How Can Intermittent Fasting 101 Boost Your Health?
Looking and feeling good is what people desire today. The pandemic woke everyone up to reality to take their health more seriously. Now fitness is not limited to looking good in the mirror; it has become necessary to have a healthy body. The lifestyle of people has drastically changed as work life takes up a major part of the day. Amidst busy schedules, humans have found different ways to keep their bodies on the right track with intermittent Fasting 101.
Diets have helped fitness freaks to be in shape even though they do not have the time to work out. So without wasting any time, let us understand the intermittent fasting meaning to further guide you through it.
What does Intermittent Fasting 101 Mean?
Intermittent fasting is not a food restriction; instead, it is an eating pattern. People can eat whatever they desire but must limit their food intake to only certain hours of the day. With the help of 101 intermittent fastings, not only does the body look appealing, but it also improves the health of the heart and brain. Adopting this fasting method has also helped to reverse many diseases. People usually fast daily for 16 hours, or some fast for 24 hours twice a week.
Is Intermittent Fasting Healthy?
Following diets and trendy health plans is beneficial, but learning if it is safe and helpful is extremely important. Knowing your body is the first step to understanding whether certain diets suit you. But this section will show you how intermittent Fasting 101 is safe and quite effective.
According to the research, intermittent fasting causes 3–8% of weight loss within 3–24 weeks. Intermittent Fasting 101 has become quite popular because of the fast results most people look for in their fitness journey. Belly fat can be quite stubborn to lose, but with intermittent fasting, people have noticed a loss of 4–7% of their waist circumference.
Intermittent Fasting 101 The Complete Course
Now that we have understood Intermittent Fasting 101 is a safe way to reduce weight, let’s dive into the juicy part of this blog to know how intermittent fasting works.
People use different fasting methods, which all involve dividing the day into eating and fasting periods. Here are the three most popular methods commonly used:
16/8 method- This is known as the Leangains protocol. It is when people skip breakfasts and restrict their diet to an eating period of 8 hours. And then, for the next 16 hours, the dieting phase starts.
5/2 method- This is when you consume 500–600 calories on two nonconsecutive days. This is followed by eating normally for the other five days of the week.
Eat and Stop and Eat: This method is where you have to fast for 24 hours once or twice a week. For example, if you skip lunch for one day and directly consume the next day’s lunch after keeping a 24-hour gap is an eat-stop-eat method.
Keeping an eye on the calorie intake should be enough to lose weight. Most people stick to 16/8 as it is simple and sustainable, which is why it is so popular.
What to Eat During Intermittent Fasting?
Even though there is no restriction on eating food, some guidelines should be followed, which will help make the process more successful.
- When the fasting period starts, drinking water and consuming zero-calorie beverages like black coffee or tea is permitted.
- While consuming food, eating a crazy amount of food is not advised. Stuffing down high-calorie food will not help your body lose weight. The amount of time you have fasted will make no impact if you are eating super-sized heavy food.
- Intermittent Fasting 101 will be much more enjoyable if you have quality time while eating. Sharing healthy food and enjoying mealtime with loved ones will help to give you good satisfaction to continue fasting.
What are the Advantages of Intermittent Fasting?
The body goes through more than the visible change while following intermittent Fasting 101. Let us look at the benefits of intermittent fasting for the body to thrive and be healthy.
Good Heart Condition- With the help of intermittent fasting, the bad LDL cholesterol, insulin resistance, blood sugar, and more things reduce significantly. A good heart always makes one live a longer life.
Sharp Brain- Intermittent fasting can start the growth of new nerve cells and increase the brain hormone BDNF. BDNF helps repair failing brain cells, develops new connections, and protects healthy cells. With this fasting, people have good protection against Alzheimer’s disease.
Memory Boost- If you find yourself searching for words and incidents quite a few times in your brain and all your friends taunt you for having a bad memory, then this benefit of intermittent Fasting 101 will be convincing to make you follow the fasting routine. Studies have discovered that intermittent fasting boosts working memory in animals. It also helps to sharpen the verbal memory in adult humans.
Live Longer- Intermittent fasting for women is helpful if they wish to look younger. Humankind has followed the fasting process due to a lack of food or religious regions. But all this while, they have also lived for a long time. Also, fasting has proved to increase the lifespan of rats. When intermittent fasting was experimented on rats, the statistics showed that they lived 36–83% longer.
Simple Health-style: Leaving the comfy bed and going to the gym is a much bigger challenge than working out. This is why many people start with amazing motivation and strength but drop out of the habit much faster. But with intermittent fasting, things are simple. There is no restriction on eating bland and healthy food all the time.
Who Should Avoid It?
Our bodies do not work the same, which is why intermittent fasting may not work for some people. But before starting any such diet change, it is better to visit the doctor first. Taking a professional nod of approval will keep you confident about the process, and there will be fewer chances of complications in the future.
These are some people who should avoid intermittent fasting:
- Teenagers and children under the age of 18. It is okay for adults to indulge in fasting behavior, but children require a strong dietary schedule.
- Pregnant women, and if they are breastfeeding, should avoid it as it can cause the condition of a preterm baby. If the baby is premature, there is a greater risk of complications. The baby will be deficient in calories, resulting in poor fetal growth.
- People with eating disorders should not participate in intermittent fasting as it can further wreck their relationship with food.
What are the Other Effects?
We will not paint only a rosy picture and show all the benefits in this intermittent fasting 101 the complete course. It is better if people understand that this fasting will have certain side effects, but these effects will make them stronger mentally.
- We will start with the most obvious one, and that is hunger. You will feel quite hungry during fasting, which can affect work and other schedules. But the human body adjusts to the conditions, so after a few days, you will not feel the same hunger level.
- Your brain may not perform the same way it used to initially, as hunger and food will be the only thing that it will think of. You will be tempted and tricked by your mind to look at food videos to please your eyes, but don’t fall into the trap, as that will worsen the situation and make you more hungry.
- Your body can feel weak as it is not receiving food for a long time. But this feeling is just temporary.
How to Do It?
We have covered all the aspects of intermittent Fasting 101, but how are you supposed to do it? Here are a few tips on how you can start the process of intermittent fasting.
- The most simple way to follow the 16/8 method is by eating dinner at night and sleeping. Sleeping makes you fast for a longer time automatically, and you won’t even know it.
- If you find this method too easy and manageable, try to challenge your body. It is the right time to move ahead and take the 24-hour fasts or the 5:2 diet.
- The next method is to fast whenever it is convenient for you. Sit down and write down how your day goes by. Try to fit in the fasting gap in this schedule, which will help your day to become smooth. If you do not feel hungry, then skip the meal.
- It is optional to follow certain fasting rules and strict timing to get the benefits. This is why you should always find a pattern that you find enjoyable and convenient.
- Taking this dieting process as a punishment or having a negative mentality while doing this process will affect both your mind and body. Find out methods that will boost your spirit and motivate you positively.
Conclusion
Taking good care of the body is the best investment you can make to live a happy and stress-free life. Giving some time to ensure that you look the desired shape and are active will help you feel much better in your skin. With the help of workouts and techniques like intermittent Fasting 101, you look and feel amazing. These techniques have lots of positives as it helps people to have control over their dietary plan.
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