Image source: Harvard Health
Intermittent fasting is known as an eating pattern in which individuals eat for a certain period of time and then fast. Opinion Expert has also given several insights into this “diet” as it has many aspects that must be looked into.
While intermittent fasting does not specify the types of food you should eat, it does specify when you can consume the food.
In this aspect, it is not even considered a diet since there are no restrictions to how much food you can consume. It matters for how long you eat and how long you give your stomach a break.
Humans have evolved through this practice as it is common and has been seen in the past as well. Because of this evolution, humans are now even capable of going for hours or even days without consuming food.
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Frequently Asked Question
What Are the Different Types of Intermittent Fasting?
There are many different types of intermittent fasting; some include splitting a day in half for consuming food and resting, while others include weeks of fasting and food consumption.
But there are some common methods used for intermittent fasting, such as:
- The 16/8 method: this is the most common method, and it is where individuals fast for 16 hours and east for 8 hours any time of the day.
- Eat-Stop-Eat: this type of intermittent fasting goes on for 24 hours once or even twice a week. This means individuals will have to go a day or two without consuming any food. But they can consume water.
- 5:2 diet: This involves consuming only five hundred to six hundred calories for two days a week. These two days should not be kept one after the other. For the rest of the five days, food can be consumed as usual.
These types of intermittent fasting help reduce calorie intake, and a reduction in calorie intake means a reduction in weight.
How Does Intermittent Fasting Effect Your Hormones?
Fasting can cause many changes in the body’s cellular and molecular composition. Your body will try to adjust its hormones as its losing body fat. But, other changes can occur as well, such as:
- Insulin: people with diabetes can be helped through this diet since insulin sensitivity improves and insulin levels drop a lot. The lower the insulin in the body, the more access the body has to stored fat.
- Cellular Repair: when people go intermittent fasting, cells start to repair themselves.
- Human Growth Hormone (HGH): this is a hormone that increases five times in the body when someone starts intermittent fasting. This hormone includes the benefits of fat loss and muscle gain.
- Gene Expression: Intermittent fasting helps change the functions of genes to protect them against diseases and helps with their longevity as well.
Conclusion
Intermittent fasting has been a part of society for decades. Though many who practiced it did for religious or spiritual reasons. But now, scientists have discovered that it even has many benefits for the human body, both physically and mentally.
