Intermittent Fasting: What is it...How to Do it and the Benefits of IF

What IF?

       

What if you could eat all your favorite foods in moderation? What if you could train your body to burn its own fat for fuel? What if you could burn fat while you were sleeping?  What if?

   

Have you ever heard of IF??? Intermittent fasting is a practice that allows your body to burn its own fat.  Instead of constantly supplying food for energy, you allow your body a break from food and, in turn, your body burns its stored fat for fuel and your digestive system gets some much needed “time off”.  Generally, this takes a minimum of 8 hours to utilize your food energy and switch over to stored fat for fuel.

There are many benefits from IF that include increased brain function, improved GI health, and a huge surge of natural human growth hormone (HGH).  Oh, and one more really great thing....LESS FAT on your body.

Of course, there are many variations of IF.  The more extreme IF includes fasting for up to 36 hours occasionally. Another variation is every other day.  One method is once a week.  All offer health benefits as long as your food choices are healthy, and you don't binge eat before and/or after a fasting period.

I know, I don't think it sounds easy, either!! I am a hungry girl who wants to eat, enjoys eating, and quite frankly, cannot imagine going 36 hours without eating!  However, I do think we could all benefit from a modified version of IF.  We are so used to fueling our body all day long with snacks, protein bars, etc in addition to our regular meals. We will never know what it feels like to be starving.  And our digestive system will continue to get overworked. 

Here is what I propose...let's give IF a try!  We can start by fasting through the night.  Be done with dinner and commit to only water or herbal tea after 7pm.  By the time breakfast rolls around you will have 12 hours of fasting under your belt!  Try incorporating this into your lifestyle permanently.  Your body needs rest and that includes your digestive system. 

When/if you want to take it to the next level, the next step would be to postpone "BREAK-FAST" until after your workout, to increase the fasting period up to 16 hours.

  

For those of you who crash every 2-3 hours and think you NEED to keep your blood sugar up with small meals throughout the day to rev up your metabolism, I encourage you to reevaluate your diet to see where you can make better choices.  Replace all processed foods with healthy fats like avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, eggs, butter and nuts....in moderation!!  

IF is a great way to eliminate sugar cravings.  When your body does not rely on food for energy every few hours your sugar cravings will subside.  Your body will benefit in so many ways. The key is to rewire your thought process....think of fasting as taking a break from eating not a period of deprivation.

               

What IF it was that easy?