You are probably on my blog because you’re considering intermittent fasting to achieve your health goals. Or, you have heard the reports of how effective it can be for weight loss. You’ve heard others raving about the benefits of intermittent fasting and how it has changed their lives. More importantly, you’re wondering, is intermittent fasting just another over-hyped fad?
Well, hopefully my blog will give you all the answers you are looking for. There’s a lot of reliable information on intermittent fasting out there, most of it by nutrition experts and medical professionals. There are hundreds of blogs and testimonies from people who have tried it. There’s also a large volume of research on the benefits of intermittent fasting with very positive findings.
I have condensed the most relevant information, and proven tips and distributed them into three blog posts. Also see * * and *. These are all of the key basics you need to know in order to make an informed decision about whether it’s for you.
If you have already decided that you want to go for it, the five simple steps discussed here will help you jump-start your intermittent fasting plan and quickly integrate it into your lifestyle.
I hope to keep offering valuable tips and recommendations to help your fasting routine go more smoothly – and help you get the most out of intermittent fasting.There are many reasons to consider intermittent fasting as a healthy lifestyle choice. The main reason is that it’s not a traditional diet.
Whether your goal is to lose weight or simply boost your overall health and vitality, intermittent fasting does not restrict you to specific foods or involve calorie-counting. You simply abstain from eating during fasting hours and eat what you want during eating hours – within reason, of course! It’s this flexibility that makes intermittent fasting so popular and much easier to adopt as a lasting lifestyle habit.
So, intermittent fasting is here to stay. It has become a lifestyle choice for hundreds of people, with many more coming on board as research continues to discover and confirm its seemingly endless benefits. Fasting has been practiced for centuries by various cultures worldwide for both health and spiritual benefits. It is only recently that it has become known in the West as a healthy lifestyle choice.
It’s highly unlikely that the practice of intermittent fasting will go away anytime soon, especially as more and more health experts are acknowledging its benefits.
Whereas health experts had previously warned about the potential dangers of skipping meals, research findings and real- life examples have caused them to do a 180-degree turn. In fact, nutrition experts are so convinced of the benefits of intermittent fasting that they are now recommending it to clients who simply cannot stick to a traditional diet.
Start Intermittent Fasting in just 5 steps
Step 1: Define your Goal
Is it weight loss or is it general well being? Or were you thinking of reversing that diabetes?
Step 2: Choose A Fasting Plan
Choose what works for you. While the most popular plan is 16:8 where one fasts for 16 hours and eats two meals in an 8 hour window (We call this TMAD – Two Meals a Day), some follow 18:6 with TMAD and some do 22:2 with OMAD (One Meal a Day).
The latter helps a great deal with weight loss. If you choose to go OMAD, step 3 is very important for you.
Step 3: Prepare Yourself Mentally And Know What To Expect
Prepare yourself mentally by understanding that yes, it will be tough especially at the beginning; but going without food for 12, 16 or even 24 hours will not harm you in any way. In fact, it was the norm for our early ancestors to go without food for long periods of time. As hunters and gatherers, they were sometimes forced to fast until they found food. The human body is totally adapted to fasting.
Step 4: Nutrition – Make Every Meal Count
Whatever your fasting plan, bear in mind that ultimately, you will be eating less. So, applying the “less is more” philosophy is the best way to make fasting work for you. That simply means making the most of what you eat by planning nutrition-packed meals that help you stay more full, more energized and less likely to miss essential nutrients during your fasting hours.
Step 5: Organizing High-Activity and Low- Activity Days
One of the pros of intermittent fasting is that you can easily accommodate it into your lifestyle and schedule. The key is to schedule your fasting on days when you are less active.
Finally, all that remains is for you to put these steps and tips together into practice and decide for yourself if intermittent fasting is all that it claims to be.