Have you heard of intermittent fasting? This is one of the latest trends in healthy eating. However, there is a very good reason for this. This pattern of eating really works. Not only will it help you maintain your weight but it may also leave you with significantly higher energy levels and improve your overall health. For more information about the latest health news and information, you can visit Consumer Health Review.
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
As the name indicates intermittent fasting refers to the pattern of eating where you commit to not eating at certain times of the day and only having a couple of designated hours in which you can eat. This seems contrary to all the advice you have ever heard which states that you need to eat three square meals every day. Unlike other eating plans, intermittent fasting is not seen as a diet. This is because you are not avoiding or restricting any of the foods you eat. The only thing you need to do is make sure that you start eating at a certain time in the day and then avoid eating anything else after your cut off point.
Health Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
- Helps to lower levels of glucose in the blood
- Increased levels of human growth hormones, which help you burn fat while building muscles
- Improves your cells ability to repair themselves
- Can significantly improve your metabolic rate
- Specifically targets the breakdown of belly fat
- Reduces insulin resistance
- Lowers your risk for developing type-2 diabetes
- Can help your body fight off inflammation
- Helps your body to resist the damage caused by free radicals in the environment
- Lowers levels of LDL Cholesterol
- Reduces the risk for developing heart disease
- Helps the body metabolize wastes and toxins
- It can help your body regulate the growth of pre cancerous cells
- Improves blood flow to the brain
- Increases levels of a brain hormone called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
- May help to protect you from neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
- Could help you live longer
A Quick Guide To Intermittent Fasting
16/8 Protocol
When you practice intermittent fasting there are a few different ways to do it. The most popular schedule to follow when adopting this new method of eating is the 16/8 protocol. When you choose this protocol, you are committing to fasting for sixteen hours each day and you have an eight-hour window in which you eat. Therefore, you can decide to fast until noon every day and then you can eat until eight at night. This means that you will be skipping breakfast each day. However, you do not have to stick to those hours. You can choose to eat from six pm until 2 am. The beauty of intermittent fasting is that you can choose the hours that suit you.
24 Hour Protocol
In this option you can eat as you normally would, however, you fast for 24 hours on alternate days. So on a Monday you would eat as you usually do, breakfast lunch and dinner. Then after dinner, you stop eating at a certain time for twenty-four hours. Then the next day you have your first meal exactly 24 hours after your previous meal. So if you finish your dinner at seven pm you can have your next meal at seven pm the next day. If you choose this protocol, you will be eating on one day and fasting the next day. This pattern can be repeated indefinitely.
The Negatives Of Intermittent Fasting
- You suppress your hunger reducing hormones- when you practice fasting for an extended period of time your body will stop producing the hormones, which are, responsible for your hunger cues. This means that you will feel hungry more often and have trouble feeling satisfied when you do eat.
- May cause an imbalance to your reproductive hormones– eating regularly may cause your estrogen and testosterone levels to be out of balance.
- Stress and insomnia- because you are not eating according to the norm, your body will go into distress and leave you struggling to sleep.