Intermittent fasting is a type of diet that’s rapidly
growing in popularity and becoming the way to lose weight. Last month
alone there were over 246,000 searches for the phrase ‘intermittent
fasting’ on Google alone. This search volume shows how popular it’s
become.
Scientists and nutrition experts like it too and are
saying it’s the way of the future for losing and keeping weight off and
new books and articles on the topic are being published daily including
best selling books like ‘Eat Stop Eat’ and ‘The 8 Hour Diet’.
Intermittent fasting is also popular with followers of the Paleo diet
since our ancestors appear to have eaten this way for thousands of
years.
This article teaches you all about intermittent fasting and details
why it is the greatest weight loss diet hack around. After reading it
you will be able to implement into your diet and experience the benefits
it offers almost immediately.What Is Intermittent Fasting?
As you may have figured from its name, intermittent
fasting is a diet plan where you fast for a set period of time during
the day. This is usually between 16-20 consecutive hours. You eat during
the other 4-8 hours of the day.
While fasting you can eat and drink low calorie or calorie-free foods. Think coffee, tea, water, and vegetables.
The more time you spend fasting every day, the better your results. You can do these fasts as often as you like. Again, the more often you do so, the better.
Getting Started With Intermittent Fasting
Following this diet plan is super simple. All you have
to do is is choose a period of time during the day that you will fast.
This should be between 16-20 hours. The longer you fast each day, the
better. Don’t worry about counting calories or carbohydrates. Just focus
on going about your day until it’s time to eat.
It’s best to choose a set period of time to conduct
your fast. I like to fast from 8 o’clock at night to 4 the following
afternoon. I’ll then have my first meal of the day and a snack or two a
few hours later. Once 8 o’clock rolls around, it’s back to fasting.
My experience with intermittent fasting finds that’s
it’s best to start with a 16 hour fast (i.e. 8PM one evening to 12PM the
next day) for the first 1-2 weeks. Once you are comfortable with this
schedule, you can increase the amount of time you spend fasting. Do this
by adding 30 minutes to each fast until you get to where you are
fasting for 20 hours at a time.
You don’t have to fast every day in the beginning
either. You may be more comfortable breaking in slowly with 2-3 fasts a
week at first. Add additional days of intermittent fasting as you become
more comfortable with this style of eating.
Tips To Make Intermittent Fasting Easier
1. During your fast
you’ll want to drink plenty of water. Squeeze a little lemon or lime
juice into your water to help get rid of any cravings you experience.
You can also drink coffee, tea, or other calorie free beverages. After a
few weeks you will find that intermittent fasting keeps you from
craving sugar entirely.
2. If you can handle it,
take in a little caffeine in the morning and early afternoon. The
caffeine in coffee and tea may actually make intermittent fasting a
little easier to fast since it’s good for curbing your appetite. Be
careful not to overindulge as this may lead to you feeling a little too
wired. I also recommend these natural energy boosting tips to keep you
going during the day.
3. Avoid artificially
flavored drinks. One type of calorie free drink that should be avoided
are diet sodas and other beverages that use artificial sweeteners like
Splenda and Sweet & Low. Studies show that the can actually
stimulate your appetite like a drink that contains sugar and cause you
to overeat.
4. Don’t gorge at your
first meal. The first meal after your fast should be the amount of food
you typically eat. Binging will only make you feel awful and diminish
the benefits you get from the fast.
5. Minimize foods rich in
processed carbohydrates and sugars. While intermittent fasting does
make it possible to eat a little looser than normal, you should still
eat as little bread, pasta, rice, etc. as possible.
Focus instead on eating protein from beef, fish, or pork, carbohydrates from vegetables, fruit, and sweet potatoes, and healthy fats from foods like almonds, avocados, fish, and olive oil.How Intermittent Fasting Will Help You Lose Weight
Eating this way has many benefits with regard to weight
loss. The first is that when you’re fasting, your body will be forced
to use its stored body fat for energy. Burning calories this way,
instead of from the food you’re eating throughout the day, will help you
not only lose weight but weight from any excess body fat you’re
carrying. This means that you won’t just be thinner but will also look
better and be much healthier than if you lose weight the old-fashioned
way.
