Ask the RD: Is Intermittent Fasting Really Helpful For Weight Loss?

This is how intermittent fasting can affect your mood

This is how intermittent fasting can affect your mood

If you’ve ever given intermittent fasting a shot, you’re likely familiar with some of the benefits of time-restricted eating after you’ve been doing it for a while: Better sleep, improved energy, and more balanced blood sugar levels. So this means you should feel like you’re walking on sunshine and rainbows, right? Well, not exactly. Here, women across the country get candid about how IF has affected their mood, from the start and also months in, and Beth Westie, DC, a women’s health expert and author of the book The Female Fat Solution: Achieving Lasting Weight Loss By Getting Your Hormones To Work For You explains the why behind it all. Keep reading for everything you need to know about how intermittent fasting affects mood. The first few weeks can make you, well, moody First things first: It’s important to know that…

How a 3-Day Fast Resets Your Immune System

How a 3-Day Fast Resets Your Immune System

The benefits of fasting are many and various. Fasting supports good health by promoting a healthy body weight, encouraging normal cognitive function, and even facilitating detoxification. Now, research has also shown that fasting may help reset the immune system. How Does Fasting Reset the Immune System? Like every other system in the body, the immune system is subject to wear and tear. Aging, aggressive medical therapies, oxidative stress, environmental toxins, and the like can all accelerate the degradation of immune cells.[1, 2, 3] When immune cells are weak and frail, they’re not as effective as they should be in protecting your health. This is where fasting can help. When you fast, your body looks for nourishment everywhere it can. It goes after stored fat, but it also recycles malfunctioning or inactive cells, like those old, worn out immune system cells.[4] This cell recycling process,…

How to Fast Safely: Considerations Before Starting a Fast

How to Fast Safely: Considerations Before Starting a Fast

If you haven’t done the research, you might find yourself wondering if fasting is safe. You may have heard from people who’ve never even tried it that it’s crazy, dangerous, or just pointless. And yet, for thousands of years, many cultures have embraced fasting wholeheartedly. This ancient practice leads to numerous health benefits for most people—when done correctly. That said, fasting is not for everyone. Even compulsory religious fasting excuses the sick, the young, and the elderly for their safety. For some people, certain health conditions make fasting inadvisable. Of course, there are many ways to plan and prepare to ensure that you fast as safely as possible. Read on to find out if fasting is right for you and what you should consider before beginning a fast Who Should Avoid Fasting? You should only fast if you’re generally healthy….

What Is Alternate Day Fasting?

The Fasting Diet: Tips for a Successful Fast

The Fasting Diet: Tips for a Successful Fast

A fasting diet is a nutritional therapy involving either full or partial caloric restriction. It can be a challenge if you embark on one unprepared and unaware. There are many ways you can prepare yourself for a fast. In this article, I’ll give you the tips and tricks that’ll help you successfully reach your fasting goals such as healthy habits, nutrition, and hunger management. Make things easy on yourself from the very beginning. First, make sure you do your research into fasting, especially if you’re aiming for a specific health benefit. Not all fasts have the same results, so choose your fast carefully to achieve your goals. Before embarking on your fast, speak with your trusted health care provider about your plans. They’ll be able to advise you if any medications or supplements you take will need to…

Intermittent fasting could help tackle diabetes – here’s the science

Intermittent fasting could help tackle diabetes – here’s the science

Intermittent fasting is currently all the rage. But don’t be fooled: it’s much more than just the latest fad. Recent studies of this kind of fasting – with restricted eating part of the time, but not all of the time – have produced a number of successes, but the latest involving diabetes might be the most impressive yet. The idea of intermittent fasting arose after scientists were wowed by the effects of constant calorie restriction. A number of studies in many different animals have shown that restricted eating throughout adulthood leads to dramatic improvements in lifespan and general health. The reasons for these improvements aren’t yet clear. Part of it seems to be that going without food gives cells in the body a much needed break to perform maintenance and repair. But the lack of food also forces cells to resort…

FASTING DIETS ARE NO BETTER FOR WEIGHT LOSS

FASTING DIETS ARE NO BETTER FOR WEIGHT LOSS

In almost all workplace lunchrooms someone is busy munching on a few celery sticks. Chances are today is a fasting day. The theory is that several, alternate fasting days during the week (eating less than 500 kcal) will make it easier and quicker to lose weight. The scientific evidence suggests otherwise. Fifty dieters were asked to follow a “fasting” diet strategy restricting energy on ever second day and then allowing normal eating habits on the alternate day. A second group of 50 were given a long, slow and gradual dieting plan that restricted calorie intake every day. After 12 months, most people were able to lose weight. On average, people lost between five and six percent of their starting weight. But there were no differences in weight lost between fasting dieting and conventional dieting. If you want more health and…