Intermittent Fasting Weight-loss Plan – What is Intermittent Fasting?
Nowadays, the intermittent fasting weight-loss plan is a choice of the majority. This weight-loss plan is more like an eating pattern. It tells more about when to eat in a day rather than what to eat.
Intermittent fasting has been part of India for the past many years. Fasting is a part of the Indian diet because many religious events are accompanied by fasting for the deities.
Intermittent fasting weight-loss plan ponders on what time intervals should be there for eating and what to fast. You may find it difficult to fast for more than a couple of hours.
But you have noticed that we forget about eating when we usually distract ourselves to some other stuff, some interesting one like while crafting, sketching, or when indulged in hobbies.
However, the maximum time we do not eat is when we are asleep. At that moment, it is hard to recognize hunger. Moreover, you are allowed to eat whichever food or whatever quantity you want to eat. Still, you have to focus on the time intervals for eating and fasting.
Intermittent fasting ensures several time windows for different people. Since some are interested in the daytime, others find evenings more soothing and convenient for them. Thus, you have a lot of options and time divisions for your health and lifestyle.
Although it contains many eating patterns, you must analyze which one suits you better. This eating pattern can help you achieve your standard weight and health better.
One may consider it quite hard in the beginning. But as you get used to such fasting techniques, it does not bother you much.
Modern sorts of intermittent fasting
There are different sorts of intermittent fasting, providing you to fast and eat well during the day. It endows with several patterns some popular are listed below:
1. EAT-STOP-EAT APPROACH
A fitness expert, Brad Pilon, made it quite common for a few years. If you do fast from breakfast of today morning to that of tomorrow morning, it is called an Eat-Stop-Eat method.
You may fast from any part of the day, whether it is morning, evening, or night.
However, an individual may opt for non-calorific drinks like water, coffee, and green tea during fast. But solid foods are undesirable.
Although it is hard to fast for 24 hours continuously, the healthy no-calorie drinks make it easy to settle down your hunger.
You could consider it a strenuous method as it provides the idea of fasting for 24 hours. That utterly means giving up your meals for the whole day. This sort of practice comprises a firm discipline.
Because unlike how it sounds, it becomes achievable after you get used to it. If you still consider it hard to start, try to fast for 10 to 13 hours and then increase your fasting time as you achieve excellent control.
The Eat-Stop-Eat method gives rise to an idea of what you can have in your meal and whatnot. Practicing such fasting routines make a person more positive with their decisions toward the regular diet.
2. THE 16/8 METHOD
16:8 is a conventional kind of fasting that recommends 16 hours of fasting and has an eating window of about 8 hours when people can have almost every type of meal they like.
It does not restrict the intake of calories. However, the diet plan only reduces the meal intervals. The list of benefits for this diet plan involves weight loss and fat loss. It reduces the risk of diabetes, obesity, etc. as well.
Since there is no restriction on calories, it is pretty easier to have happy meals that encourage you to affix to your diet plan.
The diet follows the pace with the internal clock, which is a better way to support digestion and weight loss.
The 16/8 method is quite encouraging for beginners as it is a more comfortable and adjustable method among all intermittent fasting plans. One may arrange the schedule according to their convenience and comfort.
Almost everyone, who follows the 16:8 diet schedules, picks their meal during the daytime when our body efficiently consumes the calories provided.
This eating pattern helps with better digestion. Since according to our biological clock, our metabolism slowdowns with the late hours of the day. Therefore, an early dinner is always supposed good for health. As per some experts, one should avoid late-night dinner for 2-3 hours before bed.
The method includes fasting from 14 to 16 hours a day. It implies you can switch to eat your favorite stuff during the meal between 8 to 10 hours a day.
In such a method, we can enjoy two or three meals a day during the eating window. However, you may always have some low calorific stuff like tea, coffee, or any non-calorific item during the fasting fraction to keep you healthy and satiate.
3. ALTERNATE DAY FASTING
Alternate day fasting introduces an extensive fasting window that recommends fasting every other day. This weight-loss plan is not recommended for beginners as it makes you weak and malnourished with time and could not bear it for long.
During this diet, you barely eat something to keep you energized. It requires enough to cooperate with your workouts, exercises for weight loss, and regular office work.
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This method makes you hunger-stricken and may result in long sleeping hours. However, you may eat some reduced amount of calories, only a few hundred calories, during your fast.
4. THE 5:2 DIET
In this diet, you have to limit your calorie intake to two days a week. This diet signifies usual dieting meals for five days a week. Along with, you get to reduce your calorie intake up to 250 to 550 calorie a day.
You may think of it as a loose version of the Eat-Stop-Eat method as it provides a reduction in calories for two days continuously in a week. It does not give a strict idea of fasting but usually requires a decline in calories.
This pattern is beneficial for quick effects on weight loss or gain. But, it could have a fallout because it followed five days of spontaneous eating fragments.
5. THE WARRIOR DIET
The warrior diet, extended by Ori Hofmekler, offers to eat some raw fruits and veggies during the daytime accompanied by a large meal at night.
In other words, we have to fast for a whole day and then treat ourselves to a large meal at night. Derived from the ancient warriors, it serves the appetite during the day in wars, and had to eat something at night to get themselves resilient for the next day.
It is positively accepted and followed by people as they are provided to reenergize by offering raw fruits and veggies. Like the paleo diet, this weight-loss plan also includes restrictions on some food.
It bids the food like whole grain, unprocessed food, that could be as raw in its form as they appear in nature.
Intermittent Fasting Weight-loss Plan Benefits
1. PROMOTES WEIGHT LOSS
Expediently when indulged in intermittent fasting, you focus on the schedule for fasting and the eating window.
