Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss

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Intermittent fasting is a common strategy used for weight loss. However, is it safe for everyone? And what are the different types of intermittent fasting?

Lets take a comprehensive and practical look at intermittent fasting, and look at some ways you can use it more effectively.

Types of intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is a method of eating which dictates the timing of your meals. So it determines when you can eat, rather than what you can eat. Usually this helps reduce the overall amount of food consumed overall.

16:8 split

There are a few different timings, however the most popular is the daily 16 hour fast, and 8 hour eating window.

In this daily 16/8 split, you must fast for 16 hours, and are allowed to eat only during an 8 hour window. The fasting window cannot be broken up, and must be completed as a whole.

For example, in the daily 16/8 split, if you decide to stop eating after dinner at 8 pm, a 16 hour fast means the next time you can eat something would be a full 16 hours later, or 12 pm noon the next day.

You cannot start your fast at 8 pm, then stop your fast at 9 am the next morning to eat breakfast, and resume the fast again afterwards. The fasting period must be completed in one solid chunk.

Other splits exist as well, for example the more extreme 20 and 4 split, which has you fasting for 20 hours every day, or the less extreme 12 and 12 split, which has you fast for only 12 hours a day.

More extreme splits are expected to improve its effectiveness for weight loss, but may not be appropriate for everyone due to their extreme nature.

Also, dietary regimens that are too extreme may increase the risk of yoyo dieting, as they tend to be less sustainable for long-term.

Full day fasts

Another method of intermittent fasting involves fasting for a full day, so that’s a solid 24 hours, for a few times a week.

For example, if you finished dinner at 8 pm, you would fast for 24 hours, then the next time you could eat would be dinner 8pm the next day. And you would do this maybe 2-3 times a week, rather than daily, as seen in the 16/8 split.

The fasting days can be broken up into the week, like doing it Monday and Thursday, or every other day, but each 24 hour period cannot be broken up.

5:2 diet

Yet another less extreme method involves consuming a very low calorie diet for 2 days a week, then eating like normal for 5 days.

So instead of a complete fast, 2 days of the week would consist of a diet with around 500-600 kcal per day, then the remaining 5 days would be like normal.

Again, The two days can be broken up into the week, but each 24 hour period cannot be broken up.

OMAD

Having one meal a day (OMAD), is essentially an extreme version of intermittent fasting where you only allow yourself to have one meal every day.

It can be effective, but if you tend to binge eat, or eat whatever you want to reward yourself for completing a fast, you may end up eating more calories than if you had split your meals up.

Benefits of intermittent fasting

The fasting period also has beneficial effects on the body.

1.) Improved insulin sensitivity

It increases insulin sensitivity and lowers levels of insulin, making the body much more effective at controlling blood sugar, and helps prevent the body from storing fat, since high insulin levels tend to do just that.

This makes intermittent fasting a potentially useful tool for type 2 diabetics.

2.) Improved muscle metabolism

It also increases levels of human growth hormone, or HGH, in the body, helping the body to build more lean muscle.

HGH, also helps improve metabolism, and burn fat and sugar more effectively.

3.) Reduced inflammation

Fasting may also reduce inflammation in the body, and slow inflammatory processes that lead to unwanted pain, swelling, and those related to obesity.

It may also help reduce bad fat levels, and help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

4.) Slowed aging

There is also some interesting research surrounding fasting helping to repair cellular damage or slow aging.

So the fasting state may impart some very beneficial effects to those trying to lose weight, in addition to reducing their calorie intake.

What can you eat during intermittent fasting?

During the fasting period, you generally cannot have any solid food. Liquids with any significant amount of calories, like smoothies, juice, milk, or soups are usually not allowed during the fast as well.

You can have water, sparkling water, tea, or coffee, with no milk or sugar.

Some sources suggest that you can consume up to 50 kcal of food without breaking a fast, with some people allowing for a small 50 kcal snack, juice, or soup while fasting.

However my recommendation is to just aim for no calories, and stick with water, tea and coffee.

Eating even a small 50 kcal snack could awake your digestive system, and just end up stimulating more hunger during your fast, making it more difficult to complete.

I mean if you’re a medicated diabetic and need a small 50 kcal snack to prevent low blood sugar while fasting, thats totally fine, although I would recommend working with your doctor to change and lower your medication doses to prevent low blood sugar in the future.

Side effects

Generally, intermittent fasting is quite safe when done properly.

Most side effects surround getting used to dealing with temporary hunger or changes in energy and mood, especially if you’ve never done intermittent fasting before.

