Even though the concept of fasting has literally been around for centuries, the idea of intermittent fasting has only become popular over the last few years. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, what is intermittent fasting anyways, the average person probably eats food from around 8am to maybe 9pm in form of various meals and snacks. That means you eat for around 13 hours and then eat nothing for about 11 hours. Once you stop eating and your body has processed all the food from your last meal, you will go into a fasted state would probably last around six to seven hours. Intermittent fasting doubles this by having you fast for 16 hours and eat for only eight.
Sundays go even as far as 20 hours fasting and four hours eating. Now what happens when you do this? proponents of the intermittent fasting that will tell you that longer fasting will lower insulin levels, increased testosterone help with cellular repair and gene expression. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Not so fast. The problem with this is that all these changes, even if they actually take place and are made up are so small that they won't make a noticeable difference.
At least that's what a matter study of over 40 studies on intermittent fasting found. The scientists concluded that intermittent fasting is not superior to traditional dieting, and found no significant benefits related to body composition, fat loss, insulin sensitivity, or hormones. This means that much of the marketing done in the name of intermittent fasting is made up or completely exaggerated. That being said, I do believe this dieting approach can make sense for people that fall into one of two categories. First, anyone who doesn't have the time or discipline to eat five or six meals per day, and prefers to eat large amounts of food within a small timeframe. Like I explained in the lesson on meal frequency, it really isn't that important how often you eat what matters is how much you eat and calories and what you eat and macros.
Intermittent fasting takes this to the extreme and hasn't eating large amounts of food within a few hours. If this approach appeals to you, then go ahead and try it. I personally am completely happy with the traditional approach and feel weak when I go several hours without food, but that might be different for you. The second category of people who might benefit from intermittent fasting is anyone who has trouble counting calories. Since you will be consuming most of your food in just a few hours, it will be easier to monitor your calorie intake and stick to a calorie deficit. If you don't allow yourself to eat outside the six hour window, you already eliminated one of the biggest reasons why people don't succeed at dieting, high calorie snacks.
I personally don't have this problem. I have dieted successfully for years. So again, this approach isn't my favorite, but if it fits your lifestyle and preferences, go ahead and give it a try. And this is basically the bottom line for intermittent fasting It's not some amazing cure for all your weight loss and muscle building problems. In fact, if you still consume the same amount of calories and the same macros, you probably won't see any changes. But the stricter approach does help some people to get back on track and simply stick to their diet plan.