What is Intermittent Fasting?

Processing food is quite hard work for our bodies. The body has to work every time we eat. Our body is beautifully balanced, and when we eat, we disrupt this flow, which we must again seek to maintain. 

Everything you eat is foreign. Your digestive system starts working on it immediately to get it all digested, processed, and what is useless removed. Everything changes in your body the moment food comes in. This is quite an effort. It is, therefore, good to give your body occasional rest.

At the same time, looking after our body so it will serve us for as long as possible without severe complication is another thing to think about. This is where intermittent fasting comes in.

What then is this all about?

First of all, let clear out one prevalent misconception. Intermittent fasting is not starvation. Yes, it probably down to the individual practicing it, but this idea is not going days or weeks without food in the hopes of shedding some pounds.

Intermittent fasting is when you cycle between eating and fasting (none eating periods). Intermittent fasting is a broad term for various eating schedules that we have come to associate with several phenomena. One of these is weight loss. 

There is a whole lot to talk about intermittent fasting and weight loss. However, let’s first wrap our head around the concept of intermittent fasting and just why you should try it out irrespective of its efficacy in losing weight. This will help in practicing this trend in the right and most importantly, healthy manner. 

The word “intermittent” shouldn’t confuse you. It is what you might already be accustomed to. This idea is what we refer to as “fasting.” Although intermittent fasting, in particular, has a series of rules surrounding it, it is no less different from “fasting” religious outfits engage in.

For instance, the periods we eat early to avoid eating late, thus, contributing to weight gain. Some people also miss breakfast to get the same result.

During the time you are expected to fast, you either eat nothing or a little. When you eat, you can also choose to be selective about the kinds of food you go for.

Unlike many diet plans, intermittent fasting is explicitly not about the food you eat but exactly when you chose to eat these foods. It is more of an eating pattern than a diet. You know diet involves a whole list of food you should eat to stay fit or shred some extra pounds. However, intermittent fasting isn’t all about the food. It is more about when you are to eat the food and when not to.

Note that for effectiveness, you can also try being selective of the foods you eat, because seriously, there are foods that simply do us no good.

You can do intermittent fasting in several ways. Let’s check them out.

The Different Intermittent Fasting Methods

The are numerous ways of trying this method. Each, however, is centered around dividing days or weeks into eating and when not to. In this book, we will stick to five. These 5 are the most popular ones out there. They are:

• The 16:8 – Leangains Method/Daily
•  Intermittent Fasting
• Eat-stop-eat – Weakly Intermittent Fasting
• The 5:2 plan
• The Alternate-Day Intermittent Fasting
• Eat-drink

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Let’s look at some more ways that Intermittent Fasting can better improve your lifestyle beyond losing weight.

• Recovery of body cells;
• Restore insulin sensitivity;
• Increase in growth hormone production;
• Increase in growth hormone production;
• Lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease;
• Delay of premature aging

If you would like to know more about intermittent fasting and subjects help you in yout slimming, you can access the Library 4 Slimming and see rich articles about healthy and slimming.