Intermittent fasting focuses on all about when you eat, it is the plan which switches between fasting and eating on a regular schedule. Yes, intermittent fasting helps in the management of weight and disease only when you have healthy and nutritious food. For Intermittent fasting, a person has to identify the goal that it is for weight loss, overall health improvement, or to improve metabolism and that goal will help in determining the best fasting method. You should stick to the one method for at least a month to see its effect on the body before trying the next method.
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There are different methods for intermittent fasting, it all based on choosing a time schedule to eat and fast. Many people follow a 16:8 window in which a person has to eat a healthy meal for 8 hours and fast for 16 hours for weight loss. Another method is the Eat-Stop-Eat diet which includes fasting for 1-2 days a week with liquid intake and this method is used very rarely as it is very challenging because it may cause headaches, fatigue, or even irritability. In the 5:2 method, people usually eat for 5 days and restrict their intake of calories to 500 to 600.
Intermittent fasting should focus on a well balanced and nutritious diet for easy weight loss like:
- It includes fresh fruits during the day in the form of shakes, smoothies, fruit salads with yogurt etc
- Focus on whole grains during breakfast and evening like Oats, Barley, Quinoa, brown rice which includes more fiber for improving metabolism and people feel full and satisfied and even eat less.
- Lean proteins such as lentils, tofu, eggs, beans, fish, nuts, and seeds in combination with whole grains cereals.
- Healthy fats to maintain cholesterol and diabetes-like olives and olive oil, coconuts, avocados, nuts, and seeds
- Plenty of fluids plays a major role in satiety and even avoid dehydration like green tea, black tea, and coffee, coconut water, buttermilk, etc.
By eating fewer meals a day, it enhances the hormone function, lowers down the insulin levels, and increases the growth hormone levels which boosts metabolic rate and leads to weight loss, belly fat. This helps trigger the release of fat-burning hormone i.e. norepinephrine as the nervous system sends the hormone to your fats cells to break down into free fatty acids which can be burned into energy then and even when people do fasting, insulin levels decrease and it also facilitates fat burning.
With a proper method of fasting, you should focus on physical activity as it helps in fat loss with muscle gain without overeating. Intermittent fasting also helps in the management of underlying diseases like Diabetes, low blood pressure, eating disorders, etc but it is not safe for pregnant and lactating mothers.
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