Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting: New Diet Trend

So how accurate is the claim that intermittent fasting can help you build muscle faster and lose fat fast? How does it actually work? How on earth can fasting for 16 hours be beneficial to your health, let alone your fitness? Calm down bud. I know you have tons of questions and questions about intermittent fasting. And the answer to most of your questions can be found in this article. But one after the other, step by step. So let’s start with the basics.

What is intermittent fasting?

First, intermittent fasting isn’t a diet, it’s a type of eating pattern. Intermittent fasting means planning your meals to get the most out of them. In short, it’s not about what you eat, it’s about when you eat. The goal of intermittent fasting is to provide your body with nutrients and building blocks when your body needs them and to choose not to eat during rest periods.

The most popular version of intermittent fasting is skipping breakfast. You skip a meal and then use up all of the calories in an eight-hour window. Some even prefer the extreme versions of intermittent fasting, which involves gorging on all foods in a six-hour window, or eating normally for a full day and then not eating for 24 hours.

Proponents of this particular and unique eating pattern claim that intermittent fasting allows you to get lean without having to go on a crazy diet or reduce your daily calorie intake to a ridiculously small amount. In fact, calorie intake usually remains the same, only the time and manner of their consumption are changed. The larger meals balance out the fasting periods. Another benefit of intermittent fasting is that you can retain muscle mass while losing fat. In fact, most people try intermittent fasting to lose weight. It’s the most common and obvious benefit of intermittent fasting.

The quick success of this eating pattern is down to the fact that it’s easy to implement and try, but sensible and logical enough to make a difference. Perhaps it’s one of the simplest strategies that will help you lose bad weight while maintaining good weight.

How does it work?

The subtle effects of intermittent fasting can be better explained by learning how your body behaves in the fasted and fed states, the two main states your body cycles between.

The body is in a fed state when it is digesting and absorbing food. This state usually starts as soon as you start eating and lasts about three to five hours as your body breaks down, digesting and absorbing the food you eat. It is very difficult to burn fat while your body is in this state due to high insulin levels.

After this state, the body enters a post-absorption stage, which means your body is not processing food. If you don’t eat anything else, this phase lasts up to eight to ten hours after your last meal. Then your body enters the state of fasting. Now it is very easy to shed pounds when your body has entered the state of fasting as insulin levels are low. So, during fasting, you can easily wipe out the fat reserves that were out of bounds during the feeding state.

As said before, on the regular diet plan, the body does not enter the state of fasting until eight to twelve hours after the last meal, which means that our body rarely enters the state of burning fat. And, most likely, this happens at night, when energy consumption is at its lowest. So unless you’re a regular sleepwalker, you won’t be burning a lot of calories. Intermittent fasting allows you to voluntarily put your body into the state of fasting. It allows you to burn more fat without changing what you eat, how much you eat, and what type of workout you do.

Benefits of intermittent fasting

Finally, getting those stubborn lumps of fat out of your body is great. Yes, really. However, the benefits of intermittent fasting are not limited to fat loss.

• A simpler day

No need to waste time and mental energyplanning countless meals that were necessary for weight loss and muscle gain. You no longer have to endure the stress and anxiety of missing a meal. Plus, you don’t have to carry four meals (including those so-called healthy snacks) in your office bag. Just get up in the morning, have a glass of water and forget about breakfast.

Even if you’re not an avid fan of the diet plans, if you eat a meal every two hours, intermittent fasting will make your life easier. Instead of the traditional three meals, you can make it with just two meals, meaning the time you wanted to spend cooking a meal can be shifted and used for something worthwhile. For example, the time freed up by preparing breakfast can be used for meditation. You can get in touch with your Zen side.

• live longer

Intermittent fasting can increase your lifespan. While it might seem a bit confusing that fasting increases your lifespan, studies have proven that fasting may actually be a key to longer life. A study conducted in 1945 found that intermittent fasting prolongs the life of mice. Of course I know there is a difference between mice and humans. And another study recently conducted on humans also found that fasting can increase your life expectancy and help fight insulin resistance, asthma, seasonal allergies, and infectious diseases of viral, bacterial, and fungal origin.

But before that, the question arose, how to fast without compromising on your fitness goals? Now intermittent fasting has emerged as a viable and excellent fasting mechanism that doesn’t jeopardize your fitness goals.

And the great thing about intermittent fasting is that it activates the benefits of calorie restriction without lowering actual calorie intake. In short, you benefit from living longer without starving yourself.

• Easier than a diet

Most diet plans have the usual tendency to fall apart. The problem isn’t that people usually and very often switch to the wrong foods, those who do are a minority. The problem is that it’s difficult to stick to diet plans for a long period of time. In order to make the sacrifices that most diet plans demand, you need to fundamentally change your behavior and habits.

This is why intermittent fasting is a blessing for those who want to lose weight. It is very easy to implement and customize if you have the idea that you will not eat for a certain period of time. A recent study showed that intermittent fasting is an effective weight loss strategy in obese adults. The same study also showed that adults can quickly adapt to intermittent fasting. Coupled with right factors like physical activity and calorie intake, it can be very useful in burning unwanted fat.

Various intermittent fasting schedules

So, impressed with this new pattern of hot food? Then here are the different types of intermittent fasting plans available.

Daily intermittent fasting

The most popular and simple intermittent fasting model is what can be observed daily. In this model, the 16-hour fasting period is followed by an 8-hour eating period. It doesn’t matter when you start your eight-hour eating period. They can start at 8:00 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m. or start at 2:00 p.m. and end at 10:00 p.m. So do whatever works for you and do whatever you can easily do. The best thing about this intermittent fasting plan is that it is very easy to customize. The reason is that you do it daily so your body will adapt more easily.

Weekly intermittent fasting

One of the best ways to get started with intermittent fasting is once a week and once a month. While you won’t burn fat as well as you would with a daily fast, you’ll find it easier to adjust to the fasting pattern. And you’ll still get the other usual benefits that come with fasting.

Alternate Day intermittierendes Fasten

This fasting method involves longer fasting periods on the alternate days. For example, you would eat dinner on Monday night and then eat again on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, however, you ate all day and began the 24-hour fast again on Wednesday evening after dinner. The benefit of this intermittent fasting plan is that you eat at least one meal every day of the week. Another hypothetical benefit may be that you can lose weight more efficiently due to a longer fast.