Youre Not Hydrated Enough
Not drinking enough water during your fast may not only leave you dehydrated, but by not drinking enough, youre also missing out on water’s benefits when it comes to quelling hunger.
How to fix it: Drink up! And you can get fancy with your water. Intermittent fasting-approved drinks include: hot tea, black coffee, seltzer water, iced tea, tea or coffee with Stevia.
During And After This Week Of Intermittent Fasting
During the 7 days and after, its really important to track not just your meals, but also habits. Tracking will provide clarity, which is essential to make long-lasting changes. You need to know what youre doing on a regular basis that is supporting or sabotaging your progress. Were not looking for a way to lose 10 pounds in 10 days here. We want to live a healthy lifestyle.
You can use a journal, or a fitness planner like the one I use, you can check it out here. Its a fitness planner I made and use all the time. It saves my sanity and helps me stay on track, even when life gets overwhelming and all I feel like doing is eating cookies.
Theres a meal planner, a workout planner, a daily routine tracker, gratitude journal and so much more to help you stay organized and motivated. If you like the fitness planner, make sure to use the code NTB20 to get 20% off your purchase.
I hope you enjoy this 16/8 intermittent fasting diet plan with healthy meal ideas and a grocery list! Comment if you have questions or feedback!
What Is The Mechanism Behind The 1: 8 Diet
Working on an hourly basis, the 16/8 method makes you eat for 8 hours and fast during the remaining 16 hours. This sort of fasting enables your body to process the nutrients in food by giving it enough time.
At the same moment, it helps with burning those extra calories. It does not require you to restrict your calories during those 8 hours. But that surely does not imply any intake of unhealthy food.
During those 16 hours of fasting, your body is cleansed of toxins and your cells are working effectively which does not happen in the case of regular eating patterns. As lack of food means lack of glucose for use in the body, this pushes your body to use other sources of energy . Thus, helping in weight loss.
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Hour Fast Benefit #: Improved Cognition
Studies show that intermittent fasting boosts several hormones, notably Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor , that are neuroplastic and neurodegenerative in nature.
In other words, fasting provides the perfect fuel for your brain. Increased BDNF levels are associated with improved mood, cognition, productivity, memory, and creativity. Harvard neuropsychiatrist John J. Ratey calls BDNF Miracle-Gro for the brain.
Its not known why intermittent fasting boosts BDNF so powerfully, but our evolution may give us some hints.
Throughout human history most tribes and people groups wouldve gone long stretches without food, say before their next successful hunt. During this time, peak physical and mental performance wouldve been paramount to securing the next meal and the body wouldve met this need.
To this day its thought that the human body perceives fasting as a healthy stressor and responds by forming new neurons that prime your body to learn new skills. In this type of emergency situation, BDNF allows our brains to form new neural networks quickly.
Side Effects Of The 8 Hour Intermittent Fasting
If you are trying the 8 hour diet for the first time, you may experience the following:
- Nausea and mood swings in the initial days
- After dinner, you may feel like snacking.
- People may end up eating more after fasting for 16 hours. This may lead to weight gain.
- Fatigue and weakness
- Low blood pressure
- According to a rat study, when done in excess, intermittent fasting may shut down the reproductive system and cognitive abilities in females .
Main Idea The 8 hour diet plan is perfect for weight loss and improving your health. But do not go overboard. Consult a doctor and get expert advice to make this diet successful.
Hence, you should be absolutely sure if the 8 hour diet or 16/8 intermittent fasting is for you. Heres a checklist to help you.
Should You Try The 8 Hour Diet or 16/8 Intermittent Fasting?
Try it if:
- your doctor approves of this diet.
- you are supervised by your doctor.
- you feel comfortable fasting for 16 hours.
- you do not have hypoglycemia or any other medical issue.
If your doctor has given you the green signal to try the 16/8 intermittent fasting, heres a list of what to do and avoid while on this diet:
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Voted Best Diet By Us News Best Diet Rankings
Adhere to the Mediterranean diet to lose weight and live longer as the Mediterranean diet has been voted by the U.S. News Best Diet Rankings 2021 as:
- #1 in best diets overall
- #1 in best plant-based diets
- #1 in best heart health diets
- #1 in best diabetes diets
- #1 in best diets for healthy eating
- #1 in easiest diets to follow
The combination of intermittent fasting and the Mediterranean diet is clearly a match made in health heaven! This combination can also help people improve their cardiovascular health and achieve weight loss without resorting to difficult, unhealthy diets and eating disorders.
