Why Does Intermittent Fasting Work
Intermittent fasting works because it allows your blood sugar and insulin levels to drop to a low level.
Insulin is your fat-storing hormone. When insulin levels are high, fat flows into your fat cells and gets stored when insulin is low, fat can flow out of your fat cells and burn.
Also, since insulin is not pushing the sugars that remain in your blood into fat storage, those sugars are available to provide energy for the repair of cells.
This healing advantage is why intermittent fasting is getting a lot of attention right now in the research world for the treatment of chronic disease .
Ready to Try Intermittent fasting? Let me start you off with the easiest method
What Are Intermittent Fasting Rules
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that alternates between periods of eating and fasting.
Although there are different methods and rules for intermittent fasting, eating within a window of around 8 hours is the most popular method.
In this sense, this means that 16/8 intermittent fasting involves fasting for 16 hours per day. Nonetheless, you can also fast for 14, 18, or 20 hours a day, as we will cover later.
Because intermittent fasting is associated with health benefits such as increased insulin sensitivity or weight loss, it has gained popularity in recent years .
What Happens When We Stay Fed
First of all, lets tell you that most of us are in the fed state all the time. And while the body is in the fed state, it is working hard to digest, breakdown, and assimilate the nutrients. However, there are not enough calories being burnt at this point. We are often told to eat in small portions frequently, which is putting our bodies under stress due to the never-ending sugar and grain-based carbohydrate push. As a result, our body keeps working hard with little to no outcome. In other words, the body is working hard and doesnt get any time to repair itself, which may bring the healthy metabolism to a halt sooner rather than later.
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But What Happens If I Break Intermittent Fasting For A Day
In that case, Im assuming you just need a break from all the fasting and healthy eating and figured youd indulge for a bit. Or maybe theres an event you want to go to and you need to break your fast to enjoy your time with family and friends.
I say go for it. Treat it as a cheat day.
For one, your mental health and relationships matter, too. If being on intermittent fasting on that particular day doesnt give you a sense of peace, then I personally dont think its worth it.
Second, a study from the International Journal of Obesity suggests that cheat days actually help you lose weight because it helps restart your presumably sluggish metabolism as a result of being on a low-calorie diet.
Stay Away From Sweeteners
Sugar-free light drinks are popular not only for diets but in general. Nevertheless, it is these drinks that prevent success in intermittent fasting.
Contrary to the advertising message, zero sugar does not stand for fat burning in reality.
Although sweeteners such as aspartame and stevia do not increase blood sugar levels, they can stimulate insulin secretion .
Moreover, they erase gut bacteria that are a guarantor of our health .
Precisely because sugar-free drinks hardly increase blood sugar levels, they trigger cravings for sweets in the brain. Therefore, sweeteners make people hungrier than conventional sugar .
It appears that people who consume diet products like water are more often overweight, which is a proven fact.
Accordingly, researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio found that consuming light beverages increases the likelihood of weight gain by 47 percent .
During the fasting period, fluid intake is essential. However, it should be limited to water, mineral water, tea, and coffee without additives.
On the one hand, diet sodas break the fast. On the other hand, they will push your goals further away, even in eating periods.
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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.
Fast For 12 Hours A Day
The rules for this diet are simple. A person needs to decide on and adhere to a 12-hour fasting window every day.
According to some researchers, fasting for 1016 hours can cause the body to turn its fat stores into energy, which releases ketones into the bloodstream. This should encourage weight loss.
This type of intermittent fasting plan may be a good option for beginners. This is because the fasting window is relatively small, much of the fasting occurs during sleep, and the person can consume the same number of calories each day.
The easiest way to do the 12-hour fast is to include the period of sleep in the fasting window.
For example, a person could choose to fast between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. They would need to finish their dinner before 7 p.m. and wait until 7 a.m. to eat breakfast but would be asleep for much of the time in between.
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Intermittent Fasting And Sleeping
Besides staying without food for the said period, it is better to sleep during the fasting hours. Intermittent 12 hour fasting at night is easier because you will be asleep for the most part, say 7 hours. However, if you fast during the day, you may need to take a nap and keep yourself busy to avoid thinking about food that will lead to relapse.
You can begin by fasting weekly, then on several days of the week before making it a day to day routine. If you are fasting for specific days a week, for example, five days a week, eat as usual on the non-fasting days. Note that you may become irritable, and your concentration may momentarily dip during the fasting period as you begin this healthy journey. The good news is that your body will adjust within a month, and the side effects should disappear. If they are particularly severe or donât go away, consider stopping your fasting routine and discuss with your doctor.
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Drawbacks Of 16/8 Intermittent Fasting
16/8 intermittent fasting may be associated with many health benefits, but it does come with some drawbacks and may not be right for everyone.
Restricting your intake to just eight hours per day can 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 the development of unhealthy eating habits.
16/8 intermittent fasting may also cause short-term negative side effects when youre first getting started, such as hunger, weakness and fatigue though these often subside once you get into a routine.
Additionally, some research suggests that intermittent fasting may affect men and women differently, with animal studies reporting that it could interfere with fertility and reproduction in females .
However, more human studies are needed to evaluate the effects that intermittent fasting may have on reproductive health.
In any case, be sure to start gradually and consider stopping or consulting your doctor if you have any concerns or experience negative symptoms.
Summary
Restricting daily food intake may cause weakness, hunger, increased food consumption and weight gain. Animal studies show that intermittent fasting may impact men and women differently and may even interfere with fertility.
