You probably already practice intermittent fasting although you may not realize it. Learn about intermittent fasting and its many health benefits.
Intermittent fasting is not a new fad. The old-timers would wake up in the morning and go out to do barn chores. Then they would come back in to have a hearty breakfast before going to the fields or to other strenuous chores. They broke the fast later in the morning than most of us do today.
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting simply means you do not eat for a certain period of time. Popular cycles or routines of intermittent fasting are the every other day, the 16:8, and 5:2 methods.
For most of us, it’s 10-12 hours between our supper meal and breakfast. This is where breakfast got its name, break (the) fast.
Since we began intermittent fasting on a daily basis, we’ve seen many health benefits. We use the 16:8 method. This means we fast for 16 hours then we eat whatever we want of what God has blessed us with for the next eight hours.
We usually eat something light around the 16th hour and then have one big meal around 3-4 PM. From the time we finish our meal until at least the 16 hours have passed, we don’t eat.
We’re not denying ourselves. We simply aren’t hungry. Oftentimes, it’s 18-20 hours before we feel hungry.
What We’ve Gained from Intermittent Fasting
We first began intermittent fasting as part of our efforts to lose weight. It has helped us shed some of the weight stress and comfort eating had put on us.
For me, it’s helping me lose the stubborn menopause weight I was struggling to shed. I also started intermittent fasting to break insulin resistance in my body. Diabetes runs in my family, and I was beginning to see my blood sugars rising.
I was also experiencing early stages of high blood pressure. By implementing intermittent fasting, which helps in weight loss, blood sugar management, and hormone issues, my blood sugars are back to normal and I have no issue with high blood pressure.
I believe intermittent fasting, in addition to removing processed foods, decreasing our sugar intake, and switching to Einkorn wheat flour, created the perfect balance for our bodies to deal with our health issues.
We want to share this information with you and what we’ve learned so you can make an informed decision whether to implement intermittent fasting to manage your health.
Studies on Intermittent Fasting Benefits
Many studies have been done recently to find and correlate the pros or cons of intermittent fasting. Some of the studies have shown the benefits to include:
- Improved fat burning leading to weight loss
- Reduced risk of cancer
- Balanced hormone levels
- Healthy cholesterol levels
- Improved body composition
- Blood sugar regulation
- Decreased risk of heart disease
- Increased activation of stem cells
100 years ago, an early “fast-breaking” meal was reserved for the very young, very old, and very ill.
“Breakfast was seen as medicinal,” BBC History’s Ian Mortimer writes. “People might be prescribed ‘a breakfast of…’ as a means to sustain them in illness or old age.”
We’ve learned a lot by experience, but we’ve also learned from Dr. Berg. If you are interested in implementing intermittent fasting, I recommend you watch this video from DR Berg. He does an excellent job introducing the subject in an easy-to-understand, concise, informative way.
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