Intermittent Fasting: Defying Weight Gain Cycles

Intermittent fasting has become a popular health and fitness trend in recent years. It involves alternating cycles of fasting and eating. Many people use intermittent fasting to lose weight, improve their health and simplify their lifestyles. However, a common question that arises is: “If the human body gains weight when you go through a cycle of starving and then binge eating because it wants to store fat in preparation for a period without food, why doesn’t this happen to people who practice intermittent fasting?” This article aims to answer this question and provide a comprehensive understanding of intermittent fasting and its impact on weight gain cycles.

Understanding Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is not a diet, but rather a dieting pattern. It’s a way of scheduling your meals so that you get the most out of them. Intermittent fasting doesn’t change what you eat, it changes when you eat. The most common methods involve daily 16-hour fasts or fasting for 24 hours, twice per week.

Intermittent Fasting and Weight Gain Cycles

When you eat, your body spends a few hours processing the food, burning what it can from what you just consumed. Because it has all of this readily-available, easy to burn energy in its blood stream (thanks to the food you ate), your body will choose to use that as energy rather than the fat you have stored. This is especially true if you just consumed carbohydrates/sugar, as your body prefers to burn sugar as energy before any other source.

Why Intermittent Fasting Doesn’t Lead to Weight Gain

During the fasting period, your body doesn’t have a recently consumed meal to use as energy, so it is more likely to pull from the fat stored in your body, rather than the glucose in your blood stream or glycogen in your muscles/liver. This is the key to weight loss. By changing the timing of when you eat and when you fast, you can push your body to use stored fat as fuel.

Intermittent Fasting vs Starvation

It’s important to differentiate between intermittent fasting and starvation. Starvation is the involuntary absence of food, while intermittent fasting is a voluntary withholding of food for health, spiritual or other reasons. When you starve, your body goes into a mode where it starts storing fat, anticipating a long period without food. However, with intermittent fasting, the body is prepared for the fasting periods and thus, doesn’t go into the same survival mode.

Conclusion

Intermittent fasting is a powerful approach to eating that is becoming very popular because it can help you lose weight while improving your health. It’s not a diet, but more of a lifestyle choice that can lead to sustainable weight loss and improved metabolic health. As always, it’s important to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new diet or fitness regimen.