Intermittent fasting is also known as the IF diet. Intermittent fasting points towards an eating pattern that revolves around the different periods of eating and fasting. This eating pattern or fasting plan does not specify the foods that one should eat, but the meals’ timings are designed. You cannot say that intermittent fasting for beginners is conventional since an even accurate description of it would be an eating pattern. The fasting period of intermittent fasting for beginners includes 24 hours or fasting twice a week or 16 hours of fasting. While keeping in mind the human evolution, over decades, fasting has been a widespread practice. The everyday use of this practice has further resulted in the humans evolving in such a manner that has allowed them to function without taking in food for long periods. Intermittent fasting focuses on this evolution, using it for your benefit.
The Methods of Intermittent Fasting:
There is no one set way of doing intermittent fasting, but different methods have been designed for your convenience. The central theme of intermittent fasting for beginners is for you to split your week or your days based on fasting and eating windows.
While following the fasting periods, the person either eats nothing or east tiny, mainly liquids.
Below have been stated some of the most popular intermittent fasting methods for beginners:
- 16/8 window:
This method of intermittent fasting is also known as the Leangains protocol. This method revolves around skipping the first meal of the day, which is breakfast. You then must restrict your eating window or your eating period to 8 hours, an example for which could be 1 pm to 9 pm. After that, you again fast for 16 hours till your next eating window at the same time.
- Eat stop eat:
This intermittent fasting method consists of a 24 hour long fast, which is done once or even twice every week. An example of this could be if you do not eat anything from breakfast to dinner time, for a whole day until the dinner time of the next day.
- 5:2 diet method:
This intermittent fasting method requires you to consumers a total of 500 to 600 calories on the two non-consecutive days of the respective week. Whereas, the other five days, you can eat normally.
The primary purpose of intermittent fasting for beginners is to reduce calorie intake in your daily life. All the methods mentioned above focus on helping you lose weight if you are not compensating by eating a lot during your eating windows. Many individuals prefer the ratio of 16:8 concerning their intermittent fasting duet program. The reason behind this is that it is not only the most sustainable method but also is the easiest one amongst all three.
Intermittent Fasting affects Your Hormones and Cells:
When a person fasts, different things happen to the body’s molecular and cellular levels. An example of this could be that when you fast, your body becomes adjacent to the new hormonal levels for making the stored fats in your body more accessible. Your body cells also tend to initiate the different repair processes, which are crucial, and it further plays a vital role in the changes in the expression of genes.
Following are some of the most common changes due to intermittent fasting:
Insulin
the levels of insulin in your body drop dramatically, and your insulin sensitivity is improved a lot.
Human Growth Hormone
the growth hormones in your body tend to increase a lot, sometimes to the extent of 5-fold. It helps in weight loss as well as gaining muscles.
Gene expression
several changes take place in the functioning of your genes, which directly relates to protection against many diseases and longevity.
Cellular Repairing
when you are fasting, the cells in your body start the process of cellular repair. It includes autophagy; this is where the cells in your body tend to digest and get rid of the dysfunctional and old proteins that build up inside your cells.
Intermittent Fasting a Powerful tool for Weight Loss:
One of the most common reasons why people try out intermittent fasting is to lose weight. This is because it helps the person to eat fewer meals in a day, which further leads to an automatic reduction in the total calorie intake. The hormonal changes also the weight loss process and the decrease in insulin levels in your body.
The hormonal changes resulting from intermittent fasting for beginners help increase the metabolic rates, which is crucial for any diet plan.
