Many diets focus on what to eat, but intermittent fasting is all about when you eat.
With intermittent fasting, you only eat during a specific time. Fasting for a certain number of hours each day or eating just one meal a couple days a week, can help your body burn fat. And scientific evidence points to some health benefits, as well.
One of the most popular trends observed for losing weight, intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. There is no particular diet chart that is required to be followed while practicing intermittent fasting. Instead, it is about a set time period during which you should eat. These are also known as eating patterns.
How does intermittent fasting work?
There are several different ways to do intermittent fasting, but they are all based on choosing regular time periods to eat and fast. For instance, you might try eating only during an eight-hour period each day and fast for the remainder. Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day two days a week. There are many different intermittent fasting schedules.
Mattson says that after hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. He refers to this as metabolic switching.
“Intermittent fasting contrasts with the normal eating pattern for most Americans, who eat throughout their waking hours,” Mattson says. “If someone is eating three meals a day, plus snacks, and they’re not exercising, then every time they eat, they’re running on those calories and not burning their fat stores.”
Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the calories consumed during your last meal and begins burning fat.
WHAT ARE THE EATING PATTERNS?
There are several patterns that you can follow while practicing intermittent fasting with the most popular being the 16/8 method. You may also follow the 5:2 Diet or the Eat Stop Eat routine or Alternate-Day Fasting.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF INTERMITTENT FASTING?
Intermittent fasting not only helps in weight loss but also increases your metabolic rate. It also reduces stress and inflammation in the body. Most importantly, intermittent fasting helps you to avoid snacking on unhealthy food items throughout the course of the day. Several reports also suggest that intermittent fasting is good for the heart and is also important for brain health.
