Intermittent fasting: How does it Work?

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is all about when you eat rather than about what to eat. With this diet, you only eat during a specific time. It is voluntarily restricting eating hours and/or meal times as a way of boosting health.

How does Intermittent Fasting work?

Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the calories consumed during your last meal and begins burning fat. After hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. He refers to this as metabolic switching.

Methods of Intermittent Fasting

There are a couple of different methods that people adhere to when intermittent fasting:

1. The 16/8 Method

Also known as the Leangains protocol, this is one of the most common methods which involves eating for 8 hours and fasting for 16. You can schedule this method by having an open eating window from 12pm to 8pm and fasting for remaining hours. This means you’re likely to skip breakfast and also avoid snacking after dinner.

2. Spontaneous Meal Skipping

In this method, the basic concept is to skip meals whenever convenient with being awareness that your body likely does not need a full 3 meals every day. 

3. The 5:2 Method

This diet consists of regularly eating 5 days out of the week, and for the remaining two eating only 500 calories or so.

4. On and Off fasting

This method consists of eating normally one day and then eating very few calories or no calories at all the next day. Though this method has some helpful benefits, it is not recommended for beginners.

5. OMAD

This diet consists of fasting for 23 hours of the day and eating one large meal during a restricted 1-hour period.

What can I eat while intermittent fasting?

During the fasting window, consuming water and zero-calorie beverages such as black coffee and tea are permitted.
During eating periods, you can eat normally but make sure you don’t pack this with high-calorie junk food, fried items and sweets because if you do so, then you’re not likely to lose weight or get any healthier. Instead, eating healthy and nutritious food and savouring your mealtime will add to satisfaction level and will also support good health. Generally, following a Mediterranean diet during the eating phase tends to be a good structure for what to eat.

Intermittent Fasting Benefits

Intermittent fasting periods does more than burning fat. As per few studies, here are some intermittent fasting benefits revealed so far:

1. It helps boost thinking and memory.

2. It improves blood pressure and resting heart rates as well as other heart-related measurements.

3. It helps people lose body weight and prevents obesity.

4. For people with Type 2 Diabetes, it helps lower the levels of fasting glucose, fasting insulin and leptin while reducing insulin resistance.

Is Intermittent Fasting safe?

It’s important to check with your doctor before starting intermittent fasting. Some people such as children and teens under 18 years of age, pregnant or breastfeeding women, people with history of eating disorders, and those with Type 1 Diabetes who take insulin should refrain from this diet.