, you need to eat well during your eating window.
Intermittent fasting does not mean starvation and you can continue with your normal diet.
When you are not getting enough calories during your eating window, chances are that you will eat a whole lot more during your next window. That is because of the uncontrollable hunger that you will feel.
Also, starving yourself might cause your body to store more fat long-term. Your body notices that you are going for extended periods with little or no food and to ensure that you have a reliable energy source during such periods, your body stores the extra food you eat as fat.
So, instead of burning energy from your meals, your body begins to conserve energy.
Calorie counting could help you ensure you are getting sufficient fuel for your days activities.
Should You Do Intermittent Fasting And The Keto Diet
We have a crazy extensive guide on the Keto Diet in case youre not familiar with it, so here it is in a nutshell:
This process is called ketosis, and there are two ways for a body to enter ketosis:
- Eating in a way that induces ketosis .
- FastingHey, thats what youre reading about right now!
We actually have an amazing success story here on Nerd Fitness, Larry, who followed our strategies, went Keto and start intermittent fasting. He ended up losing weight, getting stronger, AND overcame the challenges of rheumatoid arthritis !
Heres how the fasting portion of it works:
As your body enters a fast period when there are no sources of glucose energy readily available, the liver begins the process of breaking down fat into ketones.
Fasting itself can trigger ketosis.
Fasting for a period of time before kicking off a Keto-friendly eating plan COULD speed your transition into the metabolic state of ketosis, and fasting intermittently while in ketosis could help you maintain that state.
I personally love fasting for the simplicity: I skip breakfast every day and train in a fasted state. Its one less decision I have to make, its one less opportunity to make a bad food choice, and it helps me reach my goals.
WHY KETO + IF WORKS = eating Keto can be really challenging. And every time you eat, its an opportunity to do it wrong and accidentally eat foods that knock you out of ketosis.
Youre also tempted to overeat.
Your value may vary!
You need to decide what works for you.
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Intermittent Fasting Vs Keto Diet
Unlike the Keto Diet each day of the intermittent fast is independent of the day before or after. This means it can be added once a week, Monday to Friday or even every day. Individuals with a lot of weight to lose can do it 5- 7 days a week. Others who have reached their goal can do it every Monday or Monday and Tuesday to compensate for overeating on the weekends.
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.
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The Benefits Of Fasting Don’t Kick In At The Same Time For Every Person
Experts agree that your personal habits will play a role in when exactly certain health benefits will kick in. “There are very few definites here,” says Vincent Pedre, M.D., an integrative physician and gut health expert who frequently recommends intermittent fasting diets to his patients. “Where you start seeing those benefits depends on what you eat, how healthy your gut health is, what kind of physical activity you’re doing, etc.”
For example, letting calories slip into your fasting window, overeating calorie-dense foods like pizza during your eating window, not prioritizing sleep or physical activity, or making one of these intermittent-fasting mistakes could all delay or counteract the benefits of intermittent fasting.
Even if you’re formulating the rest of your diet and lifestyle perfectly, it’s important to understand that the different health benefits associated with intermittent fasting will likely kick in at different durations of fasting. For example, weight loss may be triggered by a relatively short fasting window, while entering ketosis or triggering autophagythat “self-cleaning” cellular process that boosts brain functioning and maybe even longevitymay take significantly longer.
Realistic Weight Loss Numbers
If you do intermittent fasting properly, which means that youre also fat adapted and youre metabolically flexible, its not unusual to lose an average of 1.5-2 lbs of fat every week. Some people lose more. So you want to focus on fat loss, not weight loss.
If you give it 12 weeks or three months for example, at 2 lbs of fat loss per week, thats 24 lbs of body fat gone forever. Thats life changing.
If you dont know what losing 25 lbs of fat looks like, heres one of my other students. She lost exactly 25 lbs without exercise because she did everything else right. Thats how effective intermittent fasting can be if you do it properly which means that you prioritize on getting fat adapted and youre metabolically flexible.
As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!
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Around One Day Long Fasting Periods
24-hour fasts
A 24-hour fast lasts from dinner to dinner, or breakfast to breakfast, whatever you like. For example, you would eat dinner at 7 pm and then fast until the next days dinner at 7 pm. In this regimen, you do not actually go a full day without eating since you are still taking one meal on that fasting day.
This is very similar to the Warrior style of fasting although that allows a 4-hour eating window so is technically a 20-hour fasting period.
This period of fasting has several important advantages. First, as a longer duration fast, it tends to be a little more effective. Because you still eat every day, medications that need to be taken with food can still be taken. For example, metformin, or iron supplements or aspirin should all be taken with food and can be taken with the one meal on the fasting day.
The major advantage of 24-hour fasting is that it is easily incorporated into everyday life. Most people, for example will eat dinner with family every single day. As you still eat dinner every day, it is possible to routinely fast for 24 hours without anybody knowing any different, since it really only means skipping breakfast and lunch on that day.
Another name for a similar fast is OMAD, short for One Meal A Day.
The 5:2 diet
Alternate daily fasting
She wrote a book about her strategy in The Every Other Day Diet, although this was not the blockbuster success of the 5:2 diet.
