What is Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular trends in health and fitness.

Intermittent fasting has many benefits, and a lot of ways to implement it.

It can help with weighloss, muscle growth, health benefits and much more.

The trend has gained traction in recent years, and because of that, many new scientific papers are coming out that support it.

What exactly is Intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is quite simply regulating what times you eat, thats it!

Specifically, intermittent fasting is a term for a wide variety of diets, that regulate your eating periods.

This is what sets intermittent fasting apart from what we traditionally know as a diet. It dosent say anything about what you should eat, only when.

All intermittent fasting diets break down into eating periodes, and fasting periods. The popular 16-8 method is called that, because it has a 16 hour fasting period, and a 8 hour eating period.

The Idea Behind Why it Works

Intermittent fasting works because we humans were used to eating scarcely in the past. Our stomachs developed to perform at peak, even if it had been hours since you last ate. It’s only recently that we have been fortunate enough to be able to eat whenever we want, and the western tradition of breakfast, supper and dinner followed. However, the theory goes, evolution hasent quite caught up with that convention yet. Because of that, IF proposes that your body would still prefer to do physical work, on an almost empty stomach.

The most popular ways of doing Intermittent Fasting

The most well known fasts are also the most well documented, while there are many ways to do it, these are the most common, and those with the most litterature and content about them. We recommend these, as they are all beginner friendly and easy to keep track of.

16-8

The most well known method. In the 16-8 method you slice up your day into a 16 hour fasting period, and a 8 hour eating period.

During the eating period you are allowed to each however many meals you want. You can go anywhere from 1 – 10, or even beyond! What you eat isent a focus of the diet, but sticking to a healthy diet will help you. This method is also often combined with the ketogenic diet.

You can also modify the 16-8 to fit your specific needs. For example some people find weight loss easier if they reduce the fasting period to 15 hours. You can also extend the fast and have a split of 18-6.

Alternate day fasting

With alternate day fasting you alternate days of fasting. For example some people do whole 24 hours fasts without eating, while some heavily restrict calorie intake.

This is a more extreme version of the 5:2 diet, so it is recommended to start with that diet before trying this one out.

5:2

This diet splits your days into 5 normal days, and 2 fasting days. The fasting days have to be apart from one another, and cant be consecutive.

There are different versions of this diet, some where you only consome a limited amount of calories during the fast, and some where you dont eat at all.

Health benefits

Adopting IF brings with it a plethora of positive changes. These are are just some of the many benefits that IF has been proven to provide.

Effect on your cells

The real magic of IF happens right down at the cellular level. When fasted, your body undergo a variety of changes, science has shown.

Cell clean-up

When you fast, your body undergoes a variety of cellular repairs.(1)

Healthy gut microbiome

There is growing evidence that IF helps to regulate your intestinal microflora, otherwise known as your gut bacteria. A healthy gut helps to regulate a wide variety of bodily functions, like mood or sugar crawings.(2)

Improved insulin resistance

Many studies have now shown that IF has a positive effect on people suffering from diabetes

Incredible Weight Loss with Intermittent Fasting

If you are trying to lose weight Intermittent Fasting could be a silver bullet. Intermittent fasting helps with weight loss in many ways. The most prominent of these are

• Reducing calorie intake
• Changing hormone levels, and releasing fat burning hormones
• Increasing your metabolism (3)

Intermittent fasting therefor not only helps you eat less, but also helps you burn fat in a healthy way.

Studies have shown that adopting Intermittent fasting will lead to an average weight loss in the range of 4 – 10% (4, 5)

The most important way that IF helps in weight loss is the reduction of calorie intake. Eating less carbs may sound hard, but over time, your body will adapt to the changes, and you wont feel hungry anymore.

This can also lead to a reduction in cravings, as sticking to a diet like IF, helps build self discipline. Training your ability to say “No!”

Lean gains

One of the most attractive benefits of IF is that the diet can help you maintain muscle mass while cutting down your portions.

Unlike most diets, IF allows you to maintain muscle mass while reducing body fat. Most diets have you losing both.

Studies have shown that intermittent calorie reduction, like IF is, actually has the same effects as continuous calorie reduction. This means that IF performs just as well as a traditional diet where you cut down on fats and sugars. (6)

The good part is, that in the studies of continous calorie reduction, the participants lost 25% of their muscle mass. The participants who did IF, only lost 10%!

How to succeed with Intermittent Fasting

Getting started with IF is a lot more simple than you might think. You have probably even done some intermittent fasting in your life already, if you have ever skipped breakfast. There are some key things to keep in mind if you are starting out with a planned IF diet.

Calories are still calories. Just because you can eat whatever you want during the eating periods, dosent mean that what you eat wont have an effect on your results. We recommend eating high quality foods, plenty of vegetables and a low amount of sugar while intermittently fasting. We also recommend the Ketogenic diet for those looking for massive weight loss.

Last but not least, consistence and patience. Rome wasent built in a day and the results of IF might take a few weeks to truely show.

Bottom line

Intermittent fasting is a healthy diet, and for some even, a lifestyle. It can help most people achive their goals of losing weight, and achieving greater muscle mass at the same time. IF is safe for most people to try too.

If Intermittent fasting feels right for you, then it probably is just that.