We’re always looking for new diet plans to keep our waistline in check. Staying fit has especially become important in the recent times of the pandemic in order to avoid suffering from any comorbidities. One diet plan that celebrities and dieticians are going gaga about is the intermittent fasting. In this blog, I’d like to talk to you about what is intermittent fasting and how it helps you lose weight. Check it out!
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is currently the health trend in the world. But do you know what intermittent fasting means? Let’s find out! Intermittent fasting basically means to transition between cycles of eating and fasting. You might be under the impression that you’ll starve if you follow it but you’re wrong. It doesn’t tell you what to eat but rather defines when to eat. And it not only helps you lose weight but also provides your body with a lot of health benefits. This is not an unusual term but it’s actually a part of your daily normal life. It’s literally the most powerful dietary intervention!
What are the Methods of Intermittent Fasting?
If you’re planning to follow intermittent fasting, it is important to do your homework first and find out about the methods to get yourself started. Take a look!
1. The 16/8 Method:
This method involves dieting for 14-16 hours throughout the day and eating all your meals within the time frame of 8-10 hours. It was popularized by fitness expert Martin Berkhan and is known as the Leangains protocol. It simply means to avoid eating anything after your dinner and your breakfast too. In fact, many breakfast skippers in the world eat this way unknowingly. So even if it seems like something hard to do at the beginning, trust me it’s not. Moreover, you can drink your favorite beverages such as tea and coffee during the fast to help with the hunger pangs. However, it’s important to eat only healthy food while you’re following this method.
2. The 5:2 Diet Plan:
The 5:2 diet plan asks you to eat normally for five days of the week and restrict your calorie intake for two days. This means that for five days a week you can enjoy your normal calorie intake of 2200-2300 calories. However, on two fixed days of the week, you’ll need to restrict your calorie intake to 500-600 calories. This method was popularized by a British journalist named Michael Mosley and is known as the Fast Diet.
3. Eat. Stop. Repeat:
This method involves keeping a 24-hour fast one or twice a week. So say for example that you finish your last meal today at 7 p.m and decide to keep a fast for the next 24 hours. Then you’ll eat your next meal after 7 p.m the next day. Whether you want to fast from breakfast to breakfast, dinner to dinner, or lunch to lunch is completely your choice. The end results remain the same in all cases. During the fast, you can drink healthy beverages but no solid food is allowed. This method was popularized by fitness expert Brad Pilon and is known as Eat Stop Eat.
4. Alternate Day Fasting:
In this method, you fast every alternate day. Some fitness experts allow you to consume up to 500 calories even on the days you’re fasting. However, this method can make you go to bed hungry and is quite unsustainable in the long run. Therefore, it’s not recommended by fitness experts and dieticians as such.
5. The Warrior Diet:
While following this method, you basically just eat fruits and vegetables all day and then feast at night within a four-hour window. It was one of the first diet methods to include the concept of intermittent fasting. Moreover, in this diet, you’re supposed to stick to healthy unprocessed food. It was popularized by fitness expert Ori Hofmekler.
6. Spontaneous Meal Skipping:
You don’t need a master plan to follow the concept of Intermittent Fasting. Another option for all the foodies out there is to just skip a meal whenever you’re not hungry or are too busy to cook. Human bodies are capable of handling long periods of starvation without losing muscle. So, even if you skip one or two meals from time to time, it’s not going to harm your body in any way. You just need to make sure that you eat healthy food for all your meals.
How Does Intermittent Fasting Help Lose Weight?
The reason why intermittent fasting helps you lose weight is that you consume fewer calories while following it. All six methods of intermittent fasting involve skipping certain meals while you’re fasting. You just have to take care to not exceed your daily calorie limit of 2400 calories after your fasting routine. According to a study intermittent fasting for 3-24 weeks can reduce your body weight by 3-8%.
In fact, the alternate-day fasting method can help you lose approximately 0.75 kg of weight per week. And other intermittent fasting methods help you lose nearly 0.25 kg of weight per week. I’m sure that all of you are familiar with how difficult it is to lose belly fat. But not anymore!
With intermittent fasting, you can bid goodbye to at least 4-7% of your waistline. The good thing about this diet program is that it not just aids in weight loss but also provides your body with a lot of other health benefits. It improves the overall metabolism of your body, helps you stay away from chronic diseases such as diabetes, and live a long life.
The world is moving along with the intermittent fasting program and its time that you do too. So, follow this latest fitness trend and experience the change in your body!
