3 Ways of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting has became very popular over recent years. Here is our quick take on how to do it, the benefits and the downfalls.
First of all lets look at what’s fashionable. There are a few diets that include fasting, including the 5:2 and the 16:8.
The 5:2 is 5 days of a calorie controlled diet and 2 days of the week that you’re limited to 500 calories. You can either have those 500 calories throughout the day or in 1 meal, it is a personal preference on how the calories are consumed. The idea behind this is on those 2 days you will be in a calorie deficit, which is required for you to lose weight. It also triggers off a few other things within the body on a cellular level. Ultimately the calories that you will be deficient by over those 2 days, you will fail to make up even if you over eat slightly on the other 5 days. Therefore by the end of the week you will lose weight and feel great!
The most important thing to remember when carrying out this method is you have to do it properly! You can’t eat what ever you like for 5 days a week and then fast for 2 days. You have to ensure that you consume all the correct nutrients for the 5 days before the 2 days of a calorie deficit.
The 16:8 is basically fasting for 16 hours of the day, everyday and only consume or eat on the remaining 8 hours. There are different ways doing this, one example is to start eating at 1pm and finish eating at 9pm. Benefits are exactly the same as the 5:2 diet and this can be quite useful for people who generally have busy mornings and tend to skip breakfast. This is also helpful to aid stress relief for example. If you stress about maintaining a healthy diet and believe you need to be eating at certain times, then this can be a relief as you wont need to start eating until 1pm, taking the pressure away.
You need to ensure that you are consuming all the correct vitamins, minerals , nutrients, healthy fats and of course plenty of water.
The Kilted Coaches way is to completely fast for 1 day only! All you have is water throughout the day. Its actually really easy to do, especially if you have a really busy day. It is really important that when it comes to the end of the 24 hours of fasting that you have a normal meal and don’t over eat.
Please ensure to seek medical advice before starting anything like this!!