Ifs & buts...

Mona

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Do you know what is common between Hugh Jackman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth and Beyonce? Yes, true they are celebs with millions of followers, beyond that please. Closer home it’s Hrithik Roshan who swears by it...

Hint— it’s our age-old practice that’s caught the fancy of the celebs around the world. Well, it’s Intermittent Fasting (IF), the recent fad to hit the health conscious has taken over the celebs. While fasting is nothing new in the land of Navratras and Rozas, the Gen I, however, prefers to walk the IF lanes...

What is IF?

More than a diet, it’s a pattern of eating. It’s your day divided into two windows – one that of fast, other of eating. Like you fast for 12 hours and eat the six hours window packing your two meals and snacks. The time one schedules according to one’s convenience and as one progresses the fasting window increases.

How it works

Like how most diet works! Lesser calories equal to losing weight. The restricted time window curtails the number of calories one consumes leading to weight loss. The body going in the fasting mode and then overload of calories before calling it a day. In the fasting period the body derives energy from the fat reserves. 

Who’s it best for?

The diet is for disciplined folks. To remain hungry for 12 hours or more needs some resilience. This automatically works better with later risers. Say, if you have had your last meal at 8 at night. Till 12, it gives a window of 18 hours fasting. Those who have not been able to hit the weight loss plateau have got good results.

Schedule it

With no hard and fast rule, one can schedule it to one’s convenience. There are most common time brackets:

12:12 

For the beginners it may come at 12:12 with a long 12 hours of eating window. Say, if you have breakfast at 7 and finish your last meal at 7, you are getting 12 hours of fasting. 

16:8

It takes sheer mental resolve to be fasting for 16 hours straight. In the eight hours of eating, one can still pack two meals with snacks in between.

20:4

20:4 is the real challenge. To squeeze in most nutrition within four hours. It generally leaves window only for one big meal followed by snacking.

OMAD or One Meal A Day

One meal a day and packing something like 1500-1800 calories along with nutrition to sustain one for the next meal the next day is rather extreme.

5:2 Alternate Day Fasting

It stands for having two days on some 500 calories while one goes through the other days at regular pattern. Famous TV show host Jimmy Kimmel is a fan of this. 

Dos and don’ts

• It works only if one sticks to the patterned eating long enough. One week they say it takes for the body clock to adjust. 
• Top it up with restricted calories intake. If one’s piling up too many calories in the eating window, IF would be rendered ineffective.
• Ensure a balance of meal – macro – carbs, protein and fats in the right proportion balanced with micro nutrients to ensure the body works properly.
• Time when you eat is of significance. A starving body for long hours would go slow post a heavy meal. So, here the dinner becomes important as against other diets systems that prefer to keep dinner light.
• Liquid intake must be proper. There is a ban on eating, not drinking. Hydrate well, plenty of water, green tea or black coffee your best bet.
• A few weeks of Intermittent Fasting can help one reach desired fitness goals, however, beyond that is neither sustainable nor advisable.

It works for me 

Intermittent Fasting is my go to hack whenever I want to go lean. I opt for 5:2 that is two days of fasting a week. I started in 2011 when the term wasn’t that popular, a meal a day fitted well in my schedule for I like to work out on empty stomach. The deal is to have that one meal to be balanced. When starved body burns fat to derive energy that leads to leaner looks.    — Abheyjiit Attri, actor

(With inputs for nutritionist Pallavi Jassal and Nidhi Sharma)

mona@tribunemail.com