All About Intermittent Fasting
The term refers to a decision many individuals have taken in the past that has either worked for them or worked against them. Many people see this as being impossible, others see it as impossible, everyone is entitled to how they want to see “intermittent fasting.”
This article would explain in details what the meaning of the term mentioned earlier is, how effective it is, how it has some disadvantages embedded in it. But anyone and everyone who wants to run away from obesity should do.
The constructive definition of Intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting is a group able term used to refer to various kinds of diet systems that rangebetween the time a person is fasting and the time or period he or she isn’t fasting.
Intermittent fasting can very be used along side calorie or fat burning substances, they both get similar results.
Intermittent fast popularly known as (IF) is not the diet itself, it is the way or pattern to be followed to achieve a healthy diet system. When one decided to fast for a while and eat for a period, (some call this breaking of fast).
Intermittent fasting could be perceived as a decision taken by an individual to consume somecalories in a specific day or during a particularperiod, and then not eat anything for a longer period.
Intermittent fasting could also mean extending for a long time the period an individual has to fast, tostudy his or her body to check if weight is being lost or gained.
Intermittent fast might be harmful to some people and very helpful for some people, take for example, in 2014, a useful research showed that intermittent fasting had not been well monitored in young children, in older children, and in underweight individuals.
It also it went ahead to show that people who have chosento fast for more than 24 hours, have to be well monitored by a physician to determine when the gastrointestinal system or circadian rhythm occurs in the body.
The research concluded on the note that fasting or fasting period does not have any damage to those who have no problems other than obesity, in the first place, it is a way of reducing the rate of obesity in the country, so it has no harm to the people in this category.
Nevertheless, the research made a sound warning that people with chronic diseases like cancer, pneumonia, diabetes, and other chronic diseases anyone can think of should do away with I.F.
Although, intermittent fasting has proved to be a source of weight loss, and loss of fat in many people so we can pin point this as one of its advantages.
Criticalnotes on intermittent fasting
1. It is a pattern of having a healthy diet, and not the diet itself.
2. It has nothing to do with which food to be eaten and a particular point in time; rather it deals mostly with when to eat the food, that’s why in most cases it is termed an alternating angle.
3. It can be achieved when you skip your breakfast and eat four first meal when the sun is out and your last meal no later than 9 pm.
4. During the fast period, as even directed by some religiousbodies, no one is allowed to eat anything,but drinking water is not a problem.
5. Many people tend to think that following this fasting procedure is very difficult to achieve, but can I proudly say that it is effortlessto reach, and it comes with outstanding results.
Intermittent fasting can be constructively grouped into three broad categories.
Alternate day fasting (ADF)
Whole-day fasting and
Time-restricted feeding (TRF).
Alternate day fasting (ADF) means when an individual fast for 24 hours, and does not fast at all the following 24 hours.
It’s called one day on and one day off.
Whole day fasting involves when the days of fasting and the days of non-fasting equally is put in a ratio.
During the nonfasting days,enough calories can be taken depending on the human intake capacity. Here, the fasting period rate is usually higher than that of the non-fasting period ratio.
Finally, Time Restricted Feeding (TRF), occurs when some hours in a day are taken out for strictly fasting without eating anything, and the remaining little hours is used for eating the amount of food desirable by an individual.
For example, 20 hours in a day can be used for strictly fasting, and the remaining 4 hours used for eating.
Which ever procedure is suitable for every individual can be looked at above. And the lovely thing about this type of fasting is that it is straightforward to follow and very easy to achieve.
Reasons for fasting in the first place
It is a regular occurrence in the world today: This means that fasting did not just come into play when the world had an obesity problem, it has always been there ranging from the bible to religious practices of fasting together or individually.
Fasting did not just come into play it has always been a part of the world, it was just recently cultivated as a mode or an opportunity to decrease the rate of obesity in countries.
And people can bear witness as to the reduction in intake of food that fasting has helped to achieve.
When one is fasting, he or she has no business with food; thisis essential to reduce the rate of fat or excess fat in the body at a particular time.
This fasting technique has helped a lot of people in many places all around the world.
Sometimes it is done by individuals who have nothing to eat: This is very common especially in countries that have a high rate of poverty.
People who wake up in the morning with nothing to eat and no hope of eating for a whole day turn to fasting, instead of being on hunger strike, they make it all about fasting and pray to God to bless their tomorrow with food.
This is a common practice in most of the developing countries today; many people fast because they have nothing to eat for a period.
But note that when this goes on for too long, it is termedstarvation, but in intermittent fasting, people who fast during this time, believe that their fast is not in vain, and as soon as possible they get to eat the food they want to eat.
Human beings and animals indulge in fasting when they incur one sickness or the other: When a personor an animal is sick, it usually comes with weakness, dizziness, and vomiting.
Anything that is taken into the body is vomited almost immediately. This is because the bodies’ metabolism or digestive system is very weak and unable to process the food that goes into the body, so it results in vomiting, and after a while, the person is so weak that they cannot eat anything again.
Fasting can very much occur in this situation. Though it is not done consciously, people in this category, exhibit the fasting period very much without being told to do so.
The body is fashioned in a way that it can handle zero food intake for a period: This is very true about the body mechanism, some people or most people exempting children and infants can go days without eating.
It is popularly said that the body is making do with the previous food it had, that is why the person is not feeling the need to eat in one, two or three days.
