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.
How Does The 1: 8 Diet Work
The 16:8 diet works on an hourly basis. So each day you can eat within an 8 hour time frame and fast for the remaining 16 hours. The best part? You dont have to restrict your calories when eating during the 8 hour window. As long as you eat healthily in your 8 hour time frame, youll see the weight drop off.
Experts say that the 16.8 diet restricted schedule gives our bodies the chance to process the nutrients stored in foods and burns away calories. Plus, you wont go hungry like you do on those two fasting days on the 5:2 either.
As Tom Jenane, nutrition and fitness expert explains, The 16:8 diet is a brilliant form of intermittent fasting that has proven results in a number of cases.
Jennifer Aniston is a famous fan of intermittent fasting.
As well as Jennifer Aniston, other Hollywood names who have seen success after following the 16:8 diet include Hugh Jackman, who reportedly used the diet to get in shape for his Wolverine films and actress Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Q What Is The Best Fasting Method For Weight Loss
A. We talk about intermittent fasting like its one thing, but its actually an umbrella term that refers to several different eating patterns that restrict eating in some way. The way that each style restricts calories differs. In some styles of fasting, you avoid all food for a day, others have you shrink the amount of time in which you can eat your meals into a small window, and there are plans that have you eat every dayjust small quantities some days and regularly other days. These plans are sometimes called fasting-mimicking diets.
Although its reached peak popularity in the past few years, fasting has actually been around a long time. I believe fasting comes from religion, and you may already know about some religious traditions involving fasting such as Ramadan. In the past few years, Ive seen a lot of talk on blogs about all the purported health benefits of fasting, from aiding weight loss to helping you live longer. But even though there is research done on fasting, its important to remember that its mostly preliminary, and blogs dont always portray the clinical trials correctly. A lot of the studies are done on animals. The human studies are small, mostly 20-30 people, and rely on self-reported data from participantswhich is known to be at least slightly inaccurate.
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What Are The Possible Side Effects
There can be a number of possible side effects of intermittent fasting.40 Heres what to do if you encounter them:
- Hunger is the most common side effect of intermittent fasting. This may be less of an issue if youre already on a keto or low-carb, higher-fat diet.41Learn more
- Constipation is common. Less going in means less going out. However, keep in mind this is a normal response to eating less. It is not a concern and shouldnt require treatment unless you experience significant bloating or abdominal discomfort. Standard laxatives or magnesium supplements can be used, if needed.
- Headaches are common and tend to disappear after the first few times on fasts.42 Taking some extra salt often helps mitigate such headaches.43
- Mineral water may help if your stomach tends to gurgle.
- Other possible side effects include dizziness, heartburn and muscle cramps. Learn more
A more serious side effect is the refeeding syndrome. Fortunately, this is rare and generally only happens with extended fasts when one is undernourished.44
Since most of these side effects are manageable, they do not mean you have to stop your fast. However, if you truly feel unwell, are excessively dizzy, profoundly weak or have other severe symptoms, then you should break your fast.
Just remember to go slowly when you break it and prioritize fluids and salt . And of course, if the symptoms persist, see your doctor immediately.
Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
When you dont eat for a while, a lot of changes take place in your body. The studies have shown that intermittent fasting has a lot of advantages. It is not just about losing weight.
Here you can find some other benefits.
- Intermittent fasting reduces insulin resistance. Insulin blood level drops significantly by 3-6%.
- Some diseases can be prevented with the help of intermittent fasting such as type 2 diabetes, cancers, heart conditions, neurodegenerative diseases and much more. This happens because of reducing LDL cholesterol, blood sugar, blood triglycerides and inflammatory markers.
- By increasing the brain hormone BDNF, intermittent fasting improves brain health. It also boosts your thinking and memory.
- Reduction of inflammation is one of the key benefits. It enhances the bodys resistance to stresses
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But Is It Really Healthy To Fast For 16 Hours
For starters, this diet might be hard to maintain. Say goodbye to dinner parties and late-night dates. And god forbid a friend is late to that 5 p.m. dinner you scheduled.
It may be sustainable if you stick to the strict regimen, Warren says. However, this is difficult to maintain in real-life scenarios like social functions.
