Benefits of Intermittent Fasting & The top two protocols for fat loss

I am sure you've heard of itMany of you've tried itA lot of you have given it up tooAnd a lot of you have been successful with it.If you're still guessing about what it is, then I am talking about Intermittent fasting – the dieting method that has been touted as the best fat loss and weight management program ever.So what is it and how do you go about beginning the coveted Intermittent Fasting diet plan?

  What is Intermittent Fasting?   Fasting is simply defined as the prolonged break you take between two meals. This can means abstinence from food and drinks. Repeating this fast regularly is called Intermittent Fasting.   

How does Intermittent Fasting work?   There are multiple protocols of Intermittent Fasting. The most famous are the 24 hour fast propagated by Brad Pilon and the 16/8 fast, aka Leangains Plan, propagated by Martin Berkhan. While they both offer fat loss and weight management great benefits, the 24-hour fast is seen as useful more from a health and wellness perspective while the 16/8 fast is seen purely as a tool for building muscle and getting ripped simultaneously.  

How to ensure success in your intermittent fasting journey?  If Fat loss and weight reduction are your goals, then for any diet plan to work you must ensure you have complete control on your body's insulin production. This can be achieved through two methods:

1. Fasting to drop the insulin levels 
2. Carb cycling – prolonged period of reduced or zero carb followed by limited time for carb loading

  Fasting Fasting helps reduce all the insulin in the body. As your fasted period grows and crosses the 12 hour mark, the amount of insulin in the blood drops dramatically. Now the drop in insulin gives rise to another set of hormonal reactions – release of glucagon and growth hormone.  Glucagon is the mirror image of insulin, it aides in the release and utilization of body fat as fuel. It also plays a role in assimilation of protein within the body.  Growth Hormone, as the name suggests, is a hormone that promotes lean tissue repair and replacement. It also aides in fat loss by increasing the utilization of body fat as fuel.    Carb CyclingLike fasting, carb cycling will also give you the benefits of reduced insulin and increased Glucagon and growth hormone. You can keep your carb intake dramatically low, below 30 grams per day for 5 straight days in a week and then follow it up with two continuous days of heavy carb intake.    So, you might think that you don't need to fast if you can get the benefits of fasting simply by using a carb cycling meal plan. Well, while it isn't a bad idea, intermittent fasting isn't devoid of certain benefits that belong exclusively to Intermittent Fasting. These benefits are:   

1. Improved Health and wellness – Intermittent Fasting gives your digestive systems rest from the daily grind of ingestion, digestion, assimilation and excretion of food. 
2. Elimination of Toxins from the body – The liver and kidneys cannot eliminate all the toxic waste that you consume through food when they are continuously called in to for their digestive duties. This break from regular eating lets them carry out the task of spring cleaning the body and eliminating toxic wastes.
3. Reduced triglycerides in the body - The body stores fat in the adipose tissue in the form of triglycerides.  In the absence of glucose, the reduced insulin levels cause a spike in the hormone Glucagon. Glucagon performs the function of maintaining 
4. The process of fasting allows autophagy and thus slows down ageing – Autophagy in simpler terms means cleansing, repair of damaged cells and reproduction of dead cells. This in turn improves our body's efficiency in handling our daily tasks like digestion, assimilation, excretion and body fat management. It is the breakdown of our cells that accelerates the onset of ageing. 
5. Increased Longevity - Studies have linked fasting to increased lifespans of test subjects. The theory states that the above benefits lead to enhanced health and this in turn leads to improved longevity. 

  How to use intermittent fasting and carb cycling to your best advantage?   The 16/8 leangains plan is the best example of how to use intermittent fasting and carb cycling for best results. The protocol is and its details can be found in Martin Berkhan's blog in the post titled SURE FIRE FAT LOSS.   However, if the 16/8 protocol is not for you, for reasons best known to you, then you can use the 24 hour fast to reap the same benefits. However, you'd need to have an understanding of how carb cycling works here. Stay tuned to my blog for more updates coming your way about carb cycling with the 24-hour fast.

Source : articlesbase.com