Intermittent fasting experiences: Intermittent fasting for beginners in the test

After years of experimenting with different diets so that I can lose weight healthily and finally achieve my optimal marathon weight, I finally tried intermittent fasting this year and so far lost almost 15kg. My intermittent fasting is still going on, but here I would like to tell you about my experiences with intermittent fasting and give some tips for beginners!

What is intermittent fasting?
After the sugar-free diet, one of the many different diet and nutrition trends is currently particularly popular: interval fasting or intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting, however, is not a diet in the classic sense, but a permanent, sometimes lifelong, change in diet.
Classic fasting means that people voluntarily refrain from eating for a certain period of time. Traditionally, these are several days or weeks in a row without any food.
Intermittent fasting, on the other hand, is periodic fasting. The periods in which you can eat alternate with food-free hours – for example 16 hours without meals and 8 hours a day with calorie intake, in which you can eat.
The main goal is a long-term, but also healthy, weight reduction, which is achieved above all by the fact that the body is continuously in the body fat burning during the time when there is no food, which is normally interrupted again and again by eating or does not take place at all when we are too many food.
Intermittent fasting is also used to prevent and treat certain diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, but also for detoxification and regeneration.

Historical background of fasting and intermittent fasting
Mankind has been used to fasting since ancient times. Days went by on the hunt before anything edible was found again. Food was not always available to everyone and the body learned to live from its fat reserves in times of hunger.
This process is rarely called up these days, as food is available in large quantities and at all times, and hunger rarely occurs. Morbid obesity and common diseases such as diabetes are the result.
Exactly this realization that this “emergency power program” of nutrition from the body fat reserves is naturally created in the body, was also one of the big aha moments of my first classic fasting regimen, during which I fasted continuously for 2 weeks.

Who is intermittent fasting suitable for?
The nutritional form of the interval diet is suitable for you if you want to lose body fat, but do not want to do without certain foods. If you have already reached your ideal weight, intermittent fasting will not help you put on any additional pounds. Occasional occasions, such as weddings or birthday parties, won’t have a negative impact on your figure. In order to achieve positive success, however, care should always be taken not to consume more calories than you consume throughout the day. Because if you then stuff everything into yourself in the evening that you haven’t eaten for the rest of the day, the interval diet won’t have any effect either. I’ll also have tips on that later.
The greatest advantage of intermittent fasting is that you can continue to give the body the nutrients it needs in a targeted manner during the eating phase. This avoids losing muscle mass, for example, which is one of the major drawbacks of the normal, day-long or week-long fast

Who is intermittent fasting not suitable for?
You should avoid intermittent fasting if you suffer from malnutrition or malnutrition. It is also not ideal for children and adolescents, as their metabolism works differently than that of adults. It could have a negative impact on their growth. It is not recommended for pregnant women.
Diabetics, cancer patients, blood pressure patients and people with a chronic illness should be examined by a doctor before intermittent fasting and discuss their plans with him.
Long trips and heavy workloads are not a good basis for starting intermittent fasting. Especially in the first few days it is a big change for the body and would put you and your organism under too much stress. But once you are well-rehearsed to the rhythm of eating and not eating, such phases are not a problem either.

How does intermittent fasting work? Variants of the intermittent fasting plan
Which type of intermittent fasting you choose is entirely up to you. By testing the different options, you will find out who

I can best be reconciled with your everyday life. It is important that you always feel comfortable with it and that you can stick to the chosen method. The only difference between the different approaches is how long the respective fasting period lasts and how often it is carried out per week.

Dinner Canceling: Skipping individual meals
This type of fast is ideal for beginners who want to slowly approach the subject. It is also known under the name “Dinner canceling”. Dinner is canceled two to three times a week. The quality of sleep may be better because the gastrointestinal tract is not occupied with digestion at night. If you are one of those people who cannot get a bite in the morning, there is also the option of skipping breakfast. Always listen to your body and your sense of circulation. There is only one solution, especially if you are feeling extremely weak and listless, or if you are dizzy. Just eat something no matter what the diet plan says

I can best be reconciled with your everyday life. It is important that you always feel comfortable with it and that you can stick to the chosen method. The only difference between the different approaches is how long the respective fasting period lasts and how often it is carried out per week.

Dinner canceling: skipping individual meals
This type of fast is ideal for beginners who want to slowly approach the subject. It is also known under the name “Dinner canceling”. Dinner is canceled two to three times a week. The quality of sleep may be better because the gastrointestinal tract is not occupied with digestion at night. If you are one of those people who cannot get a bite in the morning, there is also the option of skipping breakfast. Always listen to your body and your sense of circulation. There is only one solution, especially if you are feeling extremely weak and listless, or if you are dizzy. Just eat something no matter what the diet plan says

16 to 8 intermittent fasting plan – 16/8 method
This widespread form of fasting is particularly popular with anyone who does not want to go without food for a full day. In this method, 16 hours of fasting alternate with eight hours of eating. During these eight hours, snacks are avoided and two main meals are eaten.

You can choose the fasting times freely and adapt it to your lifestyle. Skip breakfast and have lunch around 1 p.m.
The next fasting period starts at 9 p.m. A late breakfast at 11 a.m. and the last food intake of the day before 7 p.m. is also possible. An early dinner has a positive effect on your night’s sleep again.
Every possible variant is allowed. Here, too, the goal is to achieve the longest possible fat-burning phase, which in this case is sixteen hours a day.

Athletes appreciate the 16: 8 method because they can go running in the morning, for example, and then reduce the energy they have consumed with an early lunch. In addition, exercise on an empty stomach leads to increased fat burning. This metabolic training in the form of fasting training is extremely effective, especially for endurance athletes.

It is advisable that you start the 16/8 intermittent fasting with a milder form of twelve hours without food. The change means stress for your body, which it has to get used to. If you are very hungry at the beginning, you should counteract it with two to three liters of water or sugar-free tea. Start your day with a large glass and don’t let yourself feel hungry in the first place.

A clear advantage of this variant is that a large part of the fasting period takes place at night. A craving for food can thus be overslept.

36 to 12 Intermittent Fasting Plan – 36/12 Method
An enhanced variant of the 16: 8 diet concept is the 36:12 method. One day you fast completely and on the following day you limit your food intake to the time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Alternate day fasting
Alternate day fasting is similar to this. A day is eaten completely normally. On the other day only consumed an amount of energy equal to 25 percent of the calorie requirement.

The Warrior Diet
This variant is particularly based on the life of our ancestors. These were hunting and gathering during the day and could only have a meal in the evening. With the Warrior Diet, only raw food snacks or protein shakes are consumed throughout the day and feasted in the evening.
This variant becomes problematic when sleep is disturbed by eating late. In addition, special care must be taken to absorb all the nutrients the body needs through dinner.