Intermittent fasting is the latest diet to hit the market. Some are suggesting it is nothing but a fad, but it seems to be a fad that is catching on quite quickly. Besides this, there are a number of people who have said that they have done intermittent fasting for many decades and are healthier than most other people their age. So is there any truth to this type of diet? And most of all, how does it work?
What’s The Truth with intermittent fasting?
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
There are now a couple of theories on intermittent fasting. Some suggest fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week, some suggest fasting between dinner and lunch every day and others suggest that you should only really eat your evening meal. Most find the fasting between dinner and lunch is easiest to maintain.
This is a protocol popularized by Martin Berkhan of Lean Gains. This is a away of life we have come to embrace and one that suits us very well. You simply never eat breakfast, and fast from your last meal in the evening until lunch time the next day. You go without food for between 16 and 18 hours.
There are other options as well, but the general idea is that you spend 48 hours out of each week surviving on just 500 calories for every day. How you do that is up to you.
Does It Work?
The reality is that using intermittent fasting is exactly what we have always been told not to do.
If diets go against pretty much all of the nutritional advice that most of us have heard in the past few years, namely that more, smaller meals throughout the day are better than packing all of your food consumption into a few hours. The studies are preliminary, and as there are so many variations on the IF diet, it’s hard to say exactly what works and what doesn’t.
However, some preliminary studies have also shown that this type of diet does indeed work, and that people not only feel better but actually are healthier. Their lifespan is increased and they have fewer general health problems.
It has been made clear, however, that certain people should not, under any circumstances, try the intermittent fasting diet. In particular people with diabetes or hypoglycemia should not use this diet. Their sugar levels will crash too much to sustain a healthy lifestyle.
In this context, a fasting diet would be inappropriate, according to Cypess, who says that those who take certain medications, such as beta blockers or diabetes medications, should also not fast.
Furthermore, when you do intermittent fasting, you should also work out at the gym, so that you build more muscle. This will help a lot in terms of making you lose weight, but also in generally helping you to build the body of your dreams. As such, it is not just a diet that focuses on nothing but food.
There are an incredibly complex array of factors that goes into determining what workout style and nutritional style will be best for you. The only thing for certain is that it probably wont be the same as for the guy standing next to you at the bench press. For some people, P90X, Insanity, or Crossfit works the best. For others, 5×5, SS, or a bodybuilding style workout like my home workouts give them maximum results.
This should make it clear that the best diet and exercise program for you depends entirely on your personal lifestyle. Intermittent fasting is certainly one to try, not in the least because you can keep on doing this for as long as you want.
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