048: Intermittent Fasting; What is it all about?

Podcast 048: Intermittent Fasting; What is it all about?
 
 
Intermittent fasting is the act of incorporating eating patterns into your life where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting.
 
 
Eatlocalgrown.com had a great article on fasting titled “What is Intermittent Fasting Explained in Human Terms”.  Despite what you might think intermittent fasting is pretty easy to do and people have more energy. 
 
 
Dailyburn.com has a great article titled “Intermittent Fasting Methods”
 
Wendy loves Bob Tucker!
 
This site talks about the five popular intermittent fasting techniques that many of you might have heard about:
 
1.     Lean Gains- best for dedicated gym goers that want to lose body fat and gain muscle. Women should fast for 14 hours and men for 16 hours. 
 
2.     Eat-Stop-Eat .  Best for healthy eaters looking for an extra boost.  Fast for 24 hours either 1 or 2 days a week.
 
3.     Warrior Diet. Best for people that like to follow rules.  You eat 1 meal a day.
 
4.     Fat Loss Forever.  Best for gym rats that like cheat days.  1 cheat day a week followed by a 36 hour fast.
 
5.     Up Day, Down Day or Alternate Day Diet.  Discipline dieters that have a goal weight.  Eat very little one day (400-500 calories) followed by a larger amount the other day (2000-2500 calories).  States that you should love about 2-2.5 pounds/day.
 
 
There is great research out there about the positive effects of intermittent fasting and health.  Here is a great summary article (it is very scientific based but this is Beyond the Basics Health Academy so many of you will enjoy this literature):
 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4352038/
 
There are many proven benefits of intermittent fasting:
 
·      Improved insulin sensitivity. 
 
·      Improve leptin sensitivity
 
·      Changes in gene expression
 
·      Increased Human Growth Hormone.
 
·      Give your body a break- especially the gut
 
·      Reduce oxidative stress
 
·      Improved mitochondrial activity
 
·      By decreasing calories by 30-40% you can increase your life by 1/3.
 
 
Dr. Mercola also has a great article about the benefit of intermittent fasting.  It can be found on fitness.mercola.com.  “Intermittent Fasting Beats Traditional Diets and Even Chronic Calorie Restriction for Weight Loss and Other Health Benefits.”
 
 
If you are finding that you are having a lot of cravings and appetite problems with fasting than chromium, cinnamon, and 5-HTP can help.