Introduction
Fasting is easy to understand but difficult to do if you are not physically and/or mentally prepared before and after to see and maintain results.
Here are some of the things you need to know before, during, and after your fasting to see if you are eligible. Also, you will find out some of the common mistakes people make that could put your journey to waste and possibly cause even more damage if not done properly.
What are the Fasting Dos & Don’ts ?
Do make sure you’re healthy!
Not everyone is cut out for fasting. Pregnant or nursing women, those with diabetes, children under the age of 18, and those with underlying medical issues should not fast. Prescription medicine users should also avoid fasting in order to avoid potentially dangerous side effects. Those who are unable to fast may benefit from making a shift to a healthier diet. Eating whole, unprocessed foods, and no sugary drinks is the first step toward a healthier lifestyle.
Do stay hydrated!
Water makes up about 60 percent of the human body, thus drinking plenty of it is essential at all times.
Drinking water has several health benefits, and during fasting periods, it might be your best friend. It will not only improve your skin, remove toxins from your body, and give you more energy, but it will also make you feel fuller longer. Drinking a glass of water can help you feel fuller longer because it has the added benefit of suppressing your appetite naturally.
Don’t consume artificial sweeteners & zero-calorie drinks before or during fast!
Food and beverages of any kind are forbidden during a fast. Does this imply that calorie-free diet soda is possible? Generally speaking, artificial sweeteners and diet sodas should be avoided during a fast.
Artificial sweeteners may increase your desire to overeat. Therefore, it is recommended to stick to water, green tea, and black coffee as safe fasting beverages.
Do examine your diet before & after fasting
Technically, the focus of fasting is not on what you eat, but rather on when you eat. Dietary changes are also necessary if you want to reduce weight, so keep that in mind.
Eating more whole foods, cutting back on sugar and saturated fat, and including more vegetables and fruits in meals are good general rules of thumb for a healthy diet.
Don’t exceed your limits
Fasting on a regular basis can be difficult at times. Learn to listen to your body and recognize when it’s time to take a day off.
When fasting, vigorous exercise should be avoided at all costs. Stick to lower-intensity exercises during the fasting window and cardio or strength workouts during the feeding window.
Fasting for women during their menstrual cycle can be more difficult. Furthermore, some women are more vulnerable due to changes to their dietary and lifestyle changes, which might disrupt their hormones and cycle.
Consider lowering your fasting window or examining your diet by ensuring you get enough protein and healthy fats in your meals when you start to feel tired, dizzy, or having a headache.
What to Expect from Fasting?
Weight Lost
The primary goal of fasting, besides for religious purposes, is weight loss. It is possible to regulate one’s eating patterns and reduce daily caloric intake.
Fasting tends to encourage people to consume fewer meals as a result of the shorter eating window. Increased metabolic rate is achieved through the combination of eating and fasting in a certain time frame. Fasting can boost your metabolism by up to 14 percent.
Fasting raises the leptin hormone because of a faster metabolism. Weight loss is aided by this hormone, which increases as a result of a change in eating habits.
Fasting for only a portion of the day has been shown to increase metabolism and speed up weight loss. Then, it regulates your eating habits, resulting in a reduction in calories consumed. In combination, this promotes more rapid and long-term weight loss.
Slows down aging
Fasting improves oxidative stress reduction in a manner similar to anti-inflammation. One of the most important factors in aging is oxidative stress. Fasting stimulates the production of an anti-aging molecule that reduces the appearance of wrinkles on both the skin and the blood vessels.
One of the byproducts of fasting is the ketone beta-hydroxybutyrate, which promotes the reproduction of young cells. This occurs when the body’s glucose reserves are depleted and trigger ketosis.
Old cells are wiped clean by this mechanism and are replaced with new, more youthful cells. Thus, a rise in the beta-hydroxybutyrate ketones can delay both cellular and vascular aging.
Helps improve heart health
Finding solutions to reduce deaths from heart disease is critical because heart disease is the leading cause of mortality around the globe.
Fasting can improve cardiovascular health, lowers blood sugar and reduces inflammation. However, there are plenty of additional factors that fasting can enhance.
Fasting approaches have been shown to reduce blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol, and LDL levels in healthy individuals. Atherosclerosis, ischemic strokes, coronary artery disease, and high cholesterol are all intensified by these risk factors.
Heart disease can be prevented and the condition of one’s heart improved by reducing these risk factors.
Which Fasting Method Is The Best for You?
There are many different fasting methods available, so I’ll simply mention a few of the more popular ones below and let you decide which one is best for you:
Intermittent Fasting (IF)
Within IF, there are several different types of fasting programs, the most popular of these is known as the 16/8 plan.
If you opt to pursue IF, this is the plan that the majority of the health and fitness community recommends. This diet includes a 16-hour fast followed by an 8-hour feeding phase.
This schedule is popular since half of the fasting may be completed while sleeping, so if you sleep 8 hours each day on average, you just need to fast for another 8 hours during the day.
So, you’ll just skip breakfast and eat during the lunch hour, which is between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. or noon to 8 p.m.
There are other plans within IF and they are:
- 14/10 fasting plan (14 hours fasting, 10 hours feeding)
- 5:2 fasting (2 days of fasting)
- Eat:stop:eat method (24-hour fasting)
The 5:2 method is best for those who just want to fast on weekends, with no non-fasting days in between, and you’re only allowed to eat 500 calories (about 25 percent of the average daily calorie intake).
Despite just needing to fast for two days every week, this is a bit more difficult for newcomers to complete, thus it’s only recommended for those who have the willpower to do so.
The Eat:Stop:Eat method is similar to the 5:2 method, except you must fast for the entire day, 1 – 2 nonconsecutive days per week, which might cause headaches, irritability, hunger, exhaustion, and a lack of energy in beginners.
The majority of people follow this routine from breakfast to breakfast or lunch to lunch. When you return to your non-fasting days on a healthy eating plan after using this strategy, the negative effects will diminish.
To Conclude
Here was just a glimpse of some of the ways you can fast, and there are other fasting programs out there; however, these methods shown here are the most popular.
Fasting can bring many benefits for those who wish to lose weight, change their unhealthy eating habits, clean their skin, and many more!
However, listen to your body and stop fasting to prevent severe health effects, especially for those who are currently sick.
