Intermittent fasting has proven in recent years to be a popular and effective method of not only losing weight but also improving overallΒ Β health and wellness.
This is partly due to its simplicityβinstead of counting calories and weighing macros, all you technically need to do is pay attention to the time. Right?
Although the idea behind intermittent fasting is easy to understand (which is why itβs such an attractive option for many people), there is a difference between poor fasting practices and good fasting practices.Β
If you donβt consider some important precepts, youβll likely not see the benefits that you otherwise would. Down below weβve highlighted ten rules that will put you on the right path and maximize the benefits offered by fasting. But first, letβs take a closer look at how exactly intermittent fasting works.
Not eating for extended periods of time is primarily used as a form of weight control. Choosing a range of hours (called the eating window) to have your meals within, limits the food you can eat throughout the day.
It effectively works as a calorie restriction without having to count daily calories or aim for a set number of fewer calories.Β
However, the ease and simplicity of intermittent fasting for weight loss is only one of the benefits. Fasting will also help to regulate your insulin sensitivity and can help protect you against diseases.Β
Giving your body a break from digestion has several different effects. For one, fasting helps to prevent leptin resistance and insulin resistance, which in turn help with weight management.
Intermitting fasting also goes along well with low carb and ketogenic diets.Β
This is because once your body burns through its stores of glucose (carbs), it begins to use fat as fuel. Pairing low-carb meals with fasting is a recipe for fat burning.Β Fasting may also help to βclearβ out your body from waste and damaged cells that get in the way of proper functioning.
This process of clearing out is calledΒ Β autophagy, and fasting has been shown to promote it in rodent populations. Although more studies need to be done on humans, there is strong evidence that the same effect applies to people.Β
Lastly,Β fasting protects your sensitivity to insulin and your cardiovascular health.
Both of these benefits help in the aging process and can keep you healthier for longer.Β While conclusive studies still need to be done, thereβs a lot that can be assumed based on what we know about eating and the way our bodies process energy. For that, letβs take a closer look at the science behind intermittent fasting.
To understand how fasting works, we must first understand how eating works on a chemical and biological level.Β
Whenever you eat something, especially carbohydrates, the level of blood glucose will rise.
The hormone insulin then tells our body to get its fill of the glucose as our bodies break down the food. Finally, there are other hormones that are released (such as leptin and CCK) that tell our body when itβs full.
This is a basic understanding of the process, but it does give us enough information to expand on.Β So, what happens when we overload this process?
This can either happen by eating too much sugar and carbs or ignoring the hormones that tell us when weβre full. Not only does the pancreas have to work overtime to produce more insulin, but all of the extra energy (glucose) gets stored as fat.Β
While abusing this process every now and then isnβt going to do us in, over the long term it will increase our chances of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.Β
Intermittent fasting effectively gives our bodies a break. During this break, our insulin levels drop and glucose levels stay the same, giving our body the chance to βreset,β in a sense.
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The big question now is how long this fasting period must be before you start seeing results. When it comes to intermittent fasting schedules, there are a lot of options.Β
The simplest, and the one recommended to people just getting accustomed to intermittent fasting is the 12:12 intermittent fasting plan.
As the name suggests, thereβs a 12-hour eating period. And, if youβre getting a good amount of sleep around 8 hours, this means there are only 4 waking hours where youβll have to restrict yourself.
This doesnβt take a lot. For example, eating your last meal of the day at 7 pm means that you can comfortably eat breakfast at 7 in the morning. Others find it easier to skip breakfast to continue the 12-hour window of fasting.Β This is only the most basic fasting method.Β Once youβve dipped your toes in, there are more extreme eating patterns.
Things like 16:8 (a 16-hour fast), 18:6, and 20:4 are also extremely popular.Β
But keep in mind that these delineations are completely arbitraryβthe point is to maximize the time during the day when youβre not putting any food into your body. If you want to fast for 15 and a half hours, thatβs completely fine.
