In recent years, several dietary plans seem to be taking a lot of attention on social media channels and generally on blogs and YouTube channels. One of them is fasting for sure. You’ve heard of it – eat whatever you like, but only within an 8-hour period in a single day?
Of course, it is not that simple as there are some ground rules. First of all, you can’t really eat whatever you want for as much as you during that 8-hour window. Secondly, for the other 16 hours, you are not allowed any food or drink that kick starts your metabolism, and that’s a pretty shortlist.
Wilson Fisk/Wikimedia Commons | Time will be your new food
The short answer is that, yes, fasting may help you achieve great results and it can save you from some other perhaps more painful methods, but it is not an easy method itself and it does not guarantee good results. Here’s what we mean by that…
What is fasting?
Fasting is actually a biblical term. It’s what monks have been using for over two millennia now. It is abstaining from some, or even all, kinds of drink and food. The difference is that today, in modern times, it is not a form of religious observance but a form of a weight-loss method, though it is still used as the former.
How does the schedule work?
While it is true that you can eat throughout an 8-hour window, you can actually have only two meals during that time, preferably at the start and then as the 8 hours are to run out. Eating more than twice can disrupt the whole process and can cause you to intake more calories than you should, which will make the diet ineffective.
Mehrshad Rajabi/Unsplash | Flat coffee, tea, or just water for 16 hours daily
How do fasting and intermittent fasting work?
The secret is in blood sugar levels and insulin. Every time we eat something, virtually anything, our blood sugar rises and the body pumps up insulin to restrict it. We want to go from sugar burning to fat burning and it is the body’s growth hormone that burns the fat, but insulin restricts it.
This is why, after we eat, we have effectively blocked the work of the growth hormone for about 5 hours. What is important is to eat the calories you need in that 8-hour window, or maybe even shorter 6 or 4 hours, and then not wake up your metabolism for a full 16 or more hours.
All we are allowed throughout those 16 hours are water, tea, or black coffee, no sugar, no added stuff, just flat. A spoon of apple cider vinegar in water can do a lot to prevent your hunger, but it is important that we don’t wake up the insulin for as long as we can.
