How Intermittent Fasting Works?

Today, overweight and obesity are reaching alarming propensities in western countries. In fact, according to the WHO, 56.8% of men and 40% of women are overweight or obese in the USA. Fifty thousand bariatric surgeries take place every year in the USA.

Faced with such a situation, the best way to regain control of your weight and especially your health is to do exercises and follow a food rebalancing.

One of the methods to lose weight quickly is intermittent fasting. Indeed, it is one of the remarkable ways of losing weight permanently.

How Intermittent Fasting Works? (the science behind this type of fasting)

Intermittent fasting is a cyclical eating pattern that includes a period of fasting, followed by a period of eating. The length of the feeding period may vary depending on the type of intermittent fasting you choose to follow.

There are diverse ways of intermittent fasting, and this article will tell you about the most popular types of intermittent fasting. Also, we recommend the most accessible kind of fasting to follow so that there is not too much upheaval in your daily life.

Manual

Intermittent fasting could be broken down into two periods. These periods are known as windows. The fasting window and the feeding window concretely.

During the fasting period, you will not be allowed to eat food. You can only drink mainly water, tea without sugar, coffee without sugar. No calories must be taken during the fasting period.

However, during the meal period, you will be allowed to eat whatever you want. Also, during this time, you should consume all of your calories for the day.

How to succeed in intermittent fasting?

One of the advantages of fasting is that while no food is banned during the feeding window. Diet is secondary. What matters is that you MUST be accommodating during the fasting period. It is when the body will use its fat stores to turn it into energy.

Indeed, when your stomach is empty, the body will not have to transform your food into fuel, so it will draw on your fat reserves for the energy it needs. It is, therefore, imperative to fast to burn fat successfully.

Many people fail to lose weight because they eat at a very short interval. So, to get its fuel, the body burns food as fuel. In this way, the body never has the opportunity to access fat stores. Therefore, even with exercise, visible changes are slow to come.

It must be noted that even if you have adopted intermittent fasting, you should strive to be a calorie deficit to guarantee fat loss. To maintain your weight, if you are a man, generally, it must be 2500 calories and for the woman 2000 calories per day. So, if you want to lose weight, you must consume below these figures, depending on your gender.

When you have a calorie deficit and combine it with intermittent fasting, your fat will melt faster than you ever thought possible.

Now let's look at some of the methods of intermittent fasting.

Method 1

Martin Berkhan. His method is the most popular today. It is beneficial and relatively easy to follow.

The rules are that men must fast for 16 hours and women for 14 hours. They will have a window of 8 hours and 10 hours to eat.

It is of paramount importance to maintain the consistency of your feeding window. If you don't, your body will get confused, and the results will be worse.

Martin recommends planning your meals based on your workouts. For example, if your feeding window ends at 7 p.m., you should train around 5:30 p.m., eat and finish your meal just before 7 p.m. You can also start eating right after your workout. In this way, your body has food to fuel your muscles that were used during your weight training, etc.

Method 2

The second method is known as the Warrior Diet and was created by Ori Hofmekeler.

It is a much more severe method than that of Martin. The rules state that you must fast for 20 hours a day and eat only one large meal a night. It is what our ancestors could have done.

Although it is difficult to know if our ancestors ate this way, the fact remains that the Ori method is beneficial. Many people who have adopted his plan have seen significant improvements in their health.

At first, when you start this intermittent fasting technique, you may not have to follow the Ori method. It would be best to start with the Marin method and gradually reduce your feeding window over time until you can fast for 20 hours without much effort and discomfort.

You should also know that the Ori method allows you to take a few small meals during the fasting period. Nonetheless, there are rules regarding what you can eat and cannot.

You should, therefore, monitor your diet and stick to the list of authorized foods. It is undoubtedly one of the strictest methods of intermittent fasting.

Method 3

The third method is known as Eat Stop Eat and was created by Brad Pilon. His program is an online bestseller.

The rules of fasting are quite simple. You must fast for 24 hours, two or three times a week. On days when you don't fast, you can eat whatever you want without worrying too much.

In this way, your overall calorie consumption for the week remains lower, and you will quickly lose weight. Since you are allowed to eat whatever you want during the fasting period, you will not be deprived of your favorite foods.

It can be a relief for many people who are afraid to give up the foods they love. However, the 24-hour fast window can be challenging for many people, especially those just starting. So, as mentioned earlier, you can follow Martin's method and progress.

How do I decide which intermittent fasting method to follow?

The truth is that you need to analyze your eating habits, your sleeping habits, your work requirements, etc. You must adopt the fast to your needs.

If you work at night, you cannot fast overnight because you will be hungry. You should, therefore, include your hours of sleep in your fasting window and perhaps start your feeding window 6 hours after waking up.

Do not choose a 24 hour fast from the start if you are still a novice. It can and will most likely be torture. You may end up giving up too quickly. Also, later you may experience feelings of guilt and feel like you have failed. It is when most people throw in the towel.