Category: 5:2

Top Benefits of Intermittent Fasting Diets

This page contains affiliate links

https://www.tryadietforamonth.com/You have probably heard of fasting diets. You may even have tried fasting at least once in your lifetime. This is NOT the same as a starvation diet. Starving yourself is extremely unhealthy and definitely not recommended. If you tried a fasting diet but didn’t manage to stick to it, at least you learned a bit about the process and could share your experience with friends and family. If you managed to stick to the diet for any length of time, you know how beneficial it can be to losing weight. It also has a lot of other health benefits too. So let’s take a look at these, before considering the different types of fasting diets.

Intermittent Fasting Is An Umbrella Term

Fasting for weight loss has become a popular solution for many people who are trying to improve their health, lose weight or heal other ailments. In essence, intermittent fasting is an umbrella phrase for many different meal timing plans which cycle between frequent fasting and restricted consumption over a defined period. During the intermittent fasting diet, many people reduce their calorie intake and increase their exercise and activity levels. Many experts believe that this increased exercise can have a positive impact on the heart.

Fasting for weight loss is not necessarily done only for people trying to lose a lot of weight. It is often recommended for those who need to shed a large amount of unwanted pounds (usually around 30 pounds or more) from a controlled, periodic eating plan. In addition to the benefits of losing weight, there are many other benefits of fasting diets that you should be aware of.

Health Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting

One of the biggest benefits of intermittent fasting is eating fewer calories. When you reduce your calorie intake, you will typically burn more fat. When you eat less food, your body has fewer calories to store up. Fasting diets may last only a few days, but they also can be a healthy long-term way of life.
Another benefit of fasting diets can be eating more quality fats and protein, especially if you combine a keto type diet with fasting. Many people are struggling with eating healthy fats. Because of your body’s lower need for these fat sources, eating more quality fats will help you drop weight. If you add quality proteins, like lean cuts of meat or fish, to your diet you will also increase your protein levels.
A third benefit of the fasting diet is improved digestion and increased energy. You will not be experiencing extreme hunger pangs throughout your diet. Instead of feeling bloated and hungry all the time, you will be full at the end of each day. This can lead to an improved quality of life because you will not have as many mood swings and irritable symptoms.

Finally, another benefit of the fasting diet is a lowered risk of developing heart disease. When you eat fewer calories, your body burns off extra fat and builds muscle. You may also begin to notice that symptoms of heart disease could subside. For example, if you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure or congestive heart failure, you might have experienced an increase in symptoms such as headaches and fatigue. By eating an alternate-day fasting diet, you can lower your risks of heart disease by up to 30 percent.

Although fasting diets have many benefits, they can be difficult to stick to but there are many different fasting diets and you should be able to find one that suits you.

Types of Fasting Diets

5:2

The 5:2 fasting diet was popularized a few years ago when a medical doctor, Michael Mosley, tried it and lost weight. He wrote a book called “The Fast Diet”. A friend of mine tried that diet at the time and has stuck to it ever since, working as a headteacher in elementary education and since retired and reaching 70, very healthy. On this form of intermittent fasting, you eat normally on 5 days of the week, while restricting yourself to 500 calories (women) 600 calories (men) on 2 days of the week. These days can be separated eg, Monday and Thursday, which seem to be popular choices or back to back on whichever 2 days you choose. People often choose Monday and Tuesday for that, leaving the weekend free to eat as they choose. If you reach your desired weight and do not want to lose any more, some people move to a 6:1 intermittent fasting regime, where they restrict calories on only one day of the week.

16:8

The 16:8 fasting diet is used every day. It allows you to eat only during a period of 8 hours and then you fast for the other 16 hours out of 24. Many people find that if they skip breakfast and do not eat anything until, say, 11 am, they then can eat normally between 11 am and 7 pm, which allows them lunch, a snack, and dinner and then they stop eating at 7pm until the following morning at 11 am.

OMAD

OMAD stands for one meal a day, so it is basically a 23:1 fasting diet, as you are allowed to eat one meal a day, which must be finished within one hour. It is sometimes done as part of the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, which allows one or two low carb complementary meals a day and one reward meal a day, which must be eaten within one hour. OMAD takes just the reward meal part of this diet.

How Fasting Diets Work

The theory behind many of these is that you cannot pack the same number of calories into your body during the hours you are allowed to eat on a fasting diet as you would if your diet were totally unrestricted. This was tested out with the 5:2 diet. People tended to eat about 10% more calories on the day after a fast but not sufficiently more to compensate for all the calories not eaten during the fast day. Provided you eat healthy nutritious food, protein, good fats and wholegrain products on the days when you are not fasting or on calorie restriction, you are unlikely to eat as much as you would if you ate what you wanted 7 days a week. Even if you want to eat high calorific foods like cake and candy, provided you eat the healthy food first, you will still eat less than before.

The Health Guru Who Eats 5,000 Calories In One Meal And Says He’s Healthy

Extreme Intermittent Fasting Dr Oz video

Could you do this?

This guy eats one enormous meal a day, says he is not hungry and has good blood work and a good weight.

Intermittent fasting is a recognised and healthy way to lose weight. There are different variations on this: Some people use a 16:8 fast, where they eat during 8 hours and fast the other 16  hours in the day.

Some people fast on a 5:2 basis, where they eat only 500 calories on 2 days of the week (often Mondays and Thursdays) and eat what they like the rest of the week.

