Since you have decided to fast in order to lose weight, I will not dissuade you, but will tell you how to do everything correctly in order to protect yourself as much as possible and lose a few kilograms.
We will talk about wet fasting, when a person refuses food, but drinks enough water. Dry fasting, in which the intake of any liquid is prohibited, is fraught with serious health problems, and therefore dry fasting cannot be carried out at home. For safety reasons, you should not delay wet fasting. Five to seven days will be enough to lose weight.
What is intermittent fasting
INTERVAL FASTING is a specific nutrition system when food intake is carried out at a strictly designated time. For this technique to bring maximum benefit, it is necessary to perform physical exercises in parallel.
The technique involves several options, but you need to understand that you cannot suddenly switch to this nutritional plan. The volume of foods eaten must be reduced gradually. If you like interval nutrition and want to stick to it for a long time, consultation with a nutritionist is required.
The most popular intermittent fasting scheme: 16/8
♦ The first number indicates the time during which it is necessary to refuse food;
♦ The second number is the time during which the products are allowed to be consumed.
There are programs when you need to give up food for 24 hours a day, provided you drink plenty of fluids, or eat without restrictions for 5 days, and for the next 2 days reduce your calorie intake to a minimum, which you will learn in more detail later...
Nutrition rules
When using intermittent fasting for weight loss, the following conditions must be met:
♦ before fasting, for example, lasting 16 hours, you need to consume a normal amount of calories without restrictions all day;
♦ during fasting, completely eliminate foods and sugar; drink only non-carbonated water, coffee and tea;
♦ after fasting hours, the first food intake should contain a decent amount of calories from slow carbohydrates and protein.
♦ the second meal and so on is reduced; it is especially important in the evening to have dinner with low-fat and mostly light foods.
Harm
During intermittent fasting, the body does not receive nutrients. A deficiency of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other essential elements occurs, causing harm and unpleasant side effects:
- Weakness.
- Headache.
- Dizziness.
- Hungry fainting.
- Increased risk of developing diseases of the digestive system.
- Depression of the nervous system – decreased performance.
- Irritability and bad mood.
To really lose weight, you will have to fast several times. But always with a break for a period of normal, nutritious nutrition. Once finished, you need to adjust your diet to maintain the results.
How does weight loss occur with intermittent fasting?
First of all, according to experts, it is possible to lose 3-8% of your weight in just 21 days. Why this happens is indicated below:
Metabolism accelerates
Thanks to the alternation of time with and without food intake, metabolism, according to the findings of British scientists, accelerates up to 3.6%. As a result, a more accelerated breakdown of lipids occurs in fat reserves, which are converted into energy to fulfill various human needs.
The breakdown of adipose tissue partially compensates for maintaining body temperature at an optimal level, because it may drop slightly due to fasting.
Decreased insulin production
Reducing the amount of food consumed reduces the flow of glucose into the blood and, as a result, insulin production is reduced significantly. The body's response is the reverse secretion of glucose by cells into the blood; with the systematic repetition of this process, body weight gradually begins to decrease.
Low insulin activity cannot fully synthesize fatty acids in the liver and block the breakdown of fatty deposits.
Changes in hormone activity
According to the findings of scientists from Australia, the activity of the hormone norepinephrine decreases from 2 to 10 times. This in turn reduces the concentration of glucose, and to get energy, the body begins to draw it from fat deposits.
In addition, the production of the hormone somatotropin increases up to 5 times, which helps preserve muscle fibers during fasting and activates the destruction of adipocytes (cells consisting mainly of adipose tissue).
The rest of the hormones are also involved, which together activates fat burning.
Suppressing the feeling of hunger
Just starting to use intermittent fasting, the hunger itself is sharply activated, but after 3 days the feeling is no longer so pronounced. This happens due to the fact that glucose passes into the cell and back, as well as due to the improvement of microcirculation in the brain.
After about a week / week and a half, the fasting period begins to be tolerated more or less restrainedly without wild attacks of appetite.
Muscle preservation
Weight loss occurs not only due to fat, but also muscles. According to the latest findings of overseas scientists, periodic fasting (no more than 24 hours without eating) can reduce the loss of muscle mass, so intermittent fasting for women and men is especially important for those who want to have not only a thinner, but also an athletic figure.
Indications
Yoshinori Osumi - fasting (a technique shown in the fight against various diseases and problems), which plays a very important role in the life of every person. All people use preservatives, dyes, breathe polluted air and at the same time accumulate a lot of “garbage”.
The cells themselves can cope with this, but it wouldn’t hurt to help them. That is why it is necessary to carry out such short-term fasting from time to time.
Fasting will be especially useful for those who:
- has an age that exceeds 50 years;
- plans to conceive a baby in the future (to avoid the risk of cerebral palsy);
- falls into a risk group for oncology (due to a hereditary factor);
- suffers from obesity and excess weight, since it is fat cells that accumulate the maximum amount of harmful substances.
