Intermittent fasting is not a diet and must be done under the guidance of a health professional. When a person fasts intermittently for dietary purposes, it can be very effective for weight loss. In fact, most people try to fast intermittently to help them lose weight. People who fast intermittently tend to lose visceral fat (fats on the organs) and lose body weight a little less than people who follow more traditional low-calorie diets. For a healthy person, intermittent fasting has very few side effects.
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Benefits of intermittent fasting:
Aside from weight loss, intermittent fasting helps reduce insulin levels, which makes it easier for the body to use stored fat. It also helps in lowering blood sugar levels and inflammation in the body. According to the studies, fasting also promotes HGH (human growth hormone), which helps the body use fats and build muscle. Fasting is a time-tested and ancient tradition that was also used to reverse the entire aging process in ancient times.
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How do I perform the fast?
Your body is in a fed state when it is digesting and consuming food. Usually the fed state begins with eating and lasts for three to five hours as your body digests and ingests the food you just ate. When you are fed, it is very difficult for your body to burn fat because your insulin levels are high.
After this period of time, your body goes into what is known as the post-absorbent state. This is just a fancy way of saying your body isn’t processing a meal. The post-absorbent state lasts until 8 to 12 hours after your last meal when you enter the fasted state. It’s much easier for your body to burn fat when you are empty because your insulin levels are low. 16 hours of closed windows and 8 hours of eating windows (preferably 3 meals per day) can lead to significant changes in intermittent fasting.
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Things to Consider When Fasting Intermittently:
You should feel hungry before you eat and stop eating when full. When you’re hungry, try adding good fats to your eating window. Keep track of your water intake. Ingesting less than 800 calories a day results in greater weight loss (with significantly increased hunger), but greater bone loss. That is not healthy or sustainable in the long run. Don’t have an extreme approach. Don’t throw in the towel or beat yourself up.
You won’t undo all of your work with one meal, but you could be with a bad attitude. Take the time to reassess and make sure the schedule you set continues to align with your lifestyle. Maybe it stopped working and you want to move your dining window or relax a little. That’s OK. Do not give up. Intermittent fasting (IF) has attracted a lot of public interest as an alternative to the traditional model of daily energy restriction for the treatment of obesity and related diseases, but also as an anti-aging method to increase life expectancy.
Although IF is a promising approach to some patients, there have been several claims about its benefits (mostly on social media) that are not evidence-based, at least in humans, leading to doubts in society and sharp disagreements among its supporters and criticisms. Therefore, a critical examination of the literature is essential to guide health professionals in advising their patients without exaggerating their benefits or judging their practice, and to ask questions that may be answered in the future by controlled studies.
