For many dieters, the idea of fasting is tempting, but the thought of going days without food is too overwhelming. No one wants to suffer the loss of energy that comes with going on a fast – even if it does eventually make you feel better in the long run. Intermittent Fasting is gaining ground as one of the most popular ways to lose weight, gain health and live longer right now. But this isn’t a fad that’s new – this is something people have done for many years.
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is when you develop an eating pattern throughout your day. For part of the time, you’re living on water, coffee or tea. The other time, you’re eating healthy, nutritious foods. Some serious fasters count all calories as off-limits, so that would mean you exist on water only – no coffee, tea or other low calorie drinks. It’s up to you how you want to incorporate it into your world.
There are also variations of the fasting where you rotate hours or days where calories aren’t forbidden, but limited – versus how they’re unrestricted on the days when you’re not fasting.
For example, on a “fasting” day, you might restrict your caloric intake by an extreme amount, eating just 500 calories a day, whereas on a non-fasting day, you eat 2,500.
There are different ways to adhere to an intermittent fasting routine. Some people fast for 8 hours and then eat regularly for 16 hours. Others alternate days – one day fasting, one day not.
You can do it any way you like – 10 hours of fasting and 14 hours of eating. Whatever you feel comfortable with. You can start out easy and then increase the hours you spend fasting until you get the hang of it and know how your body will react. Some dieters count the sleep phase as part of the fasting period, so that you either go to bed while fasting or wake up fasting, eating your calories during the main working hours.
I started my weight loss journey on April 22, 2017 using Intermittent Fasting and High Intensive Training. I did 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating. I did not eat over 1800 calories a day and I drunk 3 liters of water a day. Here are my results:
What Are the Benefits to Intermittent Fasting?
Aside from the weight loss benefits, because you’re ultimately restricting a certain number of calories, you also gain other benefits when adopting an intermittent fasting regimen.
Your body learns how to better use the calories and nutrition that you give it when you start fasting periodically on a schedule. It regulates your fat storage and insulin usage correctly.
You’ll enjoy fasting if you’re busy and always on the go because every dieter knows how hard it is to shop for, prepare and cook healthy foods – and fasting eliminates that portion of your day.
It can also save you money! Fasting cuts your grocery bill because you’re consuming less food. Dieters typically spend much more because they’re suddenly buying fresh fruits and vegetables and lean cuts of meat rather than cheap, processed foods.
Some researchers say that intermittent fasting promotes HGH – Human Growth Hormone – production. This helps stave off the aging process and allows you to live longer and healthier.
Your cellular repair will be heightened and fat will burn at a rate you haven’t seen before. Even your heart will function better because fasting like this provides cardiovascular benefits. Some studies are showing that it helps delay or improve symptoms of Alzheimer’s too – apparently aiding in the brain’s capacity to store and retrieve memories.
Fasting is different for everyone. Some are using it as a form of spiritual awakening. Others use it for weight loss or better health. Regardless of your goals, make sure that you fast according to what you can handle and enjoy because if it becomes tedious, it ruins the process and can do more damage putting stress on you than benefits.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading What is Intermittent Fasting and would love to hear your opinion/questions about it. So, please chime in and leave a comment below. If you found this article to be helpful, please share, comment, and follow!
Health and Wellness,
Zoey