whenDoes Intermittent Fasting Boost Your Metabolism, This is a simple question that we generally come across. Before knowing the relationship between intermittent fasting and metabolism, it is important to know what basically intermittent fasting means.
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you consume food in a restricted time period and then you fast the rest of the day. Now fasting period need not be completely devoid of food intake. Here you can have low-calorie foods or low-calorie beverages (black tea, black coffee, green tea, lime juice, club soda) so that you stay hydrated.
There is no hard and fast rule that you have to follow intermittent fasting. There are different types of intermittent fasting where the eating and fasting period differs. The popular ones are the 16:8 and 5:2 patterns.
16:8 means 16 hours of fasting window and 8 hours of eating window. You can have low-calorie foods in the fasting period. The benefit of this method is due to restriction in the eating hours there is no excess calorie intake promoting weight loss.
5:2 pattern consists of eating normally for 5 days of the week and having a 500 calorie meal for the remaining 2 days. You can follow this pattern to maintain calorie consumption throughout the week and aid in weight loss.
How does intermittent fasting boost your metabolism:
When your body is in the fasting period, that time it uses the stored resources (fats) for energy. When your body burns up fat for energy you will definitely see fat loss. As energy metabolism gets changed from carbs to fat your weight loss is quicker when compared to a normal diet. So compared to traditional dieting, intermittent fasting is more effective for you.
Apart from that, many hormones play a key role during fasting to boost the metabolism. The important ones are insulin, growth hormone, and norepinephrine. There work in combination to aid fat loss and boost metabolism.
Insulin is one of the main hormones which tells your body how to use fat. It helps by converting excess carbs into fat and storing it for later on. So during intermittent fasting, as the carbohydrates are not available for energy, the insulin level drops.
The drop in insulin levels triggers the brain to increase the production of growth hormones. Due to excess growth hormone, the burning of fat for energy will get initiated. Another hormone that gets activated is norepinephrine which triggers the fat cells to release fatty acids so that the body can use it for energy.
All of these processes happen during the fasting period of intermittent fasting, hence intermittent basically improves the metabolism by initiating the hormonal action and aiding the fat metabolism.
Points to remember:
- Though fasting improves metabolism, never do excess fasting as the body might enter starvation mode. During starvation, the body will start using protein and there might be muscle loss.
- Excess calorie deficiency is not good in the diet as the body will go into a negative energy balance. The calorie requirement you can calculate as per your physical activity.
- Make sure you keep yourself hydrated during the fasting period. The body will be losing electrolytes due to a change in energy metabolism so drink water.
- Always seek the guidance of a nutrition expert for better results and low risk.
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