Intermittent Fasting | How Does Its Work, Guide

1. Avoid sugar and refined grains. Instead, eat fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains with low-fat proteins and healthy fats (a reasonable Mediterranean-style plant-based diet).

2. Let your body burn fat between meals. Do not snack. Be active all day. Build muscle tone.

3. Consider the simple form of intermittent fasting. Limit the time of day when you eat, and for the best effect, do it earlier during the day (from 7:00 to 15:00 or even from 10:00 to 18:00, but definitely not in the evening before going to bed).

4. Try not to eat or eat at night 

A few weeks ago, I began to notice that my weight was growing a little. I think I ignored this for a while, but now it has become clear that my jeans were quite tightly pulled at the waist. So I decided to take action and do something about it.

After just a month, I became 20 pounds lighter, and my jeans were smaller than my waist than ever. It was not difficult, but it required a bit of determination. 

Intermittent fasting for fat loss | Intermittent fasting weight loss plan

This is the essence of weight loss; You must decide that you will do this no matter what. So if you want to do the same thing as me, I lost 20 pounds in just a month.

1. I skipped breakfast

Contrary to what your mother may have told you, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. This is probably the least important. And if you don’t study in early grades, have a physically demanding job, or look in the morning.

You may find that you are better off if you skip breakfast. So in the morning, all I consumed was water. But you can drink black unsweetened coffee or tea if you want.

Why does skipping breakfast help with weight loss?

Skipping breakfast is a form of daily intermittent fasting, and it will help you burn fat, give you more energy, and give you many other health benefits.

 By doing this, you will teach your body to use its fat stores as the primary fuel source, resulting in less effort and more weight loss, says Keith Kantor, Ph.D. in nutrition and naturopath in Atlanta.

“Fasting works best when combined with quality, whole, unprocessed foods and moisturizing with alkaline hydroxide water. After nightly starvation, your body is in a fat-burning mode, mainly because the insulin level in the blood is low in the morning. 

Therefore, eating a typical breakfast high in carbohydrates increases insulin levels and stops fat burning. On the other hand, growth hormone (burns fat and builds muscle) is higher early in the morning. But as soon as insulin levels rise, growth hormone levels drop sharply.

Eating early in the morning also tends to decrease (rather than increase) because it puts your body in the “relax and restore strength” mode. 

Intermittent Fasting Method 16/8

Intermittent fasting is the practice of including short-term fasts in your diet. Of course, we all “fast” while we sleep (thus, the first meal of the day is breakfast). 

While some intermittent fasting methods include refusing food for 24 hours once or twice a week, I just extended the fast the night before lunch. Therefore I fasted for 16 hours and ate for 8 hours (from noon to 8 pm).

There is much debate about whether skipping breakfast helps with weight loss or not. One study conducted in 2014 showed no difference in results between nutritionists. Who skipped breakfast and the other group that ate breakfast. Another study of the same year showed that skipping breakfast helped with weight loss and reduced the risk of illness.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Experts note some advantages from short posts. According to Cantor, they include increasing life expectancy improving brain function, improving insulin regulation, increasing stress resistance, improving satiety, the benefits of producing endogenous hormones, and increasing mental clarity.

And no skipping breakfast will not slow down the metabolism and transfer you to the “fasting mode.” It will take much longer.

Who should not try intermittent fasting?

Talk with your doctor before starting this diet on your own. Skipping meals can be dangerous for people with diabetes and those taking heart disease or high blood pressure medications.

2. I Eat a light lunch

 The protein source was either a tuna can (in brine or spring water) with a small amount of olive oil, an omelet with four eggs, or sometimes about 100 g of ham with a slice of small cottage cheese.

The choice of salad can be cucumber, celery salad, beets, peppers, tomatoes, etc. That’s all; Salad seasoning was not used, and no starchy carbohydrates were consumed at lunchtime. Not consuming carbohydrates (other than those found in lettuce) keeps your insulin levels low enough to burn fat during the day and give you more energy.

 But consuming a reasonable serving of protein is important as it helps maintain muscle mass while you lose fat. After lunch, I had two cups of coffee with a splash of bold milk in them. And yes, sometimes I got a little hungry, but that’s just what you have to accept and accept. A little hunger sometimes will not do you any harm.

3. In the days of training, I had a cocktail after training and a banana

I trained with weights three times a week, doing a short but intense whole body workout. After training, I had two tablespoons of whey protein in an int pint (400 ml) of nonfat (nonfat) milk. At that time, I also had a ripe banana to provide an easily digestible source of carbohydrates.

Shaking after a workout is essential, as it helps bring back what the movement has caused you, and it also helps to start the recovery process. Then you need to eat good food in about an hour or two. Some form of weight training is essential to maintain (or even build) muscle mass during the diet. 

