Overview
There are various ways to lose weight.
In recent years, intermittent fasting has become one of the most popular health and fitness trends worldwide. It involves regular short-term fasts.
Fasting helps people lessen their calorie intake and optimize some weight control-related hormones, as with fasting, they either eat very little or nothing at all.
Intermittent Fasting (IF)
Intermittent fasting (IF) is not a diet in the conventional phase but rather an eating pattern that cycles between periods of eating and fasting.
People back then do not have refrigerators, supermarkets, or food available year-round. And sometimes, they have no food to eat, making the humans able to function without food for extended periods of time.
Fasting, in fact, is considered more natural than always eating 3 or more meals a day. It is also done for religious purposes, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.
Methods of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting has several methods, and the following are three popular ones:
The 16/8 Method
This method of intermittent fasting involves skipping breakfast every day and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, such as from 12 noon to 8pm.
Eat-Stop-Eat
This method involves one or two 24-hour fasts every week. That is, not eating from dinner on day 1 until dinner the following day.
The 5:2 Diet (The Fast Diet)
This method, popularized by British journalist Michael Mosley, involves limiting the calorie intake to 500–600 calories for two non-consecutive days of the week and eating normally during the other 5 days.
Those methods can be effective in reducing your calorie intake and losing weight and belly fat, especially if you don’t compensate by eating large amounts during the eating periods.
Best Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss
All fasting methods can be effective and nothing is better than the other so long as you are patient, dedicated, consistent, and you don’t compensate for the calories lost during fasting.
The most popular type of intermittent fasting for weight loss is the 16:8 method. In fact, most celebrities use this: Jennifer Aniston has used this method and held that she noticed a big difference in going without solid for 16 hours. She just sticks to liquids like coffee and celery juice in the morning.
Pros and Cons of Intermittent Fasting 16/8
One of the best decisions you can make is starting an intermittent fasting protocol to lose weight. While there are several pros to intermittent fasting, there are cons as well.
Pros
1. Intermittent Fasting Makes Weight and Fat Loss a Lot Easier to Achieve
The first reason people start a fasting protocol is weight loss. In fact, there are several 16/8 intermittent fasting success stories for weight loss on the internet.
Fasting must be associated with a good diet and exercise routine to be able to experience and witness its weight loss benefits.
2. It Gives You More Time
Planning, preparing, and eating 3 or more healthy meals each day can be quite time-consuming and stressful.
With fasting, eating 7–14 meals per week simplifies your life in ways you can’t imagine and gives you extra time in a day.
You can fill the extra time you gain with fruitful activities, such as spending more time with your loved ones. Cooking and eating should not be the primary focus of your day.
3. It Promotes Better Overall Health and Longevity
As cited in a popular health blog focused around fasting, the Bulletproof Blog, fasting reduces brain degeneration, protects you from diseases like diabetes and obesity, and decreases the risk for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
As long as you have an overall healthy lifestyle, fasting can help strengthen your immune system.
Cons
1. Starting Off With Intermittent Fasting Is Hard
Your body might freak out a bit if you’re used to eating constantly all day and then suddenly stop due to fasting.
Taking the fast easy on yourself is very important during the transition period. The 16/8 protocol is recommended for individuals planning to do intermittent fasting for the first time.
Drinking lots of water will also help aid hunger, and adding a bit of salt helps to flush out toxins. If you feel dizzy or sick, break the fast. You can gradually work your way up to longer fasting periods.
Also, eating filling and nutritious foods during eating periods, getting a good sleep, and meditation also help you during the transition period.
2. It Leads to Overeating Upon Breaking the Fast
There is a tendency that you overeat after a long fast to compensate for the calories lost during fasting. Fasting can worsen your disorder eating symptoms.
To prevent binge eating, try to be kind to yourself and understand that you are going through a learning curve and you’ll get used to it over time.
On the other hand, fasting makes you become more mindful about what you eat and lets you crave for nutritious warm food.
3. It’s Not for Everyone
Unfortunately, not all can experience the potential health benefits of intermittent fasting as it is not for everyone. It can be harmful to people who have underlying health conditions, underweight, and pregnant/lactating women, as well as children. It is therefore vital to visit your healthcare provider before starting off with fasting.
Intermittent Fasting Affects your Hormones
The body’s way of storing energy (calories) is the body fat.
