Intermittent fasting involves reducing daily food consumption into one time-restricted period followed by a fasting period for the rest of the day. Recently, intermittent fasting has gained popularity on the internet as a miraculous weight-loss approach.
However, a new study has found that this eating plan is no more successful than traditional diets in shedding pounds. Despite its current fame, the study has concluded that it is not a more effective way to lose weight than other methods.
Intermittent Fasting: An Overview
Intermittent fasting is a popular eating technique that limits calorie consumption at certain times or for specific days of the week. This dieting method works by extending the period between when the body burns off the calories from the last meal and starts to burn fat.
Read more: Intermittent Fasting – Diet Plan, Benefits, & Weight Loss
Intermittent fasting helps reduce hunger by slowing down the body’s metabolism. There are many ways to do intermittent fasting, such as eating for eight hours a day and fasting for the remaining 16 hours, or eating just one meal a day, two days out of the week.
Water is allowed during the fasting periods. However, it is essential to note that “eating normally” during the eating periods does not mean overeating. Eating high-calorie junk food, fried foods, and desserts will not provide the desired benefits of intermittent fasting.
Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss
Many people turn to intermittent fasting to help them lose weight. This type of fasting involves eating fewer meals, meaning you consume fewer calories. However, you can counter this by eating more during the other meals.
Intermittent fasting also has other benefits, such as improving hormone function, which helps with weight loss. It is due to reduced insulin levels, increased HGH levels, and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) levels.
These help the body use fat for energy. In addition, some researchers believe that short-term fasting can boost your metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more calories than you would normally. All in all, intermittent fasting can help to increase your metabolism while reducing the amount of food you eat.
How Does it Work?
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that aims to help people lose weight through fat loss. It involves alternating between periods of eating and fasting. Unlike other diets, intermittent fasting focuses on when to eat, not what to eat.
For example, a popular fasting protocol is the 16/8 pattern; this involves fasting for 16 hours and then eating during an 8-hour window, such as from 8 am to 4 pm.
Another popular fasting protocol is the 5:2 pattern; this involves eating a healthy balanced meal five days a week and reducing caloric intake for two days.
Read more: The Beginner’s Guide to 5:2 Intermittent Fasting Diet
Limitations
Intermittent fasting is a popular diet, but it is not suitable for everyone. Fasting for lengthy periods can benefit weight loss but also have adverse side effects.
One potential disadvantage of intermittent fasting is that it can lead to nutritional deficiencies if meals get skipped. Therefore, people with certain conditions should not attempt this diet.
These include those with: sleeping problems, a past of disordered eating or an eating disorder, digestive issues, type 1 diabetes and are taking medications, especially insulin, are pregnant or breastfeeding, have cancer or a weak immune system, or are taking medication that needs to accompany food.
Sustainability
Achieving sustainable and healthy weight loss hinges upon finding a diet program that works for you. You will not continue the diet if you enjoy it. Willpower can help you get results quickly, but there are more sustainable options for the long term.
Intermittent fasting can be a successful part of your weight loss plan. Still, it must fit into your lifestyle for it to be successful. If you dislike intermittent fasting, there are better approaches than this.
It is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to weight loss. We all have different needs, so finding a plan that works for you is vital.
Other Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Improves Lipid Profile
If combined with endurance exercise, intermittent fasting can effectively reduce total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. It is also known as “bad” cholesterol, which increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, or heart attack disease.
In addition, by decreasing the number of triglycerides in the bloodstream, intermittent fasting can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular-related issues.
Reduces Insulin Resistance
Type 2 diabetes is a widespread condition characterised by high blood sugar levels due to insulin resistance. Therefore, any methods to reduce insulin resistance should help to lower blood sugar levels.
Read more: The Insulin Resistance Diet: A Healthy Eating Habit
Studies have found that intermittent fasting positively affects insulin resistance and can significantly reduce blood sugar levels.
Blood Pressure Management
The pressure of the blood running through your arteries is known as blood pressure. If it is persistently high, it can cause extra strain on the heart to pump blood throughout the body.
Intermittent fasting can help reduce hypertension or high blood pressure by changing the gut microbiota. In addition, variations in bile acid metabolism also play a role in regulating blood pressure, and intermittent fasting increases the amount of bile acid in circulation, thus decreasing blood pressure.
Reduces Inflammation
Intermittent fasting can potentially benefit many health indicators. Studies have uncovered that this eating pattern can control inflammation in our bodies.
Intermittent fasting is beneficial in increasing galectin-3, a protein related to inflammation. Furthermore, when the body is fasting, the glycogen reserves get nearly depleted, which is a useful means of reducing inflammation.
Intermittent Fasting: Word of Caution
Many people adopt intermittent fasting as a way to lose weight. Others use it to treat chronic illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, high cholesterol, or arthritis. However, intermittent fasting may not be suitable for everyone.
If you are considering intermittent fasting, you must first consult with your doctor. In addition, persons under 18, pregnant or lactating women, diabetics, and those with a history of eating disorders should avoid experimenting with intermittent fasting.
The HealthifyMe Note
If you’re interested in trying intermittent fasting to lose weight, you must speak to your doctor or a nutritionist first. Intermittent fasting is a popular weight-loss method that involves fasting for some time each day or on certain days of the week. But, again, it’s essential to get advice from a professional to determine if this method suits you and to find out which approach might work best for your individual needs and goals.
Lose Weight like a Pro: The HealthifyMe Way
HealthifyMe helps you to change the way you perceive your health. Health is not about weight loss only. One needs to be intrinsically healthy to look good and always feel good.
When one takes an extreme step like not eating for hours and several combinations like no-carb intermittent or gluten and dairy-free intermittent fasting, it may affect their health. Understanding which food combinations are good for you, in the long run, is essential.
Weight management in the right way can happen when the body responds positively to food intake. Therefore, a healthy plating method is imperative for sustainable weight loss. Talking to the nutritionists at HealthifyMe, you know the foods and the timings that are ideal for your condition.
HealthifyPRO 2.0 is an advanced tool to help you make a sustainable lifestyle change. It comes with a CGM. Also, long hours of fasting or too frequent eating are two extremes of the spectrum.
In both cases, the blood glucose levels may experience spikes. If the spikes are persistent, it may be a syndrome precursor to metabolic distress. So it nudges you to make the right choices that stabilise your blood glucose levels. Along the way, the nutritionist studies the markers and customises a plan that is ideal for you.
So whether you eat frequently or follow fasting as a way of life, you learn to manage your food and activity choices effectively. As a result, you are fit and healthy and drop all the excess kilos.
The metabolic panel testing, part of the package, helps the team understand 65 plus markers that affect your metabolic health. With the right food and activity inputs, they improve over time.
Obesity is usually the first visible symptom of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart ailments, hypertension, PCOS, and others. Therefore, you should always try to eat healthily and stay moderately active. Unfortunately, to err is human, and we all fall off the bandwagon.
Sometimes having someone to talk to, like the coaches at HealthifyMe, keeps you motivated, and you stick to the most significant commitment you can make to yourself. And that is looking after yourself.
Conclusion
When it comes to weight loss, the best diet plan is one that is both balanced and tailored to your specific lifestyle, age, and habits. It is key to achieving sustainable, healthy results.
It is not necessary to follow an extreme diet or one that goes against the principles of holistic health. The wide range of weight-loss diets available can be overwhelming, especially for those just beginning their journey.
Low-carb diets, calorie restriction, and other options have different results depending on the individual. When choosing a diet plan, it is essential to remember that what works for someone else may not work for you.
