The Ultimate Guide to Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss

Intermittent fasting is quickly becoming one of the hottest trends in all of health and fitness.

If you’re looking for a way to lose weight and change your health without having to sacrifice time in your life and give up on meals, you’re about to learn all there is to know about the incredible benefits of the fad diet.

And I want to make sure you know that you don’t have to feel intimidated by fasting. Anyone can do it.

Even if you don’t have any experience with the practice, you can get started right away, get the results you’re looking for, and start feeling your best.

What is Intermittent Fasting, and What Are its Advantages?

The basic concept behind intermittent fasting is quite simple: eating for only one to two hours a day.

When you do that, you give your body time to recover and rest, which can have many incredible health benefits.

When you break the habit of eating as if it were the only way of eating, you’re automatically giving yourself more time to eat properly.

“There are no specifications or restrictions about what type or how much food to eat while following intermittent fasting,” says Lauren Harris-Pincus, RDN, author of The Protein-Packed Breakfast Club.

Without the hunger pangs that often occur with traditional diets, you’re better equipped to feel full when you eat, which helps your body to burn more calories.

This approach also gives your body a better chance to heal itself from the damage and illness that can come from overeating and eating all the time.

Intermittent fasting is a form of controlled intermittent starvation, which is not the same as the very extreme diet of people who eat nothing but liquids for days or even weeks on end.

The science behind the diet is fascinating. It seems to give your body time to recover from anything it might have been going through in the hours or even minutes that you’ve skipped a meal.

Vegan Diet Plan for Weight Loss

But Mary Purdy, RDN, chair of Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine, counters by advising that “the benefits [of IF] are not likely to accompany consistent meals of Big Macs.”

As a result, it’s proven to fight the weight gain that often comes with poor dieting habits, boosts your metabolism, and strengthens your immune system, giving you all kinds of additional benefits.

What Are the Pros of Intermittent Fasting?

The positive effects of fasting are so extensive that they’ve been studied to reveal that people who engage in it for a mere 10 to 14 days can have remarkable changes in their health. And the benefits just keep getting better with each passing day.

Below, you’ll find answers to some of the top questions that people have about the diet.

Is Intermittent Fasting Right for Me?

Every person has a different weight loss goal, which is why you’ll need to decide what will be most effective for you.

Some people see major results right away and achieve significant weight loss almost overnight.

Others have to stick with it for a long time and lose half their weight, and a lot of it, in order to get to the ideal body, they want.

Research from 2017 suggests unsaturated fats help keep your body full even when you don’t feel full. Your body gives off signals that it has enough food and isn’t about to go into emergency starvation mode. Unsaturated fats keep these signals going for longer, even if you feel a bit hungry in the middle of a fasting period.

Whatever your plan is, intermittent fasting is completely doable and flexible. You don’t have to adhere to any one way of eating. You can eat when you’re hungry and fast when you’re not.

Or you can follow a particular diet protocol and restrict your calories when you’re fasting. You just have to follow the guidelines for intermittent fasting.

How to Start Intermittent Fasting

With intermittent fasting, you fast only when you eat the day before. On the day you eat, you eat a normal meal, and then you fast until the next day.

As you’ll see in this guide, there are a lot of different ways you can implement this diet.

You don’t have to completely cut out all foods or only eat water or juices, but it’s important to cut out carbohydrates like bread and pasta.

When you follow these simple rules, you’ll quickly see results.

When to Start Intermittent Fasting

Case in point: Research in the ’90s found that potatoes were one of the most filling foods. And a 2012 study found that eating potatoes as part of a healthy diet could help with weight loss. (Sorry, but french fries and potato chips don’t count.)

The best time to start intermittent fasting is around the same time you eat normally. That’s when you have the greatest benefits from the diet. There’s little difference if you start on a day off or a day on.

Once you start the diet, it’s best to keep it for a minimum of 30 days. After that, you’ll have a much better chance of gaining weight or just maintaining the weight you’ve already lost.

Should You Fast During the Day or the Night?

When you fast, it’s best to skip the late-night snacks and limit the number of carbohydrates you eat during the day, but you can do it at any time of the day.

However, if you don’t fast at all or if you eat all your food before the day starts, you should start fasting earlier in the day to give your body more time to adjust.

A large 2016 study found that people who consumed a whole bunch of flavonoids, such as those in blueberries and strawberries, had smaller increases in BMI over a 14-year period than people who didn’t eat berries.

If you don’t fast at all, you’re skipping out on the benefits of the diet completely. If you skip your pre-fast meal, your body is still dealing with the effects of the last meal before you fast. It’s best to give it a chance to adjust.

Is Intermittent Fasting Hard?

Not at all. If you follow the simple rules, it’s a great diet for anyone. It’s even very possible to do if you’ve been eating all the time.

You just need to plan ahead and make the sacrifice of just a few hours or more, which is a very small price to pay for amazing results.

Foods You Should Eat While Intermittent Fasting

• Eggs

• Water

• Green vegetables

• Seafoods

• Nuts

• Legumes

• Whole grains

• Brown rice

• Green tea

• Cereals

Also Read : A Beginner’s Guide to Lose Weight

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