What Is Intermittent Fasting? Should Everyone follow this?

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern between feeding and fasting times. This says nothing about what foods to consume, but when to eat them. There are several irregular forms of fasting, dividing the day or week into eating periods and Intermittent Fasting times.

Every day, most people “fast” while sleeping. Intermittent fasting can be as easy as keeping it a little longer. Skip breakfast, eat your first meal at noon, and your last meal at 8 pm. Then you fast for 16 hours every day and limit your eating to an8-hour eating period. This is the most popular form of intermittent fasting, called 16/8.

Despite what you may think, intermittent fasting is quite quick. Several people report feeling better and getting more energy. Hunger is not usually a big issue, although it can be a concern in the beginning, as the body gets used to not eating for long periods.

During the fasting period, no food is allowed, but you can drink water, coffee, tea, and other non-caloric drinks. Many intermittent fasting types enable small amounts of low-calorie diets during the fasting period.

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Types of Intermittent Fasting

In recent years, intermittent fasting has become very trendy, and various types/methods have emerged.

Here are some of the most famous:

• Alternate-day fasting involves alternating between a 24-hour “fast day” when the person eats less than 25% of the regular energy needs, followed by a 24-hour “fast day” period. It is the strictest form of intermittent fasting, as there are more days of weekly fasting. Two subtypes exist:
• Total alternate-day fasting (or absolute intermittent restriction of energy), where no calories are expended on fast days.
• Modified alternative-day fasting (or partial, intermittent energy restriction) allowing the intake of up to 25% of daily calorie needs on fasting days instead of complete fasting.
• Periodic fasting or full-day fasting includes any time of daily fasting of more than 24 hours, such as a 5:2 diet of 1 or 2 fast days per week, to the more extreme version with several days or weeks of fasting. On fasting days, approximately 500 to 600 calories or about 25 percent of average daily caloric intake may be allowed instead of full fasting.
• Time-limited feeding involves eating only for several hours each day. Examples include skipping a meal and a 16:8 diet (16 fasting hours cycled by eight non-fasting hours). This routine will maximize the circadian rhythm.

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HOW WEIGHT LOSS WORKS WITH INTERMITTENT FASTING

If you fast intermittently, you eat all the food your body needs, but for a shorter time. There are many approaches, but the most common is eating in a six- to eight-hour window and fasting the remaining 14-16 hours. Intermittent fasting causes a perfect storm of metabolic changes to tackle weight loss and fat loss. How’s it working?

Reduces calories: If you’re a snacker or like to grab food on the go, you can eat more calories than your body needs — and that’s going to be on the scale. You tend to eat less when you limit the amount of time you will eat during the day.

Kickstarts ketosis: Intermittent fasting is a path to fat-burning ketosis. During your fast, your body burns energy through its glucose reserves (aka carbohydrates). You start burning fat for fuel. To improve weight loss, eat ketogenic diets during fasting.

Lower insulin: intermittent fasting impacts insulin in two ways. Next, the body becomes more insulin-sensitive, which can help prevent weight gain and reduce your diabetes risk. Second, fasting reduces your insulin levels, so your body can start burning stored fat instead of glucose.

Metabolism improves: In animal experiments, intermittent fasting reprogrammed metabolic pathways to get more energy out of food. Fasting also increases the levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline, hormones that help your body free up more stored energy (that’s your body fat) during a fast. Boosting your resting metabolism also helps your body burn more calories throughout the day, even when you’re rebounding.

Multiple studies indicate that fasting accelerates weight loss. In a 2015 study pooling 40 different studies, participants averaged 10 pounds in 10 weeks. Another smaller study of 16 obese adults following an irregular “alternate day” fasting regimen (consuming 25% of their daily calories one day and frequently eating the next day) resulted in them losing up to 13 pounds over eight weeks.

Intermittent fasting also works when many weight-loss programs fail: controlling and reducing visceral fat. Visceral fat is the stubborn, deep-packed inner fat around the abdominal organs. People on an intermittent fasting diet could lose four to seven percent of their visceral fat for six months.

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Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

1. Reduced Blood Pressure

IF can help lower short-term blood pressure. A study published in Nutrition and Healthy Aging in June 2018 found 16:8 significantly reduced systolic blood pressure among 23 participants.

A study published in Nutrients in March 2019 showed the correlation in both animal and human studies. And, a study published in the European Journal of Nutrition in October 2019 found IF produced even more significant reductions in systolic blood pressure than another diet that did not involve specified eating times.

It’s essential to have healthy blood pressure— unhealthy levels can increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease. But research shows that these blood pressure advantages last only until IF is exercised. Once the diet ended, and people returned to healthy eating, researchers found blood pressure measurements returned to their original levels.

2. Lower inflammation

Animal studies have shown that IF and general calorie restriction can minimize inflammation levels, although there are few and far between clinical trials. Study authors published in Nutrition Research also wanted to know if that connection existed among humans.

The study involved 50 participants fasting for Ramadan, the Muslim holiday involving fasting from sunrise to sunset and feeding overnight. The study showed pro-inflammatory markers were lower than usual during the fasting period, as were blood pressure, body weight, and body fat.

3. Lower Cholesterol

According to a three-week, study published in Obesity, alternate-day fasting can help lower total cholesterol and cholesterol in conjunction with endurance exercise. LDL cholesterol is “poor” cholesterol that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may increase the risk of heart disease or stroke.

The Obesity researchers also noted that, according to the Mayo Clinic, IF decreased the concentration of triglycerides, fats found in the blood that can lead to stroke, heart attack, or heart disease. One caveat here: the study was short, so more research is needed to understand if IF’s long-lasting cholesterol effects.

4. Brain-boosted function

IF may enhance mental acuity and concentration. And there’s some early research to support this idea: A rat a study published in Experimental Biology and Medicine in February 2018 showed it could help protect against the deterioration in memory that comes with age.

According to Johns Hopkins Health Review, IF can strengthen brain hippocampus connections and also safeguard against amyloid plaques present in Alzheimer’s patients. However, this study was done only in animals, so it’s still unknown whether the advantage holds for humans.

5. Protection of cancer

Several studies have shown that alternate-day fasting may reduce cancer risk by decreasing lymphoma growth, limiting tumor survival, and slowing cancer cell spread, according to a review of studies published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Nonetheless, the experiments that demonstrated the cancer benefit were all animal studies, and more studies are needed to validate human interest and explain the mechanism behind these results.

Read More: How To Lose Body Fat With Eating Healthy Foods And Diet

Best Foods to Eat While Intermittent Fasting

• Water
• Coffee
• Minimally-Processed Grains
• Raspberries
• Lentils
• Potatoes
• Seitan
• Wild-Caught Salmon
• Soybeans
• Smoothies
• Multivitamins
• Nuts
• Red Wine

Created On: 2020-12-10 17:24:55 Posted By: Dr. Priyul Shah