Intermittent Fasting methods and benefits

Many people across the world have become health conscious and they wish to simplify the process of finding a healthy diet. Well, Intermittent fasting is one of the simplest and easiest ways of losing weight and thus helps in improving overall health.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a type of diet that concentrates on what you should eat rather than what you should consume. It simply means an eating pattern that allows you to alternate between eating and fasting on a schedule. This procedure has become widely popular among young people and many other people around the world.

Intermittent fasting can be ultimately a powerful tool for weight loss and offer numerous health benefits apart from helping you to lose weight. It gives you a more efficient metabolism, a sharper mind, and even a longer life. However, this isn't a single method to follow, there are several different methods too fast which make it tough to know where to start or which plan works great for you. Let's look at various diet plans such as the intermittent fasting diet plan in India.

If you want to try the best one or are curious about the methods to find the plan that works great for you, keep reading.

Intermittent fasting diet plan in India:

Here is a diet regimen that can aid in losing weight. It is true that eating less will help you stay healthy. In order to maximize the benefits of meals, intermittent fasting aids in meal planning. The calorie consumption on this diet is the same as it would be on a diet for weight loss. The food composition of intermittent fasting is as follows:

For daily vitamins and minerals, it contains fresh fruits and vegetables.
It contains a lot of protein, a little bit of carbohydrate, and some mild fat.
Whole-grain products like cereal, millets, and fruits high in fiber are good choices because they promote weight loss.
Lean meat, fish, and eggs are essential when it comes to high-quality proteins, such as low-fat milk and its byproducts.
drinking 2-4 liters of water each day.

The transition from a regular eating pattern to an intermittent diet pattern is thus gradual. You can alter this approach until you attain the diet you ultimately want.

Types of Intermittent Fasting

1) The 16/8 Method

The 16/8 method also called lean gains protocol, involves skipping breakfast and restricting your eating period only for 8 hours then fasting for the remaining 16 hours of the day.

This method is completely simple and very easy to do, all you need to do is skip your breakfast and do not eat anything after your dinner.

For example, if you finish your last meal at 8 pm and don't eat until noon the next day, you're technically fasting for about 16 hours in a day. This method seems hard for the people who get hungry in the morning and like to eat breakfast. However, many breakfast skippers instinctively eat this way.

Instead of having solid foods, you can drink liquids like coffee, water, and other zero-calorie beverages which might help you to reduce the feelings of hunger in the morning.

Well, it’s quite important to eat healthy during your eating window. Because this method doesn’t work if you eat a lot of processed food or food that has excessive calories. It is one of my best intermittent fasting diet plans in India.

2) Eat Stop Eat

Eat stop eat method involves 24 hours of fasting once or twice a week. Simply means, you must starve yourself from Solids dinner one day to dinner the next day amounts to a full 24 hour fast.

Simply, if you finish your dinner at 7 pm, then don’t eat until Monday dinner at 7 pm. You can also do fast from breakfast to breakfast or lunch to lunch, well the results will be shown the same.

You can have liquids like water, coffee, and other zero-calorie beverages during the fast, but no solid foods are permitted.

If you’re doing this to manage your weight, it’s very important to stick to a particular diet during the eating periods. However, you don’t need to go all in the right way, it’s fine to start with 14-16 hours and then move upward from there.

3) The Warrior Diet

The warrior diet involves eating small amounts of raw fruits and vegetables during the day and eating one huge meal at night. This simply means you will fast all day long and feast at night within a 4-hour eating window.

Warrior diet is considered to be one of the first popular diets to include a form of intermittent fasting. Try to avoid unprocessed foods when following this method to see some good results within short periods.

4) Alternate Day Fasting

This simply means you will fast every other day. But, it’s not recommended for beginners because a full fast every other day can seem extreme. Including this method in your diet might take you to bed very hungry several times a week, which is not very pleasant and probably unsustainable in the long run. Again, it is one of the most widely used intermittent fasting diet plans in India.

5) The 5:2 Method

The 5:2 diet involves eating what you typically eat in the 5 days of the week and restricting your calorie intake to 500-600 for 2 days of the week. This diet is also known as the fast diet and on the fasting days of this method, it’s not recommended that women eat 500 calories and men eat 600 calories.

This is one of the most effective methods to follow when you aim to lose weight.

6) Spontaneous Fasting

You don’t need to follow a certain intermittent fasting plan to reap the benefits of it. You can simply skip meals from time to time, such as when you are not in a mood to cook or when you’re extremely busy with other work.

