Short Term Fasts May Boost Fat Burning

Short-term fasting leads to several changes in the body that make fat burning easier due to the reduced production of insulin, an increased growth hormone production, and enhanced epinephrine signaling. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, a personalized diet plan is needed to ensure the quality of food consumed can help with hunger management and weight loss while fasting. The main reason that restricted eating and intermittent fasting works so well for weight loss is the reduction of calories. Unless you overeat during feasting periods, your overall consumption of calories will be less.

• Meal Skipping - When you decide to say no to a meal, you shouldn’t drink anything with high caloric values such as juices or sodas. Instead, you should only be drinking low calorie options such as black coffee, unsweet tea and water while fasting.
• Time-Restricted Eating - Time-Restricted Eating is a great approach for beginners, as it simply involves not eating between dinner one day and breakfast the next day. Simple but effective for reducing food within set intervals.
• The 16/8 Fast - If you choose the 16:8 method of fasting, experts recommend picking an eating window that allows you to finish your daily meals fairly early, because your body is less efficient at managing blood sugar later in the day.
• Eat-Stop-Eat Fasts - Skip-a-Day Fasts means staying within your calories limits one day, then eating whatever you want the next, and repeating the process until your body adjusts to the up-and-down eating patterns.

For shorter fasting periods, you can break a fast by consuming a regular-sized meal, so avoid overeating and select healthy foods. You may want to ease back into eating with a broth soup after longer fasting periods. Very low calorie diets or prolonged periods with low caloric intake can cause physiological changes that can cause the body to adapt to the restriction and therefore prevent further weight loss. With intermittent fasting, you cycle between low calorie levels and normal eating. However, the results are about the same as you'd expect from a calorie-restricted diet. You may realize some health benefits other than weight loss though; studies are showing that fasting can be beneficial to reduce heart disease, diabetes and other chronic ailments.

*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.