Follow
Fasting is known to have many benefits on our bodies, even if there have been debates on the issue. Many people are interested in losing weight and they found intermittent fasting might be effective.
However, there are other benefits to fasting apart from weight loss. These include reduced cholesterol, lower blood pressure and fewer risks of premature ageing.
One of the most popular intermittent fasting diets is the 5:2 Fast Diet. This involves eating a certain amount of calories for five days straight and then reduce the calorie intake to 500 calories for women and 600 for men.
There are many variations to this diet. One of them, called the Fast Mimicking Diet, says that you have to eat normally for 25 days a month and then eat 1090 calories in a day. The calories must be distributed into 10 percent protein, 34 percent carbohydrates and 56 percent fat.
Afterwards, in the following four days, you can only eat 725 calories distributed into 9 percent protein, 47 percent carbohydrates and 44 percent fat.
Some experts say that this diet is more efficient than the first one and the study funded by the National Institute of Aging and published in the journal Cell Metabolism revealed that the participants had lower risk factors for various diseases with no or very little side effects.
Whatever your fasting diet of choice, experts say that your body can draw various benefits from it.
First of all, it can lead to the much desired weight loss. Because fasting does not allow the body to draw its energy from food, it uses the glucose deposits found in muscles and liver and afterwards it starts burning fat as an energy source.
Secondly, burning fat leads to a better preservation of the muscles and better cholesterol levels in our body.
Thirdly, a detoxification process takes place once the toxins found in fat are eliminated from the body. It was also said that the longer people fast, the better it is for our immune cells, because it allows them to regenerate.
“When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged,” said Dr. Valter Longo, from the University of Southern California, L.A., who is the lead author of a study on fasting published in the Cell Stem Cell.
However, there are also experts who argue the efficiency of such diets , saying that they might trigger eating disorders or have people eat less balanced diets afterwards.
At the same time, there are people who should steer clear of fasting. These include children, pregnant women, people who are underweight or people who need to recover from a surgery.
Therefore, if you want to give it a try, make sure you get all your information straight and have a doctor’s approval.
Image Source: yourweightlossaid.com
