Intermittent Fasting May Reduce Dangerous Belly Fat

Effective weight loss and on-going weight maintenance relies on consuming a balanced diet of healthy foods as well as behavioral modifications to your eating schedule. To lose weight with an intermittent fasting protocol, the foods you eat should be healthy whole foods that are consumed at consistent intervals. Adding a little strength training can help you maintain muscle mass while safely losing weight. According to research published in the journal Obesity Reviews, intermittent fasting is less likely to cause muscle loss than a diet based on continuous calorie restriction and some participants shed potentially dangerous belly fat from around their waist.

• 16:8 Fasting Protocol - When you fast for sixteen hours, you can skip breakfast, eat an early dinner and simply avoid all late night snacking, then repeat the process the next day.
• Eat-Stop-Eat Fasts - Alternating between days of one meal that provides about 25% of person's daily calorie requirement and days of no food restriction is a simple approach to intermittent fasting.
• Two Day Fasting - It is recommended that women consume 500 calories and men have a dietary intake of 600 calories on two days of every week. Then, you simply eat healthy meals the remaining five days.
• Eliminating Meals - By eliminating meals when you don't feel hungry, you can trigger cellular repair processes throughout the body with improved gene expression to help stave off chronic diseases.

Due to the reduced production of insulin and increased growth hormone production, short-term fasting promotes several changes in the body that makes fat burning easier.  In a study on intermittent fasting (or intermittent calorie restriction), a similar amount of weight was lost as compared to continuous calorie restriction but with a much smaller reduction in muscle mass. Calorie restriction studies have shown that 25% of the weight lost during a low-calorie diet was muscle mass. Conversely, only 10% of muscle mass was lost during an intermittent calorie restriction study. For balanced menus to support any fast, contact the Metabolic Research Center.

*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.