Step 1 ✅Intermittent Fasting 101 — The Ultimate Beginner's Guide
This is the best intermittent fasting guide for people who are just starting out.
What is intermittent fasting (IF)?
Intermittent fasting, or IF, is a way of eating that alternates between not eating and eating.
It tells you when to eat certain foods, not what kinds of foods you should eat.
To put it another way, it's not really a diet in the usual sense. More correctly, it's an eating pattern.
People who do intermittent fasting often fast for 16 hours every day or for 24 hours twice a week.
Fasting is something that people have done since the beginning of time. In the past, hunter-gatherers didn't have grocery stores, fridges, or food that was available all year. They had trouble finding food sometimes.
Because of this, humans have evolved to be able to go for long amounts of time without eating.
In fact, it's more normal to fast once in a while than to eat three to four meals a day.
A lot of people fast for religious or spiritual reasons. For example, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Buddhists all fast.
Intermittent fasting methods
There are different ways to do intermittent fasting, but they all involve eating and not eating at different times during the day or week.
You eat very little or nothing at all during the fasting times.
These are the most popular methods:
- The 16/8 method: Also called the Leangains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, such as 1–9 p.m. Then you fast for 16 hours in between.
- Eat-Stop-Eat: This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.
- The 5:2 diet: With this method, you consume only 500–600 calories on two nonconsecutive days of the week, but eat normally the other 5 days.
All of these ways should help you lose weight by lowering the number of calories you eat, as long as you don't make up for it by eating a lot more during the times you are supposed to eat.
This method is liked by many because it is simple, long-lasting, and easy to follow. It's also the most well-known.
How it affects your cells and hormones
Cells and molecules in your body do a number of things when you fast.
For instance, your body changes the amounts of hormones to make fat that you've stored easier to get to.
Your cells also start important repair processes and change how genes are expressed.
When you fast, your body goes through the following changes:
Human Growth Hormone (HGH): The amount of growth hormone soars through the roof, rising by as much as five times. This can help you lose fat and build strength, among other things.
Insulin: Insulin sensitivity goes up, and insulin levels drop by a lot. Lower insulin levels make it easier to get to body fat that has been stored.
Cellular repair: When you don't eat or drink anything, your cells start to fix themselves. This includes autophagy, a process by which cells break down and get rid of old, broken proteins that build up inside cells.
Gene expression: Genes that make you live longer and protect you from getting sick change how they work.
Intermittent fasting is good for your health because it changes hormone levels, cell activity, and gene expression.
A very powerful weight loss tool
More often than not, people try intermittent fasting to lose weight.
Because you eat less during intermittent fasting, your body may naturally lower the number of calories you take in.
Changing hormone levels during irregular fasting can also help you lose weight.
Not only does it lower insulin levels and raise growth hormone levels, but it also raises the release of norepinephrine, which burns fat.
Because of these changes in hormones, fasting for a short time may make your metabolism go up by 3.6% to 14%.
Intermittent fasting changes both sides of the calorie balance, which means it helps you eat less and burn more calories.
Researchers have found that fasting every so often can help people lose a lot of weight.
A review study from 2014 found that this way of eating can help people lose 3–8% of their body weight over 3–24 weeks. This is a big amount compared to most studies that look at weight loss.
The same study also found that people dropped 4–7% of their waist circumference. This means they lost a lot of belly fat, which is bad because it builds up around your organs and makes you sick.
A study from 2011 also found that intermittent fasting leads to less muscle loss than the more common way of limiting calories all the time.
Keep in mind, though, that the main reason intermittent fasting works is that it makes you eat less generally. You might not lose any weight at all if you binge and eat a lot during your eating times.
Health benefits
People and animals have been studied a lot when it comes to intermittent fasting.
Studies like these have shown that it can help you lose weight and keep your body and brain healthy. It might even make you live longer.
Here are the main ways that irregular fasting is good for your health:
Loss of weight: As we already said, intermittent fasting can help you lose weight and belly fat without having to consciously cut calories.
When you fast every other day for a certain amount of time, your body's insulin levels drop by 20 to 31%, which can lower insulin resistance and keep you from getting type 2 diabetes.
Inflammation: Some studies show that markers of inflammation are going down. Inflammation is a major cause of many chronic illnesses.
Health for your heart: Intermittent fasting may lower "bad" LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, inflammation markers, blood sugar, and insulin resistance. These are all things that can put you at risk for heart disease.
Cancer: Studies on animals show that fasting every so often may help avoid cancer.
When you fast for short periods of time, the brain hormone BDNF levels rise, which may help new nerve cells grow. It may also help keep you from getting Alzheimer's.
Anti-aging: Intermittent eating can make rats live longer. Researchers found that rats that didn't eat for 12–36 hours lived 36–83% longer.
Please remember that the study is still very new. A lot of the studies were small, didn't last long, or were done on animals. Higher quality studies with people are still needed to solve a lot of questions.
