Should I Try Intermittent Fasting
Now that were through a lot of the science stuff, lets get into the reality of the situation: why should you consider Intermittent Fasting?
#1) Because it can work for your goals. Although we know that not all calories are created equal, caloric restriction plays a central role in weight loss.
When you fast, you are also making it easier to restrict your total caloric intake over the course of the week, which can lead to consistent weight loss and maintenance.
#2) Because it simplifies your day. Rather than having to prepare, pack, eat, and time your meals every 2-3 hours, you simply skip a meal or two and only worry about eating food in your eating window.
Its one less decision you have to make every day.
It could allow you to enjoy bigger portioned meals and STILL eat fewer calories on average.
#3) It requires less time . Rather than having to prepare or purchase three to six meals a day, you only need to prepare two meals.
Instead of stopping what youre doing six times a day to eat, you simply only have to stop to eat twice. Rather than having to do the dishes six times, you only have to do them twice.
Rather than having to purchase six meals a day, you only need to purchase two.
#4) It promotes stronger insulin sensitivity and increased growth hormone secretion, two keys for weight loss and muscle gain. Intermittent fasting helps you create a double whammy for weight loss and building a solid physique.
#6) Plus, Wolverine does it:
#7) Boy George is a fasting fan :
Make Sure You Eat Healthy
One thing Wright enjoys most about intermittent fasting is that you decide what kind of foods you want to eat . But she warns against .
Its definitely important to eat nutritious food when youre on the diet, she says. I feel like if I was doing intermittent fasting just eating pizza and burgers and fries, I feel like I wouldnt have had the amount of success I have right now.
She says its important to consume all the macros your body needs proteins, fats and carbs and to have nutritiously diverse meals
Ill have egg whites and spinach, and Ill have some carrots fruit on the side … Ill have maybe a chicken breast with some quinoa on the side, Wright says.
How Much Weight Loss Can You Expect In A Month On Intermittent Fasting
Many factors go into how much weight you actually lose on intermittent fasting. Weight loss will depend on your current weight, metabolism, what you eat, and your activity levels. Obviously, if you follow a healthy eating pattern and exercise every day or a few times a week, it will help you shed weight faster.
Intermittent fasting may enable you to lose between 0.51.5 pounds a week. In 4 weeks, you could lose anything between 26 pounds.
Read Also: What Can I Have During My Intermittent Fasting
Tip #: Prepare Ahead Of Time By Eating Low Carb
If youve been eating a lot of refined carbohydrates and sugar, then prepare before you fast by changing your diet to a low carb high-fat diet. While the ketogenic diet is considered to be ideal to pair with Intermittent fasting for weight loss, its not for everybody. But, feel free to go there if youre open to it.
If you dont want to eat a high fat low carb diet, simply cut out refined carbohydrates. This is what I was doing when I started. Once I got used to it, then the low carb high fat diet just came naturally.
Definitely stay away from sugar. Use natural sweeteners, such as stevia if absolutely necessary. I use the stevia leaf brand because it doesnt have added chemicals.
Intermittent Fasting Tips For Success
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Intermittent fasting might be the most popular eating schedule since the 9 am, 12 pm, 5 pm concept was formed. There are a few different schedules people use for intermittent fasting. However, the 16/8 plan is by far the most popular schedule to follow. The schedule is simple, from 8 pm until 12 pm you can only drink water, tea, or plain coffee. Then, you can eat from 12 pm until 8 pm. The plan is pretty straight forward and on paper, it seems pretty easy. But everyone comes across an obstacle here or there. That is when you need to implement the best intermittent fasting tips for success.
Recommended Reading: How Many Pounds Can You Lose On Intermittent Fasting
Ditch The Unsupportive People
When trying a new diet or trying anything youre really excited about for that matter its important to inform the right people. If you have a lot of negative people or you know off hand which people have negative thoughts, in particular, do not include them in on your new journey.
It is so important to have the right support system when starting a new diet or lifestyle. You need people to help you, encourage you and promote your new journey to help your success.
Intermittent Fasting Success Stories
Often a key part of finding the motivation to stick with a diet, or lifestyle change, is having the confidence that it is going to work. Reading success stories from people who have been there and done it is an excellent way of convincing yourself that it is possible.
If they can do it, why cant you?
Below weve picked a selection of success stories from across the web, looking at different people from different countries who have found different intermittent fasting routines that worked for them. As is hopefully clear from the information above, this isnt a one size fits all type diet, and by experimenting with various approaches you are more likely to settle on something that you can stick with for the long term.
