Thinking About Intermittent Fasting This Year? Some Experts Say Not So Fast
If one of your new years resolutions is to lose weight and your considering different options such as intermittent fasting, ask yourself, “is it worth it”? Let’s face it, fasting…
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If one of your new years resolutions is to lose weight and your considering different options such as intermittent fasting, ask yourself, "is it worth it"?
Let's face it, fasting is not easy. It takes an iron will to avoid eating for long periods of time. The battle for control over your appetite is never ending and for that reason, most of eventually fail at it.
The concept of intermittent fasting is to go at least 12 to 16 hours per day without eating. Leaving an "eating window" of 12 to 8 hours per day. Most people eventually try the 16-8 method which means you go 2 thirds of the day without eating anything. Counting 8 hours of sleep, the idea is to try to go the next 8 hours without eating. That leaves you the 8 hours of eating.
The problem that many people have is this, you think that you can eat whatever you want in your eating window because you skipped a meal (usually breakfast).
That is how the concept was sold to a lot of people that adopted it. Hey, I can do that, as long as I can eat whatever I want in my window. Now, and not surprisingly researches have put it to the test and guess what? The numbers don't lie, you still have to keep your calorie count the same as you would to lose weight without the fasting protocol.
Here's the skinny on fasting
New research found that time-restricted eating provides no metabolic improvements when calorie intake remains constant. The study tested 31 overweight or obesity women on two eating schedules for two weeks each. Participants ate identical meals during either 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. windows. Researchers found no meaningful changes in insulin sensitivity, blood sugar, blood fats, or inflammatory markers. “Our results suggest that the health benefits observed in earlier studies were likely due to unintended calorie reduction, rather than the shortened eating period itself,” the study author said. (Story URL)
