We all wanna lose those extra pounds, that patch of fat lurking out of our jeans, tees, and all our favorite pair of dresses which we wanna wear but can’t. Like it said exercise alone won’t help you get rid of those extra pounds, we need a proper diet too you know. And for the love of God, there are too many dieting plans which at times don’t fit in our budget, or they don’t fit in our day to day free lifestyle which includes irregular sleeping patterns, unscheduled workings hours and our hunger for our favorite food. So still confused are we were heard of fasting?
Okay we ain’t talking about starvation here; we are talking about a healthy fasting routine which helps burn few hundred calories, keep digestive system on its top notch quality. Yeah people we are talking about Intermittent Fasting (IF). So let’s get the dices rolling on what its, how it can help and how we should start IF; shall we now.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent Fating is basically a cycle between periods of fasting and eating. And here we are talking about a healthy way of fasting and not starvation. Intermittent Fasting is basically not a diet of any sort but is a more like a eating pattern, which involves either daily 16 hours of fasting or 24 hours of fasting twice per week. It is currently a popular way or method to lose weight and improve health. And as far as fasting goes there is nothing new about it, actually fasting has been an ancient secret of health.
But before getting on to how to get started with Intermittent Fasting let’s get clear one fact with is really important, there is a clear difference between Starvation and fasting. Please keep in mind that starvation is an involuntary absence of food for a much longer time and can cause severe suffering or even death, but on the other hand, fasting is a voluntary hold back on food for health, spiritual or other reasons like losing weight but only for a minimum amount of time or max to max for one whole day and not more than that.
How Intermittent Fasting helps lose weight
Well we all know that our bodies store fats and intermittent fasting simply allows the body to burn off the excess body fat and use its stored energy. In short, if we don’t eat our bodies would eventually eat its own stored fats for energy, which in-turn helps our body to maintain its fat storage.
Popular methods to do Intermittent Fasting
There are 6 basic ways in which you can do Intermittent Fasting. Every method has the same effect; all you need to do is realize which pattern suits your life style and your health pattern. It odes claim to help you reduce weight may be not at the pace which u want but it surely helps at a pace which is surely visible.
Let jump on to these 6 basic ways:
- The 16/8 method
In this way of doing intermittent fasting we get an 8 hour eating window that is it involves every day fasting for 14 to 16 hours and restrict your eating to an 8 to 10 hours of eating for the day, in which you can fit two or three meals. It is also known as Leangains protocol.
In this method we generally don’t eat anything after, that is the last meal of the day should be at 8 p.m. and we skip breakfast that is we don’t eat until noon the next day. While it is advised to drink lot of water to keep your body hydrate and other zero calories beverages like black coffee which can help you in reducing the urge of hunger. Though it is advised to primarily eat healthy foods during your eating window and no junk food is permitted.
- The 5:2 diet
This method involves normal diet for 5 days while you restrict your diet to 500 calories to 600 calories for only 2 days per week.
The 500 calories to 600 calories can be taken any time in the day, while you keep yourself hydrated by drinking water at proper amount. It is advised that women should take 500 calories and men should take 600 calories when they plan on starting 5:2 diet.
- The Warrior Diet
This diet was popularized by fitness expert Ori Hofmekler. The warrior diet involves small-small intakes of raw fruits and vegetables during the day and one lager meal at night (before 8 p.m.). Basically, you only get a 4 hour eating window. The food choices for this diet pattern are mostly similar to that of Paleo Diet which mostly involves whole and unprocessed foods.
- Eat Stop Eat
This method was popularized by fitness expert Brad Pilon and was quite popular for a few years.
The method Eat Stop Eat directly involves 24 hours of fasting schedule once or twice per week. In which we start fasting from dinner of last day to the dinner of next day, which can also be switched to breakfast to breakfast or to lunch to lunch as per the life style of the person opting for Eat Stop Eat cause in the end the result would be same.
Though it is highly advised to be hydrated while fasting which means intake of water must be higher than the usual. Intake of coffee and other zero calories are allowed but no solid food intakes are permitted.
A structured intermittent fasting plan is not needed to get its benefits as it adapts to your lifestyle but intakes of excess junk food will not help even if you strictly follow intermittent fasting patterns. For the bottom line, Intermittent Fasting may work for many but may not work for everyone. Just remember that diet quality is crucial for intermittent fasting and intake of water also plays an important part in weight loss.
Thanks for Reading.
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