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How To Do A 12
The Keto-IF diet involves following the Keto routine during the day, then IF overnight. For instance, on the first day, you can take scrambled eggs capped with avocado slices with black coffee or plain hot tea at 9 a.m., then water or a keto-friendly smoothie all morning. At noon, take lunch. This can include large leafy green salad broccoli and cauliflower topped with two tablespoons of olive oil, vinegar, and 3 ounces of grilled salmon or chicken breast.
You can have macadamia nuts as a snack at 2 p.m., but this is optional. Take dinner at 5 p.m, and this can be cooked wild rice with a chicken leg with skin and two cups of zucchini prepared with olive oil. Note that a KETO IF rich in bacon and butter is different from the one rich in avocado and olive oil.
To do this combination, get approval from your physician and work with a registered dietitian conversant with the Keto-IF diet for perfect ratios.
Muscle Mass Tends To Decrease
Another side effect of losing weight is that muscle mass tends to decrease .
Muscle is metabolically active and burns calories around the clock.
However, the reduction in calorie expenditure is greater than what can be explained by a reduction in muscle mass alone.
The body becomes more efficient at doing work, so less energy than before is required to do the same amount of work (
Therefore, calorie restriction makes you expend fewer calories to perform physical activity.
Summary
Weight loss and reduced calorie intake can lead to reduced calorie burning. On average, this amounts to about 5.8 calories per pound of lost body weight.
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So How Many Hours Should You Fast
When you explore the beginners guide to intermittent fasting, you may find these schedules very restrictive and difficult to follow. Its a good idea to start slow and fast for 12 hours and eat for 12, or fast for 14 hours and eat for 10.
For women, the 14:10 schedule is easier to follow. For men, this can vary as some men find alternate-day fasting easier to follow.
Working your way slowly will make it easier for you to adjust to a certain intermittent fasting type. You can eventually increase the fasting periods and decrease the eating windows.
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How Does Intermittent Fasting Work
There are several different ways to do intermittent fasting, but they are all based on choosing regular time periods to eat and fast. For instance, you might try eating only during an eight-hour period each day and fast for the remainder. Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day two days a week. There are many different intermittent fasting schedules.
Mattson says that after hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. He refers to this as metabolic switching.
Intermittent fasting contrasts with the normal eating pattern for most Americans, who eat throughout their waking hours, Mattson says. If someone is eating three meals a day, plus snacks, and theyre not exercising, then every time they eat, theyre running on those calories and not burning their fat stores.
Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the calories consumed during your last meal and begins burning fat.
Popular Ways To Do Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting has recently become a health trend. Devotees claim it can cause weight loss, improve metabolic health, and maybe even extend life span.
Every method can be effective, but figuring out which one works best depends on the individual.
Several methods of this eating pattern exist. But before embarking on an intermittent fast or deciding how often to fast, you should speak with a healthcare professional.
Here are 6 popular ways to do intermittent fasting.
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Do Not Fear The Shaker
When emptying glycogen stores, the body loses plenty of water. There are about 3 grams of water bound to each gram of carbohydrate.
Therefore, especially when you first start intermittent fasting or a ketogenic diet, the body flushes out plenty of electrolytes with the water.
As a result, sodium deficiency, in particular, leads to headaches and dizziness.
Although salt has been demonized for decades, we cannot live without sodium. In contrast to the daily requirement of two grams currently recommended by authorities, our ancestors instinctively consumed 2-3 times as much sodium.
Furthermore, it is the country with the highest salt consumption with the lowest cardiovascular disease rates .
In addition, salt is the natural antagonist of sugar. It takes the bitter taste out of food and counteracts cravings.
Unlike sugar, salt also has a negative feedback loop. The more salt the body gets, the less it craves.
While sugar consumption promotes insulin resistance and body fat storage, salt increases insulin sensitivity and helps weight loss instead .
The best options for adding natural salt to your diet are pink Himalayan salt or Celtic sea salt.
So dare to salt as you wish during Intermittent Fasting! Your body will thank you for it.
Special Notes If You Try The Extreme Intermittent Fast
1) If youre going to try a fat fast or do extreme intermittent fasting, you want to ease into it.
You do not want to jump into these extreme fasts if you currently eat a poor diet that is filled with fast foods, processed foods, and refined carbs.
If you take this leap, youll find yourself in the bathroom for most of the day. Instead, work your way up to doing these extreme forms of intermittent fasting by first doing a 16:8 fast by itself and getting off the junk food.
2) There is some research that talks about doing a fat fast for a few days up to a few weeks at a time.
My husband and I do not have any personal experience with doing a fat fast for this long and dont promote staying on an extreme fast for more than a day.
When my husband utilizes this fasting technique, he does it one day at a time. This one-day extreme intermittent fast is a good way to change things up, which can stimulate a sluggish metabolism.
Reference:
Mattson, M. P., Longo, V. D., & Harvie, M. . Impact of intermittent fasting on health and disease processes. Aging research reviews, 39, 46-58.
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The Easy Way To Do Intermittent Fasting
The easy way to do intermittent fasting is what I call 12:12 intermittent fasting.
This title simply means that for 12 hours of the day you fast, and 12 hours you consume all of your calories.
In other words, you have a 12-hour window of eating during the day.
This method is very simple to do.
In fact, I do this on a daily basis as do the people that follow my 0, 1, 2, 3 Strategy .
The 3 of my strategy reminds you to stop eating three hours before bed.
For instance, if you go to bed at 10:30 PM, you want to stop eating at 7:30 PM.
To create your 12-hour fast, you simply delay breakfast until 7:30 AM.
This easy way to do intermittent fasting will help you lose weight because it allows your insulin and blood sugar levels to drop overnight, which moves your body into a fat-burning state.