Intermittent fasting is that it can help optimize the
release of the key fat burning hormones in your body. The is especially
true for the two most important hormones: human growth hormone (HGH) and
insulin.
Human growth hormone plays a key role in turning on
your bodies fat burning furnace so it gets the calories you need to work
and play from stored body fat. Studies show that fasting can increase
your body’s production of growth hormone by 1,300% in women and 2,000%
in men!
The influence intermittent fasting has on insulin is
just as impressive and possibly more important. Keeping your insulin
levels low and steady is key to losing excess fat and keeping it off.
Diets that are rich in processed carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice) and
simple sugars (candy, cookies, and soda) have the opposite effect. They
cause your insulin levels to rapidly spike and then crash every time you
eat one of these foods. The net result of this phenomenon is that your
body will store more of what you eat as excess body fat instead of
burning it off as energy.
Chronically elevating your insulin levels like this can
also lead to the development of type II diabetes, obesity, and other
chronic health problems. Intermittent fasting easily solves this
problem.
Following an intermittent fasting style of diet for 15
days is shown in clinical studies to help ‘balance’ your insulin levels.
This will help your body stay in a calorie and fat burning state.
You’ll also find that it gives you more energy throughout the day.
Another great weight loss benefit of intermittent
fasting is that hunger pangs and cravings that may normally plague you
throughout the day will be reduced, if not altogether eliminated. This
is probably due to its ability to balance your insulin and blood sugar
levels and, in turn help correct other hormonal imbalances.
Now that you know what intermittent fasting is and how
to get started, it’s time to answer your other questions. Below are
answers to the questions frequently asked about intermittent fasting.
These answers should help you too and make getting started a lot easier.
How Much Weight Will I Lose?
The amount of weight you lose with fasting is
determined by how often and long your fasts are, what you eat afterward,
and other factors. Fasting for 16-20 hours a day can help you safely
lose 2-3 pounds of fat every week.
While losing this much weight every week is great, it’s
how it makes it happen that’s really cool. Losing weight with
intermittent fasting means that you will never have to count calories or
plan and prepare several meals a day.
Can I Work Out While Fasting?
Yes, you can. In fact, doing the right type of workout while fasting will help you lose weight faster and even build muscle.
The best workouts to do while fasting for weight loss
are 3-4 intense strength training workouts weekly. This means anything
from standard strength training to kettlebell or body weight workouts.
Focus on doing 3-4 total body exercises per workout
with as little rest as possible between sets. Doing this will help you
burn more calories during and after your workout. You’ll build muscle
too which will help you look and feel better as the weight comes off.
One workout that I’ve found to be very effective for
weight loss when combined with intermittent fasting is the 10 Minute
Workout plan which can be done at home or the gym.
Won’t I Lose Muscle When I Fast?
I wouldn’t sweat this at all. First of all, you aren’t fasting long enough for your body to start breaking down muscle for energy. You have perhaps hundreds of thousands of calories from your stored body fat to use before that will begin to happen. Studies actually show that even after fasting for 3 days, no muscle is lost.Is Fasting Safe?
As long as you are healthy, not pregnant, and aren’t
taking medications, fasting is safe. Like all diets you should discuss
it with your doctor before beginning an intermittent fasting style of
dieting.
I also feel that it may not be smart to follow this
type of diet when you’re especially stressed. Since this diet can be a
little stress-inducing at first, doing so when your ability to be
relatively stress-free and rested probably isn’t a good idea.
Are There Any Supplements I Can Take To Make Fasting Easier?
As with any other weight loss plan, it’s a good idea to
take a few nutritional supplements to ensure that your daily
requirements are met. This includes a once or twice daily
multi-vitamin, fish oil, and vitamin D.
I’ve also found taking 10 grams of branch chain amino
acids before and after my workouts really helps too. They’re great for
giving you more energy during your workout and really decreasing
post-workout muscle soreness.
You can also use a BCAA supplement during your fast to
help reduce the risk of crashing or suffering from a bad mood during the
day.
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