However, some people eat every few hours left to allow themselves to stay in starvation mode or to lose muscles. Whereas other bodies are well equipped to handle long periods and can miss one or two meals from time to time.

So, if you’re not hungry one day, skip breakfast and eat healthy lunch and dinner. Skipping one or two meals when you feel inclined to do so is spontaneous intermittent fasting. Just make sure to eat a healthy and well-balanced diet.

Intermittent fasting vs keto:

Black coffee, unsweetened teas, and other calorie-free beverages are often acceptable during intermittent fasting, which is a term used to describe prolonged periods of time, usually 14 hours or longer. Most people associate the phrase intermittent fasting with "time restricted eating," which is what happens when this happens consistently throughout the day. Although there are many different variations of intermittent fasting, we'll concentrate on this one today because it's the most common.The ketogenic diet, in contrast, encourages restricting carbohydrates rather than time, along with consuming lots of fat. This dietary strategy's main objective is to enter and maintain a state of ketosis, a metabolic condition characterized by high quantities of ketone bodies in the blood or urine.

How are intermittent fasting and keto similar?

The brain receives more energy in the form of ketones through physiological ketosis. A typical reaction to low glucose availability, such as from fasting or low-carbohydrate diets, is ketosis.

Therefore, this pathway and its numerous positive effects are shared by both ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting. Being in a state of ketosis or using ketones as a fuel both have obvious benefits. First, when compared to glucose, ketones cause the mitochondria to produce more energy (ATP). Second, compared to energy generated through glucose routes, this pathway produces cleaner energy. This indicates that when we are in a state of ketosis or have high quantities of ketones in our blood, the cells and organs undergo less oxidative stress. Third, being in a state of ketosis may lead to benefits in our mental, physical, and metabolic functions. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that both methods can increase an animal's lifespan. Therefore, when it comes to intermittent fasting vs Keto, there isn't something that’s the best. It completely depends on the body type and weight goals.

Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting

There are many powerful and positive benefits of intermittent fasting in both human and animal studies. Below are a handful of health benefits from intermittent fasting.

1) Helps In Weight Loss

Weight loss is one of the major benefits of intermittent fasting, it also helps in improving your metabolic rate and increases growth hormone levels. Intermittent fasting also helps in lowering insulin levels and helps you consume fewer calories.

2) Improves Your Heart Health

Involving in intermittent fasting has been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol, blood sugar, blood triglycerides, and blood pressure levels. However, these are all risk factors for heart diseases.

3) Boosts Brain Function

According to a study in 2018 of intermittent fasting, it has been found that it may help protect against the decline in memory that comes with age. However, the study was done only on animals, though it’s still unclear whether the benefit holds for humans.

4) Reduces Inflammation

Many studies have shown that fasting contributes to a reduction of inflammation markers which are considered to be key causes of several chronic diseases.

5) Works For Anti-Ageing

In a study conducted on rats and fasting, those that fasted lived nearly 83% longer than those rats that didn’t fast. It clearly shows that fasting helped extend the lifespan of those rats.

Frequently asked questions:

Will intermittent fasting reduce belly fat?

Summary While assisting you in consuming fewer calories, intermittent fasting may somewhat increase metabolism. It is a very powerful method for reducing weight and belly fat. Intermittent fasting has been the subject of numerous investigations in both humans and animals.

Which intermittent fasting loses the most weight?

The 16:8 method is considered the easiest intermittent fasting method for weight loss. It has several benefits apart from weight loss such as it reduces inflammation, has anti-aging effects and improving blood sugar levels.

Is intermittent fasting good for diabetics?

According to several studies, individuals who have diabetes may benefit from fasting. However, it is not a widely used treatment. The American Diabetes Association does not advise fasting as a method of controlling diabetes. The group cites lifestyle modifications, such as increased physical activity and medical nutrition therapy, as the cornerstones of successful weight loss and diabetes management.

References:

Mo'ez Al-Islam” E.FarisabSafiaKacimicRef'at A.Al-KurdbMohammad A.FararjehdYasser K.BustanjicMohammad K.MohammadcMohammad L.Saleme

Intermittent fasting and caloric restriction have been shown to extend life expectancy and reduce inflammation and cancer promotion in animal models.

N M Byrne,,* A Sainsbury, N A King, A P Hills, R E Wood

The MATADOR (Minimizing Adaptive Thermogenesis And Deactivating Obesity Rebound) study examined whether intermittent energy restriction (ER) improved weight loss efficiency compared with continuous ER

Mark P.MattsonabValter D.LongocMichelleHarvied

Humans in modern societies typically consume food at least three times daily, while laboratory animals are fed ad libitum.