Reduced Oxidative Stress And Inflammation
Oxidative stress occurs as potentially harmful reactive oxygen species build up within the cells of your body that are metabolically active. Reactive oxygen species are, as their name suggests, reactive. They can react with and cause harm to your proteins and even your DNA. If a cell in your body cant counteract this damage quickly enough, it might become senescent, spew out inflammation, or even die.
Intermittent fasting forces muscle, brain and other tissues to become more efficient in their breakdown of metabolites and production of energy. This can help reduce ROS and levels of inflammation. Fasting also triggers the body to produce more antioxidants that help clean up ROS.
A study with prediabetic men who shortened their eating window to 6 hours a day for 5 weeks showed that this fasting regimen reduced plasma levels of the oxidative stress marker 8-isoprostane, in addition to improving insulin sensitivity and blood pressure. Alternate day fasting has been shown to increase the expression of superoxide dismutase and catalase, two powerful antioxidant enzymes that can clean up ROS in your cells. Another way to increase antioxidant enzymes is through exercise! Physical activity increases the levels of superoxide dismutase, which has a lot of benefits for all of the organs in your body.
Starting your fast earlier in the evening is also associated with lower breast cancer recurrence.
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Losing Weight Vs Losing Fat: Whats The Difference
When you watch the numbers on your scale drop, it can be exciting. But the scale doesnt reflect if youve lost fat or weight in general. You may think the goal of your health journey is to lose weight, when what you really want is to shed body fat. The reason is simple: When you lose weight, you can lose a combination of muscle, fluids, fat, and even organ size.
If you want to increase your health and add muscle so your body feels and looks toned, losing muscle and fluids likely isnt your goal. Instead, youll want to focus on fat loss, so any more than two pounds a week could undermine your goals.
According to research and Doctor Joel Seedman , when you shed upwards of five pounds per week, youll lose water weight and muscle along with your fat. Muscle and water loss can be dangerous, since it puts you at risk for dehydration, nutrient deficiencies, poorer fitness and mental performance, and puts you at risk for regaining the weight. To combat this, incorporate strength training into your workout routine. Cardio can promote fat burning, but you need resistance training to maintain your muscle mass. Also, the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolic rate. Basic strength training exercises, such as squats, lunges, and push-ups, can add muscle and improve your body fat composition.
Its Not For Everybody
You need to understand that intermittent fasting is not for everybody and it comes with health risks for some groups of people. For example, IF might not be for you if youre pregnant or are breastfeeding, have diabetes or have a history with an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia. Its best to consult your doctor before starting a new eating regimen.
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Does The 1: 8 Intermittent Fast Diet Actually Work
As far as the benefits of intermittent fasting go, one study published in Nutrition and Healthy Aging in June 2018 found that this fast helped people lose a “modest” amount of weight and also lowered their blood pressure. “It’s suspected that the reason it helps people lose weight is that eating within an eight-hour window simply limits the total amount of calories consumed in a day,” New York-based nutritionist Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN, told Health. “But ultimately, the only way to lose weight is to create a caloric deficit where you consume fewer calories than you expend.”
Are You Getting Enough Sleep
If you’ve cut out late-night snacking, that alone could help you go to bed earlier a very crucial component to any weight loss plan. Getting seven hours of sleep per night has been linked to better weight management, reduced risk of chronic disease, and improved metabolism.
The bottom line: Its simply not feasible for many of us to restrict food entirely for set periods of time in order to achieve better health. In addition to being difficult socially , self-imposed rules are simply not as joyful as having the right information and making choices that empower you versus hold you back. It’s best to find ways to make eating nutritious food work for you in the context of your day-to-day life. If you are considering intermittent fasting, Id encourage you to try it by starting small and keeping it as simple as possible: Close your kitchen after dinner, aim to get more sleep, and sit down for a full breakfast at your usual time tomorrow.
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Dos & Donts Of The 8 Hour Diet
| Dos | |
|---|---|
| Do not sit in one place for long. | |
| Eat fattening foods in limited amounts. | Dont eat carb-loaded foods in excess. |
| Include lots of veggies and fruits in your diet. | Dont snack for at least an hour after a meal. |
| Drink enough water. | Limit alcohol consumption. |
The 8-hour diet, also known as 16/8 intermittent fasting, is one of the fastest ways to lose weight without compromising your favorite delicacies. The 16-hour fasting helps prevent intracellular damage, lower blood pressure, and reduce cholesterol levels besides letting the body use up fat and glycogen reserves, leading to weight loss. This 16-hour window after eight-hour feasting also helps give the body enough time to process food. Moreover, intermittent fasting is completely safe and helps reduce the risk of diabetes and other metabolic diseases. However, it may have mild side effects like nausea, fatigue, and weakness in some individuals. Therefore, it is better to follow this diet under the supervision of a doctor or dietitian.