Makes your healthy lifestyle simpler
It's easy to eat healthy, but it can be very hard to keep up.
One big problem is that it takes a lot of work to plan and make healthy foods.
When you fast every so often, you don't have to plan, cook, or clean up after as many meals. And that can make things easier.
This is why intermittent fasting is so popular among people who like to "hack" their lives: it makes life easier while also making your health better.
Who should be careful or avoid it?
There are many people who should not do intermittent fasting.
If you are underweight or have a history of eating problems, you shouldn't fast until you've talked to a doctor or nurse.
In these cases, it can be downright harmful.
Should women fast?
It seems that intermittent fasting might not be as good for women as it is for men, but the evidence is mixed.
For instance, a study from 2005 found that it made insulin work better in men but made it harder for women to control their blood sugar.
People have told me stories of women whose periods stopped when they started IF and started again when they went back to their old eating habits.
However, research on overweight or obese women has shown that IF can help with fertility and hormone levels. It can also improve metabolic health factors in people with PCOS.
On the other hand, study shows that IF can hurt the reproductive health and performance of women who are a healthy weight and are athletes. This is mostly because they don't get enough calories.
This is why women should be careful when they do irregular fasting. Lots of short-term studies have been done, but not many long-term ones. We need to do more study before we can fully grasp what this means.
Women should follow different rules, such as starting slowly and stopping right away if they have any problems, such as amenorrhea (not having periods). Check with a doctor or nurse to see if IF is right for you before you decide to do it.
Safety and side effects
The biggest problem with intermittent fasting is that it makes you hungry.
Your brain might not work as well as it used to, and you might feel weak.
This might only last for a short time because your body needs time to get used to the new meal plan.
Before you try intermittent fasting, you should talk to your doctor if you have a health problem.
This is particularly important if you:
Have diabetes.
Have problems with blood sugar regulation.
Have low blood pressure.
Take medications.
Are underweight.
Have a history of eating disorders.
Are a woman who is trying to conceive.
Are a woman with a history of amenorrhea.
Are pregnant or breastfeeding.
While all of that is true, intermittent fasting is very safe. Going without food for a while isn't harmful if you're fit and well-fed in general.
Frequently asked questions
These are the most popular questions about intermittent fasting and how to answer them.
1. Can I drink liquids during the fast?
Yes.You can drink water, coffee, tea, and other drinks that don't have calories. Do not put sugar in your coffee. It might be okay to have small amounts of milk or cream.
During a fast, coffee can be especially helpful because it can make you feel less hungry.
2. Isn’t it unhealthy to skip breakfast?
No. The trouble is that most people who don't eat breakfast have bad habits. It's fine to do as long as you eat good food the rest of the day.
3. Can I take supplements while fasting?
Yes. But keep in mind that some pills, like vitamins that dissolve in fat, may work better when taken with food.
4. Can I work out while fasted?
It's fine to work out after not eating. Some people say that you should take branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) before you work out after not eating.
Several BCAA items can be found on Amazon.
5. Will fasting cause muscle loss?
Muscle loss can happen with any way you lose weight, that's why it's important to lift weights and eat a lot of protein. A study from 2011 found that normal calorie restriction leads to more muscle loss than intermittent fasting.
6. Will fasting slow down my metabolism?
No. Studies from the past show that fasting for a short time can actually speed up your metabolism. But fasts that last three days or more can slow down the metabolism.
7. Should kids fast?
It's probably not a good idea to let your child fast.
Getting started
There's a good chance you've already done a lot of intermittent fasting.
You may have fasted for 16 hours or more if you've ever eaten dinner, slept late, and then didn't eat again until lunch the next day.
They just eat this way for some people. In the morning, they just don't feel hungry.
The 16/8 method is thought by many to be the easiest and most long-lasting way to do intermittent fasting. You might want to try it first.
For more difficult fasts, try eating only 500–600 calories one–two days a week (5:2 diet) or going without food for 24 hours once or twice a week (Eat-Stop-Eat). If the first few fasts go well, you can move on to more difficult ones.
You can also fast whenever it's convenient for you. If you're not hungry or don't have time to cook, just skip meals sometimes.
There is no need to follow an organized plan for intermittent fasting in order to get some of the benefits.
Try out the different methods until you find one that works for you and your plan.
Should you try it?
No one needs to do intermittent fasting.
It's just one way to change your habits to make it better for your health. The most important things to keep in mind are still eating real food, working out, and getting enough sleep.
Don't pay attention to this piece if you don't like the idea of fasting. Keep doing what works for you.
Nutrition isn't something that can be done in a single way for everyone. You should choose a diet that you can follow for a long time.
There are people who do well with intermittent fasting and people who do not. You have to try it out to find out which group you belong to.
A fast can help you lose weight and improve your health if you feel good during it and can keep up the healthy eating habits.