The Come Up: How Should I Start Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is not for everyone - big cravers, active individuals and active schedules are some factors which may prevent intermittent fasting from even being feasible for some individuals.
But for those who are looking to start, the truth is there is no one way to start. Intermittent is a challenge for some and not so much for others so depending upon which one is you the best thing to do is to allocate eating and fasting windows in accordance with your appetite.
We’ll take you through the advantages of intermittent fasting to give you the briefing on its potential impacts - Before doing so it’s important to note, intermittent fasting is not a weight loss hack if you are not in a calorie deficit.
Advantages of intermittent fasting include:
- Facilitates having a calorie deficit
- Reduces sweet tooth susceptibility
- Reduces cravings - Weight loss benefit
- Facilitates an increase in water intake
- Allows you to enjoy your meals more
- Increases productivity time allocation
- Improved heart health
- Reduces insulin resistance
The main types of intermittent fasting:
- The 16/8 method - Consists of skipping breakfast and having an 8 hour eating window and fasting for the rest of the day.
- Day fasting - This consists of fasting for 24 hours, approximately once or twice a week.
- Low calorie 5:2 method - This is where you consume between 500–600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the week and eat conventionally for the other days in the week.