Benefits of Fasting May Go Well Beyond Weight Loss

With so many people searching for effective ways to shed unwanted pounds, intermittent fasting has become a popular eating pattern where an individual cycles between periods of feasting and fasting. If you don't eat anything, your body changes things to make stored fat deposits more accessible for use as fuel. This is due to changes in the nervous system and a major change in production of specific hormones that affect metabolism and help save muscle mass. Getting started on a fast involves splitting your day or week into two periods: eating periods and restricted periods. During a fasting period, you eat nothing or very little.

• 12-Hour Intermittent Fast - This is an excellent eating pattern for beginners as it has a very small fasting window. In fact, much of the fasting occurs while you are asleep. This is the simplest approach and easiest fast when getting started.
• The 16:8 Fasting Diet - This method of fasting involves skipping breakfast and restricting eating to an eight-hour window each day. For example, you can choose to eat between noon and 8 pm, fast for sixteen hours, and then repeat the process.
• Alternate-Day Fasting - If you eat dinner on Sunday night and then not eat at all until breakfast Tuesday morning, you skipped Monday and are basically not eating for one entire day.
• 5:2 Fasting Method - Critics of the 5:2 approach point to the fact that there have been few studies of this fasting method. However, there are volumes of studies already completed on the benefits of intermittent fasting in general.

The benefits of intermittent fasting go way beyond weight management and includes numerous benefits for improving your metabolic health to help prevent the onset of chronic diseases. If you are brand new to fasting and see a decrease in performance or have failed expectations, your body will adapt over time and it adjusts to tapping into stored body fat for fuel. Spontaneous fasting, whole day fasting and alternate day fasting all offer the same fat-burning benefits for reducing stubborn fat deposits. The real difference in the fasting protocols is how long food is restricted and what you are allowed to eat during feasting periods.

*NOTE: Due to a difference in hormonal makeup, women have special considerations when fasting. Intermittent fasting is not a good idea for women under 18 years of age, those with a lean body profile, or those with medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism or a history of eating disorders. Ask your physician about an appropriate fasting protocol for you.