If you’ve ever thought about losing weight or mapped out a whole new eating routine with brand-new ingredients and unappetising foods, you’ve probably come across the concept of intermittent fasting. You might have done your research and found the answers to common questions like what intermittent fasting is, how you can follow it, and what the benefits of intermittent fasting are.
But just in case you’re not one of the detailed scientists mentioned above, let’s look at these questions from a healthy perspective. And even if you have researched it, who knows? Maybe you’ll find some new benefits of intermittent fasting for skin, the benefits of intermittent fasting for women, or even the medical benefits of intermittent fasting!
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting isn’t a diet you have to stick to or a strict regime of “healthy” and “nutritious” foods you have to eat every day against your taste buds. This fasting concept is a strategy that helps you build a proper eating routine and manage your hunger in a healthy way. And this habit turns out to have a lot more benefits than just weight loss!
There are many modes of transport available on the intermittent fasting road; some of the techniques are well-known in the fasting community, like the 16-8 technique or the 5:2 diet. The 5:2 diet is a much more intense way where you eat the normal amount of calories for five of seven days while cutting down to 500-600 calories for any two days—but make sure they’re far apart in the week! Let’s look more into the 16-8 technique, too.
There are many modes of transport available on the intermittent fasting road; some of the techniques are well-known in the fasting community, like the 16-8 technique or the 5:2 diet. The 5:2 diet is a much more intense way where you eat the normal amount of calories for five of seven days while cutting down to 500-600 calories for any two days—but make sure they’re far apart in the week! Let’s look more into the 16-8 technique, too.
The 16-8 Intermittent Fasting Technique
This is one of the most commonly used intermittent fasting tools by weight loss enthusiasts. The technique is simple enough: fill up on food for any 8 hours of your day, and then fast for the next 16 hours. Your body uses the food you eat in these 8 hours to produce stored fats for later. We’ll see how that works, too!
Ideally, fasters take up the 12 PM to 8 PM slot to satisfy their hunger, but you can choose whichever eating slot suits your lifestyle the best. Honestly, the best eating time is highlighted by the natural clock. This just means you should eat your meals beginning at sunrise and finish your last meal of the day before sunset.
You can spread out your meals in your de(light)ful eating window (lit up by daylight!) as you wish. Possibly, begin with a light meal in the first hour of the window and follow it up with some snacks like nuts or a healthy smoothie at the peak of your window. Then, you can close the window with a nutritious meal heavy enough to keep you going till the sun rises again!
Note that the eating window doesn’t mean you can eat anything (sad, I know). Since you’re eating only for some part of the day, you have to fit the nutritional intake of 24 hours into just daylight hours. And anyway, fasting hours aren’t a full ban on eating—you should drink lots and lots of water to stay hydrated. You can also take some herbal tea or black coffee (but keep the milk and sugar aside!).
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
This technique is widely used for a reason. It has a ton of benefits, and most importantly, it doesn’t restrict your eating to a certain number of calories or specific foods. Let’s look at some benefits of intermittent fasting 16 8 technique:
1. Weight Loss: The obvious result you already know about and probably even expect from intermittent fasting. Because you’re limiting your eating time, you’re also eating fewer calories. And in the long fast, all the fats you’ve eaten in your window will be burnt efficiently—perfectly rounding up the weight loss journey! And you can always pair your intermittent fasting with Habuild’s 14-day free Yoga Class to boost your weight loss journey!
2. Mental Clarity: Studies have shown that this technique also improves your cognitive function and helps you focus more. Why? Because you’ll have more stable blood sugar levels thanks to your long fasting periods! Every sunset will bring to you a clear head and a focused mind.
3. Reset Your Gut: When you fast for a long time, your digestive system gets to rest before having to work again. This allows your gut lining to heal properly. That means much more nutrient absorption and a happy gut!
4. Glowing Skin: Has stress gotten your skin feeling dull and splotchy? That’s probably because stress is causing internal inflammation—but don’t worry! Intermittent fasting helps control the excess inflammation going on inside and helps you get that glowing, healthy skin again!
Medical Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is not just for losing weight. It’s a technique that makes your body more efficient. Generally, the digestion process only takes 6 to 8 hours – but that doesn’t work when you keep giving it something more to digest. This way, the digestion process never ends, and toxins start building up in your body.
In the long hours of fasting, your body gets the digestion time it deserves. When digestion is completed, and you haven’t eaten more, your body can do the other processes needed to function well. So, we can conclude that even 10-12 hours of fasting a day keeps the toxins away!
When you’ve been fasting for at least 10-12 hours, your insulin levels dip because you haven’t eaten carbs in a long while. When all the carbs you ate earlier have been processed, the body takes the rest of the time for other development processes. For this, it uses the stored fats (yes, the ones from the eating window!) to create energy and make you more efficient.
How does this help? This is how you lose weight! Additionally, lower insulin levels make sure that your insulin resistance remains low. When your cells accept insulin, they also accept the glucose you’re eating. That sounds like a great way to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes (or even manage it better; studies have shown!)
Ever heard of autophagy? It’s the process by which your body repairs your cells by cleaning out old ones to perform even better. When you fast, your body gets many hours to do this and protects your body against chronic diseases like cancer. Say hello to a body of renewed cells!
Intermittent fasting teaches your body to generate energy as efficiently as possible (remember creating energy with stored fats?) and keeps you recharged throughout the day. And with this recharge, you could get a longer lifespan too!
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting for Women
This strategic fasting technique holds a special place for women— that’s right, there are added benefits of intermittent fasting for women!
1. Hormonal Balance: Intermittent fasting promotes balance in the growth hormone and increases their levels up to 5 times! These levels can keep your metabolism stable and act as a shield against issues like PCOS.
2. Reduce Inflammation: The high stress levels of today’s lifestyles cause inflammation within our bodies, which is concerning because you can’t even see the results of those inflammations. Fasting keeps such inflammatory activity in check and helps women deal with PCOD or PCOS situations.
3. Mini Digestive Vacation: When the digestion process is completed, you no longer feel bloated, and your gut gets the love it deserves! Goodbye, digestive discomfort!
A Note Before You Begin
After seeing what are the benefits of intermittent fasting, you probably think it’s a pretty cool lifestyle where you’re not constantly worried about calories or a special dieting totka. But if you’re someone with medical issues like low blood sugar or diabetes, make sure to consult a healthcare professional before starting. And you can always join Habuild’s 14-day free yoga challenge to learn more health tips like these!
For our final notes, let’s admit that intermittent fasting may not really work for everyone, which is completely okay! Sometimes, all you need is consistency in your routine. And that routine doesn’t have to be a strict 16 8 habit. You can simply start out with a 12-12 division and fast your way to the perfect sunrise-sunset combo.
