Consuming Water While Fasting Can Maximize Your Results

It is important to remember that intermittent fasting is not a diet. It is a short-term eating pattern. The key to determining whether fasts are for you is to ask yourself if fasting is easier than following a low-calorie day-to-day menu plan. Experts feel that fasting can make your gut stronger by increasing levels of good bacteria and killing off harmful microbes for increased energy levels and improved cognitive function. Regardless of the approach you choose, it is important to have a balanced menu plan if you want to lose weight and maintain it. By making smart choices, you can essentially eat more and still lose weight.

• Missing Meals by Choice - 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.
• Warrior Fasting Diet - The Warrior Diet was one of the first popular fad diets to include intermittent fasting as part of the overall diet. You fast for eighteen hours and eat like a warrior during a four-hour window.
• Crescendo Method - The Crescendo fasting protocol is used on non-consecutive days of the week, and involves 12 to 16 hours of fasting on rest days as opposed to training days.
• Alternate Day Fasts - According to a study in Nutrition Reviews, alternate-day fasting and whole-day fasts were shown to not only reduce body fat but also cholesterol and triglycerides in study participants that were normal to over-weight.

Consuming plenty of water and eating lean proteins, fresh fruits and veggies, healthy fats and whole gains on a fast diet can optimize your efforts. It also helps to exercise before or during your eating window, because people get hungry within an hour after finishing a workout and may find it difficult to stick to their menu plan. During a fasting period, you eat nothing or very little, so the quality of food choices you make can keep you feeling full longer. Intermittent fasting is not for everyone, including people with insulin-dependent diabetes or pregnant women. In addition, adults with binge eating disorders may tend to overeat during their eating window resulting in a failed approach.

*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.