Fasting is an age-old religious practice that has captured the public imagination for its ability to help in weight loss. The type of fasting to lose weight is known as “Intermittent Fasting”. It has become popular in recent years as more people embrace it.
Intermittent fasting is a way of eating that involves regular short-term fasts. These short-term fasts helps you to consume fewer calories. They also help to optimize your body hormones related to weight control.
About 5-10 years ago, you might have heard that it is a “diet taboo” to skip meals even if you plan to lose weight. However, people have embrace intermittent fasting and some find it the easiest way to control their weight.
For those who are wondering how much weight can you lose in a month with intermittent fasting,
Benefits of Fasting for Weight Loss
Weight loss is one of the greatest benefits that fasting can offer (1). While fasting, your body uses up the stored fats and converts them to energy.
A reduction in your food intake reduces your metabolism in order to conserve energy that your body needs. People with obesity can benefit a lot from fasting. Fasting to lose weight can lead you towards a healthy lifestyle and eating habits.
Apart from its immense contribution to weight loss, fasting also has many benefits for your body. Some of these benefits include;
- Fasting promotes detoxification by releasing toxins from your body.
- It decreases appetite by shrinking your stomach gradually.
- Fasting also gives a rest to your digestive system.
- This is an effective method of normalizing blood pressure.
- It is effective at reducing cholesterol in the blood. This lowers the risk of health disease and improves your cardiovascular health.
When you combine fasting with a balanced diet in between, then your body immune system gets a major boost.
Lastly, fasting can help you overcome your addictions and cravings.
The Six Popular Method of Intermittent Fasting That Work
There is no doubt that intermittent fasting has grown in popularity in recent years. As a result of this, several methods of intermittent fasting to lose weight has been developed.
All these methods can be effective, but each depends on the individual. You can check with your doctor if you are planning to start intermittent fasting to lose weight.
Below are the six popular methods of doing intermittent fasting;
6 Best Easy Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss at Home
1.The 16/8 Method
This method involves fasting for 16 hours daily. You must also ensure that you restrict your daily feeding window to 8 hours. You can decide to fit in 2 or 3 meals within your feeding window.
The most important thing in this method of fasting is that you don’t eat anything after dinner and you must also skip breakfast daily. You can decide to drink water or coffee during the fast to reduce hunger levels.
Women can do about 14-15 hours of fast using this method. This is because it has been observed that women seem to do better with a slightly shorter time-frame. Men must however, undergo the full 16 hours.
You must avoid junk foods when doing this method of fasting. Ensure that you eat only healthy foods during your feeding window. You will not achieve your weight loss goal if you consume lots of junks or foods with excess calories.
2. The 5:2 Diet
The 5:2 diet implies that you fast for only 2 days per week. This diet involves your normal eating routine for 5 days weekly, and at the same time restricting your calories intake to about 500-600 on your two days of fasting. It is also known as the Fast diet.
On the two days of fasting, it is advisable that women consume 500 calories and men should have a calorie intake of 600.
You can choose any two days of the week, say Tuesdays and Fridays. Eat two small meals both days with low calories per meal for men and 250 calories per meal for women. Apart from those two days, you can continue to consume your normal healthy diet daily.
3. Eat-Stop-Eat
This diet is a 24 hours fast that you should do either once or twice per week. This method of intermittent fasting has become quite popular for a number of years.
You can decide to fast from dinner of one day, to the dinner the next day. This signifies a 24-hour full fast.
For instance, if you finish your dinner on 8pm on Tuesday, you can decide not to eat until dinner at 8pm on Wednesday. There, you just did a 24-hour fast. You can pick any two days of the week if interested.
Alternatively, you can decide to fast from breakfast to breakfast the next day, or from lunch to lunch the next day. All the options will give you the same result.
You can drink water, coffee and other non-alcoholic beverages to quench hunger. However, ensure you avoid any solid food. Eat normally during the feeding periods as if you hadn’t been fasting at all.