The point is to enter a fasted state through healthy eating and a well thought-out meal plan.Β But there are other schedules that fall outside of this scope.
The one-meal-a-day (OMAD) fasting schedule only has you eating a single meal throughout the day.Β
Thereβs also alternate day fasting, where you choose two days of the week where you severely restrict your calorie intake. However, these are definitely not recommended for those just starting out with fasting.
Now that we know a bit more about fasting, itβs easier to see how we might be able to optimize an intermittent fasting approach to food and to our bodies.Β Weβve organized some guiding principles into ten rules that will put you on the right track to getting the most out of fasting. While many of these will be universal, itβs also important to consider your own needs and goals. If youβre looking to bulk, for example, intermittent fasting will work in keeping your body fat down but might not complement your overall goals.
One of the big attractive aspects of intermittent fasting is that the idea is easy to grasp and simple to implement. The only numbers that are involved are the ones on the clockβno calorie counting and macro balancing needed. Since youβre already limiting when you can eat, thereβs a natural trend to eat fewer calories throughout the day.Β Well, as you can probably imagine, itβs not as simple as that.
Things are definitely not so simple if youβre trying to implement fasting with the goal of fat loss since eating junk food is going to get in the way of your goals no matter how long you try fasting.
Low-carb and keto-friendly foods work especially well with intermittent fasting because both methods put your body into ketosis, where fat is used as the primary energy source.
Especially when youβre breaking your fast, itβs important to choose keto-friendly foods so that you avoid the sugar crash. You also want to load up on nutrient-rich foods. Since youβll be eating less, youβll need calories that give you everything your body needs.
The golden rule in fasting is that it is a fastβthis means no calories, no nutrients, no food.Β
Even breaking the fast slightly with some food can throw severely limit the benefits youβd otherwise experience. Itβs important to stay consistent with a feeding and fasting window and stick to that window as best as you can.Β
The exception is tea and black coffee.Β Even though they contain calories, the amount is extremely small. Furthermore, coffee can actually help your fast since it makes you feel satiated and provides you with more energy. Milk, however, is not allowed.
Using milk and sugar in your coffee, as innocent as it sounds, will immediately break your fast.
They raise your insulin levels and blood sugar, meaning that a lot of the progress will be negated. Needless to say, juice fasting is also not necessarily considered a fastβat least according to purists.
Although many people do get good results from it as well.Β You may have also heard of bulletproof coffee, which is a coffee recipe that includes some sort of fat. This is usually MCT fat, coconut oil, or even butter.Β Particularly popular in keto diet circles, this type of coffee will also break your fast.
However, thereβs still a case to be made for it.Β Including small amounts of fat in your coffee will avoid spiking your blood sugar levels, since there are no carbs or a significant amount of protein.
Whatβs more is that these fats can help you feel fuller for longer and more energized, which can even benefit your fast.Β This will largely come down to your own goals and your own experimentation. Although purists might deride a fast thatβs not truly a fast (for good reasons), thereβs still a decent chance it will work for you.
Some supplements might also sound like fair game during your fast, but you should do your research before assuming that they play by the rules.Β
For example, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are popularΒ supplementsΒ that improve physical performance, muscle growth, and recovery. They're also free from any significant amount of calories, so at first glance they appears to be fast-friendly.Β However, they are also a protein.
This means that they do technically break your fast and shouldnβt be taken if youβre going for a stringent intermittent fast.Β
At the same time, these supplements are extremely helpful and beneficial for your body when youβre working out. In many circumstances, itβs actually better to take these supplements if youβre planning on training while fasting.
Not only will BCAAs protect you against muscle fatigue, but they can also help to preserve more muscle mass during fasted workouts.Β This is another factor that youβre going to have to way against your own goals and expectations.
Low-carb and ketogenic diets go hand in hand with intermittent fasting, especially if youβre aiming to lose some body fat.Β
Both of these systems have the same idea of draining your stores of carbohydrates, lowering insulin levels, and putting your body into ketosis.
