What Are The Myths Around Intermittent Fasting
1. Jangda says that intermittent fasting doesnt mean that one has a 7-course meal for dinner at 9 or 10 pm, and fasts until 2 pm the next afternoon. As per Ayurveda, the right way to go about it is to stop eating at sunset and break it after sunrise with 200 ml warm water.
2. If you are an endomorph, you must practice intermittent fasting for 16-18 hours. Typically, people with this body type can easily put on muscle mass, but their metabolism is a little slow. Their body composition is also on the higher side, and they struggle with weight loss.
3. Mesomorphs gain and lose weight easily, and have a high muscle-to-fat ratio. Jangda says that they can benefit by practicing intermittent fasting for 12-14 hours.
4. Lastly, ectomorphs are thin, tall, and lanky. They generally have a hard time gaining weight they have long limbs and small muscles. For this body type, fasting for 12 hours, say from 6 pm to 6 am is good enough.
Whatever may be your body type, Jangda advises breaking the fast with 200 ml warm water with ghee, lemon, cinnamon, ginger, or even spices.
Safety And Side Effects
Hunger is the main side effect of intermittent fasting.
You may also feel weak and your brain may not perform as well as youre used to.
This may only be temporary, as it can take some time for your body to adapt to the new meal schedule.
If you have a medical condition, you should consult with your doctor before trying intermittent fasting.
This is particularly important if you:
- Have diabetes.
- Have a history of eating disorders.
- Are a woman who is trying to conceive.
- Are a woman with a history of amenorrhea.
- Are pregnant or breastfeeding.
All that being said, intermittent fasting has an outstanding safety profile. There is nothing dangerous about not eating for a while if youre healthy and well-nourished overall.
SUMMARY
The most common side effect of intermittent fasting is hunger. People with certain medical conditions should not fast without consulting with a doctor first.
Here are answers to the most common questions about intermittent fasting.
If You Have A Mesomorph Body Type
I would say the neutral body constitution can be categorised as a mesomorph. This group of people usually have muscles that are firm and strong, notes physician Vong. In addition, you may also have low body fat levels. Thus making it easier for you to lose or gain weight with minimal effort.
For people with a phlegm-dampness body constitution, I would categorise them as meso-endomorph. They tend to be slightly obese, and their body shape is what we call an apple shape. Their weight gain mainly focuses around the abdomen area, adds physician Vong.
This diet revolves around the consumption of fresh, whole foods that are high in protein and fat. This diet is beneficial for promoting healthy weight loss and reducing waist circumference. It can also help decrease blood pressure, improve insulin sensitivity, and regulate blood sugar levels.
One of the drawbacks of this diet is that it may increase the risk of nutritional deficiency. However, you can easily correct this by consuming a health supplement that is abundant in essential vitamins and minerals for nutritional support.
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Find People Who Face The Same Weight Loss Struggles Due To Their Somatotype
Whether you hit fitness plateaus or struggle with food choices, having a support network is important to stay on track and achieve your fasting goals, including people with the same body type and similar struggles.
Try joining the DoFasting or Reddit group, which are great for friendship, motivation, and advice.
How Intermittent Fasting Works
The primary goal of intermittent fasting for weight loss is to get insulin levels low enough so your body burns stored fat for energy instead of sugar.
Here is how it works: When your body breaks down the food you eat, it ends up as molecules in your bloodstream. One such molecule is glucose. It comes from the breakdown of carbohydrates.
Your body makes insulin so your cells can store and use that glucose. If you have more blood glucose than your body can use, it gets stored as fat for future use.
When youre not eating meals or snacks, insulin levels drop. When insulin levels are low, fat cells release some of the stored fat so it can be used for energy. That results in weight loss.
Read Also: How To Lose Weight While Intermittent Fasting
How To Work Out According To Your Specific Body Type
In addition to food choices, the body type diet advises letting your somatotype guide you toward the ideal workout. One caveat: This doesnt mean you should limit yourself. These may be the things that youre good at, but we dont want to stop people from doing things they love, says Catudal.
Ectomorph You may find you gravitate toward endurance sports, like running, but that adding resistance training can help you build toned, lean muscles and lower your injury risk. High intensity interval training is effective because it trains both your anaerobic and aerobic cardio systems, as well as building strength and muscle.
Mesomorph You tend to build muscle easily, and sports that require quick bursts of strength and power tend to come easy. But its also easy for you to hit fitness plateaus. Keep in mind that varying your workouts, doing workouts of different intensity , and changing your workout routine every few months can all help to avoid those plateaus and keep you in your best shape, Catudal says.
Endomorph Adding HIIT workouts to your training routine once stamina and endurance increase is a great way to stimulate extra fat burning that continues even after your workouts.
