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Hunger management: an underlooked benefit of intermittent fasting is becoming aware of the food we eat.This process releases ketones in the body, known as a ketosis state. Ketosis: after all glycogen reserves have been used during a fast, the body will enter into a fat-burning mode to access fuel.
It is the body’s cleaning process allowing damaged or unnecessary components to be removed at the cellular level. Cells repair: intermittent fasting allows the body to start this repair process also known as autophagy.Inflammation decrease: intermittent fasting can help with reducing the overall oxidative stress in the body.
Better blood sugar control: better insulin sensitivity leads to better blood sugar control when food is ingested. Over time, this can support better insulin sensitivity and also prevent insulin resistance. Insulin sensitivity: when fasting, insulin level goes down since no food is ingested. Why did intermittent fasting become so popular in the past few years? Mainly because it can provide some very interesting benefits and is easily integrated into most lifestyles.Īmong other benefits, intermittent fasting can support: Those fasts can provide specific and deeper benefits than shorter fasts. Longer fasts (over 24 hours): they are not technically intermittent fasting methods from a pure standpoint as there are usually practiced on a non-regular basis. Most extreme in terms of the fast frequency compared to the other 24-hour fast methods. OMAD (One Meal A Day): this is basically a 23-hour fast every single day and eating one big meal in the remaining hour. Similarly to the 5/2 method, a more flexible approach consists of a significant calorie restriction instead of a full fast every other day. A more flexible approach of this method involves a significant calorie reduction on those 2 days (less than 500 calories) instead of fully fasting.Īlternate-day fasting: this involves a 24-hour fast every other day and is a bit more extreme in that sense. And eating as usual on the other five days of the week. It usually means eating one meal only that day, after 24 hours without any food from the day before.ĥ/2 method: involves two 24-hour fasts during the week for two non-consecutive days. Weekly 24-hour fast: this means fasting for 24 hours for one day during the week. The eating is restricted to the remaining 8-hour window. It is one of the most popular intermittent fasting methods, it is similar to the previous one, but with an extended fast of 16 hours. Either by finishing dinner a bit earlier or by eating breakfast a bit later. This is usually easily achievable by extending the overnight fast by a few hours. Or fasting for 14 hours and eating during a 10-hour window. Indeed, there are several ways of practicing intermittent fasting: 12/12 or 14/10 methodįasting for 12 hours and restricting the eating to the other 12-hour period. But intermittent fasting is pushing that fasting duration further. Everyone does that to a certain extent by fasting overnight. In other words, you cycle through periods of eating and periods of fasting. Intermittent fasting literally means fasting in an intermittent way. What is intermittent fasting? Intermittent fasting overviewįirst and foremost, let’s talk quickly about intermittent fasting and what it is exactly, as it will be important to understand the effects that bulletproof coffee can have on it.