Using Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss

Learn how fasting is used for weight loss.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight by going on a diet, you know just how difficult that can be. Most diets have unpleasant restrictions that make you cringe even before you begin dieting. After all, eating is fun. Food tastes great, and sometimes the only comfort people have is the food they get to enjoy each day.

Even if you can motivate yourself to cut out carbohydrates, fats, sugars, and more, it is difficult to keep up with a restrictive diet for longer than a month or even two weeks. Plus, even if you do lose a substantial amount of weight, you might put all that weight back on as soon as you begin eating all of the goodies that you gave up while you were dieting.

Another Way to Cut Calories

If you want to lose weight but can’t seem to stick to a regimented diet plan, perhaps it is time to try intermittent fasting. This approach offers a new way to cut calories. It preaches a change in focus whereby calories are counted weekly rather than daily. What does it mean? Let me give you an example. Assume you need about 2,000 calories a day to maintain your body weight. This means that if you want to lose half a pound of fat a week, you’ll need to eat 250 fewer calories every single day for seven days, if you follow a traditional weight-loss regime. But you can do it differently. You can eat normally 6 out of 7 days, and then fast one day to burn 1,750 calories and lose that half a pound. By looking at the bigger picture, the guilt of occasionally splurging on burgers and fries is removed.

If you can’t succeed at daily dieting, this isn’t a reason not to attempt weekly dieting. After all, fasting one day out of the week isn’t that difficult. You give up enough calories in that one day, so you can enjoy eating a normal calorie intake throughout the rest of the week.

Since your hunger and cravings are satisfied six days out of the week, you are less likely to binge eat. Why should you have to overeat after dieting one day? You don’t. Since you can eat regular meals throughout the week with the exception of that one day, you don’t miss out on any of your favorite foods.

Burning Fat Naturally

Even though the human body is designed to eat on a daily basis to fuel itself, it is possible for people to go without food for a single day without any problems. After all, thousands of people fast for 24 hours before medical procedures.

While you are fasting, your body is burning some of its fat stores in order to fuel itself. Normally, your body would turn the food you eat throughout the day into energy. However, when you go into fasting mode, your body still has to burn something, and it shifts to burning fat as its primary fuel source.

Effect on Muscle Mass

The most common myth about intermittent fasting is its effect on muscles. Fasting supposedly causes a decrease in muscle mass. In fact, 24-hour fasting is too short to cause this effect.

Research has shown that individuals can actually eat very few calories for extended periods of time with no change in their metabolism and no decrease in muscle mass – as long as a resistance training routine is maintained.

Muscles are “contractile units” – not “storage units” like fat cells. Fat cells store or release energy in response to what you eat. Muscles respond to work. If your muscles aren’t challenged, their size will not increase. If they aren’t challenged for a prolonged period of time, their size will decrease.

Muscle mass will not be lost as long as you continue to exercise and meet a caloric minimum – studies found out as low as 80 grams of protein and 800 Kcals per day over the course of several weeks.

Intermittent Fasting Does Not Sap Your Energy Levels

Despite what most people may think, intermittent fasting does not sap energy levels. Of course, if you were to continue fasting for days at a time, you would probably begin to feel tired and weak. However, fasting for only one day does not have this effect, especially if you take the time to perform some type of exercise or resistance training.

Furthermore, a recent study by the Intermountain Medical Center in Utah showed that the body releases cholesterol during fasting, enabling the body to tap into its fat reserves for energy. In fact, a recent British study on fasting has also come up with some positive results and health benefits for fasting. More studies concerning the benefits of temporary fasting are sure to follow.

Increase in Growth Hormone Level

Fat burning and the health effect of intermittent fasting increases by boosting growth hormone levels. Scientific research clearly shows that 24-hour fasting naturally increases the activity of growth hormones.

When a person fasts, his or her growth hormone interacts with an enzyme called hormone-sensitive lipase – or HSL, letting fat cells know when to release stored fat that the body can use for energy.

Boosting GH level decreases body fat - increases muscle mass - increases bone density - increases energy levels - improves skin tone and texture - improves immune system function.

Bottom Line

Intermittent fasting is not a secret or magic weight loss pill. In fact, it is a simple approach to weight loss, which allows individuals to enjoy all their favorite foods most days of the week while refraining from food entirely for one or two days. Be aware that fasting is not safe for everyone. People with certain health conditions, children, and pregnant women are advised against any type of fasting. It's best to ask your health care provider whether you should try intermittent fasting for weight loss.

References

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About the author: Will Kashis is a nutrition writer who recently launched his site at www.Diets.md. If you want to learn more on how intermittent fasting can help you lose weight, Will recommends that you turn your attention to Eat Stop Eat weight loss program, which is totally based on intermittent fasting.

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