Can You Keep It Up
Calorie-controlled diets all have a similar impact on weight loss, but the diet that is really successful is one that people can sustain in the long-term.
One of the difficulties with sticking to a diet is craving forbidden foods, and with IF that is perhaps less of a problem.
“When I am on a no-carbohydrate or low carbohydrate diet all I see is pasta and rice everywhere, but now I don’t crave certain food groups because nothing is restricted,” says Shanae.
She has been following the 16:8 diet for four months now and finds it easier to keep up than the 5:2 diet, during which she gets very hungry.
“The hardest thing is to not reach for the breakfast muffin,” says Shanae.
Imahn Robertson, 26, has been following an IF diet for over four years.
“When I first started I did struggle, the body naturally craves foods at all times. But after I got into a routine it was okay,” says Imahn.
“There is temptation, don’t get me wrong. If I am tempted I will occasionally break my fast and adjust my fasting period the next day.”
However, Imahn admits that her diet has affected her social life.
“I only eat between 12 and 8pm – if someone schedules a dinner for nine o’clock, I will go to the dinner but just drink water.
“What makes it difficult is that people are very judgemental,” she says. “I find it easier to do intermittent fasting when I am single, not when I am in a relationship.”
/8you’re Not Taking It Slow
When people switch to a particular diet, one common mistake they make is jumping right to it and not taking it slow and steady.
With intermittent fasting, people do the same. Given that average human beings are used to eating after every few hours, leaping forward to a 24 hour fasting may not be the best solution. Rather one must start with a small fasting window and then gradually increase the frame.
If you go all in on your first try, you may not remain consistent and may lose track over time.
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.
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Can The 1: 8 Diet Help You Lose Weight
It might. When 23 obese adults restricted their eating from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for 12 weeks, they ate around 350 fewer calories per day compared to the control group, according to a recent Nutrition and Healthy Aging study. They also lost a few pounds and saw a drop in their systolic blood pressure . However, that study was very small, and more research will be needed to confirm the results.
Going for longish periods without eating seems to send the body into fat-burning mode and limit blood sugar spikes. Those two factors combined mean that youre reducing the blood sugar highs and lows that make you hungrier, Peterson says. Time-restricted eating also keeps your appetite in check by lowering the hunger hormone ghrelin, she adds.
Theres another reason why 16:8 dieters might end up eating less. I think participants found it difficult to eat all of their regular meals and snacks within the 8-hour timeframe, says Kristina Varady, PhD, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago and a co-author of the Nutrition and Healthy Aging study. If trying to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. seems like a squeeze, youll likely end up cutting out a meal or shrinking your portions.
Why Is Intermittent Fasting So Popular
Intermittent fasting is becoming an increasingly popular way to lose weight. What’s its appeal and is it safe to fast?
Whether it’s eating in a 5:2 or 16:8 pattern, losing weight is as much about when you eat as about what you eat these days.
Recently, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey hit the headlines when he claimed to eat just one meal a day. Social media was abuzz, with many critics calling it an extreme diet. But perhaps he was just following the latest trend.
According to a survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation intermittent fasting was last year’s most popular diet.
Intermittent fasting can take many different forms but it always involves periods of time where you are taking in very little food, at regular intervals.
Recommended Reading: How To Successfully Lose Weight With Intermittent Fasting
Diet: Does Intermittent Fasting Really Work And Should You Try It
Intermittent fasting, especially the 16:8 diet, is extremely popular. Does it work?
ByMatt Evans2020-12-18T09:10:22Z
Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular dietary methods around. Hugh Jackman swore by it when getting into scissor-clawed shape as Wolverine for the X-Men movies, but it’s not just Hollywood stars that enjoy the benefits of intermittent fasting, as the 16:8 diet has become extremely popular in recent years.
But what is intermittent fasting, and how does it work?
Intermittent fasting is the process of abstaining from food for a certain amount of time every day, cramming your calories into a smaller window of time. The 16:8 diet in particular suggests we fast for 16 hours every day, eating only within an 8-hour window. This ensures we are sated during the eight hours in which we are permitted to eat, but the shorter time window usually means we consume less calories each day.
The science is certainly in favour of intermittent fasting: one study, published by researchers from the University of Illinois, Chicago, looks at the effects of intermittent fasting on weight loss and blood pressure. The 23 volunteers followed the 16:8 diet for 12 weeks, eating between the hours of 10am and 6pm, abstaining from food for the rest of the day.