Should You Eat For Your Body Type
Mostly no.
Before we explain why, we first want to get really clear about our own stance on thisand how it has evolved. In the past, weve used body typing as a tool to guide advanced clients, and coaches working with advanced clients . In the 3rd Edition of our Level 1 Certification textbook , we wrote:
Importantly, these are just general conceptual categoriesprinciples that can potentially help us target our nutritional strategies. Body types are not carved in stone. Theyre not the basis for nutritional rules, nor are they any specific system
Body types are a proxy for thinking about possible differences in metabolism, activity types, and nutritional needs. As a coach, you can create some working hypotheses using body types, which you can then test.
But, in our brand-new 4th edition textbook, we completely removed references to body typing. Why? Its not because we dont think body typing has value. It doesfor a few people. But, for the vast majority of people, body typing creates more questions than answers.
For the average person who just wants to look and feel better, body typing serves as a giant distraction. It also makes nutrition unnecessarily complicated. For these people, much simpler and more approachable strategies work beautifully, and frankly, better. Thats why we now recommend body typing only as a third step in a multistep progression.
Which brings us to the fundamentals.
Read Also: What Do I Eat During Intermittent Fasting
What Foods Should Endomorph Avoid
Because the endomorph body type has a slow metabolism, excess carbohydrates tend to end up being stored as fat rather than used for energy. You want to avoid simple carbohydrates as much as you can and focus on complex carbohydrates. Avoid foods such as
1. White bread, pasta, white rice
2. Baked treats such as cakes and cookies
3. High sugar chocolates, candies, and sweets
4. Sugar filled beverages such as sodas, energy drinks, and sports drinks
5. Fried foods
Also Check: What Are Intermittent Fasting Hours
Best Diet For Endomorphs
If you are an endomorph, then, you diet choices will be focused around the need to manage your levels of body fat. You will be much less concerned with the nutrition needed to build muscle, and certainly wont want to run the calorie surpluses that work for ectomorphs.
Because endomorphs have a higher percentage of body fat, you need to understand how fat is stored in your body and how to control it. You will have visceral fat surrounding your organs, plus subcutaneous fat under your skin.
One of your key goals will be to get rid of the visceral fat, as this is the more dangerous of the two types. As well as giving you an ugly beer belly, visceral fat is clearly linked to a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and many other diseases.
The good news is that visceral fat is easier to lose than subcutaneous fat. So a good diet plan can do a great deal to get your weight management and associated health problems under control.
Heres what you need to do:
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Master Foundational Nutrition Habits
The following simple and accessible strategies can help most people reach their goals. Try these for yourself or your clients first.
Consume mostly whole foods. Whole foods include fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes, whole fresh cuts of meat and poultry, seafood, and nuts and seeds. Choose whole foods over processed ones whenever possible, aiming to make small improvements to each mealrather than doing a giant overhaul all at once. For example, can you add more veggies to your fast food sandwich? How about eating a side salad with dinner? Before you reach for a crunchy, processed snack food, consider whether crunchy fruit , veggies , or nuts could hit the spot.
Eat slowly. This practice will help you become more aware of what you eat, how much you eat, and why. Youll also learn to eat lessautomaticallybecause youll tune into your natural fullness cues. To do so: slow down as much as you can. Before you dig in, notice what you have chosen. Take a bite. Chew slowly. Take in the scent, texture, taste, and temperature. Put your utensils down or take a sip of water. Then have another bite as you attempt to slow down and savor the meal. And dont worry if you find it challenging to slow down. Just like all new habits, this takes practice.
Which Body Type Are You
Understanding your body type is essential if you want to make the most of your bodybuilding potential. Misunderstand this key issue and you could spend hundreds of hours slaving away in the gym, yet achieve next to nothing.
Thats the bad news. The good news is that if you truly understand your body type you can reverse this. You can create an optimal body growth plan that enables you to build muscle and lose fat quickly to achieve impressive body composition.
Knowing and understanding your body type puts you on the fast track to bodybuilding success. So what are the body types, and which one are you?
Way back in the 1940s, an American psychologist named William Herbert Sheldon postulated that all human bodies fall into one of three main soma types:
The easiest way to understand these three body types is to see how they typically look for men:
…and how they typically look for women:
To put it simply, ectomorphs are the taller, skinnier guys,while endomorphs are the shorter, broader type. Mesomorphs are the lucky ones in the middlewho have the Goldilocks combination – not too tall or too short, and not to thin or too broad.
As a result, people with each of the three body types build muscle in different ways, and end up with a very different look:
The optimal bodybuilding plan for you will largely depend on which body type you are. So its important to find out which category you fall into. If youre not sure, you can take a simple test to find out.
