Many experts have suggest Intermittent Fasting for weight loss. Indeed, this type of eating plan is quite effective based on scientific evidence.
With dozens of diet regimens such as Ketogenic, Paleo or Mediterranean diets, you will never get short of slimming plan that you can use on your weight loss program.
But is the conventional Intermittent Fasting for you? What does it offer and is it safe? Will it give you long-lasting results?
If you are a beginner and want to know more about this type of eating plan, then read on and learn more about Intermittent Fasting in this short but detailed article.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
In a short definition, Intermittent Fasting is a type of eating plan that involve cycles between brief periods of fasting, either no food or significant calorie reduction, and periods of unrestricted eating.
It is basically similar with conventional fasting promoted by numerous dietitians and health experts, where the logic is simply watching what you eat for only days not weeks. So you don’t have to cut back every day just to drop pounds.
Its basic goals are to reduce fat mass and weight, and to help improve other markers of health associated with common health conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Though the goal is simple, people practices different versions of Intermittent Fasting. Some people are encouraged to skip food for up to 24 to 36 hours. Others allows you to have some food but only get about one fourth of your normal calorie levels.
The Secret Behind Intermittent Fasting
According to WebMD’s Laurel Leicht, the possible secret to Intermittent Fasting’s health-boosting and weight loss benefits is that, fasting puts your cells under a mild stress.
Scientists believe that the process of our body’s response to this stress (on your low-calorie days), helps strengthen cells capacity to deal with stress and potentially ward off some diseases.
Most studies about this type of diet seems to suggest results, though most of them are not proven for long term. People who fast intermittently tends to lose weight and showed decreased some health markers such as inflammation.
How does Intermittent Fasting Work?
Intermittent Fasting works by following a period of fasting days followed by unrestricted eating.
The most common way is fasting on alternate days, for whole days set for a specific period.
“Alternate-Day Fasting” means that you do alternate days of no food restriction, with days that only consists of one meal which provides only 25% of your everyday calorie needs.
Some people follow a 1 to 2 days per week of complete fasting, with no food restriction on the remaining days of the week. This is the so called “the 5:2 diet“, meaning that you eat for five days a week, cycled with a 400 to 500 calorie diet for the two days of the week.
Other dieters follow a time-restricted fasting method. It works by following a meal plan each day with a planned time frame for fasting.
What are the Best Foods for this Type of Diet?
On non-fasting days, you can eat virtually anything you want, which is the reason why it is called intermittent in the first place.
However, you still have to consider the best foods for your health especially if your goal is to lose weight fast.
The most ideal is to stick to high fiber and nutritious foods and avoid sugary, fatty and processed foods such as ice creams.
On the flip side, you only eat very little food or none at all on fasting days. The idea is to limit your calorie intake to 400 or 500 calories each fasting day.
How about Exercise?
Experts don’t suggest any specific exercise for Intermittent Fasting program. How much workout highly depends on your needs.
But there’s a catch. On fasting days, you obviously don’t have enough energy to exercise. So you better workout during non-fasting days.
Some studies suggest that people doing cardiovascular workouts while on Intermittent Fasting were able to maintain muscle mass.
So this is quite an enticing fact if you want to lose weight through exercise and Intermittent Fasting.
Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Though there are people who don’t believe Intermittent Fasting is beneficial, there are numerous studies that suggests otherwise.
Reports suggests that this type of dieting promotes numerous benefits to the body and brain, and may help people to live longer.
Here are some of the reported health benefits of Intermittent Fasting.
Insulin Resistance
One big reason why Intermittent Fasting is good for you is that, it can help reduce insulin resistance.
According to experts, this type of diet helps lower blood sugar levels by almost 6% and fasting insulin levels by 25%.
This helps protect you from developing type 2 diabetes.
May Fight Off Cancers
According to animal studies (mice), Intermittent Fasting may help prevent cancer.
Experts from NCBI suggests, that cycles of starvation were as effective as chemotherapy agents in delaying progression of different tumors and even increased the effectiveness of drugs against cancer cells.
Though performed in animals, scientists say that it is also potentially beneficial for humans.
Cardiovascular Health
Though Intermittent Fasting doesn’t have specific food requirements, you are encouraged to eat healthy and avoid health-damaging foods.
With that in mind, Intermittent Fasting may very well promote good heart health as you eat more fiber and antioxidant-rich foods.
These foods can help lower your cholesterol, triglycerides, inflammatory markers and blood sugar levels. It also helps lower your blood pressure levels.
Elevates Brain Function
It is a known fact that this type of dieting helps raise brain hormone BDNF, and may help aid growth of new nerve cells which promotes better mental function.
Intermittent Fasting is even considered as the best diet regimen to people who have high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and many other brain-related disorders.