Youre Not Making Good Food Choices
Speaking of food choices, have you been making good ones lately? Sometimes, it can be hard to tell. Well say off the bat: If youre indulging in fast food or junk food, the answer is no. Intermittent fasting isnt an excuse to eat whatever you want you still have to nourish your body with good food to enjoy peak health. But what about things like yogurt, dried fruit, and health bars? You might be surprised to learn that these and others are actually fake health foods masquerading as good ones. At the end of the day, you have to read food labels to truly understand what youre putting into your body
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What Are The Proposed Health Benefits Of Fasting Diets
As mentioned, the research on intermittent fasting is limited, but mice studies and small studies in humans suggest the approach may in fact be effective.
For example, in one of Varadys studies, published in June 2018 in Nutrition and Healthy Aging, 23 human participants completed 12 weeks of eight-hour time-restricted eating, and researchers compared their weight loss results to a control group from a separate trial.
Varady and her team observed that the time-restricted group lowered their body weight by 3 percent more on average compared with the control group, and they significantly lowered their systolic blood pressure. But the sample size was small, and the dropout rate among the fasting group was high, at 26 percent, for even a short-term trial, though no one in this group reported dropping out due to issues with the diet, researchers wrote.
But what about alternate-day fasting? While Varady hasnt conducted studies directly comparing alternate-day fasting to time-restricted eating, another one of her studies, published in July 2017 in JAMA Internal Medicine, showed that alternate-day fasting was difficult to stick with and didnt result in better weight loss or heart benefits than a calorie-restricted diet. For the study, she and her team randomized 100 participants to follow one of the two diets or a control group, where their diets remained the same, for one year.
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I Started Exercising At The Beginning Of My Weight
My old apartment complex had a walking trail, so I would go outside and walk for 30 minutes before work. That first week, I walked three days, and the next week I walked five days.
I also stopped taking naps at lunch. Some days I would walk on my lunch break as well. I found myself enjoying the walks. My apartment complex also had a gym. Eventually, I started jogging for 30 minutes, and started going into the gym to do some strength training.
Now I exercise every day. I still love walks and jogs. When I go to the gym, I do mostly strength training. Some days I get on the elliptical or stair machine. I purchased resistance bands, kettlebells, dumbbells, a jump rope, a mini stepper, a yoga ball, and ankle weights when the pandemic first hit to continue exercising at home. I also like doing HIIT or hip-hop dance videos on Youtube. I track my activity daily with my Apple Watch. I try to close my rings every day and beat my monthly challenge.
Changing my mindset about having a healthier lifestyle has helped my weight-loss journey. I told myself I was going to lose weight, and I didbut I didnt think of the eating changes I made as a diet. Diets are temporarylifestyle changes last forever.
Speak it into existence. If you have a negative mindset towards changing your lifestyle, youre not going to want to do it and you probably wont make the changes. I’ve realized that self-discipline is the highest form of love I can give myself. Find what works best for you.
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Weight Loss And Difference In Body Composition
The 16:8 diet has become a favored weight loss program among dieters, and for a good reason.
There is evidence that intermittent fasting may help you lose weight and boost your metabolism .
It does this in two ways:
First, fasting makes you eat fewer meals, resulting in decreased calorie intake and food consumption.
In general, individuals practicing the 16:8 fast skip breakfast and stop eating at a set time.
Therefore, unless you overcompensate by eating much more during meals, you end up consuming fewer calories during the limited 8-hour timeframe.
Additionally, your body also adjusts hormone levels during a fast to make fat stores more accessible .
Basically, when your body is cut off from its preferred sources of energy, namely glucose and glycogen reserves, it will adapt to start burning fat as its primary source of fuel.
This means that you are not only losing pounds, but a portion of that weight loss will come from body fat storage.
How Much Weight Can You Expect To Lose on an Intermittent Fast?
According to a 2014 review article, intermittent fasting was found to reduce body weight by 3 to 8% over 3 to 24 weeks.
This study also determined that participants had a 4 to 7% reduction in waist circumference, meaning that they lost belly fat .
A different review study found that intermittent fasting may cause a weight loss of 11 to 16% after 12 weeks.
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Youre Binge Eating Because You Think You Can
Were just going to come out and say it: If you find that youre not losing weight while intermittent fasting 16/8, it could be because youre simply eating too much even if youre doing it during your eating window. Dont feel bad, because this is a mistake that lots of new dieters make. Remember, if you burn 2,000 calories a day but manage to eat 4,000 during your eating window, youre not going to lose weight its really as simple as that.
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