Halle Berry uses intermittent fasting as part of her diet routine. Heres how:
Beyond the downer of not being able to go out for a late-night fancy dinner, in rare cases the 16:8 diet could potentially lead to disordered eating, too, notes Hunnes. For example, if youre someone who doesnt do well with long periods of fasting, you might follow a 16-hour fast with a binge or even start to prolong fasting periods longer than you should. Both would be signs that the diets not working for you and that it could progress to something more serious like an eating disorder, she says.
If you eat too late, you could also potentially interfere with the quality of your sleepso its best to eat earlier in the day, suggests Hunnes.
That said, two recent studies in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolismshow obese adults can stick to the 16:8 diet without developing or exacerbating body image issues, disordered eating patterns, or sleeping problems.
The Beginners Guide To Intermittent Fasting
- Mia Davis
Intermittent fasting has become one of the worlds most well-known and trendy diets. People go on intermittent fasting to improve health, manage weight, prevent or control some diseases and feel better.
How should I start? Is intermittent fasting safe? Should I avoid breakfast? What is the best method of intermittent fasting?
If you are a beginner, read this ultimate article about intermittent fasting and you will find the answers to these questions and not only.
Recommended Reading: How Long Before You Lose Weight On Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting Helps To Reduce Inflammation
Inflammation is the body’s response to outside threats such as toxic chemicals and infections.
This is the body’s way of protecting the cells and tissues.
Too much inflammation in the body is a different story though.
Too much inflammation is linked to lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, gut problems such as ulcerative colitis, and gouty arthritis.
Symptoms of inflammation include joint pain and stiffness, redness, fatigue, headaches, and muscle stiffness.
Intermittent fasting can help to reduce inflammation throughout the body.Intermittent fasting benefits your body and health in many ways.
An intermittent fasting cycle is flexible, so you can adjust it to suit your lifestyle.
Intermittent Fasting Decreases Metabolism Less Than Continuous Calorie Restriction
When you lose weight, your metabolic rate goes down. Part of this is because losing weight causes muscle loss, and muscle tissue burns calories around the clock.
However, the decrease in metabolic rate seen with weight loss cant always be explained by the loss of muscle mass alone .
Severe calorie restriction over a long period can cause your metabolic rate to drop, as your body enters so-called starvation mode. The scientific term for this is adaptive thermogenesis.
Your body does this to conserve energy as a natural defense against starvation .
This has been demonstrated dramatically in a study of people who lost large amounts of weight while participating in The Biggest Loser, a reality show on TV.
Participants followed a calorie-restricted diet and intense exercise regimen to lose large amounts of weight .
The study found that 6 years later, most of them had regained nearly all of the weight they had lost. However, their metabolic rates had not gone back up and remained around 500 calories lower than you would expect for their body size.
Other studies investigating the effects of calorie restriction on weight loss have found similar results. The drop in metabolism due to weight loss can amount to hundreds of calories per day (
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What Is The Ideal Time For Fasting
Well, this is going to depend on your lifestyle.
What hours do you work? What time do you wake up?
What time do you go to bed?
If you want to have success with intermittent fasting these are the questions you need to start asking yourself. Your answers will vary from the next person. The ideal time for fasting is really going to be determined by your schedule.
Here is an example: When I was following the 16:8 schedule I was waking up at 6 am, started working at 8 am and then my first meal was at Noon. When I got home around 6 pm, Id eat dinner and have a light snack at 7:30 by 8 pm I was done eating until Noon the next day.
I, of course, was also following a ketogenic lifestyle so my total carb intake was anywhere between 15 20 carbs per day . This allowed me to get the most out of intermittent fasting.
If you want to get started on Keto check out my FREE KETO EDITION: EAT THIS, NOT THAT. This is a great place to start and will show you all the foods that are Keto approved. As well as, foods you should avoid.
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Like I said before, its whatever makes the most sense for your lifestyle. Whatever time frame is easiest for you is what you should aim for and this will allow you to be consistent!
Tips And Tricks About Fasting
#1) Dont freak out! Stop wondering: can I fast 15 hours instead of 16? or what if I eat an apple during my fasted period, will that ruin everything? Relax. Your body is a complex piece of machinery and learns to adapt. Everything is not as cut and dry as you think.