The mechanisms of autophagy described by Yoshinori Ohsumi, for which he received the Nobel Prize, are closely related to therapeutic fasting , and his discovery gives hope for a cure for diseases for absolutely everyone and even those who cannot be helped by modern medicine.
Autophagy, as a phenomenon, according to the Japanese scientist, makes it possible to fight cancer pathologies and dementia. It should be noted that this discovery was made in the 60s. It was during this period that scientists did not attach much importance to this phenomenon. Autophagy is the process of utilizing and recycling all waste in the human body.
It is thanks to this mechanism that the cells renew themselves, and also remove toxins and toxic substances from infections that have penetrated from the outside. The process also occurs in the body under stress, when a person is hungry.
Autophagy is a kind of internal program that is concentrated in the body, freeing it from old unnecessary cells, leaving and renewing good ones , thereby rejuvenating the person as a whole. It is thanks to this mechanism that a person is not susceptible to cancer, infections, diabetes and other dangerous diseases, and the immune system becomes much stronger and metabolism improves.
To burn all consumed carbohydrates, the body needs from 8 to 12 hours. This means that fasting must last for at least 24 hours. Despite this, it is worth remembering that fasting for more than 3 days can doom the body to severe stress, since the cells do not receive the necessary mineral elements, which, in turn, will weaken the immune system and lead to a deterioration in the general condition of the body.
Cons of Intermittent Fasting
⇒ together with fat, protein is broken down in muscles, so they build up slowly;
⇒ the risk of stones in the liver and kidneys increases, and diabetics are at risk of hypoglycemic coma;
⇒ along with the breakdown of protein in the muscles, muscle collagen is destroyed;
⇒ Fasting causes a depressed mood, drowsiness, apathy, fatigue or dizziness are possible.
Therefore, if you have the above symptoms, consultation with your doctor is not a favor, but a necessity.
Contraindications
Fasting, even short-term, is not allowed for all categories of patients. Before you start following a technique, you need to study its limitations. Absolute contraindications include:
- lactation;
- rickets;
- exhaustion;
- anorexia;
- reduced BMI;
- open form of tuberculosis;
- disorders of the kidneys and liver;
- age less than 18 years;
- thyrotoxicosis;
- pregnancy;
- oncology;
- diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
Yoshinori Osumi's fasting method also has relative contraindications. These require a separate consultation with a doctor. Such restrictions include:
- gout;
- diabetes;
- taking medications regularly, including oral contraceptives.
Important Tips
To make the weight loss process more effective, you need to remember a number of important tips:
INDIVIDUAL MEAL PLAN. It is necessary to know in advance what will be used and when. A properly formed diet will allow you to lose weight faster and create a more attractive figure. For example, evenly distribute nutritional elements, focusing on the carbohydrate part in the daytime, and proteins in the evening. For vitamins and microelements, you should also not forget.
SETTING ENERGY DEMAND. Using intermittent fasting, there is no prohibition on the number of foods consumed during the period of their intake. However, this does not mean that it is necessary to “fill your belly” to capacity. It is necessary to determine the calorie content that ensures normal working capacity throughout the day.
For example, to lose weight by 1 kg. weight you need to consume: protein - 0.8-1.5 g., carbohydrates 2-4 g., fats 0.8-1 g. The calorie content is 1 g. carbohydrates and proteins 4 kcal., and 1 g. fat 9 kcal.
MONITOR THE HEALTH. It is necessary not only to observe the diet and types of foods consumed, but also how you feel during the fasting process. It is important to listen to your heartbeat, whether your blood pressure is normal, whether your kidneys hurt, whether there is constipation or other health abnormalities.
If during the fasting process you feel a deterioration in your health, this is a “great” reason to end this weight loss method.
SETTING PERSONAL PRIORITIES. Everyone using fasting already knows in advance what he wants. Some want to lose weight and look slimmer, others want to cleanse the body of toxins and waste. Using the scheme just like that, for the sake of experiment, without having a clear goal, will create a high probability of failure even halfway through.
Mechanisms of autography
Osumi has studied the relationship between spiritual practices and fasting for many years.
In the process, he proved that when there is a lack of nutrients, cells begin to self-destruct outdated resources. This is called autophagy. It is the only way to renew cellular structures. The term “autophagy” was introduced into biology back in 1974 before the discovery of Yoshinori Ohsumi.
It was invented by Christian de Duve, who also discovered autophagosomes, a “transport” for delivering cellular structures to lysosomes. The essence of Yoshinori Ohsumi's research is as follows:
- The biologist conducted an experiment on mutated fungi that do not have a protein decomposition mechanism.
- Yoshinori Ohsumi's autograph showed that only cells that did not receive nutrition did not change. Fungi that were in conditions of food shortage began to accumulate autophagosomes and use the resources they already had.
- Yoshinori Ohsumi's discovery is that cells that do not receive nutrients begin to “eat” unnecessary structures within themselves. As a result, during fasting a person does not feel hungry.
- Having studied the processes of autophagy in more detail, the Japanese scientist proved that after the access to food is stopped, the fat layer gradually decreases.
