Lifestyle

Beginners’ Guide To Intermittent Fasting Whereby You Time When You Eat to Burn Fats

Wayne Loh

2019-11-30 , 11:00 am

Last Updated on 2023-03-22 , 1:17 pm

Was losing weight part of your New Year’s Resolution?

Have you achieved your goal?

If yes, congratulations. You did what many people would fail to do by January.

If not, it’s not too late to start now. You don’t have to limit yourself to arbitrary dates to start.

80/20 Rule: Diet > Exercise

If you’ve done any research on weight loss, you might have come across the 80/20 rule.

While some people may resort to doing exercise because they refuse to go on a diet, they will often realise that they’re not getting any results.

That’s because losing weight is 80% due to diet and 20% due to exercise – which means exercising every day is useless if you’re still binging on fried food.

To put it into perspective, jogging for an hour burns around 400 calories. Simply eating a pack of fries from McDonald’s earns you 461 calories. Calorie In vs Calorie Out.

You may be thinking, “Huh… but how to diet? I don’t want eat salad every day leh…”

Fortunately for you, years of research have discovered multiple diet styles that may just be easier for you to implement. Eating leaves and fruits as your meals every day is a thing of the past.

Intermittent Fasting

You: Fasting? Like what the Muslims do during Ramadhan?

Well, yes. Something similar.

Intermittent Fasting is a form of diet that restricts all your calorie intake (eating) to a certain window.

There are multiple ways to do it, but the easiest and thus most popular method is the 16/8 method. Basically, you fast for 16 hours a day and only eat during an eight-hour window.

For example, you can start at 12pm and your window ends at 8pm. This allows you to consume your lunch and dinner as per normal on top of snacks in between to keep yourself full.

Unlike most diets, intermittent fasting does not restrict the type of food you can eat.

Now hold up.

Of course, it’s best to just eat like a normal person and not binge on fried food and bubble tea in this window. Remember, Calorie In vs Calorie Out.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

So, you might be thinking, does this work? What are its benefits?

It’s easy. Rather than having to rack your brain over what food you can eat, simply restricting when you can eat is much simpler.
By restricting when you can eat, your calorie intake naturally goes down. Calorie In vs Calorie Out.
It’s backed by science. Intermittent fasting increases levels of norepinephrine, a hormone which boosts metabolism to increase calorie burning.
Intermittent fasting may reduce insulin levels, which can give a boost to fat burning as well.
Various other health benefits including improved heart health and blood sugar control

One research also showcased intermittent fasting decreasing body fat up to 16% over 12 weeks.

Combo With Keto Diet

You may or may not have also heard of another famous diet known as the Ketogenic diet or the Keto diet for short. You can check out our guide on it for detailed information.

When pairing these two diets together, intermittent fasting can speed up ketosis and boost weight loss even further.

It can apparently even help to mitigate side effects from the Keto flu, which includes nausea, headaches, and fatigue.

All Good?

To end off, I need to note that this diet may not be for everyone.

For example, diabetes patients should be careful as this diet messes with blood sugar levels.

Any people with illnesses, children, or pregnant women should consult a medical professional before embarking on this diet.

Women may also experience poorer results on top of potentially messing up menstrual cycles and fertility. Exercise caution as always.

But hey, if you’re good to go, give this diet a try.