Intermittent fasting is not a diet, it is a meal timing plan.
What you’re doing is focusing on a specific period of time in which you’re abstaining from food and a set time when you consume all your calories.
So if you’re already on some type of diet plan, you can try doing it with intermittent fasting for better results.
While there are several versions, the easiest to start with and perhaps the most popular version is the 16-8 schedule.
Basically, you fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour period of eating and you’ll do that every single day and a couple of days a week after you hit your goal.
During your fasting window, you can only have water, herbal teas and black coffee (contains caffeine which is a natural appetite suppressant) without creamers or honey or sweeteners.
Artificial zero calorie sweeteners can still trigger an insulin spike which can screw up your fast because of the body’s metabolic response to it.
We don’t want to focus on calories but the science behind weight loss is still calories in versus calories out, so make sure you’re not overeating during your feeding window.
Avoid processed food and refined sugars. Read your packaged food labels and stay away from the ones that contain high fructose corn syrup and sucrose.
Opt for food items that have low glycemic index like brown rice, unripe plantain and beans because they release glucose slowly into your bloodstream so that your body doesn’t demand too much insulin secretion at once.
Increase consumption of natural unprocessed fats like avocados, nuts and olive oil which stimulate insulin the least.
Trust me, fat is not the enemy, just know that they are calorie dense so you have to be careful with your portions.
Consume higher fiber meals prior to your fasting window. if you’re going to be fasting from 8pm to 12noon, you should eat foods that are high in fiber like vegetables when you have dinner by 7pm – 8pm.
What this does is it allows you stay satiated for a longer period of time.
You can drink alcohol in moderation during your feeding window.
It’s best if you can avoid it but if not, avoid dessert wines and cocktails because they’re usually packed with sugar.
Red wine is the best type to have.
When should you workout while intermittent fasting? It can be during or after your fasting window but for better weight loss results, I’d recommend working out within your fasting window.
A study published by the journal of physiology recorded that when you workout in a fasted state, you burn significantly more fat because the body takes little bits of fat from the muscles to the bloodstream and burns them for fuel while you workout.
Please talk to your doctor if you’re taking medications for type one or two diabetes because your blood sugar levels will reduce when you’re fasting and if you’re already taking medications to regulate blood sugar on top of that, it may get too low and that’s a potentially dangerous situation.
Arinola Odunuga
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