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The intermittent fasting is the popular health trend of the moment.
I stumbled upon this method way back, before even starting my keto lifestyle.
I couldn’t understand how people could not eat for hours and hours.
Before keto, I had to eat every 5-6 hours otherwise my stomach would swallow and be painful from the hunger.
Yes, before keto I was constantly hungry.
The keto made all my hunger attacks disappear: that’s why after some month of keto I felt confident to try Intermittent Fasting and be sure to not be famished after 3 hours.
I took advantage of the lockdown of May 2020 to try if I could handle not eating for many hours: my experience was positive, the weight loss faster and the energy boosted.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent Fasting is an eating pattern that alternates periods of eating and period of fasting.
The most common schema is 16:8, in which you can eat in a window of 8 hours and then not eat for the next 16 hours.
So for example, if you finish your last meal of the day at 8 pm, you can eat again the following day at 12am, stop at 8 pm, and so on.
There are many combinations of Intermittent fasting: 18:6, 20:4, 23:1 (Omad), and so on.
During the fasting period, you are allowed to drink beverages without calories, so water, black coffee, tea.
If you have one glass of juice, cream, or sugar in your coffee you are not fasting: Fasting is not about not eating but is about not introducing any calories into your body.
The Bullet Proof coffee is great in the keto diet and is full of benefits but is interrupting the fasting, because of the calories intake of the butter and MCT oil.
Despite this, it’s a common choice following an intermittent fasting drinking a bulletproof coffee in the morning. Your choice!
Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss
Eating only in a window of 8, 6 or 4 hours, has the consequence to eat less meals and snacks and therefore introducing less calories.
For years I believed that in order to boost my metabolism I had to eat very often.
But every time we eat our levels of insulin increase: on the contrary, when we fast these levels drop, easing the process of fat burn.
That’s why Intermittent Fasting is very effective for weight loss.
Tip: a good way to support weight loss is following intermittent fasting along with meal prep.
Read here how I Keto Low Carb Meal Prep.
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Together with the weigh loss results, Intermittent Fasting brings many other benefits.
Reduction on the level of insulin:
Intermittent Fasting can lower insulin resistance, protecting against type 2 diabetes.
Reduction of Inflammation:
Studies show that this technique is reducing the risk of inflammation, a condition that leads to diseases as diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.
Disease prevention:
May prevent many diseases, like some types of cancer, and Alzheimer’s diseases, and keep in good health the heart and the brain cells.
Autophagy:
When our body is not busy digesting the food, it starts a process of self-cleaning and self-repair, important to clean up damaged cells and toxins and regenerate new and healthier cells.
Longer life span:
Even if human studies are limited, the results on animals show that this method would extend the life span.
Tips if you want to start Intermittent Fasting
If you want to try Intermittent Fasting and you have some conditions or diseases, speak first with your family doctor.
You can benefit from weight loss and other benefits also if you don’t follow a keto diet. Even if you don’t eat low carb you can successfully introduce a fasting lifestyle.
To check if this method is good for you, try it first in a safe environment where you can have easily access to food in case you have a sudden anger attack.
Always have a backup meal to make sure that if you are hungry and really want to eat you won’t end up eating something that is not keto.
If your goal is, let’s say, to follow the schema 20:4, start fasting for the hours you are used to, and progressively increase the fasting time.
For a soft improvement, you can increase half an hour or one hour per week.
Do physical exercise in time just before or during your eating window.
During the fast window replenish with a lot of water. This will help you against hunger.
Hi, I’m Simona! After experiencing the restrictions of keto, I’m now enjoying a balanced diet that brings freedom and happiness to my eating habits.
You find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and sometimes on Facebook.
I also write a lot of keto recipes on my Italian blog keto-with-simona.
Check also:
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