Intermediate Fasting

NMJADMIN / January 5, 2019 / No Comment

A method to get fit and healthier by intaking all your needed
calorieduring a small period and fasting the rest of the day.

By: Alexandria Addesso

Fasting has been a ritual used throughout the centuries for thousands of years by many different cultures for religious reasons, health reasons, and to build discipline. Fasting is done in many ways and manners, but all involve abstaining from certain foods, or all food and drink, for a period. Lately intermediate fasting, not eating for say 16 hours and then consuming all your needed calories during an 8-hour period, has become popular. I personally first came across intermediate fasting while watching YouTube videos. I came across a video of a very attractive and fit looking couple eating huge portions of delicious looking food that didn’t exactly look the healthiest. As a self-proclaimed foodie I was intrigued, how did these people keep so fit yet have hundreds of videos of them gorging on huge meals? The main person that ran the channel, called Blake_201, attributed it to intermediate fasting.

I did my research on how to lose fat without losing muscle

Then started with tracking calories and eating small meals spread out throughout the day. Because that’s what all the ‘fit’ people were doing. I was making steady progress and really starting to look how I originally wanted to look, however I was always starving, watching the clock, waiting for my next meal and lost my very active social life in the process,” said Blake Horton on his website. “I remember reading about intermittent fasting where you get to eat larger meals and no longer get hungry while losing weight which I thought was complete bullshit but started doing a ton of research and it was compelling enough to risk it for a greater reward. I had basically had it with being miserable just to look good.”

While there are different ways to intermediate fast, some people fast two days out of the week and eat regularly the remaining 5, the 16:8 fast mentioned earlier seems to be the most popular. Following the 16:8 fast you can choose any 8-hour period to consume all your needed calories. Some people choose their eating period to be between noon and 8pm, while others opt for 9 a.m.to 5 p.m., which allows plenty of time for a healthy breakfast, a normal lunch around noon and an early dinner or snack around 4 p.m. before starting the fast. Either way a full 8 hours of sleep helps break up the fasting time.

A recent study conducted by the German Cancer Research Center found that intermittent fasting “helps lose weight and promotes health,” and noted that the regimen proved especially adept at getting rid of fat in the liver. A University of Southern California study found that the diet reduced participants’ risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other age-related diseases.