Nowadays, people are growing more and more conscious of the need to lead a healthy lifestyle. So, it is wholly unsurprising that there are now myriad different approaches to losing weight. Needless to say, some methods are more effective than others.

When it comes to weight loss, intermittent fasting can’t help but come to mind. It is one of the most effective ways to achieve your fitness goals. Yet, a lot of people seem to be unfamiliar with it. That is why we have come up with this handy guide so you can better understand how it can work for you. So, be sure to keep reading!

Before anything else, intermittent fasting is not a diet. This is because you are not restricting or regulating your food intake in any way. Rather, it is an adjustment to your eating patterns. To be more precise, intermittent fasting entails efficiently scheduling your meals.

Intermittent fasting is concerned about when you eat and not what you eat. Put simply, intermittent fasting entails skipping certain meals on purpose. By deliberately fasting then feasting during a specific timeframe, you are still able to get the desired calorie levels you need to get you through the day.

For instance, the most common example of intermittent fasting entails following the 16-8 rule. This means that you fast for 16 hours and only consume meals during the remaining 8-hour window. The simplest way to do this would be to set your eating time at 12 pm-8 PM.

It has been shown as one of the most effective ways to lose weight without drastically reducing calorie intake. It is also a useful way to build muscle mass while staying lean. Of course, the most prominent reason why anyone would want to practice intermittent fasting is to lose fat.

Moreover, intermittent fasting is incredibly simple and easy to do. It helps keep the bad weight off without compromising any positive gains you may be experiencing with your workout routine. All it takes is a simple adjustment to your behavior and habits.

Now, you may be wondering, how exactly does intermittent fasting work? After all, it can be mindboggling how the adjustment to your mealtimes can lead to significant fat loss. To better explain what intermittent fasting so effective, we must first understand the body’s fed state and its fasted state.

In simple terms, your body is in a fed state when it is still absorbing nutrients from the food that it is digesting. Your fed state begins when you start eating. During this time, your body will find it difficult to burn fat because of the increased insulin levels in your body. Typically, the body’s fed state can last for three to five hours.

Once this period has passed, your body will go into the post-absorptive state. It usually lasts between 8 to 12 hours following your last meal. This is then followed by the onset of the fasted state. During this stage, as your insulin levels drop, your body starts to burn fat.

Needless to say, most people rarely access the fasted state because of conventional eating habits. Remember, this fat-burning state doesn’t occur until 12 hours after our last meal. By making simple adjustments to your mealtime, you get to tap the potential fat-burning benefits of the fasted state.

There are different ways to approach intermittent fasting. Presented below are just some of the popular variants of intermittent fasting.

1. 16/8 method – This entails limiting the eating window to 8 hours while fasting for 16 hours. In more concrete terms, this means skipping breakfast as your first meal will be at noon and your last meal will be by 8 pm.
2. 5:2 diet – Another intermittent fasting approach that entails eating normally for 5 days then sticking to a 500–600 calorie cap for 2 days.
3. Eat Stop Eat Approach – This intermittent fasting method entails going on 24-hour fasts once or twice a week. You can approach this however you want. For instance, some opt to have a big dinner and then will start fasting until dinner time the next day. You just have to ensure that you achieve the full 24 hours.

1. Significant Weight Loss – Weight loss is perhaps the most important and most widely sought benefit of intermittent fasting. It is the reason most people try it in the first place. By doing so, your body can adjust its hormone production which helps facilitate weight loss through the intensified breakdown of body fat.
2. Reduced Risk of Type 2 Diabetes – As you are probably aware, Type 2 diabetes has become incredibly prevalent in recent decades primarily caused by our sedentary lifestyles and our eating habits. That said, intermittent fasting reduces your resistance to insulin and reduces blood sugar levels. So, it drastically reduces your risk of Type 2 Diabetes.
3. Combats Free Radicals – Intermittent Fasting has been shown to effectively reduce the body’s inflammation and oxidative stress. Remember, inflammation and oxidative stress are closely tied to the proliferation of free radicals which serves as a major factor in premature aging and several chronic diseases.
4. Promotes Heart Health – Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death nowadays. Intermittent fasting helps curb some of the risk factors like cholesterol levels and blood pressure as well as your blood sugar levels.
5. Promotes Brain Health – Many of the metabolic effects spurred by intermittent fasting also helps promote brain health. At the same time, it has been shown to help promote the growth of new nerve cells.
6. Combinable with Keto Diet – Aside from Intermittent Fasting, another equally effective weight loss approach is the ketogenic diet. It requires you to eat only low-carb and high-fat to push your body into the state known as ketosis wherein your body rapidly burns fats while producing ketones as an alternative fuel source.  A lot of people are now choosing to combine these two approaches to produce optimal results. This is because intermittent fasting has been shown to help your body reach ketosis much faster than it otherwise would, helping you burn more fat in the process.

There you have it, a handy guide to intermittent fasting. If you are serious about pursuing your fitness goals, then you should consider giving this weight loss method a try.