You’ll feel hungry, a little tired, and maybe a little moody or cranky at first, as your body gets used to it.

If you’ve never fasted before, your body is likely used to eating whenever it wants, deciding when it wants to be fed, and taking back this control will be a big part of the challenges you face when implementing intermittent fasting.

For example, if you’re used to eating breakfast, and suddenly decide to skip it to adhere to the daily 16/8 split, you’ll likely find your body will feel quite hungry in the mornings for a while.

This is because breakfast has always been part of your routine, and your body expects it. So every morning, it prepares itself to receive food, and if it doesn’t, it makes you feel very uncomfortable about it.

However, once you’ve skipped breakfast for a while, the hunger will slowly go away, once your body realizes it doesn’t need to prepare for breakfast anymore, since you’re no longer feeding it then.

Once it gets used to this new routine, it should stop giving you problems.

Risks of intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting may create some concerns around medicated diabetics, those on blood pressure meds, fertility and pregnancy, or those with eating disorders.

• Diabetes: In diabetics, taking medication like insulin while fasting can cause hypoglycemia, since insulin lowers your blood sugar, and if you’re already not eating anything, it could drop way too low. You’ll need to work closely with your doctor to reduce your insulin dose if you want to safely intermittent fast during your diet.
• Blood pressure meds: If you’re on blood pressure medication, intermittent fasting may lower your blood pressure enough to cause low blood pressure problems. Again, you’ll need to work with your doctor to lower your blood pressure meds safely during your fasts.
• Irregular menses: Intermittent fasting may also affect fertility, like causing irregular menstrual cycles in women or causing issues with producing breastmilk, especially in women who have nutritional deficiencies to begin with, or undergo a more extreme fast. In most healthy women however, intermittent fasting should not be overly problematic.
• Eating disorders: Finally if you have an eating disorder, talk to your doctor first about how to implement it safely.

Should you try intermittent fasting?

I definitely think it’s a strategy worth seriously implementing into your weight loss protocol. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

1.) Implement it properly

Firstly, It’s important to remember that intermittent fasting for weight loss relies heavily on making sure the overall amount of food consumed per week is lower than without intermittent fasting.

Things that may make intermittent fasting ineffective is if you have problems with compensatory overeating, or tend to overeat when you’re finally allowed to eat.

For example, if you fast for 16 hours in the day, but spend the remaining 8 hours binging, snacking, and gorging yourself, you might end up eating more calories per day than if you had not intermittent fasted at all.

You need to make sure that you control compensatory overeating, and avoid rewarding yourself with food for completing a fast.

Implement Intermittent fasting as a part of how you normally eat, not short periods of dietary punishment to force weight loss.

2.) Combine it with diet

Secondly, I recommend you also have a good dietary weight loss plan to go along with it.

Don’t just do it in isolation, allowing yourself to eat whatever you want. The combination of both a good weight loss diet and intermittent fasting is a very powerful combination, working better together than the sum of their individual parts.

3.) Ask your doctor

Thirdly, if you’re taking medications for blood pressure or diabetes, make sure you work with your doctor to prevent low blood pressure or low blood sugar problems while you intermittent fast.

However, if applied properly, it can be used safely and effectively in diabetics to control blood sugar in addition to losing weight. In fact, intermittent fasting may be highly beneficial to type 2 diabetics in also controlling insulin and blood sugar levels.

Finally, if you’re a woman trying to become pregnant, or currently breastfeeding, know that fasting can cause problems for you. I recommend not fasting during those times, then resuming once it’s safe to do so.

Learn more about

• How Intermittent Fasting Improves Gut Health
• Full Fasting – A Quick How To

See also

• 
  The Glycemic Index Diet: an overview
  The Glycemic Index diet focuses on foods that are lower in glycemic index and load, which can help with diabetes and weight loss.
• 
  Low FODMAP Diet: an overview
  The low FODMAP diet aims to reduce certain types of carbs that can cause bloating and gas. It can sometimes help reduce symptoms of IBS.
• 
  Paleo diet: an overview
  The paleo diet replicates our ancestors diet with wild game, fish, fruits, vegetables, and nuts, while avoiding dairy, grains, and legumes.
• 
  Anti-inflammatory diet: an overview
  The anti-inflammatory diet focuses on eating foods that have anti-inflammatory properties, and avoiding pro-inflammatory foods.
• 
  Gastric Balloon Diet Plan
  Once you have a gastric balloon, properly transitioning from liquids on day 1 to 3, to solids by day 14, is key to success on your balloon.