Today, I will be talking about the Intermittent fasting diet plan for weight loss and its benefits.
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What is intermittent fasting?
Basically, intermittent fasting refers to a dietary plan where you alternate periods of eating with periods of fasting. When we fast – our body switches from utilizing sugar and carbohydrate from the food we eat to utilizing fat stored in our body as an alternative source of energy – hence burning fat and reducing obesity. If you think about it, humans were designed for intermittent fasting. Ancient hunter-gatherers didn’t have supermarkets nor 24hour fast-food chains. They had to hunt for meat and to find an animal took days. Sometimes they couldn’t find anything to eat at all.
How is intermittent fasting beneficial for you?
1) Firstly it can help in weight loss and combating obesity
Studies have demonstrated that intermittent fasting can help reduce 3-8% of weight over 24weeks. It can also help to reduce waist circumference by 4-7%.
2) Secondly, It can improve hypertension and hyperlipidemia and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. CLICK THE LINK ON THE TOP TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HEART ATTACK AND HYPERLIPIDEMIA
3) It can also help in managing diabetes by reducing insulin resistance and inflammation. WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DIABETES? CLICK THE LINK ON THE TOP RIGHT NOW.
4) It has also shown evidence in improving cognitive function like memory, executive function, and global cognition.
However, there are also certain groups of patients that I would not recommend for intermittent fasting. They are growing children less than 18 years old, pregnant ladies and mothers, who are breastfeeding. Underweight patients and patients with eating disorders. Lastly, diabetic patients who have very volatile sugar levels and are on diabetic medications
In humans, the 3 most widely studied intermittent fasting regimes are
– alternate-day fasting ( where you eat for one day and fast for the next )
– 5:2 fasting where you eat 5 days a week and fast 2 days a week
and a daily time-restricted feeding where you only eat within a window of 4-8 hours a day.
So which type of intermittent fasting would work for you? It is really a committed lifestyle change. So you have to find a plan that fits your lifestyle. There is no hard and fast rule. Some people can actually tolerate going a full day without food, so alternate day fasting or 5:2 fasting works well for them. Some people cannot tolerate going without food for the day – hence they do time-restricted feeding where they will designate certain timing of the day to have their food.
Recent studies have shown that there is a circadian system within our human body that orchestrates metabolism in a daily 24-hour cycle. Circadian rhythms in glucose, insulin, lipid levels, energy expenditure, and appetite peak in the morning to afternoon – implicating that earlier in the daytime is actually optimal for food intake. Hence if you combine a 16:8 intermittent fasting plan and shift the 8-hour feeding window to earlier in the day – it may have given you optimal results in terms of lowering blood pressure, lowering post-meal insulin levels, and improving insulin sensitivity – which can give you better sugar and weight control, reducing appetite in the evening and reducing oxidative stress
Now, since IF has its many benefits, then is it the magic bullet to cure obesity? From the various studies, there are lots of early evidence that point to the health benefits but I would still want to highlight a few important points or potential pitfalls.
1) Not everyone is able to endure starvation – so it’s not a solution that suits everyone
2) secondly, there is no clear guideline on what to eat during intermittent fasting – if you do follow the 16:8 rule but you are taking a lot of fried fatty food and trans-fat and candies with sweet soft drinks during that 8 hours of feeding, then it would not have any benefits on your health. A wholesome healthy diet is still important. CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO CHECK OUT THE GLYCEMIC INDEX.
3) For effective weight loss – you will have to combine physical activities and exercise with the diet. Weight loss is always 70% diet and 30% exercise. PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK ON YOUR TOP RIGHT TO SEE THE HEALTH BENEFIT OF EXERCISE.
4) There are patients with medical conditions that may not be suitable for intermittent fasting – so if you do have chronic medical conditions, always check with your physician or doctor for approval before you embark on intermittent fasting.
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