What is Intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting is nothing but a cycle of eating and fasting for a particular time period through out the day. It is nothing new and has been practiced in our country since ancient times. Over the last 2 years the search for IF has increased massively and a lot of people are making it a part of their lifestyle.
Intermittent fasting if done correctly has two major benefits:
- It helps in reducing the excess weight
- It helps in curing chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.
Over the last few years the obesity in our country and worldwide has increased 10 times. The number of people having chronic diseases has also increased massively and a lot of people who have adapted IF in their lifestyles have not only reversed their chronic condition but have also seen a great increase in their energy levels. A lot of people believe IF means starvation but there is one major difference between IF and starvation which is control. Starvation is involuntary absence of food for a long period of time which may result in severe health problems or even death. On the other hand fasting is voluntary. Food is rightly available but you choose not to eat it. This can be for any period of time from 4 hours to 16 hours to a few days (with medical supervison). Here you can start the fast and any given time and also can end at it at your will. It has no standard time frame as it is just absence of eating. Any time you are not eating you are fasting. For eg – if you ate your dinner at 8pm in the evening and breakfast next morning at 9am so that is approximately 12-13 hours of fasting.
Intermittent Fasting for weight loss
When we fast, the body has a tendency of using excess stored energy by burning of excess weight. When we eat food, more energy is produced by the body and the body stores this excess energy for later use. This regulation of energy in the body is done by the hormone called insulin. When we eat food, the blood sugar level rises, which increases the insulin and the excess sugar (glucose) gets stored in liver or muscles. However there is very limited space in the liver and muscles and thus body starts dumping this excess glucose in the adipose tissue (fat cells) where there is unlimited space available. This is how body starts putting that extra weight. The process becomes completely opposite when we fast. As there is no food ingested in the body the body starts breaking down the extra fat stored as energy to be used by the body for functioning. This is how we start loosing fat. Research also show that IF has many other benefits such as:
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- Reverse type 2 diabetes
- Helping in hormonal balance
- Increase in concentration
- Increase in energy
- Increase in fat burning
DISCLAIMER- If you have high blood sugar or if you are on any kind of medication please consult your doctor before trying INTERMITTENT FASTING.