Intermittent Fasting

 

It’s every dieter’s dream:

Imagine being able to eat whatever you want most days of the week, limiting your intake for one or two days at a time, and still losing weight. This is what many people experience when they begin practicing Intermittent Fasting (IF). It can do more than slim just your waistline. Studies show that the benefits of fasting include helping stabilize blood sugar levels, reduce inflammation, and keep your heart healthy.

 

There are a variety of approaches to intermittent fasting, whether you prefer to fast for a good chunk of hours each day or skip meals for two days each week. Let’s look below at how intermittent fasting can serve as one way to simultaneously improve your health and achieve your weight loss goals. Consider this your intermittent fasting beginner’s guide.

 

Fasting as a Therapy in Neurological Disease -

Fasting is deeply entrenched in evolution, yet its potential applications to today's most common, disabling neurological diseases remain relatively unexplored. Fasting induces an altered metabolic state that optimizes neuron bioenergetics, plasticity, and resilience in a way that may counteract a broad array of neurological disorders. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31627405/)

 

Intermittent Fasting -

Also known as cyclic fasting, has risen in popularity in recent years as more research emerges showing that it’s typically safe and effective. However, intermittent fasting is hardly a new concept. It’s been used for centuries during times when food was scarce, and it even plays a central role in many major religions.) In a 2016 Cell Metabolism study, the authors discuss how fasting allows humans to rely less on our glucose (sugar) stores for energy and instead on our ketone bodies and fat stores. As a result, “both intermittent and periodic fasting result in benefits ranging from prevention to the enhanced treatment of diseases.” It’s difficult to define intermittent fasting, as there’s not just one method for how to fast. In fact, there are many different variations that are used around the world. Each follows a different eating pattern that is often strictly adhered to in order to achieve physical or even spiritual results.

 

How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

The extensive research on the concept of intermittent fasting suggests it functions in two different ways to improve various facets of health:

 

Common Types of Intermittent Fasting:

 

Health Benefits

 

What are the rules for intermittent fasting?

While every type of intermittent fasting requires you to skip meals (most commonly breakfast), each type works a bit differently and has different “rules.”

 

What can I eat during intermittent fasting?

Unlike typical diets, with intermittent fasting, there’s no need to count points or calories or plug your foods into a food diary each night.

 

Even if your goal is to primarily lose weight from IF, it’s still important to consume enough healthy food and calories in general. Otherwise, you risk slowing down your metabolism, which is the opposite of what you want. Skipping meals is also not an excuse to eat junk and “empty calories,” meaning it’s important to continue to focus on consuming a nutrient-dense diet.

 

Here are some foods to emphasize when you’re not fasting and within your eating window, all of which tend to be filling plus full of nutrients: