In all likelihood there’s that friend, relative or colleague you know who managed to shed a considerable amount of weight through intermittent fasting.
In a manner of speaking, intermittent fasting may escape classification as a diet, as it does not prescribe a specific set of food, nor does it count calories like traditional diets or programs.
To put it rather simply, intermittent fasting simply directs that we have an eight hour window within the day where all food consumption takes place. The rest of the 16 hours—and this includes the time that we are asleep—should not involve any type of eating. Water, of course, is allowed any time of the day.
For instance, we set our eating schedule at 10a.m. to 6p.m. Within this window, we consume all our meals. Or, perhaps, we can do a 7a.m. to 3p.m. schedule depending on our eating preference. The good thing is we do not necessarily need to cut down on calories. We can stick to our normal caloric intake so long as all eating takes place in the prescribed eight-hour window.
The logic of creating a nutritional window of no longer than eight hours a day is that our bodies are most efficient at burning fat during a so-called fasted state. A fasted state is achieved when our bodies are neither digesting nor absorbing food. The opposite of this is when our bodies are in a fed state. Depending on the individual, it may take around 10 to 12 hours after our last meal for our bodies to be in a fasted state.
It is during this fasted—or post-absorptive state—when our bodies are transformed into fat-burning machines. During a fed state, on the other hand, our bodies are not as efficient in burning fat as it is busy breaking down a meal.
The appeal of intermittent fasting is that we only need to set our eating schedules without having to cut down on calories, and without having to avoid our favorite foods. Furthermore, we need not do additional exercise for us to lose weight. Just continue whatever it is we are doing but consume all our meals during an eight hour daily window. Some will even go as far as gorging on copious amounts of calories when on intermittent fasting and claim to still have lost weight.
If eating to your heart’s delight whatsoever pleases you—eight hours a day—and losing weight in the process, is something that appeals to you, then maybe intermittent fasting is worth a try.