Intermittent fasting is not actually a diet in the strictest sense of the word, but a food habit that you can include in your daily routine to lose weight, get ripped and above all, improve your health overall.

Fasting, as its name suggests, consists of not eating during a constant number of hours. Moreover, this is nothing new; It is something that always been practiced before. Also, when animals are sick, they usually decide not to eat. We, however, assume the habit that we need to have breakfast or have a snack or something between meals and have to eat, eat and eat.

How does it Work?

During the first 6-8 hours of your fasting, the glucose (sugar) levels in the blood will drop, at this point the glucagon levels rise which means that when we do not consume foods rich in glucose, the body begins to use its reserves of glucose, which stored as liver glycogen.

This keeps your body in a “Catabolic state.” where your body has no food or resources for energy, so it starts to get energy from excess fat. During the period of fast, there are several changes in your levels of hormones in your body; the insulin goes down during fast while the growth hormones increases which result in burning the fats.

After several days of fasting, all the cells of the body begin to break down the proteins. That releases amino acids into the bloodstream, which can be converted into glucose by the liver. Since part of our muscle mass is made up of protein, the amino acids that the body needs will take them from the muscle tissue.

How does it Help?

• It controls the Insulin level. So what is insulin? It is a hormone produced after a meal by your pancreas and which allows the carbohydrates that you eat to be able to enter your cells and provide energy. So yes your insulin levels will be lower during the fast, but the insulin will regenerate after your meals.
• It is reducing the level of bad cholesterol in the blood.  Cholesterol? It is a kind of fat that can come from your diet or be synthesized by your liver.
• You are cleaning the body and the digestive system.
• Weight loss because of eating less lead in reduction if weight.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting?

• One of the great benefits of signing up to this practice is that we feel more energetic since it increases our adrenaline.
• Another benefit that is important to highlight is the self-cleaning of the digestive system that we get with it. During the time it lasts, a periodic cleaning process is activated whose function is to sweep and clean the intestine of the remains coming from the digestions, so it prevents the appearance of gases, the bacterial overgrowth and helps to improve possible indigestion.
• Third, it increases the sensitivity to insulin, reducing anxiety and retaining muscle mass in possible weight loss. It also strengthens the immune system, stimulating autophagy (a natural mechanism of our body that occurs at the cellular level, regenerating, and which is related to a lower risk of contracting diseases and a longer life expectancy), increases metabolism and improves mood in general.
• Reduced risk of diabetes
• Decreased cardiovascular risks
• Reduction of obesity
• Positive effects on the level of bad cholesterol in the blood
• Regulation of weight and satiety (hunger)

Types of Intermittent Fasting?

1. Possibly you are already performing some kind of fasting unconsciously, at the time of sleep. Thus, a fast of 12 hours is not complicated if you finish dinner at 9:00 p.m. and do not eat anything until 09:00 p.m. the next morning. Along with this, you can do Fasts of 14 hours, 16 hours, 24 hours and, even, there are people who arrive up to 3 days in a row.
2. The most recommended is the 16-hour fast, which is not very complicated, but it does require some adaptation. For that reason, the best thing is that you start with one of 12 hours and go adding, little by little some hour more, as the days advance. It can be done once a week or when you think it is necessary. In the event that you want to do it every day, without a doubt, you will need the help and supervision of a professional.

DIET PLAN :

The most popular way to do it is to fast from 8:00 p.m. until 12:00 p.m. the next morning but you can follow this diet with any pattern you select just keep in mind to eat after every 4 hours if you have an eating period of 8 hours and if you have less say 6 hours you can eat after every 2 hours.

Note:

• If you are vegetarian, you can have idli/Upma/Poha after your eating window starts.
• For non-vegetarians, you can have chicken in place of bhaji.
• And when you are fasting make sure you are hydrated and for coffee consumers, you can have 2 cups of black coffee whenever you feel hungry or else 2 cups of green tea.
• Make sure to have some heavy eatings before you fast starts so that you stay full till the end of the day.

” Make sure that this Intermittent Fasting is not a diet, it is an eating pattern but that doesn’t mean you can have junk foods too.”