When you eat a meal, carbohydrates get broken down into glucose; as the brain senses glucose, it sends a signal to pancreas to release insulin.
Insulin is like an access card, without which the glucose can’t enter the cells to provide them energy; so it gets attached to each glucose unit and opens the cells’ doors to allow its entry into the cells.
Whatever glucose is not utilised by the intended cells, liver converts that into fat as it can’t let sugar remain in blood (otherwise everyone will be diabetic).
This fat is stored in fat tissues under your skin (that describes the plumpness in body when we gain weight), in liver and on top of kidneys.
This whole process takes about 4-5 hours; so once you have eaten, your body remains in fed state for this period.
In regular circumstances, by this time you are ready to eat your next meal, so your body doesn’t get time to burn the fat it had accumulated in the last meal; on top of it, you add another serving of fat, in form of unabsorbed glucose.
If you don’t eat after the fed state, the body begins to draw energy by burning accumulated fat; this results in weight reduction.
Intermittent fasting is when you schedule your meals so your system has enough time to burn fat.
The most common eating patterns are 16:8 i.e. 16-hour window of fasting and 8-hour window of eating; e.g. you eat between 8 am to 4 pm and not eat the rest of the time.
Or it could be 14:10 (8am to 6 pm); 13:11 has also been found to produce results but 12:12 doesn’t have any impact.
Other types include ‘Alternate day’ fasting, where you eat normally for 24 hours and then not eat for the next 24 hours.
And ‘Periodic Day’ fasting where you consume 25% of required daily calories for 2 days and normal calories for remaining 5 days; so 500-600 calories per day for 2 days and around 2000 calories per day for 5 days.
Unlike other popular diets, intermittent fasting doesn’t specify which foods you eat but when you eat, as long as you don’t overeat in eating window.
The benefits have been found to be weight loss, improved heart health, improved autophagy (ability of body to repair damaged cells) and simplified lifestyle.
It is not recommended for children and teenagers or for people with eating disorders.
