The Science Of Intermittent Fasting: Why Intermittent Fasting Works And How To Do It The Right Way

By Andrew Sorenson

Have you been struggling with weight loss all your life?

 

Do you want to learn more about intermittent fasting and how it can help you lose weight?

 

Are you looking for a way to easily and sustainably keep the pounds off?

 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this guide is just the right thing for you.

 

Intermittent fasting or IF refers to the practice of alternating your meal times between periods of fasting and non-fasting. 

 

In recent times, IF has quickly grown on to become one of the most popular methods used to control one's weight and this is all with good reason.

 

As quoted in a December 2015 study published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, it was discovered that intermittent fasting allowed participants to steadily lose 7-11 pounds over a period of 10 weeks. 

 

Furthermore, supporting these facts are a series of 2019 studies conducted by Dr.Kulreet Chaudhary, which has shown that intermittent fasting reverses insulin resistance and significantly slows down the ageing process.

 

Yes! You heard that right.

 

With IF, you can actually look and feel better while losing weight at the same time.

 

But how are you going to make intermittent fasting work for you? 

 

Good question as this guide will show you how to make IF work for you.

 

In this book, you'll discover:

 

• The 3 secret techniques that will help you lose weight fast easily and healthily (the ones that your dieticians never told you about)
• The science behind intermittent fasting (and why it is a crucial part of sustainable weight loss)
• The three most effective intermittent fasting protocols (and how they can help you shed weight)
• Why intermittent fasting has been successfully used to help diabetics regain control of their lives and how you can use these techniques to live a longer and happier life
• 5 foolproof ways for you to deal with even the worst types of setbacks while staying true to your diet
• The secret to disciplining your mind, body and soul (and why it is an essential part of intermittent fasting)
• 4 must-know tips that will help you burn fat faster – and safer
• 7 reasons why you can't ever seem to lose weight (and 4 ways for you to trick your body into losing weight)

 

… and much, much more!

 

Are you ready to shed off those unsightly pounds?

 

Do you want to open the door to a slimmer, fitter and healthier you?

 

Make use of the latest scientific developments and sculpt the body of your dreams with this guide to intermittent fasting.

 

If you're ready to lose weight quickly and sustainably, click "Add to Cart" and take a step forward to living a healthier and happier life!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: M & M Limitless Online Inc.
• Release date: Jul 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393913436

Book preview

Forging New And Healthy Eating Habits That Work And Last

Sometimes when we make a change in our lives, it is difficult to keep up the motivation. When everything feels new it is easier to encourage ourselves to continue, but this keenness can reduce over time. How can we change our habits in effective ways so that they stick?

Change Is Difficult

Changing habits is difficult because we need to rewire our brain. For some time, we thought that the brain was a much more static and non-changing organ than it is. Now we understand that the brain is highly ‘plastic’, meaning flexible. Neuroplasticity has helped us to understand the ways that our brain is physically changed by the ways that we think and the actions that we take [1].

When we are learning a new skill, neurons in our brain fire to make connections. If you are starting out on a new venture like a hobby or a skill at work, it is a little more difficult in the beginning because your brain is altering the way that you think and react [1]. Over time, these neural pathways become well-established and the task becomes easier.

In neuroscience, there are two sayings to describe this phenomenon. The first is ‘cells that fire together, wire together’ showing that when we have associations with a new activity we are creating or strengthening pathways in our minds [1]. This is what helps us to get better at a task or remember something more readily. The other saying is ‘neurons that fire apart, wire apart’ which explains a lack of connection or association, meaning the things that we easily forget [1].

When we transfer our understanding of neuroplasticity to habits as opposed to skills, we can understand how we can form positive or negative pathways in our brain through the power of association [1]. For example, a very common habit for full-time workers is to have something sugary in the mid-afternoon to deal with that ‘slump’ between lunch and the end of work. If a person has done this for some time, that period in the day becomes integrally linked with a sweet treat in their brains. We need to actively retrain our brain against certain expectations.

Another reason that changing eating habits can be difficult revolves around the connections that we have made with regard to social situations [2]. Eating is often related to social gatherings, and when we are around friends and family, we often share a more elaborate meal than we would have by ourselves [2]. Aside from this, drinking alcohol or sugary things like juice or soft drink are also more likely to be involved. Eating can also be linked to stress or boredom and become a powerful coping mechanism for dealing with these feelings [2].

Aside from the way that habits are formed through pathways in the brain, the actual food that we are eating also changes our neurochemistry [2]. Increasingly, foods that are sugary, fatty, or high in carbohydrates are now being recognized as having a similar effect on the body to drug addiction [2].

By tracking the ways that our brains and bodies react to these substances, we can see similarities in pathways and mechanisms as people who are feeding addictions or struggling with them [2]. This is also why we see commonalities between bingeing and withdrawal across people struggling with food and people struggling with drug and alcohol habits [2]. This is why it is important to have understanding and strategy when rewiring our relationship with food.

Activity 1:

Before we continue, take some time out to process what we have been discussing so far and apply it to your own situation. It is a great idea to get yourself a notebook that you will only use for your weight loss journey. In this notebook, you can keep track of your fasting, your weight loss progress, your reactions at different points along the way, and your responses to these activities.

As your first activity, let’s think about the relationship between habits, social situations, coping mechanisms, and highly-addictive foods. Try making a table or flow chart to map out times when eating fits in these categories for you. Here are some examples:

Changing Our Current Eating Habits

When we talk about food addiction, we are most often discussing food that has been determined to be ‘refined’ or ‘highly palatable’ [2]. These types of foods are usually high in sugar, fat, and salt, which we often classify as ‘junk food’. These are things like chips, pizza, burgers, chocolate, lollies, ice-cream, and all the sorts of things that we generally already know doesn’t have any nutritional value for us. These types of foods have an intense about of flavor and energy, which leads to their ability to overstimulate the brain.

In their chapter Junk: The Neuroscience of Food Addiction and Obesity, Fraser, Moore, and Keane explain how when our brains are overstimulated, this wires up a feedback loop of reward and withdrawal, which is why we always feel the need to be consuming more of these ‘highly palatable’ foods [2]. This is what Fraser, Moore, and Keane refer to as an addictive state [2]. They also point out that, just as it is with drug addiction, some people can be more susceptible to falling prey to this feedback loop than others [2].

When we have been in a state of eating a considerable amount of fats, sugars, and salts and suddenly cut off this supply, it can be very difficult to stick to our willpower. We know that we logically need to change our relationship with food so that we are not slaves to the addictive mind state, but our body is screaming for its next fix. This is where acceptance and commitment theory come in.

In The Diet Trap by Jason Lillis, Joanne Dahl, and Sandra M. Weineland address the reasons why many people often make several attempts at different diets and strategies without getting the weight loss results that they desire [3]. We know what we ‘basically’ need to do to lose weight and be healthier, but we struggle along the journey. In many cases, this leads people to feel like there is something wrong with them or that their resolve is not strong enough [3].

Acceptance and commitment therapy is a branch of cognitive-behavioral therapy which helps us to make changes to the negative patterns in our lives. In this theory, psychological pain is a very normal human experience [3]. It is normal to feel defeated when you can’t stick to something. It is normal to look at other people and judge your own appearance based on theirs. It is normal for people to feel like they are lacking in confidence and appeal because of their weight. It is alright to feel these ways and