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What A Nutritionist Taught Them
Before they began, they consulted New York City-based registered dietitian Keri Glassman, who had a few important notes to share:
Id say the biggest benefit to it, is that it can control your eating in general. When you reduce the amount of hours that youre eating, you often eat less,” explained Glassman.
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What Can I Eat While Intermittent Fasting
During the times when youre not eating, water and zero-calorie beverages such as black coffee and tea are permitted.
And during your eating periods, eating normally does not mean going crazy. Youre not likely to lose weight or get healthier if you pack your feeding times with high-calorie junk food, super-sized fried items and treats.
But what Williams likes about intermittent fasting is that it allows for a range of different foods to be eaten and enjoyed. We want people to be mindful and take pleasure in eating good, nutritious food, she says. She adds that eating with others and sharing the mealtime experience adds satisfaction and supports good health.
Williams, like most nutrition experts, regards the Mediterranean diet as a good blueprint of what to eat, whether youre trying intermittent fasting or not. You can hardly go wrong when you pick complex, unrefined carbohydrates such as whole grains, leafy greens, healthy fats and lean protein.
What Is 1: 8
As a note, the scientific community tends to restrict the term intermittent fasting to diets that drastically restrict calories for 2-4 days of the week . For daily fasting of set durations, the term time-restricted eating is preferred. For the sake of this page, the terms will be used interchangeably.
Although 16:8 is a fairly mild protocol when it comes to time-restricted eating/intermittent fasting, it could have differing effects based on age and sex, so working with a dietitian and/or physician to see how it could affect you may be prudent.
Time-restricted eating is often described as the ratio of hours spent abstaining from food and the hours where eating is permitted.
16:8 is a particular time-restricted eating protocol in which individuals abstain from any caloric intake for 16 hours, and then eat freely for 8 hours. Other popular schedules include 18:6, 20:4, and one-meal-a-day .
Previously, these types of eating schedules fell under the category of intermittent fasting, but now that term generally refers to eating schedules that involve abstaining from or drastically lowering energy intake for more than 24 hours. Time-restricted eating can involve a caloric deficit to lose weight, but doesnt have to.
16:8 is a type of time-restricted eating where you abstain from eating for sixteen hours, and then eat freely for the remaining eight. It can be combined with a caloric deficit for weight loss, but doesnt have to be.
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Diet Plan: What Can You Eat And What Are The Benefits
The 16:8 diet has been one of the most popular diet plans weve seen in years and with good reason.
The 16:8 plan also called the 8-hour diet is an easier and more consistent way of fasting that avoids heavily calorie restricted days found in other popular intermittent fasting plans like the 5:2 diet or Fast 800 calorie diet.
Studies have shown that intermittent fasting can have benefits on both your body and mental health, as well as being one of the diets that work fast for weight loss.
A famous fan of the 16:8 intermittent fasting plan is Hollywood icon Jennifer Aniston. In an interview with the Radio Times, Jennifer revealed that shes a big fan of intermittent fasting in general but specifically this plan. I do intermittent fasting, so no food in the morning. She said, I noticed a big difference in going without solid food for 16 hours.
Variations On The Theme
There are also many variations on the theme. There is no biological reason to not eat for exactly 16 hours. In fact, some people are talking about 18-6, 19-5 and 20-4 intermittent fasting now. A 4 hour window is very restricted, but you can still manage a large meal at 12pm, a snack at 2pm and then another large meal at 4pm, and get enough energy to fuel muscle growth. However, it will become harder to manage. Some people reduce the eating window to just 4 hours, and do a 20 hour fast, while others make a compromise and reduce to 6 hours, doing a 18 6 diet fast.
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Its Normal To Be Really Hungry At First
I decided to do my daily fast from about 8 p.m. until noon the next day. This meant all of my eating for the day occurred between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. At first, I woke up starving.
I discovered that eating a high-protein snack around 8 p.m., like egg whites or cheese, prevented the hunger pangs that came the following morning, making it significantly easier to fast until noon.
