Intermittent Fasting is a Safe and Reliable Way to Lose Weight!
Intermittent fasting 101 is all the rage. Several scientific studies have concluded that fasting for short times, typically less than twenty-four hours, works with the human metabolism to burn more calories.
Intermittent fasting involves eating all your meals within a shorter than usual window, sometimes as little as four hours. During the rest of the day, you sleep, exercise, meditate, work, socialize, and drink lots of water.
Who should try intermittent fasting?
Healthy people who want to lose five to thirty pounds may experience the most benefits from intermittent fasting. It is not the ideal weight loss plan for people with obesity. For people who are severely overweight, calorie restriction and smaller meals is likely to work better.
People who have diabetes or hypoglycemia should consult their doctors before trying intermittent fasting. Your doctor may think it’s not right for you if you need to keep a steady flow of nutrients in your bloodstream to prevent sugar crashes or surfeits.
Intermittent fasting 101 may work better for people under forty than for older adults because younger people have faster metabolisms that can burn off substantial amounts of calories and fat in less than twenty-four hours.
Long-distance runners and other athletes should consult a doctor about intermittent fasting. Athletes can crash their systems with a nutrient shortage and may need to modify their fasting plan to prevent that.
That said, if calorie restriction, fat restriction, carbohydrate restriction, and other diets, like Keto, have failed you, intermittent fasting might work better with your metabolism to produce the results you are after.
How does it work?
There are different types of fasting. People who want to try intermittent fasting for weight loss need to decide how long they will fast per day and how they will pace out their meals.
On a typical day of intermittent fasting, you might get up at eight in the morning and eat breakfast at ten. Breakfast might be a half banana, a teaspoon of peanut butter, a slice of whole grain toast, and a cup of coffee with a tablespoon of half and half.
You might eat lunch around two in the afternoon. Lunch might be three ounces of boiled chicken, a green salad, and a baked potato. Or a tuna salad sandwich, an apple, and some carrot sticks.
Dinner, at 5:30, might be a hamburger, steamed vegetables, a few ounces of your favorite cheese, and some blueberries. You would want to time your dinner to be finished at the start of your fasting period.
One of the challenges of intermittent fasting is how not to go crazy when the hours of not eating are stretching before you. You will need to have a plan for taking your mind off food, especially in your most vulnerable hours. For most of us, those are the hours between dinner and bedtime.
One way to while away the late evening is to take night classes. Yoga classes, dance classes, or even prayer meetings get you out of the house and away from the temptation to snack and then snack some more. The key thing is to have something to do during your downtime so that you don’t dwell on the food you are not eating.
It will be important to get family members or roommates on board to support you. They need to be sensitive to your need not to junk out on cheetos in front of the television. Ask them not to snack in front of you, but to go to another room or to the kitchen to snack during your fasting periods.
The best way to do intermittent fasting is with a friend or a group of friends who share your weight loss goals. If none of your family members needs to lose weight, or if they don’t want to join you in getting healthier, consider finding a weight loss support group or forming one yourself. There might be other people at the gym who would like to join you in losing weight through fasting.
Fasting with one or more friends gives you the emotional support you need while having people that will hold you accountable for achieving your goals.
Which fasting period is right for you?
Depending on your age, weight, and rate of metabolism, as well as how much exercise you get, you may need to fast for a longer or shorter period of time. What follows is a list of different fasting periods and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Fasting 12 hours a day
This type of intermittent fasting is referred to as a 12/12 fasting schedule. Starting out, it may make sense to fast for only twelve hours a day to see how it works for you. According to fitness scientists, going without food for twelve hours burns stored fat which releases ketones into the bloodstream. This state of fasting is sometimes called “ketosis.”
Fasting for twelve hours a day allows dieters to eat a normal breakfast, lunch, and dinner around the same times they usually eat. Breakfast and dinner need to be eleven hours apart.
The only real difference is that you eat a relatively early dinner and then don’t snack at all after that meal. The twelve hour fast also means no raiding the refrigerator when you wake up at three in the morning.
If you opt for the twelve hour fasting regime, it’s important not to overeat at any meal or eat big snacks. Overeating defeats the purpose of fasting because you will still be taking in too many calories.
The twelve hour fast also works much better if you delete fried foods and alcoholic beverages from your diet. Doing so helps you stay clearer about when you are eating your meals.
Fasting 16 hours a day
This type of intermittent fasting is referred to as a 16/8 fasting schedule. Fasting for sixteen hours is much the same except for a fast period that is four hours longer. This fasting period is recommended for people who want to lose ten to twenty pounds over two months.
This fast requires more self control, so it’s a good idea to line up activities that take your mind off food. You will also want to push back breakfast for at least two hours and space lunch and dinner apart so that you don’t get too hungry at night.
Fasting 8 hours a day
This type of intermittent fasting is referred to as a 8/16 fasting schedule. This fasting regime is great for people who want to lose weight quickly. However, it requires pushing all your eating into a four-hour window, so people who choose this fast must have a good deal of self discipline.
Breakfast needs to get pushed back to around noon. And dinner will typically come at four in the afternoon, depending on when you had breakfast.
Daily twenty hour fasts are difficult, so you will not want to be training for a marathon or biathlon while doing this fast. Keep exercises low impact. Yoga, walking, and low-impact aerobic exercises are compatible with this fast.
You can also do alternate day fasting, or any type of fasting that will suit your lifestyle.
Calorie restricting for two days a month
If you want to lose a quick five pounds, the two day fast might work best for you.
The two day fast isn’t really a fast, but an extremely limited amount of food. To make this fast work for you, women will need to eat only five hundred calories on the first and second fast days. Men can eat six hundred calories both days.
You have to take a leap of faith with this fasting regime, because you don’t see the weight loss until the end of the second day. On the first day, your body burns all the food in your intestines. When that’s gone, on the second day, you burn fat.
Young people with fast metabolisms can lose up to seven pounds in two days with this particular regime. If you are older, you’re likely to see less dramatic results, but most people will shed at least three to four pounds.
Fasting one day a week
If you have already lost some weight and you just want to maintain the healthy weight you are at, fasting for one day a week may be just the ticket. Again, this regime doesn’t really require you to starve, just to reduce your calorie consumption to five hundred or six hundred calories for a day.
Many people find that homemade juices, especially tomato juice, boiled eggs, and low-calorie vegetables, like steamed asparagus and spinach help them maintain a low calorie count for fasting days.
In conclusion, intermittent fasting is a relatively safe and reliable way to lose weight fast and prevent weight gain. If combined with eating low-calorie foods and small portions, it will produce great results.
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