Prevents Inflammation
As mentioned above, Intermittent Fasting also have a key role in preventing inflammatory diseases.
According to NCBI, alternate day calorie restriction helps reduce the markers of inflammation in the body, which is one of the causes of chronic diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism and many others.
These facts show you that Intermittent Fasting do promote essential benefits to your health. But can it help you lose weight? Read on.
Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss
The most obvious reason why people try Intermittent Fasting is to lose weight. Eating fewer meals simply means reduction in calorie intake and does results to weight loss.
Aside from lowering insulin resistance and boosting growth hormone levels, fasting helps release a fat burning hormone called noradrenaline, more known as norepinephrine.
Intermittent Fasting changes this hormone levels to help trigger natural weight loss.
Aside from fat loss, this kind of diet showed that it can also cause less muscle loss compared to other restrictive dieting programs.
Though calorie restriction is an effective way of losing weight, you won’t be able to lose significant weight if you eat large amounts of foods during your eating periods.
Worst is that, you may not even lose any pounds at all if you don’t control your cravings.
What are the Possible Side Effects?
Of course, fasting is not for everyone and it can give you mild to serious side effects too!
The most obvious side effect of this diet is hunger and not all people know how to control their hunger.
Constipation is also a common complain among people who first tried Intermittent Fasting.
When you are not eating, you will feel dozens of aches and sometimes you experience dizziness, nausea and headache. Your brain can’t perform at its peak during your fasting period.
If your goal is to lose weight but you have existing health condition, you should talk to your doctor first before you try Intermittent Fasting.
Others reportedly suffered from muscle cramps and heartburn during or after they tried this diet program.
People with diabetes, blood sugar problems, underweight, has eating disorder issues, or if you are taking medications, Intermittent Fasting is not for you.
Women who wants to conceive or pregnant, or with a history of amenorrhea, are also not ideal to try this type of diet program.
Remember that if you are healthy and well-nourished, Intermittent Fasting may give you less worries about adverse side effects. But if you are not sure about this type of diet for your health, then better not to try it than sorry.
Bottom Line
If you feel that you want extra support before you try this diet program, then you can find a lot of tools in Amazon including diet meals suited specifically for Intermittent Fasting.
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Okay, now that you know more about Intermittent Fasting, you can now plan how you can start your weight loss plan.
Know what type of fast you want to try, or decide how long you want to fast. And if you start fast and experience nasty side effect, stop and rethink your program all over again.
With Intermittent Fasting, you are not completely restricted to eat your favorite foods for long periods of time, but only for a specific number of days that you planned yourself.
Of course, you need to watch your diet and see to it that you are getting the right nutrients and minerals from your diet while you fast on the coming days. This is important if you want ensure safe dieting and healthy weight loss.
Again, you need to consult your dietitian or better yet your doctor, before you try this type of diet plan.
If you are quite doubtful about Intermittent Fasting, then you can do any type of diet while taking a dependable dietary supplement – PhenGold.
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Bottom line, Intermittent Fasting is a simple and quite proven for weight loss, but like all other known diets a balance and well-planned eating plan coupled with exercise program, are still the best ways to achieve successful and safe weight loss.
References:
Intermittent Fasting
https://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/intermittent-fasting
Diet Review: Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss
by: Harvard School of Public Health
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/intermittent-fasting/
Intermittent Fasting vs Daily Calorie Restriction for Type 2 Diabetes Prevention: A Review of Human Findings
by: Adrienne R. Barnosky, Kristin K. Hoddy, Terry G. Unterman, and Krista A. Varady
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S193152441400200X
Fasting Cycles Retard Growth of Tumors and Sensitize a Range of Cancer Cell Types to Chemotherapy
by: Keec, Raffghello L, Brandhorst S, Safdie FM, Bianchi G, Martin-Montalvo A, Pistoria V, Wei M, Hwang S, Meriino A, Emionite L, De Cabo R, Longo VD.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22323820
Dietary Restriction Increases the Number of Newly Generated Neural Cells, and Induces BDNF Expression, in the Dentate Gyrus of Rats
by: Lee J, Duan W, Long JM, Ingram DK, and Mattson MP
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11220789
Alternate Day Calorie Restriction Improves Clinical Findings and Reduces Markers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Overweight Adults with Moderate Asthma
by: Johnson JB, Summer W, Cutler RG, Martin B, Hyun DH, Dixit VD, Pearson M, Nassar M, Telljohann R, Maudsley S, Carlson O, John S, Laub DR, and Mattson MP.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17291990/
Intermittent Versus Daily Calorie Restriction: Which Diet Regimen is More Effective for Weight Loss?
by: Vrady KA
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21410865
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