What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is not a diet, it’s a pattern of eating. 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.
Some testimonial how this lifestyle can be you lifestyle too:
“I skip breakfast each day and eat two meals, the first around 1pm and the second around 8pm. Then, I fast for 16 hours until I start eating again the next day at 1pm.
Surprisingly, since I’ve started intermittent fasting I’ve increased muscle mass (up 10 pounds from 205 to 215), decreased body fat (down 3% from 14% to 11%), increased explosiveness (set a personal best with a clean and jerk of 253 pounds a few months back), and decreased the amount of time I’ve spent training (down from 7.5 hours per week to 2.5 hours per week).
In other words, I’m stronger, leaner, and more explosive even though I go to the gym less and eat less. (The Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting by James Clear jamesclear .com)”
Does intermittent fasting work For reverse diabetes?
Maybe this diets sound like just another fad to come around the bend. And maybe they are. However, there actually is some credible science behind fasting. Restricting calories in the diets of animals appears to increase their lifespan, for example. Recently, a team of researchers in the UK looked at the various approaches to intermittent fasting, with a focus on how they might help (or hinder) those with Type 2 diabetes and obesity. They found that intermittent fasting is as effective as or even more effective than simply cutting calories to lose weight.
As far back as the 1930s, scientists have been exploring the benefits of reducing calories by skipping meals. During that time, one American scientist found that significantly reducing calories helped mice live longer, healthier lives. More recently, researches have found the same in fruit flies, roundworms and monkeys. Studies have also shown that decreasing calorie consumption by 30 to 40 percent (regardless of how it’s done) can extend life span by a third or more. Plus, there’s data to suggest that limiting food intake may reduce the risk of many common diseases. And some believe fasting may also increase the body’s responsiveness to insulin, which regulates blood sugar, helping to control feelings of hunger and food cravings.
They also found that intermittent fasting has other health benefits, including reducing inflammation, lowering blood pressure, lowering heart rate, lowering cholesterol, and reducing insulin resistance. This unique approach may even help prevent the development of Type 2 diabetes. Followers of the diet also believe that intermittent fasting can prolong your life and prevent Alzheimer disease.
What can you do now reverse diabetes naturally
Some step by step you can follow (from drwhitaker .com) :
- You get up in the morning and drink a glass of water or a cup of coffee or tea. You can use a little creamer or low-calorie sweetener like xylitol or stevia, and you can take your supplements if they don’t upset your stomach. But do not eat breakfast or drink anything other than coffee, tea or water.
- Do 20–45 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise—walking, jogging, cycling or whatever you enjoy doing.
- After you exercise, get on with your day, but continue fasting until lunch. Drink water, coffee or tea. Don’t worry about being too hungry to make it through the morning. This fasting/exercise combo dampens the appetite, and the caffeine in coffee and tea helps blunt hunger as well.
- At lunchtime, break your fast and eat normally for the rest of the day. Get plenty of lean protein and low-fat, low-glycemic carbohydrates. Be sure you make healthy, sensible food choices. You don’t have to count calories, but you don’t want to pig out at lunch or dinner, either.
How this scientifically can reverse your diabetes?
The intermittent fasting diet takes advantage of, and expands upon, the 10–12 hours you normally fast while sleeping.
By morning, your body is beginning to deplete the glycogen in your liver (from the carbohydrates eaten at your evening meal) and is starting to rely more on fat for energy. As your glycogen stores are progressively exhausted, your liver starts converting fat into ketones, which the brain and other tissues use as fuel. This fat-burning state is called ketosis.
Aerobic exercise while in the intermittent fasting state is a crucial part of the program because it rapidly puts you into ketosis. Overnight fasting is a start, but exercise really kicks things into high gear. The fuel used during the morning walk you’re taking in place of eating breakfast comes from burning fat, which is exactly what you want when you’re trying to lose weight.
Even better, if you continue fasting after exercising, you will stay in the ketotic state, further reducing fat stores.
What the Research Says
The exercise-enhanced intermittent fasting diet has been evaluated in a clinical trial that involved volunteers with an average weight of 199 pounds, BMI of 32.2 (30 and over is considered obese), waist circumference of 42.6 inches, and fasting insulin of 13.2 IU/mL (a level indicative of insulin resistance).
After 12 weeks, the participants lost an average of nine pounds and an even more impressive 16 pounds of fat (25 percent of their initial fat mass) plus three inches around the waist. Additionally, the group’s fasting insulin fell by one-quarter, into the normal range.
