How Does Intermittent Fasting Work: A Complete Guide #ProLonFYI #AD

This post was created in partnership with ProLon. I was not financially compensated for this post but did receive a sample for review purposes. As always, all opinions are entirely my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support me!

Intermittent fasting is the best way to reduce and burn fat in your body. It can help you get lighter without cutting anything in your diet. That means you can eat everything from pizzas to pasta to a burger and still lose extra fat. Even though it may sound like a dream, you can lose weight if you have a little self-control with your eating schedule.

Intermittent fasting is merely extending normal times of fasting a little longer. You can skip breakfast and eat your first meal at noon and your last meal before 8 pm. It will lead you to fast for 16 hours and restrict your eating to an 8-hour eating window every day.

Here is a complete guide that you need to know before jumping on the intermittent fasting bandwagon.

Types of Intermittent Fasting

There are various intermittent fasting options, and some are very different from each other. Therefore, familiarizing yourself with these fasting types can help you find which one is the best for you.

Here are the most popular types of intermittent fasting discussed briefly for you:

Time-Restricted Eating (16:6 Fasting, 18:6 Fasting, And 20:4 Fasting)

Time-restricted eating is also called time-restricted feeding, and it typically consists of confining all your eating to a 12-hour, 10-hour, 8-hour, 6-hour, or 4-hour window.

• 12-hour fasting

Many health experts find the 12-hour eating and 12-hour fasting as a great place to start as a beginner (like eating breakfast at 8 am and wrapping up dinner by 8 pm). It will be effortless as you would be sleeping for 8 hours amongst the 12 hours.

• 16:8 fasting

It is one of the most popular versions of time-restricted eating for losing weight and decreasing fat mass. This method contains a daily 16-hour fast and narrows down your eating window to 8 hours every day.

That means you have to start eating at noon and finish eating by 8 pm. You can also shift your eating window to the morning, like having breakfast at 7 am and having the last meal by 3 pm.

• 18:6 fasting

It is also a popular but a little more intense form of fasting, consisting of fasting for 18 hours daily and having all your meals within 6 hours. You can shed a lot of kilos with this particular type of fasting.

• 20:4 fasting

It is a restrictive type of fasting known as the warrior diet. You break down the fast to one meal per day, and it is not for beginners.

There is another fast known as the Monk fast. It comprises fasting for 36 hours; therefore, it needs you to skip one entire eating day.

• 5:2 fasting

It is a simpler version of fasting that allows you to eat normally five days per week while having only 500 to 600 calories on the remaining two days.

• Once a month fasting

It is not as popular as the others, but if you do not eat for one day a month, you could see benefits in the long run.

Which Type Of Fasting Is Best For You?

No specific plan can work for everyone. But certain programs are easier to employ and are safer over the long haul than others.

The following pointers will help you evaluate the best plan for you:

• Suppose you are looking to promote healthy aging, curb cravings, and have more energy daily. In that case, time-restricted eating is the best start for you as it gives you fasting windows that can be smaller at the beginning that you can extend gradually with time.
• Do you want to promote health altogether but do not want to fast every day? Consider the 5:2 fasting method.
• If you are good at time-restricted eating methods, switch to other fasting modes like alternate-day fasting (where you eat every other day) or an extreme form like dry fasting.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting?

Many health benefits come with intermittent fastings, like:

• It helps in reducing inflammation.
• Improves your heart health.
• It gives your body cancer-fighting properties.
• Provides you with balanced blood sugar levels and also reduces insulin levels.
• Helps brain health.
• Improves gut health.

Intermittent fasting makes your body stronger and more capable of fighting bacteria or viruses.

Looking for more benefits? Consider trying the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet.

What is the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet

ProLon is a 5-day meal program that mimics fasting. You get all the benefits of intermittent fasting like weight loss and lowering body fat plus extras like cellular renewal.

However, the key difference is you get to eat food unlike a fast, fast. Fasting for 3+ consecutive days is considered prolonged fasting.

The meal plan is designed to trick your body into autophagy which is simply cleaning up old cells so new ones can form. This only happens in fasts that last longer than 48 hours.

In the kit, you receive everything you are allowed to eat for 5 days. The provided food will keep your body in a fasting state so you can reap its benefits!

What's in the ProLon kit?

You'll receive a box (with very nice packaging, I might add) and inside you will find 5 smaller boxes numbered 1-5, a suggested meal schedule, and a 32 oz water bottle.

Inside each numbered box is everything thing you can eat that day.

For example, you can eat the items pictured below on day three.

• Nutty L-Bar
• Tea (Spearmint, Hibiscus, and Spearmint Lemon)
• Tomato Soup – microwave or stove preparation
• Kale Crackers
• Minestrone Soup – has to be cooked on the stove
• L-Drink – to be mixed with water and stored in the water bottle and drunk throughout the day. You may flavor with the tea bags if you like.
• NR-1 Vitamins and Minerals

On other days, you also see things like:

• Algal Oil – rich in DHA
• Olives
• Minestrone & Quinoa Soup – has to be cooked on the stove
• Choco Crisp L-Bar
• Vegetable Soup – microwave or stove preparation
• Mushroom Soup – microwave or stove preparation

Other than those, you may have an 8oz caffeinated drink (black tea or coffee) once a day. They prefer you not, but if you must that's what is allowed.

Plus, all the herbal tea and water you wish.

Our Thoughts on the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet

For full disclosure, we did not complete the meal program. We did 1-2 days to get an idea of how it worked and how the foods tasted.

So, on to the foods.

The Nutty L-Bar is just that very nutty. If you are a fan of almonds, macadamia, pecans, and coconut you'll have no problem with this bar. It was easy to nibble on, just make sure you have a napkin nearby because it's a little oily.

As for the soups, we would rank them from best to worst as follows:

1. tomato
2. minestrone & quinoa
3. minestrone
4. vegetable
5. mushroom

For us, the tomato-based soups had a better flavor, whereas the others were very earthy. The tomato soup was pretty good, and I'm not really a tomato soup fan. But it was nice and even tasted good with some of the kale crackers thrown in.

We had no issue with the kale crackers. If you like sesame, chia, and flax seeds, you'll have no problem snacking on these. The sesame seeds seemed to be the predominant flavor.

The Choco Crisp L-Bar was a nice treat. It's chocolate, almonds, and crisps mainly. We enjoyed having something sweet at the end of the day. Is it the best chocolate bar ever? No. But it's totally edible and gives you that sweetness you're most likely craving.

The ProLon Olives were our favorite part! Not a complete surprise as they are just olives (with sea salt and garlic), and we were already huge fans of those.

The L-Drink comes in two flavors (tropical berry and orange) and tastes great mixed with herbal teas. Our only suggestion is to make sure it's nice and cold and follow the precise instructions on the label to ensure the correct dosage.

If you are already a master at intermittent fasting, not allergic to nuts, and don't want to think about what foods to eat give the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet a shot and jumpstart your metabolic health today!

Use code KRYSTLE15 to get 15% off your purchase!

Final Thoughts

Many mechanisms are likely to work on your body while you practice intermittent fasting, like periods without food may push your body into a ketogenic state.

Fasting will give your body a little break from digestion. But before opting for any type of intermittent fasting, consult with your doctor. They can suggest the ideal option according to your age, body type, weight, and present health conditions.

Have you ever fasted for an entire day?