What is Intermittent Fasting? Diet, Weight Loss, & Benefits

Suppose I tell you, you could eat your favorite foods and still lose weight. Unbelievable! Isn’t it? But that is possible. Let’s discover how!

Early humans were hunters and gatherers who refined the capacity to survive for a long time without food before learning how to plant crops. Hunting wildlife and collecting berries and nuts require much time and effort.

Further, there was no internet, TV shows ended at 11 p.m., and people ceased dining as they were going to bed. The portions were substantially smaller. More people were exercising and working outside.

With the internet, TV, and other forms of entertainment readily available around-the-clock, many youngsters and adults stay up later to watch TV, browse social media, play games, and chat online.

That may entail spending most of the night and the entire day sitting down and munching. Less exercise and more calories can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other disorders.

But here we are to get you with the solution! Intermittent fasting is what it is.

Intermittent fasting is a type of eating pattern where regular meals are paired with periods of fasting. It can aid in weight management and potentially halt or prevent several ailments.

The approach works for most individuals since you can eat whatever you want within your eating windows.

But how do you go about it? Is it safe, too? Let’s dive deep into it!

While many approaches focus on what to eat, intermittent fasting merely considers when to eat. Following an intermittent fasting schedule, you only eat during the designated hours.

According to research, eating only one meal a few days a week or fasting for a specific number of hours daily may be a healthy pattern.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a type of eating that involves staying for a while without any calories. Usually, this period lasts between 12 and 40 hours. Just water, tea, and other calorie-free liquids are permitted during the fast; nothing with calories is permitted.

For instance, if you finish your meal on Monday at 8 p.m. and don’t consume again until Tuesday at 8 p.m., you’ve completed a 24-hour fast.

Many people decide to go without food from lunch to lunch; or from breakfast to breakfast. But each person has a different preferred time frame.

It’s typically not advised for beginners to engage in a full 24-hour fast every other day because it can seem severe and challenging for many people to sustain. You don’t have to start completely; many intermittent fasting plans begin with shorter fasts.

Myth Buster: Contrary to popular perception, consuming more frequently and in smaller portions does not speed up your metabolism. Consuming three 1,000-calorie meals and six 500-calorie meals had the same impact on weight loss.

Intermittent Fasting Patterns

There are many different ways to apply intermittent fasting, but they all require splitting the day or week into eating and fasting periods.

During the fasting periods, you either eat very little or nothing at all.

The top 5 eating styles for incorporating intermittent fasting into your diet are listed below:

• The 16/8 technique: The Leangains strategy, often known as skipping breakfast, calls for limiting your daily eating window to eight hours, such as from 1 to 9 p.m. After that, you observe a 16-hour fast.
• The 5:2 diet: The 5:2 diet calls for eating normally five days a week while limiting your caloric intake to 500–600 calories on the other two.
• Eat Stop Eat: You can sometimes have an Eat Stop Eat that comprises a 24-hour fast.
• Alternate-day fasting: The idea behind alternate-day fasting is to go without food every other day.
• The Warrior Diet: The Warrior Diet was one of the earliest well-known diets incorporating intermittent fasting. It entails eating snippets of raw fruits and vegetables throughout the day and a substantial meal at night.

So, which intermittent fasting program is most effective for losing weight?Whatever one you choose to follow, though!

How to succeed with an intermittent fasting protocol ?

If you wish to reduce weight with intermittent fasting, you should keep the following in mind:

• Food quality: Even now, what you eat matters. Make an effort to consume a lot of whole, simple foods.
• Calories: Calories continue to matter. When you are not fasting, try to eat normally, but not so much that you make up for the lost calories.
• Consistency: You must commit to it for a long time if you want it to be effective, similar to any other weight loss strategy.
• Patience: Adjusting your body to intermittent fasting can take some time. It will become simpler if you stick to a regular mealtime plan.

What can you consume during fasting period?

In that gap, you can have water, and zero-calorie beverages, such as black coffee and tea.

Most well-known intermittent fasting methods also advocate for physical activity like strength training. If you want to burn body fat primarily while preserving your muscle mass, this is crucial.

Calorie counting is typically not necessary while starting an intermittent fast. Nonetheless, calorie counting might be helpful if your weight loss starts to slow down.

Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Why would someone choose this diet over a typical one, like low carb or fat? Others claim that fasting offers several health advantages.

The evidence available so far supports the value of intermittent fasting as a way to reduce weight, control blood sugar, and slow down aging.

Here are a few advantages of intermittent fasting that may spark interest if you consider it yourself.

1. Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss

Intermittent fasting is a strategy used to control weight and sustain metabolic health. A person’s state of metabolic health reflects how well their body can use or assimilate energy.

