Intermittent Fasting: Benefits, And How To Do It

We all want to live a healthy life but a lot of people these days are suffering from diseases of various types. One of the primary causes of heart disease and other chronic diseases in an individual is insulin imbalance. Our body is accumulating more quantities of insulin because of our modern-day diet. To improve this sad state of affairs, we will discuss the benefits of intermittent fasting in this article.

Fasting is a distinct task that can reduce your insulin level, improve the breaking of unnecessary cells, enhance programmed cell death, produce stem cells and encourage growth hormone secretion. So let’s dig deeper.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a dieting procedure in which you will decide the time for eating and fasting. It is a task of restricting calorie building for a short period. We have a variety of intermittent fasting procedures to follow. An individual has to identify and choose a suitable method of intermittent fasting.     

Types of intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting procedure is suitable for all. You should identify the suitable method based on your lifestyle and health condition. Let us check out the variety of Intermittent fasting types available. 

1. Time-restricted eating – Fasting for 12 to 16 hours every day
2. Once-a-week method – 24-hour fasting only for one day of a week
3. Mix method – 24-hour fast for one day and time-restricted eating on the rest of the days

How to start intermittent fasting and what are its effects?

You can start your fasting with a 10 hour time interval. The thing that matters is how you progress through your dieting schedule. It should be gradual and you cannot force your body to accept the immediate change in the food diet. During fasting, your insulin will go down and other hormonal secretions will be elevated. Prominently your growth hormones and sympathetic nerve system will be tuned up.

Procedures to follow for a nutritious fast

Given our newfound understanding of the significance of the fasting process, let’s look at some practical fasting steps.

Step 1: Prepare the body for a regular fasting practice

Mental withdrawal and biochemical addiction are two factors to consider when you opt for a 12 or 18 hours fasting schedule. Gradually implementing the fasting sequence can help you in overcoming the addiction to food and overcome hunger. Three weeks of preliminary steps can help you in taking full-fledged fasting. 

Before beginning an actual fasting procedure, this is the first step. To achieve this, practitioners must entirely naturalize their food. Everyone is free to eat what they want, but it should have only natural things, not factory made things. This routine must be followed for two to three weeks before starting the full-fledged fasting program.

Step 2: Skipping meals 

The next step in implementing fasting is to skip meals. The practitioners can have their usual diet but have to cut one meal per day. You only eat two meals a day, either breakfast and lunch, lunch and supper, or dinner and breakfast. You can control your hunger by consuming more water. You have to do this practice for two or three weeks.  

Step 3: Meals with a window period

It is the partial fasting step in which the individual has to restrict their food habit to two meals per day. But the crucial factor is that you should consume that two meals in 8 hours time intervals. You will be surviving without eating for 16 hours if you do this. Consuming water is not subject to any limitations. You are free to consume as much water as you choose.

The above diet schedule is only for weekdays. On weekends you can have three meals per day as usual. But you should not consume any snacks in between. 

Step 4: Real fasting

Now that we have prepared our body for a regular fasting sequence, here we go with the actual fasting sequence. In this step, we have to skip our second meal. But no need to worry, you have to do it for only three days of the week, and also you can continue to have your weekend three meals diet. Do have only one meal on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On the remaining weekdays, you can have two meals. 

Adapting healthy fasting habits for reducing sugar

Insulin reduction is the fundamental goal of fasting. A regular individual typically consumes 10 to 20 teaspoons of sugar daily, which is the primary cause of poor health. A person can rely upon the fasting practice to maintain their insulin levels. Everyone who intends to fast or is currently fasting must adhere to the rules listed below.

• We might need to cut back on all forms of sugar consumption to achieve this
• To limit insulin deposition, we must avoid consuming packaged meals, especially while on the fasting track
• To prevent insulin buildup, one should refrain from consuming any bread, pastries, pasta, spaghetti, or other meals that are refined

Why People should be careful while reducing blood sugar 

When you are fasting your body will be burning your stored glucose. It will consume glucose available in the blood, liver, and all other parts. If you carry out intermittent fasting along with diabetes medication your glucose level may become dangerously low. When you are having type 2 diabetes you will be taking medicines and if you fast along with your medicine you will end up with very low blood glucose. You have to balance the medication and fasting levels to manage and maintain your glucose level in the ideal range. You my need to reduce medication for those days, hence close monitoring is suggested.

Fasting and heart disease

With the use of an effective fasting technique, cardiac issues can be quickly treated. There are so many benefits of intermittent fasting. Fasting can be an effective solution for chronic disorders. It is simple to encourage individuals who have heart disease or other cardiac illnesses to practice fasting. Fasting can reduce calcium deposition which is the key player in the development of heart disease.  

Cholesterol deposition and insulin accumulation

Carbohydrates are not as problematic as it seems. How we process carbohydrate-rich food makes the difference. The glycemic index (GI) of food is dependent on the carbohydrate content available in that food item. Certain foods will have complex carbohydrates that may have a lower level of insulin than simple carbohydrates foods.

Cereals like cheerios and white bread will have high GI. Whereas dietary elements like boiled potatoes will have less carbohydrate content. Carbohydrates will have different kinds of amylopectin. Both amylopectin C and amylopectin A may be present in food particles. Amylopectin C is more difficult to digest and will eventually result in lower blood sugar and insulin levels. So food particles with more Amylopectin-A carbohydrates will enhance insulin accumulation. 

Even though the people of the 1980s consume more carbohydrates they don’t consume almost any sugar. Fructose available in sugar is much more dangerous than glucose. Glucose when metabolized can be used by all our body cells. When the fructose included in sugar is digested, only our liver will utilize it. It can enhance the fat content in your liver making you obese. 

Overweight and fat accumulation

Nowadays,  we are not eating out of hunger. We eat as per our schedule even when we feel no hunger. Some may eat food because they like it and it is delicious. Being overweight can be avoided by restricting eating pleasure-giving sugary foods every now and then. Hormonal agents responsible for controlling your hunger are the key element for controlling excess weight gaining. The type of carbohydrates you are consuming, the frequency of your meal, and the type of food you eat will decide how much fat you are accumulating in your body. 

What are the benefits of fasting?

Weight loss, improved diabetic management, cardiovascular health, improved cognitive function, and a decreased risk of tumors are some potential health benefits of intermittent fasting. Fasting may be effective when combined with a nutritious and active lifestyle. Being active can help you to stay strong, maintain your weight, and make your heart work better. Any packaged food items are sugar and salt-rich, and an all-natural diet can help people in maintaining their insulin levels and health.  

References: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8954770/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9998115/