The Backstory On Intermittent Fasting
IF as a weight loss approach has been around in various forms for ages, but was highly popularized in 2012 by BBC broadcast journalist Dr. Michael Mosleys TV documentary Eat Fast, Live Longer and book The Fast Diet, followed by journalist Kate Harrisons book The 5:2 Diet based on her own experience, and subsequently by Dr. Jason Fungs 2016 bestseller The Obesity Code. IF generated a steady positive buzz as anecdotes of its effectiveness proliferated.
As a lifestyle-leaning research doctor, I needed to understand the science. The Obesity Code seemed the most evidence-based summary resource, and I loved it. Fung successfully combines plenty of research, his clinical experience, and sensible nutrition advice, and also addresses the socioeconomic forces conspiring to make us fat. He is very clear that we should eat more fruits and veggies, fiber, healthy protein, and fats, and avoid sugar, refined grains, processed foods, and for Gods sake, stop snacking. Check, check, check, I agree. The only part that was still questionable in my mind was the intermittent fasting part.
Also Check: How Does Intermittent Fasting Affect Your Body
Can Reduce Oxidative Stress And Inflammation In The Body
Oxidative stress is one of the steps toward aging and many chronic diseases .
It involves unstable molecules called free radicals. Free radicals react with other important molecules, such as protein and DNA, and damage them .
Several studies show that intermittent fasting may enhance the bodys resistance to oxidative stress 30319-3″ rel=”nofollow”> 18).
Additionally, studies show that intermittent fasting can help fight inflammation, another key driver of many common diseases 30850-5″ rel=”nofollow”> 19).
SUMMARY
Studies show that intermittent fasting can reduce oxidative damage and inflammation in the body. This should have benefits against aging and development of numerous diseases.
Hour Fast Benefit #: Better Gut Health
If we had to blame a single factor for the modern-days epidemic of chronic disease, wed single out inflammation.
The scientific literature is clear that chronic inflammation has devastating effects on ones health. Inflammation essentially causes poorer expression of your genes. If your mother has arthritis, for example, chronic inflammation may make you more susceptible to developing the same thing.
Thankfully fasting may help. It improves gut health enough to reduce many inflammatory markers. Its ability to promote ketosis means it can also help your body generate new, inflammation-fighting mitochondria. This process is called mitophagy.
In addition to reducing inflammation , increased mitophagy has been correlated with an increased lifespan.
Rodent studies show that IF extends lifespan by 36-8%. Its possible that a similar effect is seen in humans, though more research is needed before we can know for sure.
Fasting also reduces inflammation by relieving your digestive tract from the burden of non-stop digestion. It uses this time off to regenerate the gut lining, reducing your risk of leaky gut syndrome and preventing harmful endotoxins from escaping the digestive tract.
Recommended Reading: Can I Lose Weight By Intermittent Fasting
Concerns About 16/8 Fasting
Intermittent fasting, especially the 16/8 approach, is completely safe and beneficial. Contrary to common belief, moderate calorie restriction is a healthy practice that improves your metabolic health.
However, if youre using it to get into ketosis, it might not be enough to get you there. If your fasting goal is to enter ketosis, you also need to follow a keto diet.
May Help Manage Inflammation
Our bodies naturally undergo inflammation as a part of the process it uses to fight off harmful pathogens or recover from injuries by triggering our immune system.
However, when inflammation persists for too long it can start causing us harm. Chronic inflammation happens when the immune system continues to be triggered by what it thinks is a threat. Prolonged inflammation plays a role in the development of chronic health conditions such as atherosclerosis, heart disease, osteoporosis, and even diabetes .
Intermittent fasting has been shown to reduce concentrations of pro-inflammatory markers such as homocysteine, interleukin 6, and C-reactive protein which play a role in the development of these chronic diseases .
Eating a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods or following a strict anti-inflammatory diet or auto-immune protocol may also help reduce inflammation in the body.
Although fasting may provide some health benefits, looking at the quality of our diet and lifestyle can help us create healthy habits to support our health.
Also Check: What Is Intermittent Fasting To Lose Weight
Has Benefits For Your Brain
Whats good for the body is often good for the brain as well.
Intermittent fasting improves various metabolic features known to be important for brain health.
Intermittent fasting helps reduce:
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Animal studies have also shown that intermittent fasting protects against brain damage due to strokes 00503-2″ rel=”nofollow”> 29, 32, 35).
SUMMARY
Intermittent fasting may have important benefits for brain health. It may increase growth of new neurons and protect the brain from damage.