Intermittent fasting is frequently used by those who want to lose weight. You generally consume fewer meals when you practice intermittent fasting.

A calorie deficit is when your body has fewer calories than it requires to maintain your current weight. This can happen when you fast or go without eating. Hence, most weight loss regimens are based on calorie restriction, such as fasting.

Intermittent fasting also improves hormone activity to aid in weight loss. Because of this, short-term fasting actually helps you burn more calories by raising your metabolic rate.

Intermittent fasting, therefore, affects both sides of the calorie equation.

It improves calorie expenditure (metabolic rate) while decreasing food intake (reduces calorie intake).

An analysis of the scientific literature from 2014 found that intermittent fasting can result in 3-8% weight loss over 3–24 weeks.

It’s a significant sum!

2. Intermittent Fasting is a Sustainable Lifestyle Change

Although it may seem frightening and difficult, intermittent fasting is relatively easy. Since fewer meals must be planned, you might even discover that fasting simplifies your day.

Also, it doesn’t usually call for calorie counting, macro monitoring, eating meals you might not normally eat, or avoiding meals you would otherwise love.

For instance, one method of intermittent fasting is to eat dinner early and then wake up late. You have technically fasted for 16 hours if you complete your last meal at 8 p.m. and don’t eat again until noon the following day.

3. Intermittent Fasting for Inflammation

The body uses inflammation as one of its defense mechanisms against infection, but excessive inflammation can result in several disorders.

According to experts, excessive inflammation is a common problem among those who eat too much and too frequently. Diets that revolve around intermittent fasting are now widespread.

Intermittent fasting lowers inflammation, which causes several illnesses like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel syndrome.

4. Intermittent Fasting Reduce Oxidative Stress

Oxidative stress is a significant consequence of interest concerning obesity because it can worsen and/or accelerate the development of metabolic-related problems.

One factor contributing to aging and many chronic diseases is oxidative stress. Free radicals, inherently dangerous chemicals, are involved.

Reactions between free radicals and these molecules harm other crucial components, like protein and DNA. Several studies show intermittent fasting may enhance the body’s resistance to oxidative stress.

5. Intermittent Fasting is  for Heart Health

Heart disease is currently the primary reason for death worldwide. It is well known that several health parameters, or “risk factors,” can either increase or decrease the likelihood of getting heart disease.

Intermittent fasting can reduce the number of risk factors, including glucose levels, overall and LDL (bad) cholesterol, and systemic inflammation.

Thus not necessarily cure heart problems, but yes, intermittent fasting guards your heart from risks in the long term.

6. Intermittent Fasting for Brain Health

Often, what is excellent for the body also benefits the intellect.

Intermittent fasting enhances several metabolic pathways that are important for brain function.

According to recent studies and medical experiments, prolonged fasting regimens continued over months or even years may also improve memory, organizational performance, and overall cognition.

Many neurotransmitters related to focus, cognition, awareness, and memory have higher levels while we are hungry. Increasing ketone generation, reducing insulin levels, and markedly enhancing insulin responsiveness benefits the brain.

Fasting-induced increases in ketone levels may also better fuel the brain, resulting in improved memory function and learning, emotional decision-making, and sensory integration.

Myth Buster: You don’t require a steady daily glucose intake because your body can make glucose on its own to fuel your brain. Your body may create ketone bodies (energy sources) from dietary fats even when starving, fasting for extended periods, or following an extremely low-carb diet.

7. Intermittent Fasting for Insulin Sensitivity

Patients with diabetes experience reduced insulin sensitivity, which also declines with aging naturally.

Intermittent fasting contributes to reduced levels of flowing insulin in the blood, which improves the responsiveness of insulin receptors and upregulates the insulin pathway, enhancing the uptake and usage of glucose by cells.

When you eat, your insulin levels rise; when you fast, they fall sharply. Reduced insulin levels promote fat burning.

While its impact on insulin levels may encourage weight loss, which many individuals aim to do, it may also have many other potent advantages for the body.

8. Intermittent Fasting Lowers Cholesterol

With a low-fat diet, you are supplying your body with sugar rather than fat. Hence, the body burns sugar instead of fat.

Your body will change to burn fat if you follow a low-carb diet. LDL cholesterol levels drop by roughly 25% while fasting. This occurs because the body moves to burn fat for energy during a fast.

Making your body burn off LDL is the best approach to lowering it, and intermittent fasting is the way to burn fat from your body.

9. Intermittent Fasting for Digestion

The body gets a break from continuously processing or handling all the food we eat when we fast intermittently. This intermission may prevent people from feeling overstuffed or bloated.

Taking away the chance to eat mindlessly at night can prevent digestion from disturbing your sleep.

