The Beginner's Guide to Intermittent Fasting

For those who have never heard of intermittent fasting, this is just a beginners guide, and is no way an extensive information guide on it.  This blog will just cover the bare bones, and if you want to learn more, please either ask me, or feel free to conduct your own research.

Also, I am NOT saying you should do this.  Please this is just for information purposes only.

What is intermittent fasting?  Simply put, it's the act of intermittently not eating any calories, or vastly reducing your calories, for a specific amount of time.  It's not a sustained low calorie diet, it's reducing your eating to a specific time period throughout the day.

Here's a couple of examples of fasting:

                        * Fast for 12 hours (say 8pm - 8am) and eat all your meals between 8am & 8pm.  (This is a pretty mild example).  Let's call this 12:12 (12 hours each)

                        * Fast for 16 hours and only eat during an 8 hour window.  So, finish dinner at 6pm, then eat all your meals between 10am - 6pm next day (Let's call this 16:8).

                        * A 24 hour fast where you eat nothing.  (Perhaps you do this once per month)

                        * The 5:2 diet.  This diet is when you choose 2 days per week and you only eat 500 calories on those days.

                        * Michael Mosley's 800 calorie per day diet.  (Once again, you DO NOT do this everyday.  Only certain days).

So, as you can see, there are various forms of calorie restriction, and they can all fall under the "Intermittent Fasting" Umbrella.

Why Intermittent Fast?  And does it Work?

For anyone who reads articles on the internet or has picked up a health magazine lately, IF (let's call it IF because I can't keep typing Intermittent Fasting) is the new, cool, hip trend people are using to lose weight.  Does IF work? well, in short..... yes.

It's been studied a lot, and the benefits of IF include lower overall weight, better cell regeneration (so anti aging benefits) and lower blood sugars.  Basically, they studied mice using IF.  Mice who were given the exact same amount of calories, but during a small time window (IF) were leaner than those who were fed throughout the day.  Same amount of calories for each mice, but the timing made a difference on their body composition.

In terms of anti aging, scientists have concluded that when the body is in a fasted state, our cells improve their regeneration, removes waste/toxins from our cells and also make our fat stores more readily available.

So, in short, IF can be a really potent strategy for getting rid of stubborn fat stores, but please please don't just jump in blindly because I said so.  Conduct your own research, choose a strategy that would work for you, and if in doubt, consult a nutritionist or dietician.

***AND ALSO ONE LAST THING.  IF doesn't work if you eat too many bloody calories.  It's not a silver bullet. A magic pill. If you fast for 18 hours then eat 3000 calories for lunch, you won't lose weight over time.  You still need to reduce your overall calorie intake for it to work.

If you want further information or if you have any more questions, please reach out.