Is Intermittent Fasting (IF) yet another fad diet program, let's find out!
What is Intermittent Fasting, it's the process of scheduling a regular set periods of time (Daily or Weekly) in which you do not eat food, or anything with calories in it.
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting (IF):
- Helps your body burn Fat as fuel instead of Carbs as fuel.
- Helps you learn to control your food instead of your food controlling you.
- Helps restore vital health related hormone levels in your body.
- Let's your body focus on something other than digesting food, like injury repair, the immune system...
- Purges your body of harmful toxins stored in the cells.
- Preserving memory functioning and learning.
Ways you can Intermittently fast:
- Stop eating for a 24 hour period 1 to 2 times per week. (Stop eating at 7pm the day before and eat again after 7pm the next day)
- Only eat within a 6-8 hour window each day which allows your body 16-18 hours of fasting time benefits each day. (Eat from Noon till 6pm)
How is IF (Intermittent Fasting) supposed to work "Quotes from Dr. Mercola":
- Teaches your body how to use FAT as it's primary source of fuel by getting your body into a fat burning state since you need 8 hours from the time you last ate before your body really starts using Fat as fuel instead of stored Carbohydrates as fuel.
- When your body is using stored fat as fuel instead of stored carbs as fuel it helps your body to do the following:
- Normalize your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health and to avoid "insulin resistance", which is a primary contributing factor to nearly all chronic disease, such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
- Normalize ghrelin levels, also known as "the hunger hormone"
- Lowering triglyceride levels. (A form of Cholesterol)
- Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage (pro anti-aging benefits).
- Promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production (for protection of cannibalism of muscle tissue), HGH plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process. Intermittent Fasting boosts HGH levels as much as 1300% in women and 2000% in men. That's huge!
"HGH, commonly referred to as "the fitness hormone" plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. Other benefits of Intermittent Fasting (IF) are giving your digestive track a break which many people believe allows your body to focus on other things like repairing damaged tissue, fight disease or sickness…"
What Intermittent fasting is not:
- Not an excuse to eat whatever you want when it's time to eat. This will eliminate the health benefits of Intermittent Fasting (IF). Yes you do need to pack a full days worth of food in a short period of time but make healthy choices.
- Not a substitute for proper nutrition or exercise. On an IF diet it's best to eat complex carbs, moderate amounts of protein and slightly higher than normal "Healthy Fats", since FAT will be your new source of fuel used by your body for energy.
- IF is not a short term plan, Intermittent fasting (IF) is a lifestyle choice.
Perhaps there is a reason why most religions advocate some sort of regular periods of fasting?
Personally I'm not trying the Intermittent fasting diet to "lose weight", I am interested in the other health benefits of IF and perhaps being able to feel a bit less guilty about a cheat meal is a nice bonus :) The increase in HGH Levels, reduced inflammation and normalizing my insulin and leptin sensitivity are all very good reasons for me to give Intermittent Fasting a try.
So Is Intermittent Fasting Yet Another Diet Fad Program? Guess I will find out...
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