This method might be pretty difficult for some people. If you are just about trying this for the first time. You can start with about 14-16 hours. You can then start increasing the time-frame as you get accustomed to it until you get to a full 24-hour fast.
4. Alternate-Day Fasting
Like the name suggests, Alternate-Day fasting simply means fasting every other day. You can decide not to eat anything at all or consume only a few hundred calories during fast days.
This method of intermittent fasting is not recommended for beginners as it can be rather extreme. People that do this fast go to bed very hungry several times weekly. This is not a pleasant type of fasting to lose weight and might be unsustainable in the long-run.
5. The Warrior Diet
The Warrior Diet involves eating small amounts of vegetables and raw fruits during the day, and rounding up your day with one huge meal as dinner. In this diet, you “fast” during the day and eat a huge meal at night.
In other words, you consume only small amounts of fruits and vegetables during the day in a 4-hour feeding window. However, you feast at night by eating one huge meal.
Fruits and vegetables are regarded as nature’s fast foods and have the potential to fill you up for a longer period.
You can also consume whole, unprocessed foods that resemble what they looked like in nature. These type of foods are called “a paleo diet”.
This method of intermittent fasting to lose weight was one of the first popular fast diets for weight loss and was made popular by fitness expert Ori Hofmekler.
6. Spontaneous Meal Skipping
As the name suggests, Spontaneous Meal Skipping is a form of intermittent fasting that involves you skipping meals when convenient.
You can decide to just skip meals from time to time. You might not feel hungry or you might just be too busy to cook or eat anything. Skipping meals when convenient for you is a good way to lose weight. Your body is capable of handling long periods without consuming food, not to talk of skipping about one or two meals from time to time.
In other words, if you’re not really hungry one day, you can decide to skip breakfast. Just eat a healthy and filling food for lunch and dinner.
Also, if you’re travelling and can’t seem to find anything to eat, it isn’t bad to skip some meals and do a short fast. Trust us; your body can handle it so far you eat healthy foods at other meals.
Some view this method as a more natural way to do intermittent fasting and sincerely, it cannot be farther from the truth. It is an effective method of fasting to lose weight.
How Much Weight Can You Lose in a Month with Intermittent Fasting?
You should be aware that fasting to lose weight does not work like magic. Whether it be water fasting, or the warrior diet, fasting for weight loss results will only be possible on consistence and patience.
The amount of fat you lose is determined majorly by how long your fast is and how often you undergo these fast. Also combined with these factors is the quality of the foods you eat afterwards among others. Basically, when you fast for about 16-20 hours a day, you can lose about 2-3 pounds of body fat every week.
How to Succeed in Losing Weight with Intermittent Fasting
The following are the several tips you must follow if you want to succeed in losing weight with intermittent fasting. Irrespective of whatever method of fast you chose, the following tips will always help you use fasting to lose weight;
The food quality
The most important part of your fasting is to eat healthy food during feeding periods. You should ensure you eat mostly whole and single ingredient foods.
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Calories
You should not make the mistake of thinking your calories do not count. You should eat normally during the feeding periods. Avoid trying to compensate for the calories you missed.
Consistency
You have to be consistent and stick to the plan. Follow the plan religiously and you will not be disappointed.
Patience
All fitness expert will tell you that patience is key in any weight loss program. Losing weight isn’t magic that happens in the blink of an eye. Combine patience with consistency and you’ll definitely reach your goal.
Conclusion
Many people have been testifying to get great results from these methods of intermittent fasting for weight loss. However, you must be careful, as fasting to lose weight is not for everybody.
Seek medical advice before you proceed on this fast. If you are prone to eating disorders then it is not advisable to embark on intermittent fasting to lose weight.
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For those who decide to try fasting to lose weight, always keep in mind that you need to eat healthy during the feeding periods. Avoid junk foods and foods high in calories as they won’t do you any good. Food quality is still a must even with intermittent fasting.
Please, to don’t to give us feedback on how to use fasting to lose weight. I remember these keywords in your weight loss journey; consistency, patience, and determination.
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