Intermittent fasting is one of the world's most well-known health and fitness trends related to eating.
It's a great way to lose weight and improve your health, but it can also be a little daunting for beginners. Intermittent fasting isn't for everyone, after all.
As a beginner, intermittent fasting will mean adjusting your body's usual time for eating. Beginners will also find it hard to alternate between days of eating and not eating. If you're a beginner who wants to try an excellent health regimen, you're going to need some tips until you get used to it.
Here are some things to keep in mind when you start with intermittent fasting:
Set Personal Goals
According to Medical News Today, a beginner in intermittent fasting usually has a specific goal in mind. It may be either of the three: lose weight, improve overall health, or improve metabolic health.
Finding out what you want makes it easier to pick a fasting method and the number of nutrients you will have to consume.
A Women's Health article said this kind of diet had been linked to weight loss, but there isn't much research to prove that it is the best way to shed a few founds.
For one, intermittent fasting had been reported to have the same effects as the calorie-restricted diet. You have to consider this risk if you are aiming for weight loss.
NYC Dietician Alissa Rumsey, RD, said people may find some weight loss due to intermittent fasting in the short-term but can gain that weight back in time.
Fasting did show health benefits outside of weight loss, though. One study published in Cell Metabolism in 2018 found a link between intermittent fasting and lower insulin level and blood pressure.
Choose a Method that Suits You
If you're new to intermittent fasting, there are some methods you can pick. Make sure you and your body can handle the set time frames for each method.
- 16/8 method (Leangains): Leangains involves skipping breakfast and only eating for eight hours, like 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- Eat-Stop-Eat: This involves fasting once or twice a week for 24 hours. An example is not eating dinner one day one until dinner the next day.
- 5:2 Diet: The 5:2 diet means regularly eating for five days and only consuming 500 to 600 calories for two non-consecutive days.
Don't Forget About the Health Benefits
Apart from the earlier said health benefits, there have been other powerful benefits from intermittent fasting, for both your body and brain. Some say it can even help you live longer.
Here are some of the other main health benefits, as said by Healthline:
- Lower blood sugar: As intermittent fasting can lower insulin levels, it can also lower blood sugar by three to six percent, protecting you against type 2 diabetes.
- Heart health: Intermittent fasting has also shown evidence of lowering bad cholesterol, or LDL, a risk factor for heart disease.
- Brain health: Intermittent fasting increases BDNF in the brain, a hormone related to nerve cell growth.
No matter what your reason is for starting with intermittent fasting, it has to be under a method that you will not struggle a lot with. In the end, it is still your health you are looking out for.
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