When you talk of fasting here in Nigeria,
the average person believes you are engaged in a spiritual exercise, that you
want to strengthen your spiritual connection to God and are seeking his face and
his guidance. However today I am looking at fasting from the purely physical point
of view, while the spiritual benefits of fasting can never be over emphasized, it’s
the physical that takes my interest today and it’s what I would love to talk to
you about.
Let’s come clean at the beginning and say
most people do not like fasting! Why should you? Who wants to be deprived of
good food, the tastes, aromas and flavours? You must be a masochist or something.
Hang on for a second though, science of late has found some wonderful benefits
of intermittent fasting, benefits that are worth looking into if your goal is
to be stronger and healthier.
When people think about fasting from the
physical point of view, they automatically assume you must be trying to lose
weight. Yes, but fasting is so much more than that, so today I would like you
to come along with me on a journey of discovery to find out what else fasting
can do for you, the reward is worth the trip, I guarantee it!
Thanks, and do have a wonderful weekend!
What is intermittent fasting?
This is simply the process of restricting
your meals to a defined period of time over a certain amount of days, there are
different forms of intermittent fasting; whole day, alternate day and time
restricted fasting. Scientist are of the belief that the benefits of fasts come
from the structured break they give to your normal pattern of round the clock
eating. It is believed that even if you don’t change the content of your diet,
by controlling the time period within which you eat, you give your body rest
from the constant onslaught of food you consumer.
I have experimented with it a bit, and found
out that the window that best suited me and is probably the easiest for most
people is a 16 hour fast. The method: eat dinner at 7pm and eat absolutely nothing
for the next 16 hours i.e. till 11am, whatever other meals should be consumed between
then and 7pm. From there, another 24-hour cycle has begun. Simple and easy isn’t
it? I found that I could easily do it, and in fact ended up not eating lunch
most of the time due to my late breakfast.
Science is still debating and researching the
long-term effects of this fasting, but the short time effects are not in doubt,
I have seen it and am currently experiencing some. According to Carolyn
Williams PhD, a registered dietitian, “By refraining from eating 12 hours (16
is more ideal) your body starts burning glucose and can begin tapping fat for
fuel”. Studies have shown that you can lose between 3 to 8 percent of your
bodyweight in as few as 3 weeks.
Here are some other potential benefits of
intermittent fasting as opposed to a calorie restricted or plain old starvation
diet!
1.
IT MAY HELP MAINTAIN
MUSCLE:
Whenever you restrict your
food intake to lose weight, a good percentage of your weight loss comes from a
reduction in muscle mass, which is generally undesirable. Intermittent fasting
also leads to some muscle loss, but a far lower percentage of muscle loss than
when compared to calorie cutting or starvation dieting.
2.
IT MAY HELP YOU LOSE
BELLY FAT:
I am always careful to
tell people that you cannot exercise to lose fat in a specific body area, the
most desired for men and women being belly fat of course. However, some
research has shown that intermittent fasting was able to reduce waist circumference
and visceral (belly) fat in study subject over a 12-week study.
3.
IT MAY REDUCE DIABETES
RISK:
Studies have shown that
intermittent fasting has the ability to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome
and the markers such as high blood sugar, high abdominal fat content, high
blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels. These can trigger type 2
diabetes, heart disease and stroke, but intermittent fasting has been shown to
lower all these markers.
4.
IT CAN HELP FIGHT
INFLAMMATION:
Inflammation is actually your body’s way of fighting off infection,
sickness and injury, but at times inflammation can be a bad thing, this is
chronic Inflammation that can trigger heart disease and diabetes. Smoking, high
mental stress and a diet high in fatty, fried or sugary foods can lead to
chronic inflammation. Several studies have shown that intermittent fasting may
induce an anti- inflammatory effect that reduces the risk of those metabolic
diseases and as a bonus can even reduce the symptoms and effects of asthma!
5.
IT CAN HELP REDUCE
OXIDATIVE STRESS:
Oxidative stress produces free radicals and this can lead to
cellular aging and damage in your body, research has found that intermittent
fasting has the ability to reduce these effects on your body. As a bonus
benefit, intermittent fasting can also protect the brain from memory disorders
and depression.
6.
IT CAN HELP YOU LIVE
LONGER:
Tests on rodents have confirmed what scientist have long suspected,
that intermittent fasting can help prolong life, fasting from time to time like
I said earlier can reduce the effects of cellular damage by free radicals. In lab
tests on mice, a group was put on intermittent fasts and the second group fed
normally, the group that fasted were observed to live 83% longer than the well-fed
group.
There you are people, my take on intermittent fasting and all the
good it can do you. I have to say personally that all this excites me because I
started an intermittent fast program myself about 2 weeks ago with just the sole
purpose of losing the extra weight I gained in the last few months and over the
Christmas holidays, I never knew it had more benefits, so I’m going to stick to
it till at least the end March and see where it takes me. Folks its not too
late, join me on this train and let’s see if there is a pot of gold at the end
of this fasting rainbow!
Thanks,
and do have a wonderful weekend!
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