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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 do so by skipping breakfast and eating 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:
Many diets focus on what to eat, but intermittent fasting is all about when you eat. Click here to learn more about the options including @prolonfmd! Click To TweetTime-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.
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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.
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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 hours 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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 any bacteria or virus.
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, on day three, you can eat the items pictured below.
- 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 once a day (black tea or coffee). 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 worse as follows:
- tomato
- minestrone & quinoa
- minestrone
- vegetable
- 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
There are many types of mechanisms that 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?
Krystle Cook – the creator of Home Jobs by MOM – put her psychology degree on a shelf and dived into a pile of diapers and dishes instead. She is a wife and mother to two rambunctious boys, sweating it out in her Texas hometown. She loves cooking, DIY home projects, and family fun activities.
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I’ve never fasted. My doctor wants me to fast using the ProLon meals.
Prolon is a great way to start your first fast. It allows you to ease into it!
I have tried fasting and also eating every 3 hours and keeping at 1200 calories a day. I think I will try doing the only eating in an 8 hour window or fasting for a whole day. not sure yet.
That’s great you have tried fasting! I like eating within a specific timeframe. It really helps keep my weight in check.
I have fasted before without even thinking about it. What really helps me is not eating after 8pm.
I naturally do intermittent fasting without really thinking about it. I tend to forget not to eat too late though.