Great Reasons Why You Should Consider Intermittent Fasting
Want to know a great way to lose weight, become healthier and even live longer? Then maybe you should seriously think about taking up intermittent fasting!
Fasting, or abstaining from food and drink for specific periods of hours or even days has been something we have practised for as long as recorded history. Furthermore, over the ages its long list of devotees have claimed that it brings not only huge physical health benefits but even great spiritual rewards!
In fact historically it has been considered so fundamentally important that it has been integrated into pretty much all the major religious traditions in some form or another – think Yom Kippur, Lent and Ramadam - as well as most ancient philosophical systems spanning the world.
It was also part of many pivotal coming of age rituals, and for some cultures it was even a mandatory requirement before great social challenges and upheavals such as going to war!
Plato, Pythagoras, Plutarch and Hippoctrates were all firm adherents to its many benefits. As were Paracelsus (the father of Western medicine), Benjamin Franklin (founding father of US and polymath) and Mark Twain (author and humorist) – to name but a few more modern disciples.
"The best of all medicines is resting and fasting." Benjamin Franklin
So, what is it and how will this new fashionable again trend benefit me?
Firstly, to be clear, there are a huge variety of intermittent fasting (IF) for health diets out there you can try. The DODO (day on day off), The 5:2, The 16:8, Warrior Diet, Eat-Stop-Eat Diet, Alternate Day Diet and Juice Fasts are just a few of the more popular ones at the moment, but trust me there are many, many more. Too many in fact to go into the specifics about in this short article.
Anyway what is important to know at the moment is that they:
a) All have different protocols as to what, when and how much you can eat (and/or drink)
b) Are suitable for different types of people and lifestyle choices i.e. gym goers, raw food fans etc
c) Have slightly different primary objectives i.e. to build muscle, burn fat, detox etc
d) Require different degrees of discipline and commitment
However, despite these differences at the heart of them all the outcomes are generally speaking the same i.e weight loss and improved overall health and fitness.
So, with the above in mind here are our top 5 reasons why you might want to consider adopting an IF as part of your regular health regime.
Fasting helps you lose weight
Pretty obvious really, but still what a great outcome for any type of diet! Basically when you IF diet you massively reduce your calorie intake which gives your body the ideal opportunity to start using up its store of fat cells for energy - as opposed to sugar. What's more, fasting also leads to changes in the body's chemical make-up including reduced insulin and increased growth hormone production that result in making fat burning easier!
Fasting improves your metabolism
By giving your digestion system an often much needed break, it allows it to heal and repair itself and thus allow it to work more efficiently. This means when you start eating again you can then digest and absorb your food better (as well as have significantly improved bowel functioning).
Fasting helps you live longer
That’s right. As if all the other benefits are not enough, incredibly scientific studies have found that the less you eat the longer you live. It would seem that as well as helping to reduce multiple chronic ailments such as cancer and heart disease, it also seems to trigger an anti-ageing gene that our ancestors had that helped them survive during times of hardship!
Fasting improves your immune system
Ever wondered why animals often stop eating when they are sick? It’s because they instinctively know that by fasting it reduces the internal stress on their body and allows their immune system to fight off the infection more efficiently. And guess what; humans are animals too!
Fasting improves your skin and hair
Fasting really is the gift that keeps on giving. When we take a controlled break from eating it allows our bodies organs to detoxify and regenerate more efficiently, and this includes our skin (the bodies biggest organ), hair and nails.
Fasting makes you smarter
Last but not least, fasting actually improves how your brain functions so makes you smarter. It does this by boosting production of the brain protein called the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (or BDNF for short). Apparently BDNF helps create new neurons as well as trigger other chemicals in the brain that all assist in improved mental performance.
So there you have it, six really good reasons to try an IF diet. But beware, they are not for everyone, can be extremely challenging, especially at first. Plus they require persistence and patience. You also absolutely need to eat and drink healthily during the process, and take into account the risks and downsides that are involved which include dizziness and headaches.
One last thing
Obviously, it is important to mention that if you have any doubts whatsoever, you should always consult a medical expert and seek their advice before undertaking any sort of new dietary regime.
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