The IF (Intermittent Fasting) diet is a set of diets related to intermittent fasting. Its supporters consider such a lifestyle the only right one to improve health, well-being and achieve the ideal body weight. Does the IF diet really only have benefits?
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Hello. Could you, on the basis of scientific articles, present the advantages and disadvantages of the IF diet? There is a lot of controversy and conflicting opinions about this diet on the Internet. I would love to know the opinion of qualified nutritionists.
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Ksenia 20 l.
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IF (Intermittent Fasting) diet: what is it actually?
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New diets, new ideas for slimming are the norm. IF (Intermittent Fasting) diet is still of interest to people who are slimming. There are plenty of publications and entire books on this type of nutrition. Brad Pilon, author of the book ‘Eat Stop Eat’ repeats with the stubbornness of a maniac that a diet uninterrupted by fasting is doomed to failure. In his opinion, if we eat constantly, we have no chance to learn patience. Besides, we have to make a whole lot of decisions related to eating, which we waste energy every day. Pilon speculates that intermittent fasting puts the body’s cells in a state of mild stress, thereby increasing their ability to cope with disease. id=»h20″>
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Some proponents of the IF diet recommend fasting for up to 16 hours and consuming food only for a short time. Others suggest that you refrain from eating once or twice a week for 24 hours. There are plenty of solutions. Whatever your opinion of this diet, it is important to remember at all times that during your eating days, you should make wise choices rather than pounce on unhealthy meals.
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How is it really?
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Indeed, there is ample evidence that an IF diet can benefit both the body and mind. The results are promising. The IF diet is very often presented as a tool to improve disease biomarkers, reduce oxidative stress and improve memory functioning. There are also studies showing the health benefits of intermittent fasting on the cardiovascular system and the brain.
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- In a study published in Free Radical Biology & Medicine, people with overweight and moderate asthma consumed only 20 percent of the diet. the normal amount of calories every other day. Participants who followed the diet lost 8 percent your starting weight within eight weeks.id = »h20 ″> Markers of oxidative stress and inflammation also decreased, and asthma-related symptoms improved.
- in 2012 it was proved that limiting caloric content by applying the principles of interrupted fasting by women effectively reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.
- Recent experimental studies (Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira) on animals have shown the effect of intermittent fasting on the reduction of plasma glucose levels, reductionand id = »h20 ″> visceral adipose tissue, as well as increasing resistance to stress.
- Animal studies show that using intermittent fasting can improve lifespan by up to 30%.
- A few months ago, Experimental Neurology published a study on the effect of an IF diet (16 hours of food deprivation per day for 4 months) on reducing the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines, thus reducing inflammatory tissue damage and reactions after ischemic stroke.
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- A study published in Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis conducted on mice with prostate cancerid = »h20 ″> who fasted twice a week for 24 hours did not confirm improvement in survival or tumor growth delay.
- In a study published in PLoS ONE, it was proven that intermittent fasting affects animal reproduction.
- A study published that year in the British Journal of Nutrition found that an IF diet can exacerbate the spontaneous development of familial hypercholesterolaemia.
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Scientists advise to be careful with books written one-sided for wide audience. It is no surprise that overwhelmingly most of them aim to sell as many copies as possible. Therefore, most often authors will search for research and evidence one-sided to provide the reader with a specific answer.
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What’s the truth?
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Someone will say – the research speaks for itself. However, there are several points to consider:
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- People / animals taking part in the research did not overeat after fasting ‘to spare’, but ate rationally. As you can read on various forums, it looks different in practice. The biggest problem with this mode are uncontrolled modification of the dietid=»h20″> and taking the easy way. It turns out that people who practice periodic calorie restriction, tend to overeat later period. There are those who eat the worst junk food for 5 days, believing that the next two days of fasting will allow cleanse yourself of everything. This is not the case, as advocates argue IF diets.
- Each calorie restriction will result in a reduction in body weight, whether we reduce caloric content each day, or one day in total, we will achieve a specific deficit per week. By itself, reducing obesity and overweight will improve your health, well-being and fitness. It is also worth noting that the mere fasting for several hours can be for some people are hard at work, while most of us can handle small ones very well cutting calories throughout the day.
- Studies supporting the effects of the IF diet in humans are still scarce. Most of those on animalsid = »h20 ″>, which are not always transferable to our body.
- An unbalanced IF diet, like any other diet, can lead to deficiencies.
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You need a calorie deficit to lose weight, that’s for sure. If we eat less than we spend, most likely our body weight will decrease. However, should you use intermittent fasting for this purpose? I think that a more sensible approach will be to start using a balanced, adjusted diet, and to take some facilitations from the principles of the IF diet, e.g. if we are at a party and eat 2 cups of ice cream, instead of breaking down, limit calories in 3 – 4 consecutive days. If this happens sporadically, nothing bad will happen.
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The photo comes from: erix! Id = »h20 ″> / Foterid =» h20 ″> / CC BYid = »h20 ″>
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