Intermittent fasting may be the weight-loss solution you have been looking for.
It goes without saying that weight loss and diet go hand in hand. No matter how much you work out, if you aren’t eating right, it won’t really do any good in the long run. Diet is obviously one of the more difficult things in life to master though, so many people have taken up intermittent fasting instead, with great results.
Intermittent fasting isn’t a diet as much as it is a pattern of eating. Basically you are going without food to trick your body into a different mode, which helps convert fat into energy, and eventually weight loss.
While it isn’t for everyone, many people have had positive results with fasting, so here are a few beginners tips that you should know, if you are considering going without:
Intermittent fasting is basically adopting an eating pattern that cycles between periods of eating, and fasting.
What you eat is not important, but when you eat, is.
Typically, intermittent fasters will fast for 16 or 24 hour periods, twice a week.
The human body was designed to be able to fast, since hunter-gatherers weren’t always able to get food every day.
READ MORE: Pros and Cons of the Keto Diet
There are three popular methods of fasting: 16/8 (you skip breakfast and only eat during a period of 8 hours, fasting the rest of the time), Eat-Stop-Eat (You fast for 24-hour periods once or twice a week), and 5:2 (you only eat between 500-600 calories on two days per week, but eat normally otherwise.
When you fast, your body adjusts hormone levels to make stored fat more easily consumed by the body, HGH levels raise, your insulin levels drop, and your cells start to repair themselves. All of these benefits, plus weight loss, are reasons to fast.
Weight loss is probably the most popular reason to fast, but it can actually do a lot for your body in general, including increasing your metabolic rate, helping to prevent cancer, and increasing the longevity of your life overall.
If you think fasting may be right for you, I urge you to do as much research as possible. We all want to arrive at the same destination (good health), but there are plenty of ways to get there.
Fasting may or may not be your way, but it has proven benefits, so it’s worth a try!