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What is Intermittent Fasting?!?

Hey guys, for this post I will be briefing you on intermittent fasting (IF) and how it might benefit you. At this moment in time, Intermittent fasting is one of the newest craze's. It is currently one of the World's most popular health and fitness trends. People are starting to use Intermittent Fasting to improve their quality of life as well as it being a way to lose weight. 

So, to start of... What is Intermittent Fasting?!? Well IF is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of eating and fasting. This type of fasting doesn't tell you what you should eat, rather when you should eat and hence why it is such a big trend. The standard window for eating during IF would be 8 hours and then for the other 16 hours a day you would be fasting. But depending on your lifestyle this can vary to what suits you. 

The reason a lot of people have started IF is because it is an easy way to lose weight. Our bodies can easily cope with it as well though as back before supermarkets were around, Ancient Hunter gatherers had to go searching for food, which sometimes wasn't found. This enables our bodies to cope without food for periods of time. Fasting has actually been found to be more natural than eating 3-4 meals a day. 

There are several different ways of doing Intermittent Fasting, all of which involve eating very little or no food at all for periods of time. There are three main IF methods:

  1. The 16/8 Method: This method involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating pattern to 8 hours, for example between 1 and 9pm. Then for the other 16 hours you fast. 
  2.  Eat-Stop-Eat: This method involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating anything from dinner one day until dinner the next day. 
  3.  The 5:2 Diet: With this method you reduce your daily intake of calories to 500-600 on two non-consecutive days of the week but eat normally the other 5 days. 
All of these methods should result in weight loss because we are reducing caloric intake. These methods won't work however if you over-compensate during the eating windows, i.e. eating surplus the amount of calories you should eat. Many people find the 16/8 method the best as it is easy to stick to, most sustainable and it is simple. It has also been proven to be the most popular. 



So why not try Intermittent Fasting? It might be what you were looking for with regards weight loss!

Below is a sample day of Intermittent Fasting which you could try! 
  • 7am-1pm: FASTING: Water, Black Coffee/Green Tea
  • 1pm: MEAL 1: 40% of kcal with adequate protein
  • 4pm: PRE-WORKOUT: 20% of kcal (protein and carbohydrate)
  • 5pm: Strength Training Workout in the gym
  • 9-11pm: FASTING: Water, Green Tea and relax before bed

If you decide to try IF, let me know how it goes for you! 

Thanks for reading my post on Intermittent Fasting! I hope that it was interesting or somewhat helpful to you! Feel free to share with your friends who might want to give IF a go! 

Talk Soon,
Kate. 


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