What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting, which is currently the most popular health and fitness method worldwide, is also known as IF. People are using this method as a way to reduce weight, improve their overall health, and also to simplify their lifestyle. Most studies suggest that it can have powerful effects on different systems of the body and brain and allow the practice to last longer. Through the following guide, you will get to know the most basic things and concepts about intermittent fasting.
What essentially is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a certain pattern of eating in cycles between fasting and feeding sessions. It does not necessarily specify which foods you should eat in the feeding cycle. Instead, it lets you know what times you should eat. In this way, it is not a diet in the real meanings, but rather an eating pattern. The most common intermittent fasting includes fasting 16 hours or fasting 24 hours twice a week.

Fasting has always been involved in the common practices of the period of human evolution. Ancient hunter-gatherers never had refrigerators, supermarkets, or food that was available year-round. And many times they couldn’t find anything to eat. And as a result, humans evolved to live their lives without food for long periods. Fasting from time to time is a natural method of overeating for 3-4 meals a day. Fasting is also mainly done in religious practices which include religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism.
What are some intermittent fasting methods?

There are many different methods of intermittent fasting, most of which involve dividing the day or week into periods of fasting and eating. During fasting sessions, you may eat little or nothing. The most popular methods of intermittent fasting are the following:
The 16/8 Method: This is also called the Leangains protocol which involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating pattern to just 8 hours, like 1-9pm. You then need to fast for 16 hours during the session.

Eat stop eat: This is the process of fasting for 24 hours only once or twice a week, that is, not eating from one dinner to another. And the rest of the week you spend is normal like your daily life.
The 5:2 diet: This method includes consuming only 500 to 600 calories on non-consecutive days in a week. You normally eat for the rest of the 5 days.

By reducing total calorie intake, all of these methods should result in weight loss as long as it is not offset by eating too much in feeding sessions. Many people also find that the 16/8 method is the simplest to follow. It is also the most sustainable and easiest to comply with. Therefore, it is the most popular method of intermittent fasting.
How does intermittent fasting affect our cells and hormones?

When you are fasting, many things happen to the body at the molecular and cellular level. For example, the body begins to adjust to hormone levels so that stored body fat is much more accessible. Your cells also start the important repair process and change the expression of genes. Some changes that occur in the body are as follows:

Human Growth Hormone ie HGH: The growth of human beings, increases up to the folds in intermittent fasting. This has many benefits including rapid fat loss and some to mention muscle gain.
Insulin: Insulin sensitivity is greatly improved and insulin levels rise with intermittent fasting. Lower insulin levels make stored body fat more accessible.

Cellular repair: When you have been fasting for a while, your cells begin the process of cell repair. This also includes autophagy, where these cells digest and remove old protein that starts to build up.
Gene expression: There are many changes in the functioning of the genera linked to protection and longevity against disease.

Knowing that intermittent fasting helps your body’s systems improve in many ways, are you ready to start doing it in your life? MuscleTech Hydroxycut Hardcore