“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”.
This has to be one of the craziest, yet most famous myths of all time, and with the increased number of people looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting has become famous also, only it isn’t a myth.
Intermittent fasting is a type of eating pattern that requires you to schedule between meals, when or what time you’ll eat, and when to fast.
The idea of breakfasts as the most important meal of the day is steamed mostly on its necessity for children between the age of 0 – 19 because, at these ages, they need all the energy, vitamins, and nutrients as their bodies are still developing.
While intermittent fasting, is steamed from the fact that our bodies evolve to the extent that they can go without food for many hours or even days, so missing a meal won’t make you less energized to carry out your daily activities.
Many have claimed that fasting and only eating within a specific timeframe have been an effective and fun way to lose weight loss because while other weight loss programs like dieting could be restrictive, intermittent fasting is more flexible as it’s only concerned about what time you eat and not what you eat.
However, some dispute these claims, as ineffective and unsustainable, hence the big question: Does intermittent fasting work?
In this article, we’ve provided answers, along with a list of some benefits of intermittent fasting, and how you can create a personal intermittent fasting schedule. Keep reading!
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
As we’ve said already, intermittent fasting is a type of eating strategy that involves restricting how many times you eat daily to a specific time window. That is, for the rest of the day you’re fasting, only to eat at specific times of the day.
For example, you may decide to fast for 16 out of 24 hours, and eat within the remaining 8 hours, or to skip eating for the full 24 hours and eat the next day.
There are several intermittent fasting plans, regardless though, they’re all based on deciding on a specific period of fasting and eating.
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
In the past, fasting was associated with spiritual activity, but recently, with a lot of research being carried out, intermittent fasting has been linked to so many health benefits, such as:
- Improve Heart Health
With limited time for eating, your heart has lesser time to work on metabolizing food and more resting time, hence, your blood pressure isn’t on the rise, and this is a natural remedy if you have the potential of developing any heart-related problems.
- Manages Calorie Intake
Intermittent fasting is a good way to keep track of how many calories you consume if you’re on a calorie deficit or want to lose weight because, within the short window period of eating, you’re more likely to eat what you need than what you want.
- Great for Cognitive Functions
Based on some experiments carried out on mice, intermittent fasting helps prevent short-term and long-term memory loss.
- Improves General Health
Much research that has been carried out on the topic showed that intermittent fasting helped obese patients lose weight, decrease their blood sugar levels and perform better physically as they become lightweight.
Some studies suggest that intermittent fasting can be great for people with type 2 diabetes. Under the supervision of their doctors, they may be able to reverse their need for insulin therapy as intermittent fasting lowers blood sugar levels, and also reduces insulin resistance, hence making it easier for your body to use insulin to break down whatever glucose you consume.
How to create a personal Intermittent Fasting Schedule
Several intermittent fasting plans exist, but you only need to pick the one you can stick to.
Creating a personal intermittent fasting schedule will require you to pick one out of the many that exist, that fits into your lifestyle and health condition. Here are some of the popular intermittent fasting plans you can pick from:
- 16:8 Plan
The 16:8 plan is the most popular. If you’re a breakfast person, sticking to this plan may be a lot more difficult as it involves skipping breakfast.
“16:8” stands for the time you’re required to fast and your open eating window. That is, you fast for 16 hours, counting from your last meal, and have only an 8-hour open window to eat.
For instance, say you had your meal of the day at 7 pm, your next meal would be at 11 am the next day, and so your open window would be from 11 am to 7 pm.
So if you’re the type of person to eat a pre-workout meal before working out, this is not the plan for you, unless you’re ready to compromise.
- 5:2 Plan
Just as the 16:8 plan, “5:2” also signifies the fasting period and your eating window, only this time you eat normally for 5 days instead of hours, and the next 2 days, you’re expected to cut out 20% of your normal calorie intake.
Compared to the first plan, this is a more difficult plan as if you lack discipline, you’ll end up eating for the remaining 2 days, just as you did for the 5 days.
However, this is a suitable plan if you want to track your calorie intake less strictly and lose some weight in the process.
- 14:10 Plan
This plan can be seen as an alternative to the 16:8 plan.
Instead of fasting for 16 hours, with this plan, you fast for 14 hours and have a 10 hours open eating window. So if your last meal was at 7 pm, your next meal would be by 9 am, and from 9 am to 7 pm, you have an open eating window.
This is a convenient plan if you can’t skip breakfast.
- Eat-Stop-Eat Plan
This is a more restrictive plan, as it involves eating only once a day. it’s a full 24 hours fast plan. that is, if your last meal was at 7 pm, your next meal will be by 7 pm the next day and you would do this once or twice a week.
Although it’s an effective plan if you want to lose weight, it’s however risky if you have a health problem and may be too strict for some people.
What to Eat When Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting allows you to eat whatever you want to, hence why it’s the most preferred “diet” option, but during the period of fasting, you can take water, coffee, or tea.
FAQ
Does Intermittent Fasting Work for Everyone
While intermittent fasting offers great benefits, it may not be a good choice for a certain category of people such as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, fragile people, people who need to take medications more than once daily, and diabetics who need to eat 2 – 3 times daily.
Does Intermittent Fasting Work Without Exercise
If your goal is to lose weight with intermittent fasting, it’s possible, provided you watch your calorie intake.
Does Intermittent Fasting Work for Belly Fat
Belly fat is one of the hardest types of body fat to lose, and although intermittent fasting can help with weight loss, research has proven that this is different for belly fat.
Instead of losing belly fat with intermittent fasting, it becomes resistant to fat breakdown. Therefore, it’s advisable to incorporate some muscle-strengthening exercises such as planks, while intermittent fasting if you want to lose belly fat.
Takeaway
Missing a meal or two out of your regular eating pattern can be beneficial, as opposed to the belief that you harm your body when you starve it of food.
So to answer the question: does intermittent fasting work?
The answer is yes, although this isn’t true for everyone. Under certain medical conditions, intermittent fasting isn’t recommended, hence it’s advisable to seek your doctor’s consent before deciding to intermittent fast and while creating your intermittent fasting schedule.
Sources
Intermittent Fasting: What is it, and how does it work? | John Hopkins Medicine http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org
6 Popular Intermittent Fasting Schedules For Beginners www.womenshealthmag.com
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