This Is Your Body On Intermittent Fasting
It’s no surprise that intermittent fasting is one of the most popular types of eating plans. You don’t need to measure out food or buy any prepackaged shakes. There are no required weigh-ins or calorie counting. All you really have to do is not eat during certain hours. It’s pretty simple.
There are different ways to go about it, of course. Most people do the 16:8 diet, in which you fast for 16 hours and then eat within an eight-hour window. There’s also the 5:2 diet, where you drastically cut back on calories just two days a week, and there are 24-hour fasts, where you don’t eat anything one day each month.
Regardless of the method, significantly restricting when you eat can throw your body for a loop and cause a handful of odd side effects. Intermittent fasting may not be suitable for everyone. (People with a history of disordered eating, for example, should definitely avoid it.)
It’s important to know what to expect before you jump into any new eating habit. Here’s what happens to you — mentally, physically and emotionally — when you’re fasting intermittently.
You might lose weight.
Many health experts, including personal trainer Jillian Michaels, say that intermittent fasting actually isn’t that great for weight loss. That’s because you’re not necessarily eating less or cutting back on calories. There are just longer gaps in your day when you’re not eating at all.
That said, many people do lose weight because they consume fewer calories during those restricted food hours.
Eating for only eight hours a day also makes it less likely that you’re having a big meal right before bedtime. Our metabolism goes down when we sleep and we burn fewer calories. Nighttime eating has been linked to both obesity and diabetes.
Intermittent fasting “really does keep you from doing some really bad things, which is to eat a big meal before you go to bed,” said Dr. John Morton, a bariatric surgeon with Yale Medicine. Big meals before bed are...