Also, fasting can help people pay more attention to their hunger and fullness sensations, which can be easy to ignore when there are no time constraints on when we eat and when we don’t.

Further, by removing the burden of prolonged meal digestion, fasting enables the body’s enzyme system to concentrate on quickly and effectively eliminating toxins from the body. Toxins circulate throughout the body during fasts to help our organs neutralize.

10. Intermittent Fasting to Avoid Munching Habit

Intermittent fasting can be a helpful restraint if you spend all your attention on eating appropriately during the workday but then binge while not in the office.

Some people find that adhering to intermittent fasting prevents them from mindlessly snacking late at night or overindulging in appetizers during happy hour.

You won’t be tempted if you do it correctly since you’ll be so full.

11. Intermittent Fasting Helps You Get Rid of Counting Calories

Intermittent fasting may help you reach your objectives if you’ve previously employed calorie- or macro-counting to lose weight—without all the meal tracking and math calculations.

The allure of intermittent fasting is that you can eat till you’re full during your eating window rather than having to cut out entire food groups or keep track of calories.

Please don’t burden your belly with fried and high-calorie stuff during the eating period. Be mindful, and eat nutritious food. Picking leafy grains, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats will solve your purpose! You can also opt for  Aashirward Sugar Release Control Atta and Aashirward’s Multi Millet Mix rotis to boost your intake of optimum nutrients.

CAUTION/ Precautions before adopting Intermittent fasting

In general, intermittent fasting is regarded as secure. Therefore, it is essential to proceed with precaution when adopting or prolonging the dietary plan. For the following people, limiting your calorie intake over an extended period may be harmful:

• those who have diabetes;
• those who are pregnant or nursing;
• those who are on certain drugs;
• those who have a history of weight disorder

Please consult a qualified healthcare provider before starting intermittent fasting or making any other significant dietary adjustments to ensure that you do it safely.

How Long to Wait Before Seeing Weight Loss Results?

Results, results, results! Every time you log into social media, you witness someone’s incredible success from intermittent fasting. You might also ponder how long it took them to achieve their accomplishment.

Many people try fasting, don’t see results right away, and give up because they don’t realize there are benefits besides weight reduction that are taking place.

Your motivation and long-term success depend on you being aware of the changes intermittent fasting entails and when they will happen.

So wait until you give up! Maybe you are close to winning the race.

Possible Reasons for Not Seeing Change

These may be the causes if you’ve tried intermittent fasting for at least 30 days and haven’t seen any results:

• Inadequate fasting duration: Increase the duration of each day’s fast. Attempt a few 24- to 48-hour fasts during the month.
• Not drinking enough water: Increase your water consumption because you aren’t getting it from food.
• Daily alcohol consumption: Following a night of drinking, the body can take up to 72 hours to resume fat burning.
• More Processed Food: Choosing processed foods and carbohydrates that are less nutrient-dense over wholesome fats, lean proteins, and veggies. Consuming the same calories as before intermittent fasting, all within the eating window.
• Insufficient Calories: Yes, at times, insufficient calories can harm. Consuming insufficient calories during feasting: Even if you don’t feel hungry, don’t drastically reduce calories. This might lead to overeating during the subsequent meal.
• Selecting the incorrect intermittent fasting strategy for your lifestyle: You must choose the intermittent fasting technique that best fits your demands and way of life from the many available options.
• Getting insufficient sleep
• Excessive exercise
• No or very less physical movement

The weight didn’t appear overnight and won’t vanish instantly either. There is no quick fix or miraculous treatment for intermittent fasting.

It ought to be seen as a novel, healthy way of life, and novel things require time, experimentation, and adaptation.

Your goals are attainable if you are committed to this lifestyle and realistic.

Myth Buster: Limit how much water you consume during the fasting window. No, limiting water is a bad idea. It would be best if you actually were mindful of drinking more water since many people do so during meals, and when you aren’t eating, you can forget that you still need to down that glass of water.

Key Takeaway

Your body will receive a signal from intermittent fasting that you are starting over, clearing away the old and bringing in the new.

It is the ideal approach to incorporating new nutritious foods and practices into your life.

It can help you get off to a good start, improve your clarity, and free up your body so you can progress things in the right way.

Make a resolution to give your digestive system a break once in a while.

A person should attempt to eat a balanced diet high in protein, fiber, fruits, and vegetables when fasting, even though they do not necessarily need to eliminate particular foods.

Also, it’s crucial to consume lots of calorie-free or low-calorie liquids.

Although the ordinary individual is likely to have few or no adverse effects from fasting, those with specific medical issues or who use particular medications should speak with their doctor first. 

Frequently Asked Questions