Intermittent fasting is an ancient
technique that’s only recently come to light in modern Western culture.
Fasting, as you may know, is when you abstain from eating altogether for
a certain period of time. With intermittent fasting you can fast for
just 24 hours and begin to lose weight and body fat without changing any
other part of your diet.
#1: Easily Cuts Calories
When you intermittently fast for just 24
hours at a time you will cut your calorie intake significantly while
still being able to eat what you like at any other time. Like you
probably already know, cutting calories (or burning calories) is the key
to overall weight loss. It doesn’t matter how much you work out, if
you’re still consuming more calories than your body burns in a day
you’ll never lose weight. Fasting for short periods of time makes it
easy to set aside some time each week (or month) that you will not eat,
eliminating all those extra calories.
Let’s face it, it takes about 4,000
calories to lose one pound of fat. Walking a mile burns approximately
100 calories, give or take. This means it would take 40 miles of walking
to burn a pound of fat. That’s longer than a marathon. Alternatively,
you could fast for 24 hours twice and eliminate 4,000 calories you would
have eaten those days. Would you rather run a marathon or skip eating
once a week? You can further amplify your results by eating healthier on
days you don’t fast as well as incorporating some metabolism boosting
exercises.
#2: Easy to Follow
Intermittent fasting is great because
it’s a lot easier to stick to than most diets are. Most diets restrict
what you eat every single day. Eventually, all your old cravings will
surface and you’ll give in to temptation no matter how strong your will
is. Fasting allows you to eat what you want most of the time then allows
your body some time off which can improve your health greatly. It’s as
simple as setting a schedule you feel you will be able to fast and then
sticking to it.
The problem with most diets is that
they’re extremely difficult to stick to for longer than a week or two.
Eventually we get sick of the limited number of foods we’ve been eating
and turn to all our old favorites once again. When you fast
intermittently you can still enjoy all of your favorite foods just as
you always have and still lose body weight and body fat.
#3: Diet Freedom
When you’re not fasting you can eat
whatever you would normally eat. This isn’t to say you should go
overboard though. If you binge every chance you get when not fasting you
certainly won’t lose weight. The best part is that you can control what
you want to eat and when. Eat healthy some days, pizza the other days.
If you change nothing else about your diet other than fasting one or two
days a week you are going to lose weight, period.
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