HOW TO GET STARTED WITH INTERMITTENT FASTING?
There are several different ways of doing intermittent fasting, but all of them are based around choosing a set period of regular eating and fasting. Another common method for intermittent fasting diet plans is the 16/8 method, where you are allowed to eat 8 hours per day, but must fast for 16. The most popular pattern of intermittent fasting is 16 hours of fasting at night followed by eating eight hours during the day.
To do intermittent fasting, you must fast during certain specified hours during the day, eating only in the remaining hours. Intermittent fasting is a type of diet that limits the hours during the day you are allowed to eat, which can help you lose weight and lower inflammation. Intermittent fasting is a diet approach that emphasizes time-restricted eating, cycling between periods of fasting, typically lasting longer than 12 hours.
FASTING VS INTERMITTENT FASTING
Fasting is going a substantial amount of time without eating, whereas intermittent fasting merely introduces a smaller window of time when you can eat. Long periods of no eating, like 24-, 36-, 48-, and 72-hour fasting periods, are not necessarily better for you, and can be dangerous. For example, you could try eating only for eight hours every day, then fasting the rest of the time. You could choose a day-to-day approach, where daily eating is limited to a single six-to-eight-hour timeframe every day.
You will not need to limit calories while eating within the eight-hour time frame. You can choose to have frequent meals, such as eating 3 or 4 times during your 8 hours. Most people opt for a late-night fast, choosing to have the first meal around 11 am or mid-afternoon. When you are asleep, you are fasting; so most of us follow a pretty strict 6–8 hours of fasting each night, before eating our morning meal.
IDEAL TIME FOR INTERMITTENT FASTING?
Starting a fast at 7 or 8 p.m. is ideal, as this usually allows you to have the final meal just a couple hours before bedtime, giving your body time to digest the food properly before sleep. Each day, you may choose to eat during the 8-hour window, then fast the remaining 16 hours. As long as you are eating healthy in your 8 hour timeframe, you will see the weight come off. Eating more calories than your body is burning will cause long-term increases in body fat, even if you are fasting 12–16 hours every day.
Fasting a set number of hours every day, or eating only one meal a couple days per week, may help your body burn fat. Intermittent fasting does not replace healthy eating or caloric control; you can still gain weight while fasting as long as you are consuming more calories than your body is burning. Eating too much in anticipation of an 8-hour fasting period will counter-intuitively defeat your goals. For instance, your eating window may be from 12–8pm, but you may fit in two to three meals within this window, and then you fast until the next afternoon at 12pm.
Originally published at https://ssjxmars.space on September 17, 2022.
