Fasting is not something new as it has been a common practice in various religions for centuries. Today, however, intermittent fasting has taken the world of health and wellness by storm, as it points to individuals achieving a huge reduction to their weight. There are studies that show that doing intermittent fasting can help lower your risk of heart problems, diabetes and even certain types of cancer as well.
There are different types of intermittent fasting, such as doing nightly fasting where you will not eat anything for 10 hours, to actually foregoing meals at least 2 days in a week. This may sound doable especially when you want to jumpstart your metabolism to speed up your weight loss journey, but if this is your first time to do so, there are a few dos and don’ts that you should know of. Here’s what you need to know about intermittent fasting.
Do’s of Intermittent Fasting
In order for you to be successful with your intermittent fasting, here are a few dos that you should keep in mind.
Make a plan
Starting intermittent fasting without forming a plan means that you are setting yourself up to failure. First of all, you need to know what type of intermittent fasting you should be doing. Will you be skipping some days, stick with the 10 hour fasting every day, or lowering your food consumption up to 75%. It is always a good idea to discuss this with your doctor first before doing any diet.
Consider your current health status
Ask yourself if you are fit to attempt intermittent fasting. Although this type of weight loss program works, you shouldn’t compromise your current health condition. Those who shouldn’t do this are pregnant or even lactating women, children below 18 years of age, or adults that have medical conditions.
Fit your fasting to your current lifestyle
If you want to be successful with intermittent fasting, you should know when to start it based on the lifestyle that you have. For example, you can do this fasting over the weekend, where you will be simply staying at home, or start on a Thursday, so that it will be over by the time the weekend has arrived. Intermittent fasting should be easy to follow if you align it with your current lifestyle.
Don’ts of Intermittent Fasting
Now that you know on what you can do in an intermittent fasting, let’s find out what you should avoid to keep you on the right track.
Avoid overindulging
Some of us have the tendency to binge on processed foods the night before a diet, but this is not really a good way to start your fasting. What you need to focus on are foods that are rich in slow-burning nutrients because these will help fuel your body. Think unsaturated fats, carbohydrates, as well as protein.
Ignoring your body’s signals
It’s great that you are determined to remove a few pounds off your body, but when you are starting to feel the effects of intermittent fasting, such as getting dizzy, having a pounding headache, and the like, just stop what you are doing. You don’t need to push on because you will be compromising your health already. Learn to read the signs that your body is giving off.
Intense workouts
Most of us pair diets with high intensity workouts because they want to bring their weight down as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, you are putting yourself at risk because your body doesn’t have enough nutrients in it to sustain your workout. A better option is to go for moderate intensity workouts along with your diet to see more pounds sloughing off.
