This article gives an overview of Intermittent Fasting and does not cover any dietary protocols.
For any efficient diet plan, there are two key things:
For any efficient diet plan, there are two key things:
- What to eat
- When to eat
| When to eat is as important as what to eat. |
I’m a propagandist of the ketogenic diet. Well, first of all, it’s not a diet at all. It’s what the human body is meant to consume or in other words the most standard way of eating for a human. Anyway, I’m keeping ketosis out of this article and focusing just on intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting is not a diet plan but a pattern of eating. It gives you an idea of when to eat but no idea of what to eat. It highlights the fact that in any diet plan, equal importance should be given to what to eat and when to eat.
Intermittent fasting may have the following benefits:
- Increase in metabolic rate
- Fat loss resulting in weight loss
- Lowering insulin resistance and helping manage blood sugar
| Benefits of Intermittent Fasting. |
Working:
As mentioned in my previous article, the prime cause of Type 2 diabetes is prolonged insulin spikes eventually, leading to cellular resistance to insulin. Eating a carbohydrate-richmeal every few hours will keep your insulin levels high (to clear the blood glucose levels). It will never let the body use fat for energy production as there is more than enough of glucose already present in the blood. Glucose is stored as glycogen in the human body. Excess glucose is stored as adipose tissue or fat. Once the glycogen stores are depleted, the body kicks in several mechanisms to initiate burning fat for energy production. In intermittent fasting, we deliberately deplete the body of its glycogen stores and force it to tap into its fat stores for energy production. It is done by having calculated gaps between two meals. Over a period, there is a noticeable fat loss which results in weight loss.
Success factor:
The key to successfulintermittent fasting is a continuationfor a prolonged period (at least four months or more) to see significant drops in fat percentage. For most people, sustaining for more extended periods is the biggest challenge. Also, with each day, you should graduate to a more challenging pattern of eating. For example, if you are consuming two meals and one snack a day, you should steadily graduate to one meal and one snack a day ultimately fasting every alternate day. Of course, you still need to maintain micronutrient dosage and enough of first-class protein in your diet depending on your lifestyle and other factors.
The best approach:
If you can combine intermittent fasting with the Ketogenic diet and weight training & cardio, I guarantee, the results will be phenomenal. The Ketogenic diet + intermittent fasting + weight training & cardio are the ultimate combos for fat loss and muscle gain. Again, a ketogenic diet needs to be efficiently planned considering your macronutrient supply.
If you are going to combine intermittent fasting with the ketogenic diet, it’s recommended to go on a ketogenic diet first and get fat adapted before starting with intermittent fasting. It will help maintain stable energy levels and reducing hunger cravings. No doubt, intermittent fasting will give you results, but ideally, when it comes to diet, I would recommend changes in diet as cake and intermittent fasting as icing over the cake.
To conclude, intermittent fasting is just a pattern of eating and not a diet plan. It needs to be combined with a ketogenic diet plan after being fat adapted.
-Akshay Ankalikar
