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Will Fasting Help Lose Weight

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What I Ate And How I Exercised While Doing Intermittent Fasting

VERIFY: Does intermittent fasting help you lose weight?

Limiting my eating to an eight-hour period of the day seemed reasonable. If I exercised in the morning, my first meal would be an early but large lunch at around 11:30 a.m. By 3 p.m., if I was hungry, I could have a snack. At 7 p.m., I would eat a reasonable-size dinner. No snacking after that.

My first thought was that there was no way I would be able to skip breakfast and still work out. My mind was telling me that I would be hungry. The first few days that I tried it, as I would warm up for my workout, I would have visions of chicken with broccoli from a nearby Chinese restaurant in my head. But once I got into my workout, a funny thing would happen. I would completely forget about being hungry. My body would stabilize and water would be enough to keep me moving.

But by the time I got home from the gym, I was starving. Early on, I decided that was going to be my biggest meal of the day. Sometimes it was a lean shoulder steak with a sweet potato. Other times, I would eat an entire chicken along with two cups of broccoli, and the sweetest bottle of Gatorade I ever had. Or occasionally, I would make a taco bowl out of seasoned ground turkey, cheddar cheese, and tomatoes, or a stir-fry with beef and a variety of peppers. It turned out that my calorie intake and lunch would be anywhere from 800 to 1,000 calories, though this part was not an exact science.

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Listen To The Experts

According to the experts at Texas Medical Center, the benefits of intermittent fasting go far beyond simple weight loss. When you deprive your body of calories for 12 to 18 hours, scientists speculate that this causes your neural pathways and your DNA to strengthen and rebuild. Admittedly, TMC says, this has been proven in mice but is still theoretical in humans. But, the experts at TMC continue, intermittent fasting does have some proven benefits for people. They do not actually come from the act of fasting on its own, though, so do not think that you can just stop eating and reap all sorts of wonderful effects. That is not how it works.

Any benefits from fasting one day per week come from the fact that you are switching between starving your body and then feeding it again. The influx of calories and nutrients after a fast encourages your body to get the most out of those calories and nutrients that it possibly can.

Experts such as those at TMC believe that back in the caveman days, hunters who could eat well and then go for short periods without food were more likely to survive than those who could not survive short famines.

Intermittent Fasting Can Help Weight Loss

IF makes intuitive sense. The food we eat is broken down by enzymes in our gut and eventually ends up as molecules in our bloodstream. Carbohydrates, particularly sugars and refined grains , are quickly broken down into sugar, which our cells use for energy. If our cells dont use it all, we store it in our fat cells as, well, fat. But sugar can only enter our cells with insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas. Insulin brings sugar into the fat cells and keeps it there.

Between meals, as long as we dont snack, our insulin levels will go down and our fat cells can then release their stored sugar, to be used as energy. We lose weight if we let our insulin levels go down. The entire idea of IF is to allow the insulin levels to go down far enough and for long enough that we burn off our fat.

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Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting

One of the main benefits of this practice is, of course, the good it does for your digestive system. For the fasting window, your digestive system can enjoy a break and your body can burn fat more efficiently because it will have to use stored energy instead of the calories from the food you consume. After about 10 hours of fasting, your body starts using the fat deposits for energy, so this can help prevent visceral fat and aid weight loss in menopause. Another benefit of intermittent fasting is that it is much easier to follow compared to other hyped diets out there. You can be strict about your food intake for several days or at certain hours a day, but you do not have to watch how much you eat all the time. And since you are restricting calories anyway, you will be losing weight without pushing yourself.

What Should I Eat And Drink During A Fast

Does water fasting help lose weight fast?

During a fast, you can drink water and other calorie-free beverages, such as tea or black coffee. Many people also drink bone broth, which contains nutrients that support your body during a fast. Drinking liquids also help counteract fatigue and curb hunger.

If youre following an intermittent fasting pattern that involves restricting your calories on fast days, you should focus on low-calorie, high-protein and high-fiber foods that will help you stay full.

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Does Fasting Detoxify The Body

Here’s where the debate gets intense.

“There is no scientific evidence it will detox the body. The issue of fasting to cleanse the body has no biological basis because the body is real good at that by itself,” says Fernstrom. “The liver is a natural detox center the lungs, the colon, the kidneys, and the skin get rid of toxins.”

But Fuhrman, who has supervised hundreds of patients’ fasts for medicinal purposes, disagrees.

“We know that the body is unable to rid itself of toxins when we eat a diet low in nutrients,” and that applies to most Americans, even those who think they are healthy, he says.

“Americans eat 51% of their diet from processed foods and foods low in phytochemicals and antioxidants,” he says. “So you see a buildup of waste products in the cells — AGE, advanced glycation end products — that build up in cellular tissues and lead to atherosclerosis, aging, diabetes, nerve damage, and the deterioration of organs. This is basic science and physiology every doctor learns in medical school.”