These stores of carbs (or glycogen) are able to hold around 1700 to 2200 calories, and so if you start your fast with energy storage full of glycogen, your body is going to struggle to lose any amount of fat.Β Thatβs why maintaining a low-carb diet works so well with fasting.Β Since these glycogen stores are empty or close to empty even at the beginning of your fast, you can expect to lose weight a lot more efficiently.
Much like low-carb diets, exercise also goes hand in hand with intermittent fasting.
Performing fasted workouts is extremely challengingβespecially if youβre working out towards the tail end of a fast, but itβs also an amazing way to burn fat.Β This is because your body dips into your fat stores for energy to power you through your workouts, rather than using any food you mightβve recently eaten.Β Combined with a low-carb diet and you have an amazing method of losing weight.
Itβs important to take your goals into account.
This isnβt a good idea if youβre looking to build or maintain significant muscle mass because youβre going to be breaking down muscle to fuel your workouts.Β Youβll need to get the energy from somewhere, after all. Supplementing might be able to offset these muscle losses, but then it comes down to striking a balance between fasting and other goals.
When your glycogen stores become depleted during a fast, the body tends to lose a lot of water along with this depletion. This often results in people thinking that theyβre hungry when they might just be thirsty.Β
Thereβs no consensus on daily water intake thatβll work for every single person, so the best thing to do is simply drink when you think you might be thirsty.Β Your body is going to need it, especially as youβre getting a feel for fasting. Drinking water will also help keep you satiated for longer.
Along with water, youβll want to ensure youβre getting enough minerals such as potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesiumβotherwise called electrolytes.Β
With simpler fasting schedules such as 16:8, the food you eat during your feeding period will likely be enough to carry you through the fast. At longer fasts, it can become essential to supplement with electrolytes to keep you feeling well.Β
Especially when youβre first starting out with fasting, your body will flush out a ton of water along with electrolytes.Β If youβre getting headaches or dizziness, salt can be a good way to counteract them.
Just like your fast should be as strict as possible, the routine should be kept strictly as well.Β
This isnβt to say that youβre not going to lose track sometimesβeveryone gets cravings and sometimes itβs better to give in for the mental and physical respite. A few mistakes arenβt going to derail anything.Β
What you donβt want to do is allow these small hiccups to derail you for more than a couple of days.Β It takes the body a while to adjust to intermittent fasting, and taking a significant break is going to make it much harder to get back into the swing of things.
Lastly, donβt jump into the deep end immediately and donβt expect quick results.Β
Intermittent fasting can be difficult at the beginning. Chances are that youβll be irritable, groggy, and tired for at least a couple of days, but your body will get used to things so donβt give up. This is also why itβs important to set realistic targets for yourself.Β
No one is going to succeed by going directly for a 24-hour fast, and any potential health benefits wonβt be worth it. Slowly work your way up to more difficult schedules if you think itβs necessary. But donβt bite off more than you can chew, because sustaining new eating habits isnβt about the short-term, but rather the long-term.
By following these rules and slowly dipping your toes into intermittent fasting, this dieting method can really revolutionize the way you see food and your relationship with your body.Β Whatβs more, fasting can work for almost anyone, regardless of their goals.Β Whether youβre trying to lose fat or simply maintain a healthy lifestyle, fasting offers plenty of options that can work around your goals and schedule.Β The key is to dip your toes into a beginner-friendly fasting schedule and then see where things go from there.
And although consistency is key, itβs also important to give yourself some leeway. No one is perfect and no one can pull off an intermittent fasting lifestyle that 100% sticks to all of its tenets. This shouldnβt be used as an excuse to not give it your all.
Instead, itβs important to accept that things will not always go to plan, even if youβve done everything right. Focus on the end goal, even if it might be years into the future, and take the slip-ups in stride without derailing completely.
