Intermittent Fasting
- Intermittent fasting is one of the first things you might hear when you are looking to lose some weight.
- It is one of the most popular health trends nowadays and people use it to tone down, obtain a healthier lifestyle, and just introduce something fresh into their lives.
- Intermittent fasting can have several important effects on your body, and a lot of them can help you achieve your goal of becoming healthier.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
- To put it simply, intermittent fasting refers to developing a cycle between periods of eating and fasting.
- There is no skimping on what kind of food you want to eat. What matters is when you eat.
- A typical intermittent fasting cycle involves fasting for a specific time every day.
- Your caloric intake is relegated to 8 hours, while you fast for the remaining 16.
- You can drink water, but you must make sure to not snack or take in any extra calories during the time that you are fasting.
- Another method is fasting for an entire 24 hours two to three times a week. This is called the Eat-Stop-Eat method.
- Another popular method is called 5:2. Aptly named, this style of intermittent fasting has you eat 500-600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the week while eating regularly on the remaining five.
- For many people, fasting comes naturally. For others, it takes a bit of effort to get into it.
- After all, we spend more time not eating during our daily routine.
How Intermittent Fasting Affects Your Body
- Intermittent fasting can elevate your Human Growth Hormones (HGH). These hormones help with weight loss and put on some muscle. Your HGH levels can go up five times.
- Your insulin sensitivity increases and your body converts even more glucose to glycogen.
- Your gene expression changes to ensure longevity and better health.
- Intermittent fasting also quickens your cellular repair, providing your body with better support.
- Intermittent fasting brings about the hormonal changes that provide you with these benefits.
Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
- The most obvious benefit of intermittent fasting is weight loss. You are going to start losing weight slowly, but your body will be burning through fat before you even know it.
- Intermittent fasting can help reduce inflammation inside your body through the removal of free radicals.
- Intermittent fasting can help insulin resistance inside your cells. This is especially helpful in relieving symptoms of diabetes.
- Intermittent fasting can rejuvenate both your heart and brain. It reduces cholesterol levels and improves brain health by reducing inflammation, which can help reduce the chances of Alzheimer’s.
- Some studies have also suggested that intermittent fasting may have a role in reducing the risk of cancer.
- Intermittent fasting can also help with anti-aging. It rejuvenates the skin and makes you look healthier and younger with time.
As long as you look after your health and do not risk it by jumping into intermittent fasting, you can make sure to get the health benefits you want from it.