Intermittent Fasting for Beginners – Overview
Are you seeking out effective ways to lose weight? You may have tried several diet plans with no visible results.
It can often have a distressing effect, but worry not! You may have heard about the term ‘intermittent fasting,’ and it’s pretty effective.
It’s mainly used for weight loss or other health benefits. In a survey in the USA (2020), around 16% of the respondents started a weight loss plan during the new year.
Studies show incredible effects on your body, and you can notice visible benefits from it.
If you perform correctly, then intermittent fasting is pretty simple to adopt. What’s more, you can quickly implement it in your lifestyle.
However, you would wonder what it is exactly, how to perform it, and its benefits. Worry no more!
In this guide for intermittent fasting for beginners, you will learn all about it, including its effects and safety measures.
Hence, let’s start with it.
What’s Intermittent Fasting and Why Should You Do It?
Intermittent fasting or If is an eating pattern that involves periods of fasting and eating. As you know already, it’s a popular trend nowadays. It doesn’t justify what to eat, but it determines when you should eat.
Intermittent Fasting for Beginners – What’s intermittent fasting, and why should you do it
Why is it worthwhile to follow Intermittent Fasting as a Beginner?
The thing is, it helps to lose weight without performing an extensive diet. Moreover, you don’t have to stop eating or take on a crazy diet plan to become healthy.
When performing intermittent fasting, your calorie intake would mostly remain the same.
How Does Intermittent Fasting Work in the Beginning?
When you eat your daily meals, the food takes time to digest. Your metabolism may slow down, which means that you will face health issues.
However, intermittent fasting can help to solve such health issues, because it helps to lower your insulin (a hormone that regulates blood sugar).
The insulin hormone makes fat which means with increased insulin, and you will have increased fat.
Now, when you don’t eat for some hours during intermittent fasting, your body will get adequate time to lower your insulin levels.
This type of fasting also decreases the ghrelin (hungry hormone) and leptin (satiety hormone). Hence, you would feel less hungry and fuller faster.
If you want your intermittent fasting to be effective, you should eat food that can help you stay healthy and feel full throughout your fasting hours. Some food eating tips during intermittent fasting that you can follow:
- Eat food with high-fibers like beans, nuts, vegetables, and fruits
- Eat high protein foods like fish, tofu, meat, or nuts.
- Drink loads of water
- Avoid processed meats, trans fats, sugar, and refined scratches
Ways of Performing Intermittent Fasting for Beginners
The effective ways or types of intermittent fasting are as follows:
Shorter Fasts – Less than 24 hours
Intermittent fasting comes with several options for you. You can fast for hours, depending upon your limit.
However, shorter fasts are quick and easy to perform and don’t require medical supervision unless you have health issues.
- 16:8 Fast
The 16:8 way of intermittent fasting involves a total of 16 hours of daily fasting. It can also be called an 8-hour eating method.
In 8 hours, you can eat your meals. Then you have to fast for the rest of the 16 hours. You can eat around 2-3 meals during the 8 hour eating period.
- 20:4 Fast
There are 4 hours of eating time a day with this method, and the remaining 20 hours would be for fasting.
You can set the time for when you would like to eat. That means, if you want to eat in the morning, then you can keep the 4 hours of eating time from 6-10 am.
Longer Fasts – More than 24 hours
Long intermittent fasting for beginners can be effective. However, ensure taking medical supervision before performing one.
- 24 Hours Fast
As the words suggest, you will be fasting for a whole day in this method. Suppose you are eating breakfast on day one. After that, you won’t eat anything before breakfast on day 2 and follow this process 2-3 times a week.
- 5:2 Fast
It’s one of the best methods of intermittent fasting for beginners. It’s even proven beneficial scientifically.
Here, you will be fasting five days a week and fasting on the remaining two days. During these two fasting days, you can eat around 500 calories each day.
Alternate Day Fasting
In this fasting method, you will be fasting every other day of a week while consuming 500 calories like the 5:2 fast method.
36-Hour Fasts
If you want to go for a consequential weight loss intermittent fasting method, then the 36 hours approach would be perfect.
Suppose you eat breakfast on day 1 and won’t eat on the 2nd day, then eat breakfast directly on day 3.
Extended Fasting
Extended fasting usually lasts for 48+ hours. However, you shouldn’t perform this if you have some health issues. It isn’t recommended to fast for more than 14 days. It can lead to refeeding syndrome.
Benefits of Performing Intermittent Fasting
In this guide for intermittent fasting for beginners, we shall also discuss its benefits, which are as follows:
- Adds simplicity:
Intermittent fasting leads to simplicity, behavior change and reduces stress. You shouldn’t worry about eating all the time or thinking about eating or not.
Moreover, you will have to plan for one less meal which is a win-win situation.
- Longer life:
As per scientists, restriction of calories can lead to longer lives. It can activate some mechanisms which help in extending life due to calories restriction.
- Reduces cancer risk:
Although there hasn’t been much research on it, it is assumed that intermittent fasting can reduce cancer risk to some extent. Moreover, studies show that it reduces cancer risks and also decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Easier than a diet:
When it comes to dieting, we often leave it in the process. It’s because of our behavior change problems. However, intermittent fasting isn’t the same as the usual diet. This is more effective because you will still be eating, and it’s pretty easy to adopt.
Intermittent Fasting- When to avoid
You should be careful or take medical supervision if you:
- Take medications
- Have diabetes
- Are pregnant
- Have low blood pressure
- Have higher caloric needs
- Have risk of an eating disorder
- Have thyroid disease or hormonal imbalances
Apart from this, intermittent fasting is safe to perform. If you still have doubts, then you can go for medical supervision first.
Conclusion
The above guide on intermittent fasting for beginners would be helpful for you. It can help you to know all about intermittent fasting and how you can perform it.
It’s pretty simple and comes with great benefits.
You can lose weight, stay healthy, have a simple diet plan- all through one process- intermittent fasting. It’s pretty simple, and everyone can do it.
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