Nevertheless, some people have their bodies reacting in this way and still end up with an ulcer, so it is very different from everyone.
But in general fact, the body has the capabilities to go days without any food; everyone does not just see the need
for this since there is food that can be eaten.
To reduce the sugar level in the body, and allow the body work in different dimensions before it is polluted with food substances again: Sometimes, the body needs to be left alone without food, so it can look into various regions of the body.
In this case, insulin and sugar level is reduced, most people cannot do without taking anything that has sugar inside it, so when they fast, it is advantageous to the body, as there is no sugar coming in.
The organisms in the body can work to reduce the sugar level that has already been taken in previously.
Some may not see this as an advantage, but it is very much good for the body in most cases. We cannot all depend on the benefits of this fasting technique; it most likely has its bad side.
Fasting can be done to lose weight and burn fat: People have this idea in their heads because they see dieting as an impossible and in most cases hard thing.
This is common in developing countries where you could go to be thinking of a particular meal to eat the next day and wake up to eat a different meal that was unplanned for.
So people have cultivated the habit of fasting from time to time to reduce weight and burn excess fat in the body.
This is very helpful to the body, especially from people who are in a situation where it seems there is no going back, it is either they loseweight or nothing else, individuals who are obese feel this way from time to time.
They make fasting a habit, if the body has no food in it, it then has nothing to act on to produce fat in the body.
Everything bedded in “intermittent fasting” as to do with simplicitywhen the body has less intake of food, it lessens the amount of preparation that people undergo to prepare for a particular kind of meal.
It is not stressful to attain and very easy to deal with. It only means, when you are fasting, you are not eating, and when you are not fasting you are simply eating.
It makes life easy to an extent, and many people have nothing to say but give testimonies as to how this technique has helped them a lot and also contributed to improving their health.
Through this article, it is highly hoped that its readers would also testify positive things.
There are three types or methods of intermittent fasting namely;
The 16/8 method: Here, fasting is done or conducted thoroughly for 16 hours in a day, and 8 hours is called the free period. For example, food can only be eatenbetween noon and 8 pm.
The Eat-stop-Eat method: Here, anyone who is interested in this period, has to pick two days in a week where he or she does not eat anything from the dinner of one day until the dinner time of the second day. This is strictly 24 hours.
The 5:2 diet method: Here, it is only permitted that two days in a week can be used to burn as much as 500-609 calories, but the remaining fivedays are strictly fasting periods for the individual.
Though many might deny it,intermittent fasting is very good in many ways, it is not thoroughly good, especially for people who have health issues that have been affecting their body systems and preventing it from functioning well enough.
But, notwithstanding, intermittent fasting has helped a lot of people in different regions of the world, though some mostly use it to burn fat in the body and not for the religious purpose, it has done more harm than good in the lives of many.
Now, this article is aimed at subjecting the belief of people that when one is obese, it is believed most times that the condition has no remedy.
This is not in any way true, apart from exercises, which may prove difficult for a lot of people due to work and all other things that they engage themselves into during the week.
Dieting is another which is almost impossible for some set of people, especially persons in the middle and lower class, this method of fasting has helped a lot of individuals.
Apart from helping people to function better in the society, it has also built a state of confidence in the minds of individuals; they can choose not to be fat, and remove every excess fat lingering in the body.
This article has helped in a way to enlighten and open the eyes of individuals who have been told in the past that the potential and capabilities to be fat is natural and stagnant in them, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Next up, we will try as much as possible to look into the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, positive and negative side of intermittent fasting.
As much as it is beneficial to some people, It could bring about a disastrous occurrence or episode for other people.
Note that this article is not in any way interested in pulling back the minds of people from intermittent fasting.
It is, however, a way of showing that individuals who engage in it should be applauded in every area as they are doing so much for themselves and their society also they are in every way taking risks to become better people.
They have the positive and negative sides of intermittent fasting at the corner of their heads and are in every way willing to go into it.
This has all that this article is aimed at doing; building afree and porous
the mind of readers who are ready to take on the challenge that society perceives as impossible.
The advantages of intermittent fasting include;
It helps a great deal in weight loss and reduction of obesity in individuals.
It helps people who are fond of unhealthy meals to do away with them, for example, junk food. It helps people to reduce their intake of junk food, whereby they only eat it on rare occasions like in parties.
It increases the level of flexibility in individuals. People can now choose when and how they eat, and not eat anything that the eyes and mouth find appealing.
It helps individuals to freely and continuously plan the next meal for the next day.
It also has a way of helping people reduce the money or cost spent on food items on a weekly basis.
All these advantages are very much correct and detailed about intermittent fasting. These are the benefits (only a few mentioned) that can be achieved in the course of engaging in this method or technique.
In every case, intermittent fasting requires at least 24 full hours. This is very demanding and stressful.
Intermittent fasting has been known to be one of the causes of ulcer in many individuals in the world today.
It could foster depreciating of health or in other words incur bad health.
It could lead to obsession. Take, for example, someone who was suffering from obesity engages in it and comes out ectomorphic (slim), and well, it could lead to addiction, thereby causing obsession.
It could also help to damage long-term health in people with weak immune systems.
It is not advisable for infants. Not just anybody can engage in it; else it breeds consequences.
Lastly, it takes an extended periodbefore it starts taking effect in the body.