Along with improving your overall diet, fasting is one solution to that buildup of AGE, according to advocates like Fuhrman.

“Fasting allows the body to most effectively remove these waste products,” he says. “The body is designed to fast we do it every night.”

“And the fat is where the body stores many of the toxins it absorbs from the environment,” Fuhrman says.

Continued

Make The Calories Count

Not all calories are the same. Although these fasting methods do not set restrictions on how many calories a person should consume when fasting, it is essential to consider the nutritional value of the food.

In general, a person should aim to consume nutrient-dense food, or food with a high number of nutrients per calorie. Though a person may not have to abandon junk food entirely, they should still practice moderation and focus on more healthful options to gain the most benefits.

Fasting has several effects on a persons body. These effects include:

  • Reducing levels of insulin, which makes it easier for the body to use stored fat.
  • Lowering blood sugars, blood pressure, and inflammation levels.
  • Changing the expression of certain genes, which helps the body protect itself from disease as well as promoting longevity.
  • Dramatically increases human growth hormone, or HGH, which helps the body utilize body fat and grow muscle.
  • The body activates a healing process doctors call autophagy, which essentially means that the body digests or recycles old or damaged cell components.

Fasting dates back to ancient humans who often went hours or days between meals as obtaining food was difficult. The human body adapted to this style of eating, allowing extended periods to pass between food intake times.

Research also shows fasting to be beneficial for the management of metabolic syndrome and diabetes, extending lifespan,

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What About Severe Calorie Restriction

What if you eat only 500 or 600 calories a day? Although drastically cutting calories can cause rapid weight loss, consuming far less than your body needs can be counterproductive.

Severe calorie restriction can make you feel extremely hungry, deprived, and fatigued. Whats more, it often leads to loss of muscle, or lean mass.2

Generally speaking, the more lean mass you have, the more calories your body burns at rest.3 Loss of muscle during very-low-calorie dieting can slow down metabolism, making future regain much more likely.4

So fast weight loss via severe calorie restriction may not be a good idea for many people.

The Purpose Of Intermittent Fasting:

Can Intermittent Fasting Help You Lose Weight Without Exercise?

First, lets think about the purpose of intermittent fasting? For me, the purpose of fasting is to move from being a sugar burner to a fat burner. The goal is to gain metabolic flexibilityand in turn create metabolically fitness. Surprisingly , only 12% of people are actually metabolically fit. This means that most people are predominantly fat burners, burning carbs and sugar for fuel and energy, instead of fat. The opposite of metabolic fitness is metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by at least three of the five following medical conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein. Metabolic syndrome is associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

It is true that fasting is not a cure all. However, intermittent fasting is an effective tool that can be used to undo metabolic syndrome and inflammation, in other words addressing the underlying reasons why people are obese in the first place. In reviewing this study, here are some things I would have considered:

  • What was the health of participants gut microbiomes?The gut microbiome has a massive impact on how you manage blood sugar, and the gut microbiome directly affects metabolism. Similarly, stress has an impact on blood sugar as well as peoples ability to fast successfully.
  • Overall, here was my take-aways from this study:

    RESOURCES

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    My Experience With Intermittent Fasting

    I started IF in August 2018. At the time I weighed around 181, which is acceptable for a 6-foot male. But I’d been 175 for years, and suddenly it seemed I couldn’t control my eating. I didn’t like where my belly was headed.

    After about two months, during which my fasting windows varied , I’d lost 10 pounds. Needless to say, I was pleased with that result and became pretty evangelical about IF. My excitement stemmed from not only the weight loss, but also the total lack of hardship. This didn’t feel like a diet it felt like a smart way to live.

    In fact, I discovered that I really liked this WOE. When I was feeling a little hungry in the late morning? Just wait a bit longer, I told myself, your window opens soon. Then I’d busy myself with something and forget about it. And if I wanted a snack after 7 p.m.? Too bad, window’s closed for the day — but you can have it tomorrow.

    I stuck with it for about 10 months, though I’ll admit I got frustrated at times. For one thing, I’d been hoping to lose another 5-10 pounds, and assuming they’d come off as easily as the first 10, but the scale held firm at 171.

    Result: After four months , the scale shows 171. In the interim, I’ve eaten an almost embarrassing amount of food while my window was open. I don’t have a sugar monkey on my back I have a sugar gorilla. Nevertheless: I’m thinner. And I’m going to see if I can hit 165. This lifestyle — not diet, mind you — is a piece of cake. Speaking of which, think I’ll go have one of those.

