Fasting has been in practice since the ancient times, what we all know that fasting is the willing abstinence from some food or drink or both for a certain period of time and primarily done for religious reasons in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism but lesser known fact is that fasting has numerous health benefits too. For the same reason “Fasting” is gaining huge popularity amongst health & fitness seekers and also named as Intermittent Fasting.
What is Intermittent Fasting (IF)?
Intermittent Fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting & eating. It doesn’t specify which food you should eat but rather when you should eat the food. It is more convenient way to restrict calories intake as long as you don’t compensate by eating too much during your eating time.
How your body reacts, when you practice fasting?
When you don’t eat for definite period of time, several things happen in your body. For example, your body initiates important cellular repair processes and changes hormone levels to make stored body fat more accessible, the cells of your body live longer and produce more energy, it helps detoxifying and rejuvenating the body when we restrict calorie consumption during fasting window. Alternating fasting & eating periods can help the body cleanse itself. In addition, it helps to lose weight and speed up metabolism.
In 2016, Dr. Yoshihori Ohsumi, from Japan, who spent many years in research on the same subject, received Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the mechanisms behind the process known as “autophagy”, which means “self eating” the study shows how human cells recycle their trash.
What are various Methods of Fasting?
There are many types of fasting, so you can choose the strategy that you like or that suits your lifestyle best. Common methods are:
- 24 hours Fasting (EAT-STOP-EAT) method: If you want to practice this method, you can choose to fast one whole day (i.e. 24 hrs. ) in a week. For example, eat your breakfast at 9AM any day and do not eat until next day 9AM. The ideal way is to have same day every week as fasting day.
- 16/8 method (Limited Fasting): It is most popular method of intermittent fasting, and to lean towards this method, you eat only 8 hours a day, every day, and don’t eat the remaining 16 hours. Many people find 16/8 method to be the simplest, most sustainable & easiest to follow. Intially, you may choose your eating window from breakfast at 9 AM to dinner at 5PM thus, you will spend 16 hours without food however in the beginning, you may choose to have 10 hours eating window, once you get used to it, you may reduce the time you are allowed to eat.
- Water/Fluid Fasting: If you want to choose this method, you may choose any day of the week and only drink water, fresh juices, black tea/coffee without sugar on the fasting day.
- 5:2 diet fasting : In this method, you choose any 2 days of the week when you will consume lesser than normal 5 days calories, like if you consume 2000 calories in a normal day, you may choose to reduce it to 400-500 calories on fasting day just by eating vegetables or/and fresh fruits salads, soups etc.
- Skipping a Meal: In this method, you may choose to skip a meal of the day, every day, to boost your metabolism and activate cleansing process of your body. But make sure not to overeat your next meal after skipping one.
All the above methods are effective, but which one fits the best will depend on the individual. And main reason for its success is that fasting helps you eat fewer calories overall, if you binge and eat massive amount during eating periods, you defeat the very purpose of fasting.
Health Benefits of Fasting:
- Weight Loss: Fasting helps you lose weight in most easiest and convenient way without following conventional strict dieting plans.
- Insulin Resistance: Its helps lowering blood sugar levels and hence protects against type 2 diabetes.
- Inflammation reduction: Some studies show reduction in markers of inflammation, a key driver of many chronic diseases.
- Brain Health: Fasting improves brain health and may aid growth of new nerve cells.
Fasting is not something that anyone can do, it is one of many ways to improve health. There may be chances it doesn’t suit you, in such case, analyse your condition with health professional. The best way is what you can easily follow for the longer run and feel good while practicing it.
Who should be careful or avoid Fasting?
- If you are underweight or having history of eating disorders, in such cases, you should consult health practitioner before practicing fasting
- If you are pregnant or trying to conceive or breastfeeding
- If you are diabetic or having irregular blood sugar levels
- If you are suffering from low blood pressure
- If you are undergoing chronic medical treatment.
If your overall health permits fasting and you can practice it on a regular basis, be ready to witness its miraculous effects.
Happy Fasting!!!
‘Inspired from an article on BrightSide’