If you want to eat breakfast one day but not another, thats okay. If you are going for optimal aesthetic or athletic performance, I can see the need to be more rigid in your discipline, but otherwisefreaking chill out and dont stress over minutiae!
Dont let perfect be the enemy of good when it comes to your intermittent fasting plan.
#2) Consider fasted walks in the morning. I found these to be very helpful in reducing body fat, and also gave my day a great start to clear my mind and prepare for the day.
Simply wake up and go for a mile walk. Maybe you could even start walking to Mordor?
#3) Listen to your body during your strength training workouts. If you get light headed, make sure you are consuming enough water.
If you notice a significant drop in performance, make sure you are eating enough calories during your feasting window.
And if you feel severely off, pause your workout. Give yourself permission to EASE into intermittent fasting and fasted workouts. This is especially true if you are an endurance athlete.
#4) Expect funny looks if you spend a lot of mornings with breakfast eaters.
#7) Track your results, listen to your body:
This is just one tool that can contribute to your success.
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Intermittent Fasting: Whats The Catch
All three of our experts agree: There are no real downsides to intermittent fasting. Its quite safe in terms of how it affects your health and biomarkers, and it doesnt lead to eating disorders, says Varady.
Fung concurs: We, as physicians, tell people to fast all the time. Prior to surgery, prior to colonoscopy, for ultrasounds, even for fasting blood work, people need to fast and nothing bad happens. Theres no more risk with extended fasting.
The biggest drawback is irritabilitythe first five fast days on alternate-day fasting and whole-day fasting are difficult for many people, Varady adds. subsides after the first week or so, though, after which people actually say they have a boost of energy on their fast day, she adds.
What if you sneak a few beers with the boys during a fast window? The only real risk of cheating on your time frames is the same as cheating on any dietyou wont lose weight as quickly as if you had stuck to it perfectly, Varady says.
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.
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Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting For Women Over 50
- Benefits of Intermittent Fasting for Women Over 50
Nutrition
- Prime Women
- Sun Jan 10
Intermittent fasting for women over 50 could help with weight loss and minimizing the chance of developing typically age-related illnesses. In fact, intermittent fasting can lower blood pressure, according to a new study done by Baylor College of Medicine. The study showed that fasting lowers blood pressure by reshaping the gut microbiota.
Of course, in addition to wanting to improve their health, losing weight is a major concern for many women over 50. A few things that make it tougher to lose weight after age 50 include lower metabolism, achy joints, reduced muscle mass, and even sleep issues. At the same time, losing fat, especially dangerous belly fat, can dramatically reduce your risk for such serious health issues as diabetes, heart attacks, and cancer.
Of course, as you age, the risk of developing many diseases increases. In some cases, intermittent fasting for women over 50 could serve as a virtual fountain of youth when it comes to weight loss and minimizing the chance of developing typically age-related illnesses.
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Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss
Possibly the most notable benefit of intermittent fasting for weight loss is this methods ability to boost your bodys fat burning processes.
When your body runs out of the sugars found within foods to use as fuel, it first breaks down the stored glycogen in your body for energy, and then goes on to breaking down your fat cells to use after that.
This is generally thought to ramp up between 16-24 hours of fasting, making methods that incorporate a 24 hour fasting period highly popular for weight loss.
Leptin levels are also known to decrease during fasting.
Leptin is the hormone responsible for feelings of satiety or fullness. And, since this hormone is stored in fat cells, in obese individuals too much leptin is found within the body. This results in what is known as leptin resistance, making it harder to recognize feelings of fullness.
So, lowered levels of this hormone can lead to less leptin resistance, which translates to fewer feelings of hunger and possibly more weight loss.
Another, more obvious, way that intermittent fasting aids in weight loss is through a reduction in caloric intake.
Done correctly, when incorporating either days within a week , or hours in a day where one refrains from eating, you naturally consume fewer calories, which results in weight loss.
During the hours allotted for eating when incorporating IF methods, you should plan to eat normally or sensibly.
The 16:8 Method
The 5:2 Diet
Eat, Stop, Eat
Alternate Day Fasting
12 Hour Fasting
