Losing Weight With Intermittent Fasting: How Long Does It Take To Work?

We all know that to lose weight, you need to eat healthily and exercise properly. But how does denying yourself foods at particular daily intervals help you tone up your body? This is called intermittent fasting

Losing Weight With Intermittent fasting is one of the best tools out there regarded by health professionals as an excellent weight loss strategy. Surprisingly, this weight loss method is approachable in different forms and ways.

However, most involve limiting your caloric intake or eating for short periods during the day. Knowing how soon the weight loss results should manifest through this method might also be challenging, making it difficult to know if you are doing it right. If you want to lose weight on intermittent and drop those extra pounds fast, then this article is for you.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting fixes specific times when you can eat in your quest to lose weight. It is all about the time of eating rather than what you eat which is the main focus of most diets.

If you can bear fasting for a couple of hours every day with a single meal and do it for a few weeks that alone can help you gain that toned body you’re looking for. And as previously mentioned, most health professionals recommend it due to the solid scientific backing it has.

According to a study by John Hopkins University’s doctor Mark Mattson, a human body can stay without food for several hours, days, and even longer. He also adds that in the prehistoric era, long before humans learned to farm, hunting and gathering were available means of survival.

The human body gradually evolved to survive without food because the hunting game wasn’t that easy given the tools used at the time. Plus, gathering berries and nuts, among other edibles, was tiresome.

According to doctor Christie Williams, maintaining a healthy body weight five decades ago was easier. That’s because TV shows closed at 11.00 pm plus there were no computers. [Also read: How Much Should I Walk To Lose Weight?]

Additionally, People retiring to sleep is what stops them from eating. Also, portions were relatively smaller, and adults and children got more exercise by working and playing outside, respectively. In the modern world today, things like the Internet, television, and other sources of entertainment are available 24 hours a day.

People stay awake for long periods just to catch up with their favorite TV shows, chat online, play video games, finish some online work, etc. Such a lifestyle can expose you to high caloric intake due to an all-day snacking.

Extra calories can translate into type-2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and other long-term illnesses. But the good news is that, based on scientific evidence, you can reverse these trends.

how does it work?

The main target of intermittent fasting is burning excess calories while also watching your daily caloric intake. Not only does this weight loss strategy helps your gut rest, but it also eliminates bad mitochondria—your body’s powerhouse. Combining the two processes allows your body to convert stored fat into energy.

Fasting intermittently decreases the fat-storing hormone insulin. This triggers lipolysis—a natural fat-burning process to assist your body in losing weight. Note that intermittent fasting can trigger the migrating motor complex (MMC), a process that significantly reduces bloating.

To prevent bloating, the MMC wipes out all the food bacteria left behind. With intermittent fasting, your body’s insulin levels normally lower, allowing the fat-burning process to take over. Essentially, the MMC kicking in means decreased bloating.

Tips for Losing Weight with Intermittent Fasting

First and foremost, intermittent fasting is far different from a diet. And as previously mentioned, it mainly entails timed eating. Here, you are not restricted to the kinds of food you can eat. For those who don’t know how to go about this journey, the insights below should suffice.

• Identify your Caloric Needs

Just because IF doesn’t consider diet restriction a necessity, that doesn’t mean your daily caloric intake doesn’t count. As the process suggests, you must create a caloric deficit by consuming less energy than you use. The vice versa is true for those with “weight gain ambitions.”

Arguably, there are many effective types of equipment that can assist you in identifying the number of calories you need to consume to either lose or gain weight. Alternatively, you can consult a dietician, nutritionist, or even your doctor on how to go about the suitable number of calories you need to consume daily.

• Picking a Suitable Method

Generally, there are four methods you can try out when fasting intermittently for health reasons. Now, at this stage, you should be extremely cautious by picking a process you know you can stick with to the end. The methods are;

• Warrior diet: with this method, you’ll be eating very little but enough for 20 hours every day. That means you’ll eat all your food in the remaining four hours. Logically, you’re bound to experience stomach discomfort after consuming a day’s worth of food in 4 hours. The warrior diet is one of the most extreme methods, similar to the eat-stop-eat method, which we’ll look at later. So if you’re new to intermittent fasting, consider starting with this method.

• The 5:2 method: if you are on this method, you’ll consume 500 to 600 calories for two non-consecutive days every week. However, other alternative day-fasting regimens make it three days.

That means you’ll be consuming the number of calories equivalent to the amount you’re burning every day. Before you know it, you shall have created a caloric deficit to allow you to lose weight without a workout program.

• Eat-stop-eat: opting for this method means no eating for 24 hours for two days weekly. Fortunately, the days you pick from a week to fast is totally your choice. Remember, the two fasting days shouldn’t be consecutive, plus you must not eat anything during this period.

• Curve out a Proper Meal Plan

If you want snap-effective weight loss results, you must properly curve out a meal plan that will sustain you throughout the day or week. Also, don’t be too restrictive on your meal plan.

 Just ensure to watch your caloric intake but most importantly, ensure the diet consists of proper healthy nutrients. Having a meal plan helps you stick to a certain calorie intake but also provides you with all the necessary healthy foods for quick meals and snacks readily available.

How Long Does Intermittent Fasting Take To Work?

You may begin to see a few changes on your body within the first 10 days of your intermittent fasting period. However it can take at least 9-1o weeks to see a lot of weight loss changes

Surprisingly, intermittent fasting has garnered significant global popularity because of its benefits. Many have testified to shedding tremendous amounts of pounds through this method. As already said, intermittent fasting focuses mainly on consuming fewer calories for a short time.

But how long before the results begin manifesting? Similar to any diet which takes time to display the results, the same is true with intermittent fasting. According to health experts, you need to stick to the basic rules of intermittent fasting for 10 weeks before you see the changes. Note that depending on your BMR, you can lose between 3 and 5 kilos if you follow the IF diet properly.

Closing Thoughts

The same way you didn’t gain weight overnight is the same way you shouldn’t expect to lose weight in an instant. Don’t look at intermittent fasting as a quick-fix miracle. Instead, embrace it as a new lifestyle for losing weight by making little adjustments as suggested above.

So long as you’re committed, determined, and set realistic goals, your aim to shed those extra pounds will become achievable. And as Robert Tew once said, ” the struggles today are your tomorrow’s strength.”  So stay consistent and motivated.

Medical Discalimer: The information provided here On Geeks Health website is for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. If you have or suspect a medical problem, promptly contact your healthcare provider. Reliance on any information in this response is solely at your own risk.