We have all heard of intermittent fasting, but what is it exactly, and what are the benefits?

BY RACHEL MARY RILEY

Intermittent fasting is one of the top ways to lose weight, but what matters the most is how fast you fast, and the type of protein you eat before you fast. The factors will make it beneficial.

There are so many types of fasting. However, intermittent fasting is one of the top ways to lose weight. It was one of the major tools to create a disciplined life and healthier lifestyle. During the holidays some folks struggle to lose weight and gain a lot of water weight, that’s why fasting helps with so many benefits.

What is intermittent fasting?

So, let’s break it down, it’s about abstaining from food for a certain number of hours to receive your benefits. You eat food for a five, six or eight hour max, with a window gap in between, and then you fast for the remainder of the day, which helps with structure and routine.

What can be done before intermittent fasting?

•   Breakfast, lunch, dinner
•   Resistance training
•   Cardio
•   Drink boiled water and different types of teas
•   Eating in moderation
•   Consistency

While doing intermittent fasting, drink lots of liquid to get the results, such as drinking: tea, water, protein or smoothies that will benefit your weight loss journey. According to research through scientific terms, when you fast, several things happen in your body on the cellular and molecular level.

For example, your body adjusts hormone levels to make stored body fat more accessible. Your cells also initiate important repair processes and change the expression of genes.

Here are some changes that occur in your body when you fast:

•   Human growth hormone (HGH): The levels of growth hormone skyrocket, increasing as much as 5-fold. This has benefits for fat loss and muscle gain, to name a few
•   Insulin: insulin sensitivity improves and levels of insulin drop dramatically. Lower insulin levels make stored body fat more accessible
•   Cellular repair: When fasted, your cells initiate cellular repair processes. This includes autophagy, where cells digest and remove old and dysfunctional proteins that build up inside cells
•   Gene expression: There are changes in the function of genes related to longevity and protection against disease (“Healthline,” 2022)

Intermittent fasting Methods

There are several different ways of doing intermittent fasting — all of which involve splitting the day or week into eating and fasting periods.

During the fasting periods, you eat either very little or nothing at all.

These are the most popular methods:

The 16/8 method: Also called the Lean gains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, such as 1–9 p.m. Then you fast for 16 hours in between.

Eat-Stop-Eat: This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.

The 5:2 diet: With this method, you consume only 500–600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the week but eat normally the other five days.

By reducing your calorie intake, all these methods can cause weight loss if you don’t compensate by eating much more during the eating periods (“Healthline,” 2022).