Whether you want to lose weight, eat healthier, or change your diet for other beneficial reasons, you’ve likely heard of intermittent fasting.
If so, you’re probably wondering if it’s right for you.
While it depends based on the person, we’re going to help you with your decision by explaining how intermittent fasting works as well as three pros and three cons of this trending diet.
As with all lifestyle changes, it’s important to talk to your doctor before making a drastic change and find high quality medical reviews for your products, workouts, diet plans, and the type of food you’re putting in your body.
How intermittent fasting works
Intermittent fasting involves going a specific amount of time without consuming calories. It involves fasting and then eating all of your calories during a specific time frame. The important thing to note is there are different types of fasting windows.
As an example, in an 18:6 ratio, people don’t eat for 18 hours and then will do all of their eating during a six-hour window. In a 16:8 ratio, intermittent fasters won’t eat for 16 hours and then will eat during their six-hour window. 20:4 ratios also exist, as do more extreme fasting regimens, such as fasting for 24 or more hours.
There are plenty of options for intermittent fasting that will help people align their diets with their daily needs and lifestyles.
During fasting periods, some people will incorporate small amounts of vegetables and fruits, as well as fluids such as water and coffee. The key is finding a plan that works for you.
The advantages
Why are so many people jumping aboard the intermittent fasting bandwagon?
Here are some of the advantages of intermittent fasting:
- Weight loss: This is one of the main pros of intermittent fasting and why people continue to adopt it. While it’s still too early to tell if intermittent fasting can work in the long-term, many experts are saying that intermittent fasting is beneficial for short-term weight loss.
- No calorie restriction or change in diet: One of the main reasons why diets eventually fail is because people have a tendency to go back to their old eating habits and they gain back their lost weight once they do. With intermittent fasting, you don’t have to change what you eat. You can continue to eat whatever you want as long as you’re only eating during your feeding periods. This makes this diet easier to follow for many people since they aren’t drastically changing what they eat.
- Disease prevention: Intermittent fasting has been linked to controlling diabetes, lowering cholesterol, and lowering blood pressure.
The disadvantages
Like all diets and lifestyle changes, intermittent fasting isn’t perfect. Here are some of the disadvantages of it:
- Awkward eating times: Since you’re restricted to eating times, intermittent fasting can get in the way of your social life. You’re supposed to eat during a specific window, but your friends might want to go to breakfast or an early lunch, which could interfere with your eating window. This could lead to you skipping the meal with your friends or breaking your intermittent fasting, which ruins the entire purpose and benefits surrounding intermittent fasting.
- Low energy levels during fasting periods: Skipping meals can make people feel irritable and fatigued. This can lead to low energy levels until you refuel.
- Bad food is bad food: While one of the main benefits of intermittent fasting is being able to eat whatever you want, many people will claim that bad food is bad food, and unhealthy foods will still have a negative impact on your health and body. Not only is it important to educate yourself on what certain foods do to your body but it’s also important to learn what foods and beverages do to your teeth. Staying away from food that’s high in sugar and incorporating Preventative Oral Hygiene Services can help you avoid cavities, gum disease, enamel wear, and more. So while intermittent fasting isn’t intended to change what you eat, bad food can still have a negative impact on areas such as your teeth.
There are pros and cons to intermittent fasting and people are seeing mixed results. Many people claim to lose weight and have the ability to keep it off while others can’t go long without eating, making this diet a bad fit. As with all things in life, it’s important to figure out what works for you and also what you can stick to for the long-term.
