Carolyn Hansen: Intermittent fasting for health and weight has benefits

You can choose when to eat - breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner during a 16-hour period. Photo / File

HEALTH BY CHOICE

Without a doubt, we eat too much and move too little. It is estimated that one out of every two people is obese or overweight and millions of people are dying from complications that stem from this truth.

So, any strategy that helps us to eat less often is beneficial for our health and well worth our time.

Like other weight loss beliefs that have proven to be false, the former belief that eating many small meals throughout the day was the key to keeping our metabolism healthy and running at peak performance and our weight stable is being proven wrong and challenged by IF – intermittent fasting.

Fasting itself is nothing new, and the benefits of it are well known. Muscle preservation, reduced blood pressure and cholesterol levels, sharper brain function, higher energy and endorphin levels and extended longevity are all on the list.

Studies prove that intermittent fasting is a powerful approach to eating. An empty stomach is a trigger for hormonal changes that work to build both muscle and burn fat. Because of that, IF is seeing an obvious surge in popularity.

Skipping a meal before exercising is empowering and can be beneficial, research shows. Photo / File

Let's get real. A healthy metabolism is mandatory for everyone but is especially important for those trying to lose excess weight. Unfortunately, recent research suggests that eating many small meals daily is not the key to a healthy metabolism as formally believed, nor will skipping a meal make you fat as once thought.

And, the old wives' tale that exercising on an empty stomach nullifies a workout no longer holds any weight either.

In fact, research reveals just the opposite – skipping a meal before exercising is empowering and can be beneficial because it boosts both your strength and your level of fitness.

About six hours after finishing a meal, the body goes into a fasting state. This causes it to begin breaking down fat and burning off stored sugar, turning it into ketone bodies for fuel.

In other words, your body burns fat rather than sugar for energy. It also means that exercising in a fasted state can literally blast the fat off you.

We already know that exercise helps the body to drive down insulin levels. When you exercise in a fasting state, your body learns how to tap into your readily available fat stores for energy, making you metabolically flexible.

Pair exercising with fasting and you've created metabolic magic.

In fact, one study found that those who exercised while fasting, burned almost 20 per cent more fat than those that filled their stomachs before working out.

It is estimated that one out of every two people is obese or overweight. Photo / File

It's important to understand that intermittent fasting is not a diet and has nothing to do with starvation. You don't restrict your food intake, you restrict your normal eating schedule to a six to eight hour window of time when you're allowed to eat.

The essential idea with IF is to eat just two meals a day. You can choose breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner during a 16-hour fasting period.

When you space out your "eating window" like this, your mind aligns with your body and you know first hand what real hunger feels like.

Real hunger is something you should only experience every 16-24 hours. When you eat several meals daily or graze on snacks throughout the day, your body never gets the chance to get hungry.

Taking a break from eating gives your body a break from digesting which uses up your precious energy, leaving you feeling drained.

When you break from eating, you reserve that energy and it is re-directed to other valuable causes like healing injuries and preventing illness.

The benefits of IF are well-documented and include dropping excess body fat fast, a rebooted immune system, more stable energy levels and slowing down the aging process.

Fasting forces the body to dip into fats stores for fuel, so, if you currently struggle with weight loss, you have everything to gain by adopting IF and switching from three meals a day to two a day within your eating window.

You'll live longer, look better and feel better and you have nothing to lose but excess weight!

Although intermittent fasting has been around for thousands of years, we finally have clinical research proving that IF offers lasting benefits for both health and longevity.

It's the down time the body experiences that balances the up time of energy expenditure. Fasting, gives the body time to cleanse and clear just as sleeping gives the body time to regenerate and heal.

• Carolyn Hansen is co owner of Anytime Fitness.