Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
Can intermittent fasting improve your health? Recent research has found that using intermittent fasting for weight loss may have some benefits in the short term.
It appears that fasting for a short time can produce ketosis, which is a process that occurs when the body doesn’t have enough glucose for energy, so it breaks down stored fat instead. This causes an increase in substances called ketones. This, coupled with fewer calories consumed overall, can lead to weight loss. Research suggests that alternate-day fasting is about as effective as a typical low-calorie diet for weight loss.
Fasting also affects metabolic processes in the body that may work to decrease inflammation, as well as improve blood sugar regulation and physical stress response. Some research shows this may improve conditions associated with inflammation like arthritis, asthma and multiple sclerosis.
Little long-term research has been done on intermittent fasting to examine how it affects people over time. As a result, long-term health benefits or risks are unknown.
My Experience With Intermittent Fasting
I started IF in August 2018. At the time I weighed around 181, which is acceptable for a 6-foot male. But I’d been 175 for years, and suddenly it seemed I couldn’t control my eating. I didn’t like where my belly was headed.
After about two months, during which my fasting windows varied , I’d lost 10 pounds. Needless to say, I was pleased with that result and became pretty evangelical about IF. My excitement stemmed from not only the weight loss, but also the total lack of hardship. This didn’t feel like a diet it felt like a smart way to live.
In fact, I discovered that I really liked this WOE. When I was feeling a little hungry in the late morning? Just wait a bit longer, I told myself, your window opens soon. Then I’d busy myself with something and forget about it. And if I wanted a snack after 7 p.m.? Too bad, window’s closed for the day — but you can have it tomorrow.
I stuck with it for about 10 months, though I’ll admit I got frustrated at times. For one thing, I’d been hoping to lose another 5-10 pounds, and assuming they’d come off as easily as the first 10, but the scale held firm at 171.
Result: After four months , the scale shows 171. In the interim, I’ve eaten an almost embarrassing amount of food while my window was open. I don’t have a sugar monkey on my back I have a sugar gorilla. Nevertheless: I’m thinner. And I’m going to see if I can hit 165. This lifestyle — not diet, mind you — is a piece of cake. Speaking of which, think I’ll go have one of those.
If I Am Sensitive To Caffeine Should I Avoid Coffee
Coffee is fine and recommended as long as it does not disrupt your sleep. The average amount per day is 3 cups, but this varies from person to person.
Caffeine can still be helpful even if you do intermittent fasting because it has positive effects on weight loss in people who drink up to 5 cups per day.
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Intermittent Fasting May Affect Men And Women Differently
There is some evidence that intermittent fasting may not be as beneficial for some women as it is for men.
One study showed that blood sugar control actually worsened in women after three weeks of intermittent fasting, which was not the case in men .
There are also many anecdotal stories of women who have experienced changes to their menstrual cycles after starting intermittent fasting.
Such shifts occur because female bodies are extremely sensitive to calorie restriction.
When calorie intake is low such as from fasting for too long or too frequently a small part of the brain called the hypothalamus is affected.
This can disrupt the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone , a hormone that helps release two reproductive hormones: luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone (
10 ).
For these reasons, women should consider a modified approach to intermittent fasting, such as shorter fasting periods and fewer fasting days.
Summary
Intermittent fasting may not be as beneficial for women as it is for men. To reduce any adverse effects, women should take a mild approach to fasting: shorter fasts and fewer fasting days.
Intermittent fasting not only benefits your waistline but may also lower your risk of developing a number of chronic diseases.
Losing Too Much Weight
Fasting can lead to too much weight loss, especially in people who have a normal weight or are already thin or underweight. This is what you see with too much fasting, like with alternate-day fasting periods, in which you fast each other day, which can easily lead to too much weight loss.
If you experience too much weight loss, its better to fast one day per week, or even better, for 3 days every new season, as we explained earlier.
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Phase : Maintain Your Progress
Say youve used a combination of the strategies above and reached your weight-loss goal. Now what?
Heres the basic idea:
Do enough fasting to balance things out so that you maintain your ideal weight.
In other words, you may not need to do as much fasting as you did to lose all the weight. But youll probably need to do some fasting to make up for the feasting youll do on special occasions .
So keep an eye on things, and find a pattern that works for you to maintain a healthy weight.
This could mean using TRE on a regular basis, or doing longer fasts less often. Or a combination of both.
The Three Popular Approaches To Intermittent Fasting Are:
- Alternate-day fasting Eat a normal, healthy diet one day and then completely fast or have one small meal the next day. Usually, the small meal is fewer than 500 calories.
- 5-2 fasting Eat a normal diet five days a week and fast two days per week.
- Daily time-restricted fasting Eat normally but only within an eight-hour window each day. For example, skip breakfast, but eat lunch around 11 a.m. and dinner by 7 p.m.