When we don’t eat anything, the body changes several things in nervous system activity and several crucial hormones in order to make the stored energy more accessible.
Below are some of the things that change in your metabolism when you fast.
Insulin
As we eat, the insulin increases. So when we fast, insulin dramatically decreases—and decreased insulin facilitates fat burning.
Human Growth Hormone (HGH)
Fasting increases growth hormone level as much as 5-fold. Among other things, growth hormone aids fat loss and muscle gain.
Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline)
Norepinephrine from the nervous system breaks down body fat into free fatty acids that can be burned for energy. Short-term fasting may also increase fat burning.
Two studies by the National Institutes of Health have found that a 48-hour fast boosts metabolism by 3.6–14%. However, longer fasting periods can suppress metabolism.
Intermittent Fasting Reduces Calories and Facilitates Weight Loss
Fasting helps you eat fewer calories, and it is the main reason why fasting is effective for weight loss.
All of the different protocols of fasting involve either eating very little or nothing at all during the fasting periods. That said, your calorie intake is lessened unless you compensate by eating a huge amount of food during the eating period.
According to a recent review study by Varady et al. (2014), intermittent fasting leads to a significant weight loss. In fact, the study authors have found intermittent fasting to reduce body weight by 3–8% in just 3–24 weeks.
Upon examining the weight loss rate, people lost about 1.65 pounds (0.75 kg) every week with alternate-day fasting, and about 0.55 pounds (0.25 kg) per week with intermittent fasting.
In addition, people also lost about 4–7% of their waist circumference, which indicated belly fat loss.
The impressive results showed that intermittent fasting aids weight loss.
Other than weight loss, intermittent fasting has other numerous metabolic health benefits and may even prevent chronic diseases and expand lifespan.
Intermittent Fasting Holds on to Muscle When Dieting
When dieting, the body tends to burn muscle and fat—and that is one of the worst side effects of dieting.
Interestingly, some studies have shown the potential benefit of intermittent fasting in holding on to muscle during fat loss.
A review study by Varady (2011) demonstrated that intermittent calorie restriction loses the same amount of weight, with lesser muscle mass reduction, as compared with continuous calorie restriction.
In the intermittent calorie restriction studies, 10% of the weight loss was muscle mass, and 25% in the calorie restriction studies. These studies however have limitations as well.
Intermittent Fasting Promotes Simpler Healthy Eating
One of the main benefits of intermittent fasting is making a healthy eating simpler.
Although no method of fasting is better than the other, personally, I use the 16/8 method where I only eat during a certain "feeding window" every day. Instead of having 3+ meals a day, I only have 2, which makes it a lot simpler and easier to maintain my healthy lifestyle.
And this method is the one I can stick to in the long run. The same goes for you—whichever method you can stick to in the long run, that’s the single best diet for you.
If intermittent fasting is making you stick to a healthy diet easily, then you’ll experience its obvious benefits for maintaining your health and weight.
Intermittent Fasting Protocol
If you want to achieve weight loss with intermittent fasting, then you have to keep in mind the following:
Food Quality
What you are eating is still important. To achieve weight loss, try eating whole, single ingredient foods.
Calories
Your calorie intake still matters. Try eating "normally" during the eating periods and do not overeat to compensate for the calories you lost during fasting.
Consistency
Similar with any other methods for weight loss, you need to consistently stick with it for an extended period of time if you want to see the best end results.
Patience
It takes some time for your body to adapt to an intermittent fasting protocol. Be patient and consistency is key.
Strength training is also recommended in most of the popular intermittent fasting protocols. If you want to burn your body fats while holding on to muscle, strength is very important.
Calorie counting can also be a useful tool if your weight loss stalls.
Conclusion
One of the most useful tools of losing weight is intermittent fasting.
Eating healthy foods and maintaining a calorie deficit is still important if you want to achieve weight loss with intermittent fasting. Strength training is also important and consistency is key.
Intermittent fasting is also associated with some beneficial effects on hormones that come into play, including increased growth hormone, reduced insulin, a small boost in metabolism, and enhanced epinephrine signaling. Other than that, intermittent fasting also makes healthy eating simpler.
While it may be beneficial for some people, it is not for everyone. People who are underweight and people who have underlying health conditions, as well as pregnant and lactating women are not advised to do intermittent fasting as it might have adverse effects to their health. Also, intermittent fasting for children is probably not a good idea.
