Amber Alert!!! A new DIET trend is sweeping the world, intermittent fasting.

Late to this new trend, do not worry, your friend is down 20 pounds, do not worry, you are on the way.

I say these three things because Intermittent fasting (IF), is not a diet plan or a magical life cure. Even when the results are too good to be true, at times. There are so many people posting that they fast when they want to look leaner, lose weight, or keep up with their social circle, which are all good reasons to start this new journey. These reasons can shift a healthy lifestyle choice into a beauty competition, without even realizing it.

We All Fast

At some point throughout the day, you fast, when you skip breakfast, lunch, dinner or go a whole day without food. Yet, this is a rare occasion or one-off scenario, which is not enough to see lasting results. Fasting different days, weeks or months is dietary rather than a lifestyle choice because you are using it as a quick fix tool. Thus, the benefits that others are talking about are not apparent at all or minimal, to say the least.

Benefits

One of the benefits of IF is weight loss, stored body fat becomes more accessible in a fasted state as hormone levels adjust, which is one of the most talked-about benefits right now because it caters to our insecurities, especially ones about body image and weight. Where I understand how attractive and motivational this is, the other benefits are left behind.

Important health benefits such as cell repair and gene expression fall through the cracks because they are not visible to the naked eye.

However, these are highly important for health and the body’s ability to fight off minor and major diseases. Think about this for a minute, a cancerous tumour forms in the body when ingested carcinogenic material attacks our DNA, evading the body’s repair process. As this occurs the corrupted DNA is multiplied many times until scans can pick up the process and label it. Since fasting initiates the cellular repair process regularly, chances of carcinogenic material attaching to DNA is less likely.

Furthermore, fasting promotes a rise in (HGH) human growth hormone levels, five times the normal rate or in that range. This rise stimulates muscle growth while helping the fat loss process. Moreover, while fasting, insulin sensitivity is reduced, which causes levels to drop. While this occurs, stored fat is more accessible and converted to energy to fuel the body.

Starving yourself

“you are starving yourself when you fast, ” this statement is a myth, for lack of a better word. The eating window is for consuming your daily caloric intake, which varies depending on a person’s goals. There is nothing that says to deprive yourself of daily nutrients and calories at any point while fasting.

Furthermore, when understood correctly the eating window can help you lose, maintain, and even gain weight when accompanied by the right nutrition regime.

Amazing

There are just so many health benefits that go beyond aesthetic changes. Furthermore, the few mentioned above, do not even begin to scratch the surface.

That said, let’s add a few more to boost the excitement! Intermittent fasting helps reduce LDL cholesterol, and inflammation promoters, which leads to better heart, joint and brain health. Thus, you are extending the lifespan of vital organs as well as yourself, who could have guessed that?

Therefore, this is not just some diet plan to promote weight loss, rather a healthy lifestyle choice with no adverse effects. A notion that should be deep-rooted in your choice to begin this process, rather than the visible aesthetic changes.

Coming up!

The next post after next week’s vlog will focus on the eating window and ways to use it to your advantage.

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