Intermittent Fasting Results on Women | Beat Your Weight-loss Plateau
Intermittent Fasting Results on Women | Beat Your Weight-loss Plateau
The Why
Women can recruit and burn more fat during a fast. That’s right. The same goes for men, however I’m speaking to ALL you women who feel like you are absolutely stuck when it comes to dieting and exercise and seem to simply NOT lose any body fat and need the extra boost to get you results you have been looking for.
Fasting is something that has been practiced for ages. From religious beliefs to medical practices, there is something to say about how fasting is ultimately good for your mind and body scientifically. The term, “intermittent fasting,” is a topic that has been trending over the past few years in the health and fitness industry, and people are often trying it and getting mixed results based on the effects it has had on their body’s. The important thing to understand about fasting is that you have to properly prepare and break your fast. This is something most people do NOT do because they simply go with the trend and do it, and then in the END, don’t get the results they are looking for.
So first, if you are looking to try fasting, as yourself WHY! Why are you going to try “fasting” and what goals are you looking to accomplish during your fast?
Facts
Intermittent fasting, and fasting in general, resets the body on a cellular level. Our cells are our body’s super power, as I like to call it. This super power needs to be used carefully so that it actually works. I don’t want to make this complicated, so I’m going to break down some facts about fasting and make it simple and to the point for you to understand.
As I mentioned, women can burn more fat by fasting, This is because ketones are released in the bloodstream allowing your body to use the fast and energy rather than glycogen. The blood sugar levels in the body are balanced during a fast, therefore you become a fat burning machine. Now, before you get too excited, you need to understand that breaking your fast properly will ensure how well your body burns fat, and don’t worry, I’ll get into what you should break your fast with later on.
Feeling stressed? Stress allows women to burn MORE fat from adrenaline than men. Crazy right. You may hear how stress and the stress hormone cortisol can often prevent women from burning fat, well fasting can CHANGE that instantly. Fasting can reset this hormone and the power of the fast can trigger your body to burn fat more rapidly because you are stressed. Cortisol and estrogen can have retention when stressed, so this will fix itself during a fast. Leptin levels need to be low prior to a fast in order for this to happen. So again, preparing for a fast is super important.
Women have more body fat than men because of various genetic makeups and how the women’s body is made. Women’s muscles in fast have small fibers of fat in them, so women actually use fat “easier” than men. I bet you never really thought of that, am I right? Women often believe men burn fat faster than they do, which can happen, but is not the actual case if you understand how to burn fat properly and use the “super power” of fasting to stay healthy and ultimately get your body to be a fat burning machine.
Fasting also helps the immune system stem cells. Remember I mentioned how fasting resets the body on a cellular level, so new cells that are being generated during a fast, are killing off the bad cells that can compromise our immune systems. While you are fasted, your body is in autophagy. Autophagy is your body’s recycling system which again gets cells stronger and gets rid of bad cells. Crazy right? These are scientific facts that are super important to really understand before deciding to bring fasting into your lifestyle.
Types of Fasting
So how should you fast and what are the different types of fasting? Great question that I’m sure you are all thinking. First let’s discuss the term “intermittent.” You want to make sure you use fasting as a “super power,” therefore, you need to intermittently use fasting into your lifestyle. Doing this every day should vary, meaning the lengths of your fast may not necessarily be the same every day or week.
There are three types of “Intermittent” Fasting windows:
- 12/12 – 12 hours of fasting and 12 hours of eating. This is a great start and the ultimate result with this type of fast will help get your gut healthy and control the food you consume better in a proper eating window.
- 16/8 – 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating. This now will reset the gut bio, your cognitive function will start to improve, you will have lower inflammation, lower blood pressure, better blood sugar control and now start to tap into burning body fat more rapidly.
- 20/4 – 20 hours of fasting and 4 hours of eating. Fasting for 20 hours puts your body in a deeper state of ketosis. This is the ultimate “healing” window of the body and is often looked at as therapeutic rejuvenation.
Longer Fasts
24-36 hour fasts can be SUPER POWERFUL. Please reach out to me directly to discuss this in further detail. This is recommended once a month and needs to be properly monitored.
Preparing for a Fast
Before you start to introduce fasting into your lifestyle, you need to properly establish a healthy, balanced diet that matches your goals. Consulting a certified nutritionist (me) will allow you to understand all the nutrients your body needs to be healthy. From there we can establish what your last meal of the day should be in order for your fast to work properly and effectively. To start, remember when I discussed leptin levels. Prior to your fast you want to keep your carbohydrate intake LOW.
What I can consume DURING my Fasting window
Stick to this 100% during your fast or the whole thing will FAIL.
- Water
- Himalayan Sea Salt
- Lemon (in water)
- Apple cider vinegar
- Black coffee
- Black or Green tea
THAT’s ALL FOLKS. Any and EVERYTHING else will BREAK your fast and mess us the entire scientific super power of making you a fat burning machine. Plain and simple.
Breaking the Fast
Follow these guidelines VERY carefully or this will throw your entire fast out the window. First, adding hymalian sea salt in your water will balance out the ph in your body and get your blood system healthy. You want to break your fast with something easily digestible and get your insides working effectively as you just RESET your body, remember! Absolutely NO GLUTEN. This is bad on the thyroid and will spike your blood sugar levels which you worked so hard to reset. This will also take you out of a fat burning zone that you are now in. Bone broth, bone broth protein is the best thing to break your fast with. 60-90 minutes after you break your fast you can incorporate vegetables and proteins. Basically have a meal. Fats support estrogen and women need a good amount of Vitamin D (eggs), zinc and iodine POST fasting. Then your next meal after that, can be a balance of protein, carbs and fats. Again, being on a proper macronutrient breakdown with a certified professional will help you understand this better.
In Conclusion
I hope this gave you clear answers to intermittent fasting and fasting as a whole. It’s so important to fully understand something before you try it and whether or not it fits your lifestyle. At the end of the day, any “diet” can work, and many “diets” have various benefits. However, whether or NOT they work for you is number one. Fasting may or may not be for you, but if it is something you have always wanted to try, then I want you to make sure you understand the science behind it and go from there. There is so much information on the internet, social media, youtube etc. that we can get so confused and even follow trends that really don’t work for us and our needs. Establish your goals and needs and create a lifestyle that is sustainable, and in the end you will succeed.
Here’s to women being fat burning machines and using our “Super Power” to look and feel our best from the inside out!
Xoxo, Melina