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What Are Some Good Diets To Consider As Better Eating Plans
The Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, fruits, lean poultry, seafood, whole grains, nuts and unsaturated fat from extra-virgin olive oil, is “really more of an eating style and it’s really adaptable,” Schueller said.
“The diets that do well don’t restrict entire food groups or make you feel like you’re missing something. A better way to think of them is as an eating pattern,” Schueller said.
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Two other top diets recommended in U.S. News and World Report’s list are the DASH diet it stands for dietary approaches to stop hypertension limits foods high in saturated fat, as well as sweetened beverages, andthe Flexitarian diet, a semi-vegetarian diet focusing on non-meat proteins such as beans, peas or eggs plus fruits and vegetables as a way to reduce meat intake.
Other than sodium restrictions for the DASH diet, these are “not restrictive and are really about focusing on the things we know we should eat: whole foods, vegetables, fruit, whole grains and so on, and limiting our candy and processed foods,” Schueller said.
How Can I Suppress Hunger During Intermittent Fasting
- Eat high-fiber foods, such as nuts, beans, fruits and vegetables and high-protein foods, including meat, fish, tofu or nuts, during your eating window, Varady advised. Chewing high-fiber gummies can also help.
- Drink lots of water. People tend to think they’re hungry, when they are really just thirsty, she said.
- Go for black coffee or tea, or cinnamon or licorice herbal teas. These beverages may have appetite-suppressing effects, Varady noted.
- Watch less TV. I know this sounds strange, but while you are watching TV, you are bombarded with dozens of ads for food. This can make you feel hungry, when in actuality, you are not hungry at all, she said.
Remember, being “a little hungry” is the best thing that can happen to you, wrote Madelyn Fernstrom, health and nutrition editor at NBC News, calling it a “true mind-body connection” that helps you recognize fullness.
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When Trying Intermittent Fasting Both The Quantity And Quality Of What You Eat During Your Eating Window Matter
Intermittent fasting is a trendy topic that arises repeatedly in my clinic these days. I get it: restrict the time period when you eat, but within that time window eat as you normally would. No calorie counting. No food restrictions. Simple and flexible. In an on-the-go world, intermittent fasting has come into vogue as a potential pathway toward sustainable weight loss.
Proposed Health Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
When it comes to weight loss, there are two thoughts behind why IF has the potential to work. The first: Periods of fasting produce a net calorie deficit, so you lose weight, explains Rekha Kumar, MD, a specialist in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYorkPresbyterian in New York City.
The other concept is more complex: This approach may prevent whats called the plateau phenomenon from happening, Dr. Kumar says.
Biggest Loser
Though more research is needed on the safety and effectiveness of IF, one of the touted benefits of this approach is that it may prevent this metabolic sputtering. Most people who try diet and exercise to lose weight tend to fall off the wagon and regain weight, Kumar says. Hormones that promote weight regain, like hunger hormones, are kicked into full gear, and the thought is that IF may be a way to prevent this metabolic adaptation from happening. The idea is that the normal periods of eating in IF trick your body into losing weight before the plateau happens.
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How Does Intermittent Fasting Differ From Other Crash Diets
A readers recently wrote to me about intermittent fasting. He wrote, I have read your books on nutrition, healthy dieting and exercise, and you rail against crash diets because the lack of nutrients results in the loss of muscle mass. Now, I read about your use of intermittent fasting which reduces caloric intake to zero for prolong periods of time and I wonder, how does this differ from the caloric restriction on a crash diet?
An insightful question that’s worth exploring.
First, on a crash diet, you severely cut your caloric intake from perhaps 2,000 calories per day to less than half that amount and enter a semi-starvation mode. When you cut caloric intake drastically, the body struggles to sustain your blood sugar, known as glucose, at optimal levels. Blood sugar is critical because the brain depends on glucose as its primary source of fuel, and of course, the brain is the bodys top priority.
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Glucose is stored in the liver as glycogen. When you eat normally, if blood sugar levels fall, glucose is released from the liver to bring the level back up. However, on a crash diet, the supply of liver glycogen is depleted because the body is in a semi-starvation mode. Thus, when the blood sugar levels falls, the body is alarmed that the liver cannot respond appropriately.
Diet For Rapid Weight Loss
Very low-calorie diet VLCD Low-calorie diet LCD Very low energy diet Weight loss – rapid weight loss Overweight – rapid weight loss Obesity – rapid weight loss Diet – rapid weight loss Intermittent fasting – rapid weight loss Time-restricted eating – rapid weight loss
Rapid weight loss diet is a type of diet in which you lose more than 2 pounds a week over several weeks. To lose weight this quickly you eat very few calories.
Slow and steady weight loss is the only way to avoid yo-yo dieting, where you lose a great deal of weight, only to regain it within a few months or years. There are no miracles in weight loss, go for steady progress toward a healthier life.
