![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/bod-blog-assets.prod.cd.beachbodyondemand.com\/bod-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Does-Intermittent-Fasting-Work.600.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nIntermittent fasting \u2014 or IF \u2014 may seem like just another diet fad, but the concept of fasting has been around for centuries.<\/p>\n
It has surged in popularity in recent years, thanks to the fitness and nutrition industry with claims that intermittent fasting can do everything from burn fat and build muscle to cleanse the body and boost longevity.<\/p>\n
So does intermittent fasting work at achieving any (or all) of those claims?<\/p>\n
Possibly.<\/p>\n
Read on to get a breakdown of intermittent fasting, benefits,<\/p>\n
\u201cIntermittent fasting is an umbrella term for three different diets: alternate-day fasting (ADF), the 5:2 diet, and time-restricted eating (TRE),\u201d explains\u00a0Dr. Krista A. Varady, Ph.D., Professor of Nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago and co-author of \u201cThe Every Other Day Diet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varady has been researching alternate-day fasting for 15 years, authoring 70 papers on the subject.<\/p>\n
Many IF plans have you stop eating for a certain amount of time, typically anywhere from 16 to 24 hours.<\/p>\n
But other plans forgo abstinence in favor of reducing calories to a very low amount.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the case with alternate-day fasting (ADF), which generally requires people to eat just 500 calories every other day.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As Varady explains, there are multiple forms of intermittent fasting. The most basic of these is time-restricted eating (TRE).<\/p>\n
If you follow this form of fasting, you limit the amount of time you eat in a day to a certain number of hours.<\/p>\n
Most people begin their fast after dinner so that they only have a couple of hours left to fast after they wake up.<\/p>\n
Someone on a 16\/8 fast, for example, could stop eating at 8pm and start eating again at noon the next day.\u00a0Alternate-day fasting requires a low-calorie intake every other day. On the alternate days, you eat as you normally would.<\/p>\n
The 5:2 diet, which is sometimes referred to as \u201cThe Fast Diet,\u201d is a form of alternate-day fasting.<\/p>\n
Following this form of IF requires you to restrict calories to 500-600 two days a week. The other five days of the week are regular eating days.<\/p>\n
First things first: There are a lot of purported health claims tied to intermittent fasting, but not all of these are rooted in science or verified at this point.<\/p>\n
There\u00a0are\u00a0proven benefits to this style of eating, though. \u201c[Research shows that] IF can help lower diabetes and\u00a0heart disease risk,\u201d Varady adds.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019ll have to give this new style of eating longer than a month to show these results.<\/p>\n
Research has shown that \u201cblood pressure, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides,\u00a0fasting insulin, and insulin resistance\u00a0all decrease after 6-8 weeks of IF combined with endurance exercise,\u201d Varady explains.<\/p>\n
But Krista Maguire, R.D., underscores that \u201cjust because you cut down the number of hours you\u2019re actually eating food, doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019ve created a daily calorie deficit which is required to lose weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
So some calorie counting may still be required if you\u2019re using a form of intermittent fasting as a weight-loss tool.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, the best weight-loss plan for you is the one you can stick to consistently and long-term.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I\u2019d recommend checking with your healthcare provider to make sure intermittent fasting is appropriate for you,\u201d Maguire advises.<\/p>\n
Once you have the green light from a medical professional, she suggests you \u201cstart with a version of IF that isn\u2019t too drastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
That might even mean simply closing the kitchen after dinner and opening it again for breakfast if you\u2019re used to snacking at night, Maguire adds.<\/p>\n
Varady agrees, suggesting that people \u201cstart with a 10-hour [feeding] window for the first week, then move to 8-hour the second week.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, you can shorten your feeding window weekly if you\u2019re still feeling good.<\/p>\n
Remember that you can start this window whenever it feels natural with your hunger cues.<\/p>\n
If you wake up hungry, there\u2019s no reason to skip breakfast. You can eat in the morning and start your fast in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Hunger pangs are natural for the first week or two of fasting; coffee, tea, unsweetened seltzers, or flavored water can help assuage those pangs and habitual snacking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Intermittent fasting \u2014 or IF \u2014 may seem like just another diet fad, but the concept of fasting has been around for centuries. It has surged in popularity in recent years, thanks to the fitness and nutrition industry with claims that intermittent fasting can do everything from burn fat and build muscle to cleanse the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}