Let’s say you want to lose weight and improve your lifespan, but you’ve tried all other diet options such as the paleo diet, keto diet, vegan diet, low-carb diet, and the ultra-low fat diet, yet you’re anywhere close to losing those love handles.
If you’re at that point where nothing seems to work anymore, then you probably need to get on to intermittent fasting.
Just like other methods of losing weight, intermittent fasting carries a lot of hype. There are several top celebrities who swear by it and tons of people who claim that without it they would have remained the overweight person in the corner.
Luckily, this benefits of this type of eating plan are not just hype, but reality. Intermittent fasting can help you get rid of excess weight and keep you healthy.
But what is intermittent fasting?
Just as the name implies, this eating plan is all about fasting certain periods (during which you can only consume liquids such as water, coffee, and tea) and periods you can eat. Unlike most diet plans, intermittent fasting doesn’t restrict you to any type of food, so you can go ahead and eat fat during your eating periods. Don’t worry, your fasting periods will make up for excess calorie intake.
However, intermittent fasting bears many similarities with most diet plans. First, it is incredibly hard to stick to. If you’re the type that finds it practically hard to commit yourself or you love snacking, eating when bored or you’re an epicure or a glutton, you might end up gaining a lot of weight if you go through with this eating plan.
7 Way To Do Intermittent Fasting: Best Methods And Quick Tips
The one thing most people love about intermittent fasting is its flexibility. There are about 7 intermittent fasting schedules which makes it easy for you to stick to the eating plan since you would be following only a plan that fits into your lifestyle.
1. Fasting for 12 hours
This fasting schedule involves fasting for 12 hours every day. According to some researchers, this should cause your body to use up its fat stores which releases ketones into the bloodstream. This makes you lose weight.
If you’re a beginner, then you should start off with this fasting schedule. To make things easier, try to include a period of sleep in the fasting window.
For example, you could choose to fast between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. This means you’d have had your dinner before 7 p.m. and wait until 7 a.m. to eat breakfast.
2. Fasting for 16 Hours
In this eating plan, you spend 16 hours gulping down water, coffee or any other liquid that can keep the stomach grumbling at bay and eat in the other 8 hours. This fasting schedule is called the 16:8 diet or the Leangains diet.
In this type of fasting plan, men fast for 16 hours each day, and women fast for 14 hours. Women get to fast for shorter periods since they usually do better or gain more benefits with slightly shorter fasts.
3. The 5:2 Diet
This diet involves eating healthy foods 5 days of the week and restricting your calorie intake to 500-600 on two days of the week.
4. Eat-Stop-Eat
This method is a bit extreme, but it does offer a lot of benefits. The Eat-Stop-Eat diet involves a 24-hour fast, once or twice a week.
To follow this plan, you would have to go without food for an entire day. For example, if you find dinner at 7 p.m., you wouldn’t throughout the next day until 7 p.m., this makes an entire 24-hour fast.
5. Alternate Day Fasting
This is probably one of the most successful intermittent fasting plans. It is quite brutal as you would have to eat little or no food every other day. This fasting plan is most beneficial for people who undergone other intermittent fasting plans.
6. The Warrior Diet
This diet plan is more practical and probably more achievable for some people. It involves eating only small portions of raw fruits and vegetables during the day and then eating a huge meal at night.
This diet was popularized by fitness expert Ori Hofmekler and although
7. Meal skipping
If you’re not a fan of fasting or feasting on raw vegetables and fruits for the most part of your day, then you can opt for this easy intermittent fasting plan.
Rather than going hungry for long periods of time, you choose to skip meals according to your level of hunger.