What Is Intermittent Fasting? Beginner’s Guide to IF

What is intermittent fasting, and should you consider doing it? 

The 16:8 fast is a popular intermittent fasting pattern that triggers profound metabolic changes that can help your body burn fat stores, increase insulin sensitivity, lower blood pressure, and enhance cellular regeneration.   

Learn how to start intermittent fasting and discover why restricting your calorie intake for prolonged periods can unlock your health goals. 

What is intermittent fasting? 

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that alternates between fasting and time-restricted eating periods. 

There are several different types of intermittent fasting patterns:

• The 16:8 intermittent fasting plan involves 16 hours of fasting followed by an eight-hour eating period. 
• The alternate-day fasting plan is characterized by fasting every other day, where you consume no calories or drastically reduce your calories consumed to around 500 to 600 calories.
• The 5:2 fasting approach involves eating normally for five days a week and restricting calorie intake to around 500 to 600 calories on two non-consecutive days.

“Because of its simplicity, many people find the 16:8 eating pattern easy to follow and sustainable in the long run,” explains Dr. Berg. “It’s the most popular intermittent fasting plan and a perfect addition to a keto lifestyle.”  

Watch the video below to learn important intermittent fasting basics for beginners.

Benefits of intermittent fasting

An intermittent fasting eating pattern triggers profound metabolic changes and pushes your liver to convert stored body fat into energy. 

As your body breaks down fats, large amounts of ketones are released. Ketones are a metabolic by-product of fat-burning and a highly-efficient energy source for your cells, tissues, and organs.  

When ketones enter your circulation and start to fuel your cells, you reach a metabolic state known as ketosis. Ketosis doesn’t just support weight loss and help maintain a healthy body weight–it also has impressive benefits for your health and longevity. 

Intermittent fasting works by keeping blood sugar and insulin levels low, which has a wide range of hormonal and metabolic benefits, especially in combination with a low-carb diet like Healthy Keto®. 

Research published in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care found that intermittent fasting can help significantly improve insulin resistance, a metabolic imbalance linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, and excessive abdominal fat, also known as belly fat.¹

Fasting helps with brain health, too! It has shown to improve cognitive function and memory recall.

In addition, there is evidence that continuous calorie restriction triggers autophagy, a cellular process of breaking down and recycling damaged or dysfunctional cellular components. 

While intermittent fasting has many health benefits, it may not be suitable for everyone. 

Individuals with a history of eating disorders, those who struggle to gain weight, and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers should avoid continuous calorie restriction or discuss fasting with a healthcare provider.

How to get started 

The key principle of intermittent fasting is to avoid food and calorie-containing beverages during your fasting period, which forces your metabolism to tap into stored body fat to generate energy. 

If you’re contemplating intermittent fasting for weight loss, the urge to immediately practice prolonged fasts to maximize your results may be strong. However, fasting for too long, too quickly, is the most common mistake when starting intermittent fasting. 

Your metabolism needs time to adapt to fasting. Easing slowly into an intermittent fasting schedule lets your body get used to metabolic and hormonal changes and allows you to tweak your lifestyle to time-restricted eating. 

It’s generally recommended to start with a 14-hour fast followed by a ten-hour eating window, and gradually prolong your fasting periods. While some individuals can achieve a 16:8 fasting pattern within a week or two, others may take a month to reach this goal.

As you extend your fasting periods, you can skip breakfast and cut the number of meals from three to two. This is typically the point when most people see significant changes in their well-being, body weight, and energy levels. 

Another critical aspect of successfully transitioning into an intermittent fasting routine is breaking snack habits. Snacking, even on low-calorie or healthy foods, during your fasting window can break your fast and reduce the metabolic benefits of calorie restriction. 

While it may seem challenging to stay clear of snacks during the early stages of fasting, your hunger sensations and cravings will diminish once your body adapts to burning body fat as a fuel source. 

Tips for intermittent fasting beginners

Intermittent fasting has helped millions of people worldwide to take charge of their well-being, improve a wide range of health issues, and achieve a healthy body weight.

However, reaching your health goals with intermittent fasting requires more than simply restricting your eating times. It’s equally important to consider what you eat. 

Consuming processed foods high in sugar, carbs, and harmful trans fats during your eating window can significantly slow down or even prevent fasting success.

Here are four practical tips for intermittent fasting beginners.

1. Eat nutrient-rich foods   

Limiting meals and eating fewer calories can lead to a lower intake of essential nutrients, and it’s important to consume nutrient-rich foods daily to avoid nutrient deficiencies that may impact your health.  

Combining intermittent fasting with a healthy diet low in carbs, high in healthy fats, and rich in nutritious vegetables, organic dairy, and grass-fed meats is an excellent way to promote optimal nutrition while maintaining fat burning.

2. Drink plenty of fluids and replenish electrolytes while fasting  

Fasting stimulates the depletion of glycogen, which can cause fluid loss and electrolyte imbalances linked to an increased risk of kidney stones. 

Drinking plenty of fluids and replenishing electrolytes while fasting is crucial for fasting success and minimizes side effects such as headaches, lack of energy, and brain fog.

Here are calorie-free drinks that you can enjoy during your fasting window:

• Water
• Black coffee
• Herbal tea 
• Black and green tea 
• Unsweetened flavored seltzer water
• Sparkling water
• Diluted apple cider vinegar

Drinking lemon water is an excellent fasting hack to support kidney function. Lemons are a rich source of acetic acid, a natural acid that stops dietary oxalates from forming calcium oxalate crystals, the leading cause of kidney stones. 

You can also add ginger and cinnamon to your tea or coffee to add extra flavor without breaking your fast. 

In addition, it’s crucial to replenish electrolytes by adding a high-quality electrolyte powder (sugar-free) to your water while fasting. 

Electrolyte imbalances and dehydration are among the most common reasons for keto-flu symptoms and are linked to weakness, lightheadedness, muscle cramps, and headaches. Water fasting isn’t recommended because it can increase your risk of electrolyte imbalance. 

3. Consume enough healthy fats   

Although it may seem counterintuitive, not eating enough fat can slow down weight loss. 

Following a nutritious high-fat diet like Healthy Keto can speed up your body’s adaptation to fasting and amplify the benefits of time-restricted eating.

Restricting carbs and sugars and eating plenty of healthy fats on the keto food list helps to keep your metabolism in fat-burning mode during your eating window. 

Maintaining ketosis enhances the metabolic advantages of fasting, maximizes fat burning, and has been found to significantly improve body composition in overweight adults. 

In addition, eating a high-fat meal before starting your fasting period increases satiety and curbs hunger and cravings, which explains why individuals on a high-fat diet typically achieve longer fasting periods.

4. Bulletproof coffee 

Drinking bulletproof coffee while fasting promotes ketosis and fat burning and can help extend your fasting periods. 

Bulletproof coffee is a keto-friendly beverage containing black coffee, medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), and unsalted butter. Although it’s not calorie-free, bulletproof coffee has no carbs and won’t impact blood sugar or insulin levels, keeping your metabolism in a natural fasting state.

MCTs are a type of fatty acid that’s rapidly converted into ketones, which promotes ketosis and supports steady energy levels during your fasting period. 

Many people who practice intermittent fasting use bulletproof coffee for a welcome caffeine boost while fasting and report that they can fast for more extended periods.  

This anecdotal evidence is backed by science. Research published in Fats and Satiety suggests that MCTs are the most satiating fatty acids and help diminish hunger during periods of continuous energy restriction.²

FAQ

 Sources

1. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wk/cocnm/2016/00000019/00000004/art00011 ?
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53550/ ?