The question at hand today is whether Alternate day fasting This is an effective, perhaps even preferred option for those who want to experiment with non-stop fasting. I’ve written about fasting many times on the blog here because it’s one of my favorite tools for insulin, blood sugar, appetite control, and (probably) longevity, but I’ve never dedicated a post to alternative day fasting. . It’s time to dump her.
I call it a tool, but fasting নিয়মিত regular, short or no individual time-is a normal human condition. Or at least it should be. As I say, physically speaking, some of the best things happen when we don’t eat. Rosa triggers the desired hormonal response, reduces oxidative damage, promotes autophagy and offers an emotional challenge. Of course, in today’s food-rich environment, most people eat regularly for more than 16 or 18 hours a day. Eating at a 6- or 8-hour window, spending 24 hours or more without food is rare.
For the most part, I am unaware of the best fasting schedule. Whether one prefers time-limited meals like the popular 16: 8 or 18: 6 protocol, weekly 24-hour fasting, half-yearly prolonged fasting for three days or more, or eating WHEN (when hunger is normal). Personal taste. Each of them has its pros and cons, but none of them are so compelling that I want to say that one is definitely the best for everyone. Since many people seem interested in trying alternative day fasting, it demands a closer look here.
What exactly is an alternative day fast?
There are two broad categories of Alternative Day Fasting (ADF):
True ADF Where you avoid eating all day. Eat one day, do not eat the next day. Easy, not necessarily easy. With this type of ADF, you will fast for 36 hours every other day (breakfast two days after dinner one day). Maybe even longer.
Modified ADF Where you eat every day but alternate between the days you usually eat and the days you significantly limit calories. The general rule is to consume 25 percent of your normal daily calories. If you typically eat 2,400 calories, your week would be like this:
Day 1: 2,400 calories
Day 2: 600 calories
Day 3: 2,400 calories
Day 4: 600 calories
Day 5: 2,400 calories
Day 6: 600 calories
Day 7: 2,400 calories
Beyond that, something goes. You can combine ADF with any food — primal, keto, vegan, carnivorous, or even SAD (although I wouldn’t recommend it for obvious reasons). There are no rules about when or how often you eat on your regular meal day, but the idea is that the amount of calories you eat to maintain weight is probably a little more. Assuming you don’t go hog-wild, you’ll end up with a pretty fat calorie deficit, even after eating half the time.
There are also some specific variations of ADF:
- 5: 2 fasting Probably the most well-known. This is similar to modified ADF, but instead of eating on a daily deficit, you choose to limit calories two days per week, usually not consecutively.
- Eat stop eat, Brad Pylon’s Intellectual, is a type of modified ADF where you fast one or two 24-hours per week. Once or twice a week, you eat dinner one day and then the next day until dinner (or breakfast to breakfast, lunch to lunch, whatever you like).
- Diet every other day Krista Varadi, PhD, currently Professor of Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the author of dozens of scientific research papers on fasting and a popular book of the same name. This is your common modified ADF method with one notable difference: you are allowed to eat ad libitum (as much as you want) on meal days. According to Varadi, most people still end up on calorie deficit and lose weight even with “feast days”. Some readers of his book, The Every Other Day Diet, disagree. However, he has proved successful with this method in his academic work.
The benefits of alternative day fasting
Potential benefits of ADF include:
- Low fasting insulin (but inconsistent effect on insulin sensitivity)
- Low Triglyceride (plus LDL and total cholesterol if you go for it)
- Low blood pressure
- Decreased adipokin associated with systemic inflammation and cardiovascular disease
- Promoting ketosis
If it seems that I am hedging my bet here, it is because there is no standardization of how researchers use the term “alternative day fasting”. There is plenty of promising data, but it is difficult to generalize from one study to the next when one brick uses a brick design and the other uses 5 consecutive fasting days 5: 2. Metabolic effects may not be the same.
Researchers are still trying to find out if any of the benefits of fasting are unique or because of the calorie limitations inherent in such fasting protocols. This is an open question at the moment, although I suspect that there is more to fasting than mere calorie restriction.
What about weight loss? Can Alternative Day Fasting Help You Lose Weight?
Yes. This has been demonstrated in multiple studies using different styles of ADF and different populations. Not all anecdotes mention evidence.
The more interesting question is whether you can lose More Weight loss সহজে or more easily — through ADF. Available studies suggest that you may lose more weight with ADF in the short term. Fasting and regular calorie-restricted dieting (aka “continuous calorie restriction”) eventually lead to even more calories. In the case of ADF, there are not enough head-to-head studies to make decisions in one way or another, compared to other types of fasting, such as daily time-restricted eating.
“But wait,” you said, “I couldn’t lose any weight if I tried to diet until I started fasting.” I hear it a lot. The fact that ADF may not have an average weight loss benefit does not mean that it was not convenient for you. In terms of weight loss, dietary adherence plays a big role. Many people find it easier to stick to a schedule where they don’t have to limit their daily meals.
Harmful aspects of alternative day fasting?
To do ADF properly, you need to track your diet, which can be difficult. Those who do not want to weigh and measure each bite can try the brick stop brick method, which does not limit what you can eat on your fasting days (or more precisely, at the end of your 24-hour fast).
Eating only 500 or 600 calories is not easy, especially if you want to split it into multiple meals or snacks. You will want to limit fat intake as fat is the most dense calorie macronutrient in terms of nine calories per gram. Once you factor in enough protein, there is very little room for anything else. I would recommend eating only one or two meals a day on a fasting day and eating low calorie, starchy vegetables such as herbs. A sip of bone broth can also help suppress appetite, but there it is Willpower Being hungry, especially in the beginning.
One potential concern is the preservation of lean mass. In four studies with overweight / obese adults, dieters lost on average more lean mass with ADF than with continuous calorie restriction (regular dieting). The duration of this study ranged from 12 to 30 weeks and participants ate a decent amount of protein. However, no study provided exercise instruction, and it is unclear whether any of the participants were engaged in resistance training.
Bottom line: Alternative day fasting ya or not?
Overall, the benefits of ADF seem to be consistent with the benefits of fasting in general. From what I can tell, the biggest advantage of ADF over a daily time-restricted diet or calorie-restricted diet is that it is easier for some people to stick with.
The results regarding lean mass give me a break, but not enough to stop ADF at this point. Although the four studies were fairly consistent, there was also much variability among participants. Whenever you are eating in an energy deficit, you want to make sure you eat plenty of protein and lift heavy things to protect your muscles. This is the best practice regardless of the type of fasting you are doing. That said, the harsh ADF I mentioned above makes you suffer from a 33 percent energy deficit, which is quite large সম্ভবত perhaps too large to sustain you safely in the long run. We could use more human research here to tease out all this.
And when it comes to best practice, what you eat on your non-fasting days is important. Although ADF is not strictly required, eating the same nutritious, whole foods may indicate whether you are practicing ADF or not.
Finally, the same rule applies to who should not fast: those who are already under extra stress and those who have high energy needs, such as competitive athletes, babies and teenagers, and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Okay, what do you think? Yes or no, are you interested in alternative day fasting? If you’ve already tried it, how did it go?
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