Intermittent fasting can help with weight loss if you follow it consistently
Highlights
- Eat wholesome and nutritious meals during eating phase
- Do not eat anything during fasting phase, avoid tea and coffee
- Break your fast with a fruit and some water
Intermittent fasting can certainly be banked on for good health and weight loss. It involves timing your meals and eating early in the daytime. It involves fasting for some part of the day and eating only in the day. It is one of the few diet plans that actually allows you to eat everything. By lowering appetite and aiding burning of more calories, intermittent fasting can actually help you with weight loss, a study has found. Published in the journal Obesity, the study showed that timing of meals can affect your 24-hour energy metabolism. IANS reports experts as saying that coordinating your meals with circadian rhythms can work as a powerful strategy for reducing appetite and improving metabolic health.
What is intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern in which your day is divided into two phases: the eating phase and the fasting phase. As the name suggests, you are required to eat only during the eating phase and fast during fasting phase. During the fasting phase, you are only allowed to drink water (not even tea or coffee). Lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho believes that your fasting phase can last for as long as you want: 10 hours, 12 hours, 14 hours or 16 hours.
Also read: Planning On Doing Intermittent Fasting? Make Sure You Don't Have Any Of These Conditions
How to follow intermittent fasting for weight loss?
In his numerous live sessions on Facebook, Luke talks about how you need to listen to your body even when you are doing intermittent fasting. Initially, it may seem difficult, but eventually, intermittent fasting can make you feel at ease and even help you lose weight.
1. An effective way to practice intermittent fasting is to have early dinners, around 7, 8 or 9 pm ideally. You can then break your fast after 10, 12, 14 or 16 hours, whatever suits you. Break your fast with a fruit or nuts. Have your meal after 15 or 20 minutes.
2. Also, make sure you eat proper wholesome meals during your eating phase. Simple home-cooked food including all major food groups like protein, fats, carbs and carbs should be a part of your meal during eating phase. Food quality matters. Try to stick to only healthy and nutritious food when you're on intermittent fasting.
Eat wholesome meals during eating phase of intermittent fasting
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Also read: Intermittent Fasting May Up Diabetes Risk: 5 Health Risks Of Intermittent Fasting
3. Portion control matters. Intermittent fasting is a few of those diet plans that allow you to eat everything but this doesn't mean you go overboard with eating. The amount of calories you consume still matter. Listen to your body and avoid overeating if you want to lose weight with intermittent fasting.
4. Be consistent if you want good results. Every diet takes time to reflect changes on your body. You have to follow it religiously and consistently for at least a few weeks for it to work and show changes on your body and weight.
5. Exercise regularly. Weight loss cannot be achieved without physical activity. Intermittent fasting comes with the added benefit of making you feel healthier (as it involves syncing your meal times with body's circadian rhythm). Combining it with exercising is going to be all the more beneficial in terms of making you feel healthy and burning calories.
Exercising during intermittent fasting can aid quick weight loss
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Also read: Not Just Weight Loss But Intermittent Fasting Can Also Reverse Type 2 Diabetes: Here's The Right Way To Follow It
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