But if you do not want to go to the gym and lift weights, you can always do exercises with your own weight at home instead. On non-training days I did not eat anything after lunch until dinner.

4. I had my main meal in the evening

I had about 10 ounces of meat, poultry, or fish with vegetables and some carbohydrates (more carbohydrates were eaten on training days than on weekends). The source of carbohydrates was brown rice, potatoes, or sweet potatoes.

It was a fairly substantial (but healthy) and hearty meal. Eating more carbohydrates in the evening helps replenish glycogen stores, maintain a high metabolism, and increase leptin levels.

 Leptin is your primary fat-burning hormone, so it’s essential to keep it high if you want the fat-burning process to continue after a certain point. After about an hour, I had a mug of natural cocoa made from bold milk.

And it’s all. No processed, peeled, packaged, or sugary foods were consumed at all. And besides coffee, cocoa, and cocktails after training, all I drank was water. And they didn’t eat nuts or cheese, because although they are healthy, they contain many calories, so it’s better to avoid them if you are trying to lose weight as quickly as possible.

5. I took a day off every week

I followed the above regimen for six days every week, and then I had a day off. Some people call this “cheat day” or “re-feeding day,” but it’s just a day when you can relax and eat a little more than what you like.

 It is not an excuse to eat everything you want, but you can eat more calories and carbohydrates. You can even eat some junk food or sweet dessert if you want. But only once, and only on this one day. The purpose of the re-feeding day is to increase metabolism and increase leptin levels even further. 

If done correctly, this will accelerate the loss of fat over the next week. But if you overdo it, you undo a lot of what you did last week. Therefore, I was still skipping breakfast on this day, but I would have some cheese in my omelet and a slice of whole-wheat pita bread during dinner for lunch.

I drank a glass of red wine, and then I could eat the desert, perhaps a piece of cheesecake. Or maybe instead of a bowl of oatmeal. And I can also have some chocolate with my cocoa. Over a week, I got a craving for sweet food, but I just told myself that I could not drink until Saturday. This worked pretty well; You can stick to something better if you have something you might not expect too far.

This is exactly what I did to lose 20 pounds in 30 days. This unique way of eating combines intermittent daily fasting with inadequate carbohydrate intake throughout the day, good evening meals, and properly planned re-feeding days. It worked perfectly for me, and I’m sure it will be for you too. Let me know if you decide to give it a try.

Additional Advantages Of Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is not only about achieving a healthy weight. Here are some additional benefits you will get along this path:

Improves cardiovascular health. Intermittent fasting diets have improved cholesterol, increased blood pressure, and reduced heart disease risk.

One note: these studies have linked intermittent fasting with lower LDL cholesterol and VLDL. This is why managing your inflammation may be more important.    

Reduces inflammation. According to early studies (read: rodent studies and a small sample of people), reducing inflammation can be the key to maintaining a healthy weight, increasing life expectancy, and lowering the risk of illnessintermittent severe Fasting.

This is why anti-inflammatory foods underlie a  bulletproof diet. Intermittent fasting reduces oxidative stress and inflammation in all directions, including markers of inflammation such as adiponectin leptin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).  

Helps remove cellular waste. Over time your cells naturally accumulate damaged cells and unnecessary waste, which can interfere with cell function. 

Studies in rodents have shown that intermittent fasting promotes a process called autophagy, which occurs when your body clears cell debris so that your body can work even better. 

Supports Healthy Aging. Research shows that intermittent fasting can help protect your cardiovascular system and how you control your blood sugar to maintain healthy aging. 

This helps develop a sense of calm and alertness. Studies in rodents have shown that intermittent fasting increases life expectancy and protects against disease.

How To Start Intermittent Fasting

There are several ways to start intermittent fasting, which is great because every organ is different. The key is to experiment and listen to your body to see what works best for you. Here are some ways to get started:

16: 8 You eat all of your daily calories for a short period of time (usually 6-8 hours) and starve the rest of the time.

Bulletproof intermittent fasting is similar to 16: 8, but with one significant difference, so you are not hungry: in the morning, you drink a cup of bulletproof coffee. 

High-quality fats keep you full until lunch, and you continue to burn fat and chew, so you get all the benefits of intermittent fasting. And don’t worry, bulletproof coffee won’t break your post. 

One Meal Per Day (OMAD): Also known as a once-daily meal. You eat all your daily calories in just one meal every day and fast for the rest of the day.

5: 2: You usually eat five days a week. The other two days, you “fast,” eating from 500 to 600 calories.

Alternative fasting day: you alternate the day you usually eat with 25 percent of your usual daily calories. 

The study found that obese adults following a “variable day” intermittent fasting regimen lost up to 13 pounds in 8 weeks.