    Weight Loss Story: I Lost 21 Kilos Without Going To Gym And By Simply Following Intermittent Fasting

    Pintrestweight loss journeyName:Height:City:Highest weight recordedWeight lost: Duration it took me to lose weight:The turning point:My diet:My breakfast: My lunch:My dinner:Pre-workout meal:Post-workout meal: I indulge in:My workout: Low-calorie recipes I swear by: Fitness secrets I unveiled: How do I stay motivated?How do you ensure you dont lose focus?What shape do you see yourself 10 years down the line? What are the lifestyle changes you made?

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    Why I Chose To Try Time

    The definition of intermittent fasting is pretty basic. Its really just a period of eating, followed by a period of not eating, says Krista Varady, PhD, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois in Chicago. For over a decade, Dr. Varady has researched the effects of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is kind of an umbrella term, but there are three major types of intermittent fasting. Theres alternate-day fasting, which means that you would eat fewer than 500 calories every other day and eat however many calories you want on the remaining days of the week. Theres also whats called the 5:2 approach to intermittent fasting, which means you would eat fewer than 500 calories for two days per week and however many you want on the other days. And then theres whats called time-restricted eating, which means you can eat within a certain window of time each day, like between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., says Varady.

    Given that I was becoming more active through exercise, I wasnt sure that taking in only 500 calories a day would be the best idea for maintaining my energy levels. With that in mind, I decided to try time-restricted eating instead.

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    Other Tips To Lose Weight

    How Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Lose Weight â

    Lastly, I want to provide you with some helpful tips to lose weight. You need to make sure you are eating properly to lose weight. Even though intermittent fasting is very good at burning fat and increasing metabolism, you still need to be in a caloric restriction. Meaning, you cannot eat whatever you want in large quantities and expect to lose weight, even if you are fasting. You need to maintain a caloric restriction during your feeding window. So it is important to eat healthy foods and monitor your calories after breaking your fast. To lose weight, you want to be in about a 250-500 calorie deficit. Which equates to losing about .5lb-1lb a week.

    Before monitoring your calories, it is best to figure out your basal metabolic rate or BMR. I recommend using a free BMR calculator to find out the amount of calories your body burns in a day. The calculator allows you to enter your height, weight, age, and activity level. This will get a pretty accurate BMR result, and that number is the amount of calories you burn in a day. To lose weight, subtract about 250-500 off that number. This will allow you to lose about .5lb-1lb a week. If you follow this calorie limit along with intermittent fasting, you will see amazing weight loss results. It is easy and effective. Just monitor your calorie limit throughout the day, and stay consistent.

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    Try Sticking To The Following Foods On The 1: 8 Diet:

    • Whole grains: Ones like rice, oats, barley, wholegrain pasta and quinoa will keep you fuller for longer.
    • Protein: Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds will keep you full.
    • Fruit: Apples, bananas, berries, oranges and pears will offer good vitamin sustenance.
    • Vegetables: Broccoli and leafy greens are especially good for making sure youre eating enough fibre.
    • Healthy fats: Olive oil, coconut oil, avocados.

    Phase : Maintain Your Progress

    Say youve used a combination of the strategies above and reached your weight-loss goal. Now what?

    Heres the basic idea:

    Do enough fasting to balance things out so that you maintain your ideal weight.

    In other words, you may not need to do as much fasting as you did to lose all the weight. But youll probably need to do some fasting to make up for the feasting youll do on special occasions .

    So keep an eye on things, and find a pattern that works for you to maintain a healthy weight.

    This could mean using TRE on a regular basis, or doing longer fasts less often. Or a combination of both.

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    Why Does Fasting Stop Working

    If you try fasting, youll most likely lose a lot of weight really quickly.

    I lost ten pounds the first month I tried fasting, so believe me, it really does work!

    The thing is, though, the way fasting works is by helping you naturally and automatically consume fewer calories than you burn over time.

    What To Eat With Fasting

    How to Lose Weight with Intermittent Fasting (3 Simple Tricks)

    Ive found most people who have trouble with their weight do better eating a lower amount of carbs. Im not saying you have to cut them out completely but you should focus on lowering them to boost weight loss. People who are naturally athletic and have more trouble putting on weight do better with lower fats and higher carbs and protein.

    You should calculate your BMR to give you a ballpark picture of how many calories your body burns in a day. Then you should keep your calories under that number. You dont have to count your calories for the rest of your life but you should do so for at least for a little while so you can figure out what you should be eating in a day.

    Focus on eating real whole foods. Higher protein diets have also been found to be beneficial for weight loss. Avoid starchy, sugary, and carb-rich foods especially those from refined grains and flour. Lastly, make sure youre avoiding bad vegetable oils that could also promote weight gain.

    Should you exercise during fasting?

    When it comes to exercise youll drop more poundage by working out along with your fasting . I prefer to do cardio in the mornings when Im fasting for an extra fat burn . Then doing a strength training workout later in the day can help to tone up and burn stubborn fat from your body.

    Can you lose a pound a day fasting?
    Will you lose weight if you fast for 24 hours?
    The Last Word

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