Losing excess weight by eating a healthy diet and increasing physical activity can help prevent future health problems. Obesity increases the risk of illness and death due to diabetes, stroke, coronary artery disease, kidney and gallbladder disorders, and cancer. The more overweight, the higher the risk becomes.
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Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Lose Weight And Save Money Here’s How
Fasting has multiple benefits, including fewer potentially risky trips to the grocery store.
You’ve probably heard about intermittent fasting by now — it’s arguably the hottest health trend of the last couple years. It’s been heralded as not only a foolproof weight-loss method, but also a potential cure for things like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, poor sleep, insulin resistance, even cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. A 2019 study in The New England Journal of Medicine links fasting to “increased stress resistance, increased longevity and a decreased incidence of diseases, including cancer and obesity.”
Want to learn more? And maybe try it yourself? Here’s everything you need to know about intermittent fasting , including some of my own experiences with it.
Editors’ note: You should always consult with a doctor before making changes to your diet or eating behaviors.
Read more: The health risks of intermittent fasting: It’s not for everyone
How To Get Started With Intermittent Fasting
There are two schools of thought with regard to how to structure your fasts. The first is fairly different from what’s described above it’s commonly known as 5:2, meaning you eat normally for five days of the week and fast for two. That may work for some, but two days of virtual starvation doesn’t sound very appealing.
I prefer the daily method: Fast for at least 16 hours per day. The aforementioned New England Journal of Medicine study was based on an 18:6 structure: 18-hour fast, six-hour window.
“16:8 is a great place to start,” Stephens says, “but it may not be a weight-loss window for many people. That’s because fat-burning ramps up between hours 18 and 24 of the fast. 19:5 was a great weight-loss sweet spot for me, and I lost at about a pound per week when doing it. With 19:5, you fast for 19 hours a day and have an eating window of five hours. Your sweet spot may be different from mine, of course. Maybe it will be 18:6 or 20:4.” Experimentation is key, she adds.
Before you embark on this journey, I recommend reading CNET writer Caroline Roberts’ guide to doing intermittent fasting safely.
If your eating window doesn’t include breakfast, you can still drink coffee as long as it’s black and unsweetened.
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Editorial Sources And Fact
- Fothergill E, Guo J, Howard L, et al. Persistent Metabolic Adaptation 6 Years After The Biggest Loser Competition. Obesity. August 2016.
- Varady KA, Cienfuegos S, Ezpeleta M, et al. Cardiometabolic Benefits of Intermittent Fasting. Annual Review of Nutrition. October 2021.
- Gabel K, Hoddy KK, Haggerty N, et al. Effects of 8-Hour Time Restricted Feeding on Body Weight and Metabolic Disease Risk Factors in Obese Adults: A Pilot Study. Nutrition and Healthy Aging. June 2018.
- Catterson JH, Khericha M, Dyson MC, et al. Short-Term, Intermittent Fasting Induces Long-Lasting Gut Health and TOR-Independent Lifespan Extension. Current Biology. June 2018.
- De Cabo R, Mattson MP. Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease. The New England Journal of Medicine. December 26, 2019.
What You Can Eat And What You Can’t
You can eat mostly what you want on days when you donât fast. But to lose weight and get the nutrients you need, you should stick to healthy foods and limit treats like dessert and processed foods.
On fasting days, youâll eat very little food or none at all.
For example, the Every Other Day Diet says to eat no more than 500 calories during each fast day.
Another program called the 5:2 Fast Diet involves eating 5 days a week and fasting for the other 2 days, when women can get no more than 500 calories and men no more than 600. Thatâs a quarter of the amount you likely eat on the days when you donât fast. Whether you eat those calories in one sitting or spread them across micro-meals throughout the day is up to you.
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Trendy Intermittent Fasting Diet Does Not Help You Age Better Study Finds
The trendy intermittent fasting diet – where a person skips food for hours each day – does not prevent aging, a study suggests.
The diet that requires people to eat within a certain window of time and abstain from food for an extended period is a celebrity favorite for its purported weight loss and anti-aging benefits. It has been promoted by the likes of Elon Musk and Chris Pratt.
The German team of scientists said there is no concrete evidence to suggest missing out on food for long periods is effective at preventing aging.
While intermittent fasting is all the rage, scientists are still evaluating its effect on longevity. In November, University of Tennessee researchers reported that the diet plan may increase the rise of early death by 30 percent.
For the December study, the team from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases carried out a thorough examination of age-related changes to a wide range of bodily functions in mice who took on the diet.
The health check measured a range of conditions including visual acuity, reflexes, and cardiovascular function, as well as other traits including exploratory activity of the mice, immunological parameters, blood cell counts and aging-associated manifestations of disease in the tissue.
The check gave the team an exact description of the state of the animal at the time they were examined.
