Beginner's Guide to Intermittent Fasting

in life •  7 years ago 

Unknown.jpg
I have been intermittent fasting myself for over 4 months now although i never used to skip breakfast until i heard about fasting because i had a strong believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Surprisingly, since I’ve started intermittent fasting i feel way more energetic in the morning and can easily keep up my focus what used to be very difficult for me.

There are tons of other health benefits so i am going to break intermittent fasting down and give you a little overview of some methods you can use to try it yourself if you want to after reading this post.

Intermittent fasting has been very popular in recent years.

Eating 500 calories 1 to 2 days a week or going 12 to 18 hours a day without food....so it's more a dieting pattern than a real diet. It’s more a way of scheduling your meals so that you get the most out of them. You don’t even have to change WHAT you eat more WHEN you eat.

Science says it can help you lose weight (because a smaller eating window means less calories are consumed over the day) but even better research has shown that intermittent fasting improves blood sugar levels, a decreased risk of heart disease and cancer and according to some neuroscientist it might help your brain ward off neurogenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson. Besides that it can improve your mood and memory.

….and by the way it perhaps even extend lifespan so maybe you want to give it a try.

Additionally, intermittent fasting is a good way to keep muscle mass on while getting lean without going on a crazy diet or cutting calories down to almost nothing. The main reason people try to fast is to lose some fat so this might be on of the simplest strategies for taking bad weight off while keeping good weight on because it requires very little change of behavior.

Examples of Different Intermittent Fasting Schedules

If you want to giving fasting a shot, there a different options and i guess there is at least one that fits your lifestyle.

Daily Intermittent Fasting

This method uses a 16-hour fast followed by an 8-hour eating window which makes it pretty easy to fast on a daily basis in my opinion. It doesn’t matter when you start your eating period do whatever works best for you. Because the fasting is done every day it becomes very easy to make eating on a schedule a habit. You may eat around the same time every day without thinking about it and with daily intermittent fasting you just learn to not eat at certain times or skip breakfast.
leangains-daily-intermittent-fasting.jpg

Alternate Day Intermittent Fasting

That means you incorporate longer fasting periods on alternating days throughout the week.

For example, you eat dinner on Monday night and then don’t eat until Tuesday evening. On Wednesday you would eat normal all day and then start another 24-hour fasting cycle again after dinner on Wednesday evening. This allows a long fasting period on a consistent basis while eating at least one meal every day.

The benefits are that it gives you a longer time in a fasted state then the 16/8 method but from what i have seen it is not that popular.

The 5:2 Diet: Fast for 2 days per week

As you can imagine the 5:2 diet involves eating normal for 5 days of the week and restrict calories to 500-600 on the other 2 days.

For example, you eat normally on all days except Monday and Friday, where you eat a small meal with only 500 calories.

Also a pretty easy way to get into intermittent fasting.

I honestly think that the mental barriers are the biggest thing that prevents people from trying to fast because it is really not that hard to practice it.
So don’t worry you do not die if you don’t eat for 24 hours!!

Give it a try an maybe you get some astonishing results and accidentally live some years longer who knows…..
Unknown.png

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

I've been doing IF for 6+ months now. Great results so far...

Anyhow, followed :)

i'm glad to hear that it works for you:)

Intermittent fasting is the most powerful way of detoxifying the body that exists.

yeah i love it it feels awesome!!

i will look into this more

yes you should...could be a game changer

Great post. Would like to share. Following now too

thanks i appreciate it!! feel free to share it :)

Good overview - I've been doing a variant of the 5:2 for about 4 years now. I don't eat anything for 24 hours, breaking fast at dinner time around 7pm. In general I've lost some body fat and I feel pretty good for it. I do drink a cup of black coffee in the morning which gives you a terrific boost when fasted.
I've tried recommending fasting to many people but it's difficult to persuade people when the longest they have ever gone without a meal is around 10 hours.

sounds great:)
yeah i definitely agree with you on the black coffee in the morning when in a fasted state that is an enormous energy boost and helps to deal with hunger in my opinion
yeah thats true it can be hard especially when people think they will starve after a day without food :D