Simple Guide to Intermittent Fasting for a Healthy You

Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular fasting methods in the 20th century. It has been made popular by many gym trainers and fitness experts to lose weight at a much faster rate. 

Study shows that intermittent fasting helps to reduce harmful nutrients in our body and help to live longer. People use it to lose weight, improve their health, and simplify their unbalanced lifestyles. 

But what is intermittent fasting? 

Simple put intermittent fasting is an analytical method of mixing between cycles of fasting and eating. The simplest example that you can take is night time.

Take for example you ate your dinner at 8:00 p.m. and the next meal you are getting is direct your breakfast at 8:00 a.m. This means direct fasting off 12 hours. 

This long duration is known as intermittent fasting. The method doesn’t apply to what you should eat rather it focuses when you should it.

So right now should I pause eating for the next 12-16 hours? 

No, it is not like that. You have to plan it for the upcoming period. There are several other ways of performing intermittent fasting which involve splitting your daily routine into regular fasting and eating periods. 

Also keep in mind that you consume a balanced calorie intake that should help up you in losing weight. At present there are three popular intermittent fasting methods. These are:

1. The 16/8 method: The 16/8 method is the basic intermittent fasting step. Firstly, you will be skipping breakfast in the course. Then, you will have to restrict your mealtime to 8 hours. For example, you are your lunch at 1 noon and your dinner at 9:00 pm. This leaves you with 16 hours for fasting. 
2. Eat-Stop-Eat: You can take the Eat-Stop-Eat as one of those religious beliefs that many God worshippers follow. This involves 24-hour straight fasting and eating on the very next day.
3. The 5:2 Diet: The 5:2 diet is stretched over a week. This involves consuming 500 to 600 calories for 2 days and getting regular intake, as before, for the remaining 5 days. Note that these two days should be non-consecutive.

What’s good about intermittent fasting?

There are several aspects from which you benefit while on an IF diet, some of them are as follows:

Bring down your body weight

A 2018 study published in the journal Nutrition also revealed that intermittent fasting reduced body mass in the younger population. 

A 2014 study found that intermittent fasting or such an eating pattern can result in a 3–8% weight decrement over 3–24 weeks. This accounts for a 4-7% reduction in their waist circumference. 

Every major nutrient is considered

From the above explanation, you can see that we are suggesting you take every nutrient. Includes carbs proteins fats which are essential for your body. 

Your cellular level change

While fasting many changes occur at the cellular and the molecular level. For example intermittent fasting results in less production of insulin. And fewer insulin levels help our body to make the stored body fat accessible.

Also Read- Does A Healthy Diet Mean Cutting Off All The Carbs?

Adds to your life

Intermittent fasting is also known to add years to your life; it ensures hormonal growth, burn unwanted fat, and gain muscle. Also it could be essential to cut down any future life-threatening conditions.

Who should practice it?

If you have a health or eating disorder such as diabetes, blood pressure, or underweight, pregnant women, try to avoid intermittent fasting. 

Also, the method is seen to be more effective in men as compared to women. Adding to the men’s section, they are advised to lift weights and consume enough protein to prevent muscle loss. 

Also read- Try Keto Diet During Lockdown, With this Diet Plan

Like any other diet plan, intermittent fasting is one such great method to reduce weight efficiently. The above article is prescribed from experts and we do hope it would help you get to your target

Follow Flickonclick on Google News