Ever since we as humans got into the concept of dieting to lose
weight, there have been literally dozens of different ways to approach
weight loss. It seems like almost everyone has an angle, be it high carb
or low carb diets, fat-free or healthy fats, and on and on it goes.
Some so-called experts claim their diet works for everyone, and then some other expert comes along and advocates something totally opposite. Clearly it can get very confusing.
But probably the one thing that holds true for any diet to work could be broken down into one word: compliance. Most diets will work, at least to some degree, if the person doing the dieting can keep to it on a regular and long term basis. And I suppose I should add, with the caveat that the diet truly is going to keep the person healthy and strong.
So perhaps the first thing that we should take in consideration with the diet is to choose one we can we live with. With the high amounts of wonderful food that we have available to us now, it is rather difficult just to stop eating. But if we could indulge in those foods we love, provided they are healthy, but then "postpone" eating those foods, maybe that is the best way to lose weight.
That's where we get into fasting. The concept of going for periods of time of near famine conditions and then give the body large quantities of nourishment has been part of the human way for dieting for most of our existence, at least until recently when food for most people on earth has become more abundant. It could be the fact that the human body is really hardwired for this sort of diet. So perhaps if we could use some concepts for fasting, as long as they were healthy, it might be a way for us who love food to get our way without putting on enormous quantities of weight.
Many health experts are now getting into fasting as perhaps the best answer for weight loss. There are a couple of main categories for fasting that people should look at, and both if done in the right way could be at a very good option for many people.
1. Intermittent fasting. This is where you limit the food you eat during a day into a 6 to 8 hour window.
2. Alternate day fasting. There are a few variations of this. One is where a person will fast the entire day, only drinking water. This might be done a couple of times a week, and then you would eat your normal diet during the other days. This for most people is quite harsh, so another alternative is to eat one meal during that fast day of perhaps 500 cal.
It has been found that the compliance for this type of fasting is the highest. Some have tried during their fasting days to spread the 500 calorie meal into a few small meals spread throughout the day, but this only seems to encourage cheating.
Fasting does seem to have a lot of promise for many people because it makes the body reset itself, encouraging it to burn more fat from storage. Similar to exercising the body, when the person does routines over and over every day the body adjusts and workout results diminish. With fasting we push the body into a fat burning mode and then, prior to going into starvation mode (which is longer than two days) we provided it nourishment. In a subsequent post I would like to get more into this, but I think it's an interesting concept that people who really want to lose weight should look into.
Some so-called experts claim their diet works for everyone, and then some other expert comes along and advocates something totally opposite. Clearly it can get very confusing.
But probably the one thing that holds true for any diet to work could be broken down into one word: compliance. Most diets will work, at least to some degree, if the person doing the dieting can keep to it on a regular and long term basis. And I suppose I should add, with the caveat that the diet truly is going to keep the person healthy and strong.
So perhaps the first thing that we should take in consideration with the diet is to choose one we can we live with. With the high amounts of wonderful food that we have available to us now, it is rather difficult just to stop eating. But if we could indulge in those foods we love, provided they are healthy, but then "postpone" eating those foods, maybe that is the best way to lose weight.
That's where we get into fasting. The concept of going for periods of time of near famine conditions and then give the body large quantities of nourishment has been part of the human way for dieting for most of our existence, at least until recently when food for most people on earth has become more abundant. It could be the fact that the human body is really hardwired for this sort of diet. So perhaps if we could use some concepts for fasting, as long as they were healthy, it might be a way for us who love food to get our way without putting on enormous quantities of weight.
Many health experts are now getting into fasting as perhaps the best answer for weight loss. There are a couple of main categories for fasting that people should look at, and both if done in the right way could be at a very good option for many people.
1. Intermittent fasting. This is where you limit the food you eat during a day into a 6 to 8 hour window.
2. Alternate day fasting. There are a few variations of this. One is where a person will fast the entire day, only drinking water. This might be done a couple of times a week, and then you would eat your normal diet during the other days. This for most people is quite harsh, so another alternative is to eat one meal during that fast day of perhaps 500 cal.
It has been found that the compliance for this type of fasting is the highest. Some have tried during their fasting days to spread the 500 calorie meal into a few small meals spread throughout the day, but this only seems to encourage cheating.
Fasting does seem to have a lot of promise for many people because it makes the body reset itself, encouraging it to burn more fat from storage. Similar to exercising the body, when the person does routines over and over every day the body adjusts and workout results diminish. With fasting we push the body into a fat burning mode and then, prior to going into starvation mode (which is longer than two days) we provided it nourishment. In a subsequent post I would like to get more into this, but I think it's an interesting concept that people who really want to lose weight should look into.