5:2 Diet
This article from the Daily Mail in the UK profiles three women in the UK who all underwent a successful intermittent fasting transformation. In their own words they talk about their weight and medical conditions prior to starting on the 5:2 Diet and how it subsequently changed their life.
- Tanya Emmons, 42 Lost over 70lbs and now runs 5k twice a week
- Linda Christie, 65 Lost over 30lbs and runs two miles to the local cinema every week
- Terri Durrant, 56 Gradually went from size 16/18 clothes down to a size 12!
The Fast Diet website has its own Success Stories thread, which contains over 150 posts of people talking about the trials and tribulations of the diet.
There are so many encouraging stories on there, but I will share one:
FoodCanWait.com
Also Check: Can You Have Coffee When Fasting
The 14 Proven Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
Successful diets are not solely focused on calorie restricting and eliminating foods. They can involve timed eating windows and/or daily eating cycles. This is better known as intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting can offer many health benefits. If not more than traditional dieting methods. It can aid weight loss, control diabetes and prevent health conditions. It has taken time for people to catch on. More people are now, more than ever, trying to diet due to its abundance of impressive results from scientific studies.
Intermittent fasting is now the number one fasting technique. In 2019 it was the top dieting method searched on Google. Since 2010, it has popularised in the Google search engine by over 10,000 per cent. Exceeding other popular and more traditional calorie restricting diets.
Find out more about why its so popular, how it works and the numerous health benefits it offers:
Contents
Essential Intermittent Fasting Tips For Fasting Success
by Catherine Baez Sholl | Health and Fitness, Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting is easy for some people to pick up. Others find it very difficult to fast for even 12 hours. If you would like to try Intermittent Fasting but cant seem to stop eating for as long as 12 hours, keep reading, these 11 Essential Intermittent Fasting Tips will help you complete a fast successfully.
Intermittent fasting has become a trend recently and for good reason. The benefits of fasting extend beyond weight loss. They include mental clarity, autophagy , regulated blood sugar, decreased risk factors for heart disease, amongst other benefits.
But, the truth is that people have been fasting for centuries. Be it for spiritual, environmental, or health reasons, Intermittent Fasting has been a part of our culture.
Unfortunately, for the past few decades, weve been told that we should eat every 2 4 hours to speed up our metabolisms. At the same time, sugar and refined carb intake have drastically increased.
This combination has created an obesity epidemic that only seems to be benefiting the food industry and pharma companies. It certainly is not benefiting us!
I explain how intermittent fasting works and what to eat during intermittent fasting in other posts. I have family, friends, and readers who express interest in trying it. Some, like I did, can jump into 16-hour fasts with no problem. Others have a really hard time fasting for more than 8 10 hours.
Recommended Reading: What Is The Purpose Of Fasting During Ramadan
What Are The Negative Effects Of Intermittent Fasting
In my own experimentation with Intermittent Fasting since 2014, I have found very few negative side effects with Intermittent Fasting.
The biggest concern most people have is that Intermittent Fasting will lead to lower energy, focus, and the holy crap I am hungry feeling during the fasting period and ruin them.
People are concerned that they will spend all morning being miserable because they havent consumed any food, and thus will be miserable at work and ineffective at whatever task it is they are working on.
The following are my thoughts and experiences, and your results may vary:
Yes, the initial transition from EATING ALL THE TIME, to intermittent fasting MIGHT be a bit of a jolt to your system it was for me.
However, once I got through the transition after a few days, my body quickly adapted and learned to function just as well only eating a few times a day.
Although I fast for 16 hours per day with no issues, the following might help assuage your fears that skipping breakfast will cause your body to eat itself and your brain to implode:
After 48-hours of fasting in a recent study , cognitive performance, activity, sleep, and mood are not adversely affected in healthy humans by two days of calorie-deprivation. Youll be fasting for far less time than that.
So why do I feel grouchy and lethargic when I skip breakfast?
If you eat breakfast every morning, your body expects to wake up and eat food.
Best Intermittent Fasting Tips For Weight Loss
As soon as it comes to nutritional advice, youll find countless myths and insufficiently researched claims on the internet. Intermittent fasting is no exception.
Therefore, beginners should take the following three tips to lose weight successfully with intermittent fasting without experiencing physical side effects.
