What is intermittent fasting and why is it becoming so popular these days?

 Question: What is intermittent fasting and why is it becoming so popular these days? Are there any pros and cons?

 

Answer:

I am a Sports Nutrition coach. Please consider this. Why IF is famous is a tricky question:

Every guy Starting IF for Fat loss for amazing results is like every Dad’s dream to put his son in Narayana college to make him a state ranker.

Is Narayana/Sri Chaitanya college Famous? - Yes.

Do they have Lakhs of students enrolled – Yes

Why is the college famous– They produced and advertised top state rankers .

Is every Student gonna be succeesful: SIMPLY, NO. What happened to the rest 99% students who enrolled in d college looking at that top rankers Ad? - Lost could not make it. IF is not sucessful for everyone especially it does not have any faster results compared to Many other diet patterns.

Unfortunately, Nutrition is not a regulatory Industry. Everyone can populate a Diet theory. What is the qualification of Viramachineni Ramakrishna? But people blindly follow him. Unfortunately, Diets are not rapidly acting, potentially deadly and may not show immediate symptoms just like Alcohol or smoking. cumulative efforts over an extended period of time of smoking, drinking and unstructured diets will cause illness. Some people experience Hairfall, Fatigue, Mood swings, Gastritis, constipation, and many more.

About IF:

Intermittent fasting is not a diet, but a diet schedule that is purported to accelerate fat loss and muscle growth compared to traditional eating schedules. It is promoted primarily in the scientific community, however, there are currently ZERO scientific studies (as of April 2015) that have supported intermittent fasting for gaining muscle while losing fat. Its all that Youtube heroes propaganda.

No Athlete follows IF, Keto Only Steroid induced Pro bodybuilders and Weightloss Sponge cakes on YouTube market IF. Dieting is eating like an athlete and training like an Athlete not picking Fancy unsustainable practices my friend.

1. clinical trial (Harvie et al., 2011), authors conclude that intermittent fasting and daily caloric restriction are equally effective at promoting weight loss in overweight and obese individuals. However, no studies to date have been performed with athletes who require maintenance of muscle size, strength, and function.

2. Currently, the bulk of the scientific evidence for the health benefits of intermittent fasting has come from animal studies (review: (Longo and Mattson, 2014) and the negative effects of intermittent fasting have stemmed from Muslim athletes during Ramadan (review: (Chaouachi et al., 2009)

3. INTERMITTENT FASTING IS NOT A MUSCLE SPARING DIET. You lose a great deal of muscle on your weightloss. (Researchers studied the effect of whole-body protein breakdown with 7 days of fasting. Their conclusion was that “decreased whole body protein breakdown contributes significantly to the decreased nitrogen excretion observed with fasting in obese subjects”.)

4. Sustainability: Do you know a guy who did IF for 5 years? These are short honeymoons.

5. Suitability: Imagine a situation where you need to be out with friends you are on 16 hrs fasting, you may feel weak and lethargic as Carbs are primary source of fuel for your brain. You may also experience dizziness as your sugars/glycogen stores in the body are quickly used up for energy during fasting period. You may not be able do any intense work/workouts.

6. Advantages: THERE IS NO Advantage of one diet over the other. Like Low carb diet is better than high carb or IF gives you best results. As long as your protein intake is high , high carb or high fat or Keto, IF will have no added advantages.

7. Health Issues: Beyond Calories IN vs Calories a lot of Biological and chemical changes keep happening in the body that will influence a lot of chain reactions. Many people complained about Gastritis in fasting state as there is no feeding for the body.

As a final word, a High carb meal plan is the Go, NO IF and remember Sustainability is the key and NOT intensity.