INTERMITTENT FASTING Intermittent fasting is an eating plan that switches between fasting and eating on a regular schedule. Research shows that intermittent fasting is a way to manage your weight as it helps in burning the body fat and it prevent or even reverse some forms of disease.
What is intermittent fasting?
Many focus on what to eat, but intermittent fasting is all about when you eat. With intermittent fasting, you only eat during a specific time. Fasting for a certain number of hours each day or eating just one meal a couple of days a week, which can help your body burn fat. Extra calories and less activity can mean a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses. Scientific studies are showing that intermittent fasting may help reverse these trends.
How does intermittent fasting work?
There are several different ways to do intermittent fasting, but they are all based on choosing regular time periods to eat and fast. For instance, you might try eating only during an eight-hour period each day and fast for the remainder.
Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day two days a week. There are many different intermittent fasting schedules.
Mattson says that after 8 hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. He refers to this as metabolic switching. Intermittent fasting works better when u prolonged the fasting period as after your body has burned the calories consumed during the last meal. The process of burning fat begins.
What can I eat while intermittent fasting?
During the times when you’re not eating, water and zero calorie beverages such as black coffee, herbal tea, green tea, detox water, green coffee (preferred not to take in night) and black tea are permitted. And during your eating periods “eating normally” does not mean going crazy. You will not lose weight or get healthier if you have high calorie, junk food or fried food in your eating cycle time. But what we like about intermittent fasting is that it allows for a range of different foods to be eaten and enjoyed. We want people to do mindful eating and take pleasure in eating good and nutritious food,”
Intermittent Fasting Benefits
Research shows that the intermittent fasting periods do more than burn fat. Mattson explains, “When changes occur with this metabolic switch, it affects the body and brain.” One of Mattson’s studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed data about a range of health benefits associated with the practice. These include a longer life, a leaner body and a sharper mind. “Many things happen during intermittent fasting that can protect organs against chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, age-related neurodegenerative disorders, even inflammatory bowel disease and many cancers,” he says. Here are some intermittent fasting benefits research has revealed so far:
Thinking and memory. Studies discovered that intermittent fasting boosts working memory and verbal memory in adult humans.
Heart health. Intermittent fasting improved blood pressure and resting heart rates as well as other heart-related measurements.
Physical performance. Young men who fasted for 16 hours showed fat loss while maintaining muscle mass.
Diabetes and obesity. Intermittent fasting prevents obesity. Obese adult humans lost weight through intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting also helps in controlling diabetes
Is intermittent fasting safe?
Some people try intermitting fasting for weight management and others use the method to address chronic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, high cholesterol or arthritis. But intermittent fasting isn’t for everyone. The one who should not try to do intermittent fasting are
Children and teens under age 18.
Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
People with uncontrolled diabetes or uncontrolled blood sugar problems.
Those with a history of eating disorders.