Recommended Reading: How Does The Intermittent Fasting Work
How To Overcome An Intermittent Fasting Plateau
I am going to share seven things you can try that will most likely help you overcome your weight loss plateau. Go through the list and see which idea is most likely to help you. Start with that. If that doesnt trigger further weight loss, try another one until you find the right one. You may also combine more than one when you see they apply to you.
How I Lost 30 Pounds In 4 Months Intermittent Fasting
I dont know about you, but when our lives were completely overturned earlier this year due to a virus that shall not be named I felt so many unpleasant emotions.
Fear, uncertainty, sadness, anger, and loss of control, just to name a few.
It felt like we were living in the upside-down world
Well, Ive been on this insane weight loss journey for quite some time.
Yo-yo dieting up and down for what feels like forever.
Sometimes I could lose a little weight here and there but would always lose focus and gain it back
But when the pandemic hit, a lightbulb went off in my head.
If I couldnt control what was going on outside, I would go inward.
I would buckle down and do whatever I could to come out of this thing, looking and feeling better than ever before!
So I went back to the one and only thing that ever gave me results I could count on intermittent fasting.
But this time, I promised, would be different.
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Top 10 Tips For 1: 8 Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is growing in popularity, but there are still a lot of people who think its too difficult to try out. When I first heard about the 16:8 method, I was apprehensive about giving it a shot. I love to eat! Like, reeeeeally love to eat. Thats a big part of why Ive had such a long running issue with controlling my weight. However, I threw caution to the wind and decided to try out 16:8 IF, almost out of desperation. When I felt like I had stumbled upon a road block, I was able to navigate my way around it without disrupting my new eating plan. Intermittent fasting is a wonderful way to shed those extra pounds. Use these tips to make your new eating schedule work for you!
- This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links, I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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.
Read Also: How Should I Start Intermittent Fasting
The 14 Health Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is typically associated with weight loss. But, it offers more than just that. Fasting can improve your overall health as much as it can aid weight loss.
The modern diet industry is now crowded with new methods for losing weight and body fat. Yet, there are only a select few that people stick to. This is usually because of the various other health benefits they offer. Also, there are only several diets that actually work and can be sustainable.
Diets are now often used as a lifestyle rather than just a weight loss tool. Intermittent fasting being a method many intervene with their current eating habit and lifestyle. The fasting methods involved with intermittent fasting can offer 14 incredible health benefits:
Pick The Fasting Time For You
Considering the intermittent fast is so adaptable to have great success with it, you must choose a style that will fit well with you. There are few different ways to follow it. You can choose the 16:8 method or 20:4. The 16:8 method includes daily fasting for 16 hours of the day and then you have an 8-hour window to eat. The 20:4 method involves a 20 hour fast followed by a 4-hour eating window. Both of these methods you have the flexibility of starting and finishing them when you please. Such as you could break your fast at 12 pm and eat up until 8 pm. However, if breakfast is more important to you and you have the willpower to say no to evening snacking then a 10 am to 6 pm window might work better for you.
Or, you can choose a longer fasting period. This can include the 5:2 method, which means you eat 5 days of the week with 2 days being full fasting days. The great thing about this diet is it is so customizable that you can choose whatever appeals to you or is more practical for you and get the same results.
Read Also: How Many Calories Should You Eat When Intermittent Fasting
Challenges Of Intermittent Fasting
Let’s get to the uncomfortable news first. IF can be difficult in the beginning, as it’s not unusual to experience mild headaches, fatigue or other bodily side effects as your body adjusts to a revised feeding window, often coupled with a healthier, less sugar-filled diet. Fortunately, these tend to abate after a few days, and many people report feeling better and healthier overall.
IF is not recommended for people with certain health limitations, such as those with diabetes. People at risk of diabetes, however, are ideally suited to IF complemented with a healthy diet, because at least one study showed it dramatically lowered insulin levels and high blood pressure levels among prediabetic obese men. Anyone with a history of eating disorders, like anorexia or bulimia, as well as women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not attempt IF unless they are closely monitored by a doctor.
Although many people are fine with IF on the 16:8 scale, it’s not for everyone. “There is some concern that fasting long periods of time might cause some hormonal shifts in women that are unwanted,” Weinandy says. “It probably depends on the individual since we are talking about humans and there is a lot of variation amongst us! I usually recommend people start with a 12 hour fast then go up an hour at a time and see how they feel. Most people will know what works for them based on how they feel.”