You may find it easier to follow the Rota of intermittent fasting as it makes you eat what you like to in your meals. Unlike some other diet plans, you do not have to restrict your favorite parts of the meal.
As you eat satisfactorily for relatively small time-scraps in a whole day, it makes you eat less throughout the day.
The meal you have during the eating window satiates appetite. So you do not feel any hunger for the rest of the day.
However, we should reach the dining to have a meal 2 – 3 times a day. The secretion of hormones like thyroid ensures fewer calorie intake to make you feel lighter and motivated for the diet.
Related: you would like to know about food for weight loss – weight-loss healthy food.
2. REDUCES RISK OF DISEASE LIKE DIABETES, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Intermittent fasting proverbs the benefits of weight loss. Thus, it is responsible for reducing the risk of diabetes. Intermittent Fasting weight-loss plan proved helpful for cardiovascular disease as well.
One of the recent reviews presented that intermittent fasting could improve blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol levels. Thus, we can say that intermittent fasting could help with cardiovascular diseases.
As it precludes obesity, which is accountable for developing diabetes in many cases, this proves to be healthy. The diet plan prevents fabricating such diseases.
A study conducted on a group of people showed that those who practiced intermittent fasting lowered their risk of developing diabetes.
The reason being, it lowered the level of blood sugar and insulin as they ate only 2 – 3 times a day.
3. HELPS MAINTAIN WEIGHT LOSS
Sometimes, the body refuses to respond to several diet plans and exercises when trying to lose weight.
But IF could help shift this paradigm and changes the metabolism in the body to improves digestion.
It also maintains weight loss as this improves muscle mass throughout the body.
4. GOOD FOR BRAIN
Intermittent fasting reduces the insulin level and inflammation that further improve the overall health of brain cells.
An animal study found that IF could help our brain with improved functions. IF also reduced the effects of inflammation in the brain that links neurological conditions.
Some other studies introduced that IF can reduce the risk of diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and stroke. However, more research is still required to prove the significant effects on the human brain.
5. IMPROVES HEALTH
An animal study found that IF leads to a reduction in the risk of cancer. Plus, this weight-loss diet plan can delay the inception of tumors.
Intermittent fasting weight-loss diet plan reduces the risk of obesity in individuals that is a risk factor for many different cancers. Thus, we could reduce the risk of cancer through intermittent fasting, according to some researches.
IF also decreases insulin levels and inflammation linked to cancer in several forms. However, research is still required to secure an evident effect on cancer.
Intermittent fasting plan
However, one can always eat what they want to in this diet schedule. But what you eat during the eating window may help with your weight. You may find it quite agile to shed or gain weight.
If we want to lose weight, we should opt for homemade food, food rich in protein. But it must include a reduced calorie intake, veggies with proper hydration.
Whereas, if one wants to gain weight, eat food rich in calories along with homemade food, and fat-like nuts, cheese, ghee, coconut oil are quite desirable for you.
Research studies exhibit that an intermittent fasting plan reduces the risk of diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease due to its effects on insulin levels, inflammation, blood sugar, and blood pressure.
Intermittent fasting for women
The intermittent fasting weight-loss plan has shown a difference in the results for men and women. Men, who followed IF-plan, showed more reliable improvements in weight (loss/gain)and health than women.
Considerably, when women switched to IF, frequently, they had some changes in their hormonal level. Instead, women eating too little are diagnosed with stimulation of stress hormones and cortisol, which result in weight gain.
Regular fasting among women could decrease protein levels and affects their fertility. Therefore, it is better to have less extreme versions of IF for women. The reason being, anything that affected their hormone level caused an effect on health as well.
Consequently, we can conclude that women have their reproductive systems entangled with metabolism. And anything affecting their metabolism would affect their health as well.
Intermittent Fasting Weight-loss Schedule
Intermittent fasting does not include the diet plan or schedule to restrict the calories. Instead, it prefers to limit eating hours a day. After all, one may find it hard to follow such a plan at the start as it focuses on fasting for the rest of the day besides eating.
It, generally, helps to find our calorie needs per day, which further leads to planned meals resulting in achieving health goals.
Although fasting may prove to be a burden for some people with a medical condition, it becomes quite fruitful for those who practice it regularly or occasionally.
1. IDENTIFY YOUR FAVORITE METHOD
Generally, people heading towards this diet plan might have some goals like improved health, fitness, metabolism rate, or weight loss.
Assuring which diet plan suits you best and can lead to the goal easily would be a great way to begin.
Before check on any fasting method, one should always consult their docs or health advisors, who could provide you some suggestions regarding your health and diet plans.
2. ESTIMATE CALORIES
Since there is no restraint on food in such diet plans, people tend to neglect calorie intake. Ignoring the calorie type could not be that healthy as it could be.
People who are willing to lose weight should opt for less calorific and high-protein food. As for weight loss, people should consume fewer calories than they consumed.
On the other hand, people seeking weight gain methods should consume more calories than needed.
3. PREPARING MEAL PLANS
People who intended to lose weight make schedules. For instance, what they like to have in their meal for the week to yield good results.
The preparation of the meal involves calorie intake escort with the nutrients we need. It helps individuals to stick to their plan to make it easy for them to achieve the goals.
Preparing your meal prevents overeating and helps reducing weight and improving muscle health.
Thus, we can conclude that the IF diet plan has many significant benefits, including brain health, cardiovascular health, proper weight maintenance, muscle growth, and not restricting food, resulting in an ideal weight loss diet plan.