Can You Improve Your Health With Fasting?
We often assume the only way to obtain good health is to take part in an extreme diet or cleanse that not only can be difficult to follow but could harm your health. Instead, consider changing the time of day in which you eat with intermittent fasting.
What is Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is a cycle with periods of eating and periods of fasting. You’ll discover that fasting isn’t always going days without eating. It’s also not only used for weight loss, although that is one of the benefits. In this article, you will learn why fasting is good, as well as seven different methods to try.
What are Benefits of Fasting for Health
- Decreases blood sugar levels
For those at risk for diabetes, fasting can be a simple way to decrease blood sugar levels. There have been many studies proving this to be effective. Keep in mind that fasting can affect men and women differently. Luckily, there are several different ways to fast which, will be discussed later in this post. This way, you can determine the one that works best for you.
- Weight loss
Fasting has become popular in the dieting world to aid in losing weight quickly. Research has shown that fasting can boost metabolism, assisting in weight loss. One review showed that whole-day fasting could reduce body weight by 9%.
Another review showed that intermittent fasting could be just as effective as calorie restricting, decreasing body weight up to 8%. You may find that intermittent fasting is good for weight loss as it focuses more on the windows of time you consume food versus cutting calories or entire food groups out altogether.
- Reduces inflammation
Inflammation can be the cause of various chronic conditions such as heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Studies have shown that a month of fasting is good for drastically decreasing inflammation.
- Improves cholesterol levels
Heart disease is the cause of 31.5% of deaths in the world. One of the most effective ways to prevent heart disease is a change of lifestyle and diet. Fasting has proven to be beneficial.
One study found that alternate-day fasting helped reduce LDL cholesterol by 25%. Another study showed that fasting for at least three weeks decreased blood pressure and levels of triglyceride as well as LDL cholesterol.
- Boosts brain function
A study performed on mice proved that fasting for 11 months had a positive impact on brain function. Through other animal studies, it looks like fasting may improve conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
- Can extend longevity
Who doesn’t want to live a long and healthy life? This is yet another reason fasting is good for the body. A study showed that rats fasting every other day lived 83% longer than rats who didn’t fast.
- Can increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy
Animal studies have indicated that fasting can be beneficial in preventing and treating cancer. A test-tube study showed that fasting may delay tumor growth and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
Please note, studies are still being performed on the effects of fasting and cancer treatment.
Get Started Fasting for Health
As mentioned previously, there are many different methods of fasting, fasting timing starts from 12-hour fasts to whole-day fasts. When choosing a fasting timing method keep in mind your schedule and what you can feasibly work into your daily life.
Different Fasting Methods
- 5:2 Fasting
This is said to be one of the most popular methods of fasting. In the 5:2 method, you eat as you normally would for five days out of the week and reduce your calories to 500 for women or 600 for men on the other two days. 5:2 fasting is good for those who struggle with reducing calories throughout the week.
This way, calories are only restricted for two out of seven days.
- Time-restricted fasting
This type leaves a window of time for eating with a 14 to 16 hour period of fasting. This promotes autophagy which clears the body of debris and helps with some of the benefits mentioned earlier.
An eating window of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM usually works well as you won’t feel like you’re missing any meals.
- Overnight fasting
This is a more natural way of fasting for health that still creates autophagy, although with more mild benefits. Overnight fasting leaves you with a 12-hour fasting window.
You may finish your last meal at 7:00 PM and eat your breakfast at 7:00 AM.
- Eat-Stop-Eat
This is a flexible approach to fasting in which you complete two 24-hour fasts a week. After fasting, you may resume eating normally as if the fast had never happened. Eating “normally” refers to not over-eating because you had just fasted but also not calorie restricting.
This may make you feel more satisfied at the end of the week, allowing yourself to take in more calories five out of seven days a week versus calorie restriction throughout the whole week.
- Whole-Day Fasting
This method is essentially eating one meal a day, typically dinner. One thing to keep in mind when doing whole-day fasting is consuming all the nutrients your body needs. This can be challenging to do in one sitting.
- Alternate-Day Fasting
Here, your fasting days – which include about 500 calories – and normal-eating days alternate every other day. In a study, hunger was shown to decrease by week two, and by week four participants began to feel satisfied on the diet.
Choose-Your-Day Fasting
This is a looser approach to fasting for health in which you can customize the plan around your schedule. For instance, you may fast for 16 hours a few times a week.
As with overnight fasting, the health benefits are milder with a relaxed approach like this one.
Conclusion
Remember that everyone is different. We all have different goals and reasons why we are fasting for health. The good news is, there are many different styles of fasting all of which can provide the many benefits mentioned in this article. If one method didn’t work well for you, try a different one that makes you feel your best.