What Is Intermittent Fasting?

 Exercises to Lose WeightIntermittent fasting (IF) is defined in scientific studies as alternating eating normally for a period of time and going for periods of time without taking in any calories. In some diets, ‘fasting’ periods can involve drinking smoothies or other liquids that have calories. These periods can vary widely in duration, some diets and protocols requiring up to 48 hours drinking only water, others require skipping single meals. Many diets that split each day up into periods of eating and not eating use shorthand, for example a 20:4 diet would require fasting 20 hours out of the day and eating normally for 4 hours.Is it an effective weight management tool?Yes. A number of diets
advocate IF (LeanGains, the Clean program) and they do help people lose weight. The only studies on weight loss and IF have shown that, rather than help people lose lots of weight, this type of program works well as a way to maintain a steady body weight, perhaps after one has been on a weight-loss program. The study let the group eat whenever, whatever on the days when they were not fasting, and apparently the patients greatly preferred this system to one where they were limited in how much food they could eat each day.What are some of the health benefits of IF?The reason many people decide to try an IF diet is the reported health benefits of doing so, including increased longevity. It has long been established that an IF program helps extend life spans in male lab mice by 20%, in females 15%. Studies in humans indicate a wide variety of health benefits may be gained from a diet that incorporates IF, including lower LDL cholesterol levels, better response to chemotherapy, resistance to the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and improvement in blood serum markers similar to a caloric restriction (CR) diet. Many of these effects in fact mirror those of a CR diet, but it appears that there is something special about the pattern of eating that allows some of these effects to show up even stronger in those using an IF program.Does IF Have Negative Side Effects?This is tricky. Generally speaking, if you are accustomed to having meals very regularly, say you always each lunch at noon, and one day you have to wait until three to eat, your cortisol (stress hormone) levels will be elevated for those three hours. Stress and cortisol in particular are associated with a number of adverse health effects, elevated blood pressure and other cardiovascular issues foremost. But stress is how the body adapts. You have to stress your muscles in order to get stronger; you have to stress your heart, lungs, mitochondia to increase your endurance. This is part of the overload principle: if the body is given time to recover from stress, it gets stronger. Almost every system in the body responds this way to intermittent stress, from your bones to your brain (coincidentally, IF has been shown to help with hormesis, the process responsible for the ability to become immune to some poisons by taking small doses over long periods of time). It is quite reasonable to think that stressing your body in this way, then giving it time to recover, is going to be not only safe, but generally good for you.In conclusion, Intermittent fasting is an effective fat loss method. But as always, consult your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program.