“Which Intermittent Fasting version have you tried? Did you find it a challenge? How much weight did you lose? Are you able to keep that weight off?”
Soo you have heard about intermittent fasting. And you are curious about it. You want to know how it helps you lose weight, and how to start with it and what are the rules basically.
Today I am going to explain you what EXACTLY you need to do. In order to make the intermittent fasting work to reduce your weight, I REALLY think we need to understand WHY and HOW it works for you.
Why Intermittent Fasting for WEIGHT LOSS?
One of the culprits for weight gain is elevated blood insulin levels. Now hold on for a second, I can almost hear you saying, I don’t have diabetes, then why on earth should I worry about insulin???
Insulin does a lot of things in your body, it’s responsible for so many bodily functions. All foods increase insulin to some extent.
YES, even protein and fat. So if we want to achieve weight loss, we need to figure out a way how to SUPPRESS those insulin levels. We need to do it for a prolonged period of time. And we need to do that frequently, meaning INTERMITTENTLY.
Short-term fasting leads to several changes in the body that make fat burning easier by reducing insulin leves, it also increases growth hormone, and a boost in metabolism. And at the end of this post, I will explain you what to do and what not to do during the fasting phase.
You should know this before you start fasting
So at this point, I need to tell you something quite important. The longer a person has been overweight, the longer it will take to decrease the insulin levels. Especially if you have diabetes, polycyctic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
16:8 Intermittent Fasting
Well there are several versions, but the easiest of version is the 16:8 fasting. This is the most popular fasting method followed by many. In this fasting, you skip one meal.
It is as simple as the name says, You fast for 16 hours and eat during the 8 hours window. For example if you finish your dinner by 7pm, you dont eat anything for next 16 hours. that is you fast until 11am the next day. After 16 hours you break your fast.
You know what, It’s not as difficult as it sounds, we all fast during sleep without even knowing, so if you eat finish eating at 7pm, morning 7am you have already done 12 hrs, you just need to add 4 more hours that’s it.
Ofcource you can choose any 16hrs window that suits your lifestyle. If you are on a night shift job, you will be sleeping during the day, it helps to fast when you sleep. So you can choose the timings according to your schedule.
24 Hours Intermittent Fasting
Now we have seen how to do the 16/8 intermittent fasting. Now there are 2 other versions, which help you to speed up your weight loss process. You will have to fast for a longer period of time to achive faster weight loss. In this kind of fasting, you fast for 24 hours, which means you skip 2 meals. This is also called as one meal a day (OMAD) fasting. This is quite popular among people who want to tone their body within a shorter period of time as it helps you burn fat faster.
So lets say, tonight you eat at 7pm, tomorrow you will skip, breakfast, you will skip lunch and you will eat your dinner again at 7pm which makes it a 24 hours fasting.
36 Hours Intermittent Fasting
The 3rd fasting option is 36 hours of fasting, where you will skip 3 meals. So that means, tonight you will eat at 7pm, and then tomorrow you will skip breakfast, lunch and dinner. And then eat breakfast the following day which makes it 36 hours of fasting.
So, if you choose 16/8 fasting, you can do it everyday. But if it is 24 or 36 hours fast, then you can fast 2 or 3 times a week, not everyday. So you will soon see that you have lost enough weight, and you need to back off and do a 16:8 everyday.
On the long term, once you have reached your weight loss goal, you can do 16:8 fast every other day or a couple of times a week as a maintenance. That way you can keep that weight off.
How to start Intermittent Fasting?
On the first day do it only for 12 hours. And with everyday, increae it by half an hour 12.5hrs, 13 hrs, 13.5 hrs and so on. Trust me, I found this method much easier for me personally. I am someone who can’t tolerate hunger, when I am hungry I just need to eat straight away. So increasing the fasting period by half an hour everyday REALLY helped me achieve the 16 hours fasting window. Once you finish the 16 hours fasting, you can eat during the 8 hours of eating window.
Water Fasting vs Dry Fasting
Now we have seen 3 versions of intermittent fasting, that is 16:8, 24 hrs and 36 hrs. There are 2 ways to do this fasting. One is water fasting and the other one is dry fasting. Water fasting is where you drink water during your fasting peirod and no food. Just plain water, no soda, no juice, no green tea, nothing. JUST PLAIN WATER. And during your eating phase you eat food.
In the case of dry fasting, just as the name says, you don’t drink and you don’t eat anything. NO WATER and NO FOOD.
Personally I have felt that dry fasting is much easier as it suppresses your hunger. For me I felt that drinking water during the fasting phase makes me very hungry. But again it could be a personal thing. You need to decide based on your body and it also depends on the weather, if it is winter you can go for dry fasting easily, but during summer, it would be advisable to do water fasting. Dry fasting is 3 times more effective than water fasting in burning the fat cells.
During the 8 hours eating window, you can continue to eat just as you would do normally. But remember after the fasting you body has removed toxins from the cells, it is ready to absorb the nutrients. Imagine your body like a sponge, waiting to absorb the nutrients from the food that you are going to eat.
In order to achieve your weight loss goal fast, you can try to follow these tips as much as possible.
My Top Tips for WEIGHT LOSS
Tip 1: First of all I should say, do not overeat during your eating window of 8 hours. Because that slows down your fat burning process.
Tip 2: The second thing is, actually I should have put this as the first point. Do not diet during your 8 hours eating window. People think that during the 8 hours eating phase, if they eat fewer calories, if they diet, they will lose more weight. But your body doesn’t work that way. You will only destroy your health. So during the eating phase DO NOT OVEREAT and DO NOT DIET either.
Tip 3: Exercise during your fasting phase, this will maximise your fat burn, as whatever calories you are using during this time comes directly from stored fat.
Tip 4: Avoid processed food and refined carb sources. Avoid things like white bread, pasta, processed white rice, sugar, sweets and soft drinks etc.,
Instead eat whole grains like hand pounded rice, wholemeal bread, whole barley, oats, millets, quinoa. These are all amazing sources of complex carbohydrates which your body requires. By eating these carbs you can avoid insulin spikes. You need to keep your insulin low for your body to lose weight.
Tip 5: No artificial sweeteners. They actually stimulate insulin just as much.
Tip 6: No juice. YES! even if it is natural juice. Instead eat fruits. And no sodas or soft drinks too. No drinks with any carbohydrates in it. If you don’t want to drink plain water and if you want some flavor your drink, then infuse your water with something like lemon or mint.
You can squeeze a lemon in a bottle of water and carry it with you. Or you can just infuse it with mint or lavender. That makes a great flavored water, but NATURALLY! It even helps to clear your skin.
Tip 7: Eat more unprocessed natural fats. Opt for things like avocados, full fat dairy, nuts, coconut. Use extra virgin coconut oil, cold pressed sesame oil, ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil for cooking. These are all some of the great sources of fat. Avoid refined oils completely. Some of the refined oils are corn oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oils.
Tip 8: Increase the intake of fiber, it controls blood glucose levels and decreases the risk of diabetes.
Tip 9: Avoid processed meats, like sausage, bacon and pepperoni.
Tip 10: Reward yourself with a dessert once a week. Only once a week, no more than that.
Please feel free to share this information with someone who will find it useful. Well thanks again for being here! Take care guys! Bubbye.
