Keeping up with the latest health and fitness trends can be as irksome as Keeping Up With The Kardashians. How do you choose which is best for you? Which ones provide results and which are just fads?
Intermittent fasting is fast becoming a buzzword. What started out as a minor, almost religious cult is slowly but surely going mainstream.
But with great popularity comes great misconceptions – something nutrition coach and author of New York Times best-seller Genius Foods, Max Lugavere, has made a career out of exposing.
Enter: Max’s recent Instagram post, in which he reveals the truth about intermittent fasting to his followers, explaining that placing a focus on when you eat, rather than what you eat, can not only aid with weight-loss but can also benefit your mental wellbeing.
He also points out, though that it’s not all good, and delves into some of the common pitfalls of skipping breakfast intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting can, by definition, have various meanings. Max says it’s more of a “blanket term”, that can either mean “skipping early breakfasts and eating an earlier dinner”, for example, waiting a couple of hours to have breakfast after you wake up and having your last meal around three hours before you go to bed.
He adds the term can also “mean monthly consecutive low-calorie days deliberately and cautiously calibrated to prevent malnutrition.”
View this post on Instagram
He stresses that the diet isn’t a “magic” method for weight-loss, although of course, by restricting the amount of food you eat, you will soon see the pounds drop off. However, this can only be achieved by keeping an eye on the foods and the amount of food you eat during feeding times. There’s no point in not eating for 16 hours, only to gorge on burgers, chocolate and fizzy drinks in the eight hour feeding period, as wonderful as it sounds.
View this post on Instagram
The 16-8 method is one of the more popular fasting models, whereby you eat during an 8-hour window and fast for 16 hours.
RELATED: Everything You Need To Know About Intermittent Fasting In 5 Minutes
Aside from seeing more favourable numbers on the scales, Healthline adds that intermittent fasting can also positively affect your sleep (both longevity and quality) metabolism and, contrary to what you’d believe, can support muscle growth. There’s even research to suggest it can reduce your risk of getting, and potentially even prevent, cancer.
So, next time you head into the kitchen, consider grabbing yourself a glass of water and leave the food in the fridge. Your mind and body will thank you.