Recommended Reading: Does Fasting Help You Lose Weight
Too Much High Impact Exercise
Everybody knows exercise and incorporating a lot of movement in your routine is very beneficial for our health and generally highly recommended. But too much exercise, especially if they are high-impact, can actually cause more oxidative stress and inflammation.
A much better idea is to go for low-impact exercises that are restorative. Some examples would be pilates or yoga that focuses on breathing, giving an overall sense of calm.
You can check out my video for Flow Yoga with instructor Henry Richardson, to get inspired in your workout routine.
What It Mean To Eat For Your Body Type
The idea behind intermittent fasting according to your body type is that your body type, or somatotype, gives you clues about your genes, your metabolism, and your hormonal function. Its kind of like eating for your blood type, which you may have heard about. Some of us do better with more carbs, others more protein or more fats.
Recommended Reading: What Are Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting Quiz: Which Fasting Method Is The Best For You
If youre new to intermittent fasting, youre probably wondering how it works and which method to try.
To achieve success with intermittent fasting, you need to find the schedule that works best for you. It should align with your daily routines, training schedules, and social life.
With several variations, it isnt easy to know where to begin. Some are more challenging than others, with extended hours of food abstinence, while shorter methods may not be effective for your goals.
Keep reading as our intermittent fasting quiz provides answers to help you choose the right program for you.
Consider How Long Your Body Needs To Adjust To A New Routine
Intermittent fasting can be a shock for your body, so you need to start with small fasting windows before increasing to longer fasting periods.
This will prevent your body from going into starvation mode and saving fat stores, making it easier for you to complete successfully, especially depending on how easy your body type loses weight.
Read Also: Does 24 Hour Fasting Help Lose Weight
The 5/2 Fasting Method
In 5/2 Fasting, a person will pick two days out of the week to fast and eat normally the other five. When most people first think of intermittent fasting, they may automatically assume that it means that a person is supposed to go for very long periods without eating a single thing. There are many dieters who do that. You could drink water for most of the day, then only eat something right at the end of a 24-hour period. But the way most people stay busy with work, school and other pursuits means that you may need some kind of energy during the day while fasting. This is to help ensure that you do not begin to feel sick, faint, light-headed, etc.
Intermittent fasting implies that the majority of calories a person eats will be greatly reduced. However, these calories are not completely eliminated. Dieters can have at least a little bit of food during their fasting period, for maintaining their overall energy and sharpness throughout the fast.
Resources We Love: Body Type Diet
This book shines at explaining the basics of body type diet and exercise with a kind and thoughtful tone. Youll feel empowered to adopt habits that are right for your body without feeling as if youre limited by your type.
Precision Nutrition is a company that certifies health and fitness professionals, and their experts are excellent resources for breaking down diet trends in an honest way. Andrews and Dr. Kollias offer tips on how to try a body type diet in a healthful, sustainable way.
Open Sky Fitness Podcast
Sometimes, its easier to listen while you learn, and this podcast is a good intro to body types and helps answer common questions, such as how can you gain muscle if youre an ectomorph and how an endomorph can get stronger to stoke their metabolism.
How to Lose Weight Based on Your Body Type, Ep. 35
Jacked on the Beanstalk
If weight loss is your main goal with the body type diet, this podcast breaks down how calorie, protein, and fat intake goals vary for each body type.
Recommended Reading: 30 Day Intermittent Fasting Results
What Is The Endomorph Diet
As you may have guessed, the endomorph diet is the plan developed specifically for the endomorph body type. Speaking generally, Sheldon described the endomorph body type, as tending to have a smaller upper body with narrow shoulders and waist and curvy hips and thighs, according to says Phil Catudal, NASM-certified personal trainer and author of Just Your Type: The Ultimate Guide to Eating and Training Right for Your Body Type. Endomorphs also tend to have higher fat percentages relative to their muscle mass, says Basima Williams, D.O., a functional medicine-certified primary care and weight management physician at PALM Health in St. Louis, Missouri.
So it’s likely not surprising that the endomorph diet tends to focus on weight and fat loss. But the endomorph diet plan could also be used as a guideline for boosting strength, gaining muscle, and following a more balanced, whole-foods-focused eating plan instead, if you aren’t interested in the weight loss aspect.
How To Fast According To Your Body Type
Now, the questions is how can you practice intermittent fasting according to your body type? Does it even matter? I am going to be honest with you, I really dont think it matters much. Your body type is just a general image of what your body looks like at the present time. Its not a life sentence! However, I can share some insights on how your current body type can impact your fasting experience and how you can achieve the best results depending on your body type.
Read Also: What Time Does Fasting Start
