INTERMITTENT FASTING

One of the biggest health trends currently on the scene is intermittent fasting, but you’re not sure what it’s all about. Here, we’re giving you all the deets.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is time-restrictive fasting most commonly done in the 16:8 ratio. This means you’ll fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8 hour period. 

In many cases, people have seen health benefits from intermittent fasting, even without adhering to a strict diet and some believe it works due to its alignment with our circadian rhythms. Still, it’s best to eat nutritiously when using intermittent fasting as unhealthy foods can still lead to health problems.

Depending on your daily schedule, your 8-hour eating window might be from 9 am to 5 pm, 10 am to 6 pm, or even noon until 8 pm. For many, they’ll skip breakfast and wait until lunchtime to break their fast.

Other versions of intermittent fasting include the 5/2 diet where you fast two nonconsecutive days a week, consuming only 500 calories a day while eating normally for the other five days a week.

Some might fast for a full 24 hours once a week or every other day while others eat only one large dinner every day. So, as you can see, there are various ways to do intermittent fasting.

How Intermittent Fasting Relates to Training

Intermittent fasting is a great tool to compliment your training, especially for those looking to lose weight. Exercising during a fasted state helps your body burn more fat, here’s how.

When you eat and then exercise, your body is burning the readily available calories from your food. Those carbs are being used before they can be stored away. So, when you train during a fast, your body doesn’t have those easy-to-use calories and is required to pull from your fat storages. 

But, it’s important to be careful about training while intermittent fasting as you become leaner. Training in your fasting period can start to actually burn muscle when all of your fat storages are gone on top of not having any calories from food to take from.

More on how to train properly while doing intermittent fasting later.

How Intermittent Fasting Helps You Lose Weight

In addition to intermittent fasting burning fat while training, it can also increase weight loss by curing overeating. When you have a restricted window of time to eat, people tend to eat less. 

Plus, when you finally do eat, it gives your metabolism a boost. One study found that intermittent fasting helped people lose more weight than those who were on calorie-restrictive diets alone.

Tips for Exercising While Intermittent Fasting

If your fitness goal is to lose excess weight, then training during your fasting period could help you achieve amazing results. Perhaps you’ll work out in the morning before breaking your fast for lunch. 

If you don’t have excess weight to lose but what to reap the other benefits of intermittent fasting including disease prevention and reduced blood pressure, it may be best to train during your eating window. That way, you can take advantage of the post-workout benefits of fasting after your training. After all, kickboxing is a HIIT workout that continues to burn fat for hours after a session using EPOC.

Give intermittent fasting a try and use the flexibility of your OOMPH app to switch up your schedule and see what feels best for your body. Start now with a 7-day free trial!