Fasting for Weight Loss Versus Diet Pills and Programs
Posted by admin on Sep 22, 2009
Save your money: Fasting for weight loss makes more sense than diet pills
A sad fact is many people will scoff at fasting to lose weight because of its simplicity and instead spend a small fortune on weight loss pills, potions and programs. However had you ever taken the time to read the small print on any of these diet pills or programs?
Well if you look at the label you will see they come with the caveat “…when combined with a calorie restricted diet.” That’s right; these things don’t even work unless you are first putting your body into a calorie deficit. Essentially what the diet pill manufactures are saying is that if you want to lose weight fast you need to be on a calorie restricted diet.
Of course they like to market them in a way that seems to say “If you take this pill you can and eat all the junk of the day and still lose weight!” The sad thing is, many of us buy into this because it is what we want to believe. Eating is pleasurable and we eat junk food because we enjoy it, these marketers know this and can manipulate our innate human desires to seek pleasure and avoid pain by pitching their product as the fastest easiest way to lose weight.
This advice needs to be on every diet plan or weight loss claim you see as a calorie deficit really is the only true, scientifically proven way to lose weight. The same applies for workout plans but the fact remains that you can slog away in the Gym as much as you want but you will still not lose weight unless you are on a calorie restricted diet!
At the end of the day if you want to lose weight you have to eat less. Fasting is a simple method to help you reduce calories without the complicated calorie counting, calorie shifting methods that are out there. An added benefit is that you can still eat the foods that you enjoy in the eating window as long as you take responsibility and exercise some degree of moderation.
When done correctly intermittent fasting will not only help you look better but there is more and more evidence mounting of it’s ability to improve health factors like blood sugar levels, diabetes risk and even prolong life.
So forget the pills, the potions or the latest diet craze, if you want to lose weight you simply must eat less. fasting for weight loss can help you do this quickly, easily and in as short a time as possible.
Fasting to Lose Weight: 24 Hour Cycles
Posted by admin on Sep 8, 2009
In my efforts to use fasting to lose weight I tried the alternate day feeding method whereby I ate nothing for one whole day then ate the next. This method of intermittent fasting is certainly one of the more difficult.
The reason that this fasting cycle came to prominence is because of the positive benefits that were being observed when this feeding to fasting cycle was used on rats in the lab. Rats that were fed on alternate days showed reduced blood sugar, improved insulin sensitivity, increased HDL levels and lived 30-40% longer than rats that could eat ad libitum.
The difficulty with humans that are fasting to lose weight adopting this eating pattern is that we no not have the same sleep patterns as rats. Most rodents feed t
hroughout each 24 hour period, humans however mainly eat only during the waking hours so if we fast for a day we in fact fast for about 34 hours and have an eating window of 14 hours because we need to factor in the time we are asleep.
After trying this fasting schedule I have to admit I was able to cope with it though I did get very hungry in the even and the temptation to eat was very high. As this was the first time I had fasted for a long time I was motivated by the determination to put my own will power and prove to myself I could do it.
With out that motivation I am unsure if I could adhere to this method of fasting to lose weight for very long. For example today is now my eating day so I am really enjoying the fact I can eat, I am just eating healthy balanced meals and a few snacks here and there when I feel like it, but I have yet to decide if I will start a full 24 hour fast tomorrow! Maybe using this method once or twice a week would be sufficient but I obviously may not lose as much weight.
I know that other people using fasting to lose weight do a shorter cycle in which they start and end their fast on alternate days at 4 or 6pm so this is something I may experiment with also.