This guy has taken it what seems to be a step further, looks like a 23:1 fasting diet, where he eats during 1 hour of the day and fasts the rest of the time.

Do you think you could do this?

Fasting is a healthy way to lose weight, (except for diabetics) provided you are not starving yourself, however, if you have had eating problems in the past, fasting diets are NOT suitable for you.

If you have any health concerns about your weight or your nutrition or weight loss, consult your doctor or a qualified nutritionist or dietitian.

How To Keep Weight Off

Lost It?

It’s all very well losing the weight, but keeping it off can be another problem altogether, especially if you chose a rapid weight loss diet as your method for losing weight. Once the weight is off, there is the temptation to return to your previous way of eating (WOE) and a consequent build up of fat again. Been there, done that, got the (bigger) T-shirt back again! It’s not the fault of the diet – it promised to get the weight off and it worked. It’s just that KEEPING weight off requires changing your normal way of eating in some way.

Problems

Impulse eating

This is where you pass the fruit bowl and take a piece of fruit and then another. Fruit is good for most people, however, most of it is high in natural sugar, so eating a lot can add calories that you weren’t counting on consuming. This also applies to the cookie tin, a quick “treat” from the local store, a piece of cake in the office to celebrate someone’s birthday and a friend sharing a bag of candy. There are so many impulse opportunities in our lives these days and it is hard to say no to them all. You can deal with the fruit bowl and cookie tin problems by not keeping them in the house. I know someone who always has a full cookie tin, “in case someone calls”. They deny eating them but their visitors are not sufficient to account for the cookie tin always being full of fresh cookies!

Mouth boredom

This is where your mouth gets bored with nothing to do, and it wants something to chew. Very often this translates to raiding the fridge for snacks or a sandwich, to keep you going until the next meal time. You may find some help by using sugar free chewing gum. This gives your mouth something to do while not adding sugar to your diet. Just take care with sugar free gum as it can have a laxative effect, if you use too much. Hot drinks (no sugar) can also be helpful. For a refreshing drink, try a few slices of fresh ginger in hot water, then add lemon juice. If it’s too hot for a warm drink, this is just as nice allowed to cool, or even iced.

Comfort eating.

This is where you are under stress or anxious and find that eating, especially the so-called comfort foods like potatoes and ice cream, helps relieve the stress or calm the anxiety. This requires finding ways of reducing stress and anxiety without using food. It has been said that exercise is the most (and best) under-used stress and anxiety reliever available and food the most over-used.

Keep It Off

There are a few ways of keeping the weight off, without feeling constantly deprived and without constantly having to refuse those little treats.

The Post Diet Diet

Try the 5:2 diet. On this diet, you eat normally 5 days a week and stick to 500 calories a day (women) or 600 (men) on two days a week. You can choose which two days. Many people find a Monday and a Thursday to be their best days. This is also a long term diet strategy that a number of people use. If you don’t need two days to keep your weight down, then use 6:1 and have just 1 day a week where you restrict your calories. Many people find this doable by telling themselves, that it is just for today and tomorrow they can eat “normally”. It works because it helps to regulate the appetite and also people do not eat “enough for two days in one” on the following day so the overall calorie intake for the week is reduced.

Then there is the 16:8 diet. This refers to the 24 hour day, in which you eat ONLY during a window of 8 hours, staying away from food (not water) for the other 16 hours of the day. This is doable by stopping eating 4 hours before bedtime, assuming you are in bed 8 hours and waiting for your breakfast until about lunchtime the next day. If you have finished your meals by, say, 6pm and can wait until 10am the next day before eating your breakfast, you will have an 8 hour window for eating between 10.00am and 6.00pm. You can move the hours around to suit yourself.

You could work on a slow increase in calories or carbohydrates. If you have lost the weight you need by whatever means and are now moving onto a maintenance diet, you could try increasing your intake slowly, whether in terms of calories (low calorie diets) or in terms of carbohydrates (low carb diets). This requires self discipline, to calculate a little extra, then sticking to that until you find the point at which you no longer lose weight and then stay at that level of carbohydrate or calories.The Atkins diet (low carb) provides suggestions for gradually increasing your carb intake at the stage 4, maintenance level, and the 800 BSD provides suggestions for gradually increasing your calories.

There is also one suggestion that you should eat ten times your desired body weight in calories each day. This is said to reduce your weight while you are heavier than that and keep you there once you have reached your desired weight. If your desired body weight is 140 pounds, then on this diet, you could eat 1400 calories each day.

A Healthy Long Term Diet

It is of course, vital that you find a healthy long term diet that keeps you at your desired healthy weight and also provides all the nutrients you need for health.  One recommended diet for this is the Mediterranean diet, which includes plenty of vegetables and healthy fats, as well as protein. The Mediterranean diet is one that you could stick to for a life time if you choose.

Overcoming Stress

If comfort eating is a problem, whether just at certain times or because your life is stressful anyway, then find a way of reducing stress and anxiety without using food as a crutch to ease your stress or anxiety. This may involve letting certain people go, taking up meditation, listening to relaxation tapes or learning to become aware of when you are using eating to reduce your stress and anxiety levels. Exercise can be a great stress and anxiety reliever. If you are taking medication for relieving stress or anxiety then do not change your dosage without consulting your medical adviser. Exercise can be used in conjunction with medication to provide great relief and reduce reliance on food for comfort.