Hi Steemians, here is just a repost from my blog, I thought it'd be useful to some during the upcoming festive season. I'm a Nutrition Therapist, so any questions you have you are welcome to send my way.
Today's media is inundated by infomercials selling the newest diet and fat burning pills, crazy exercise plans or telling you to juice more than any rational person would care to consider. The fact of the matter is that millions of people have tried these diets and seen little or no results. So I have decided to put together a list of scientifically proven methods for naturally losing weight without needing crazy diet plans, forcing yourself to swallow unpleasant pills or running endless miles only to see no results.
The following methods are known to work based on studies proving their effectiveness.
Intermittent Fasting - The goal of intermittent fasting for weight loss is not just to reduce calorie intake, but to lower insulin levels. This is because insulin is the primary fat storing hormone. Intermittent fasting has been misunderstood my many thinking that they can conduct a fast, and then eat just anything during their feeding window. This train of logic is detrimental because though the insulin levels are lowered during fasting, if a person proceeds to eat foods that spike their blood sugar and insulin levels high enough, the body can actually go back into fat storing mode. So the point with intermittent fasting is to make sure that the foods you eat will not spike your blood sugar or insulin levels.
2. Eliminate Sweets, processed foods and junk foods - These foods all fall under two categories. C.R.A.P foods, and empty calories. Did you know that two thirds of food intake in modern countries consists of fat, refined sugars and refined flours? These are all referred to as empty calories or in the case of fat (ldl cholesterol). They are empty because they provide no nutritional value to your body, and actually rob your body of much needed nutrients and antioxidants turning it into a toxic environment ripe for disease to take hold.
The second Category being C.R.A.P foods, which stands for Carbonated Drinks, Refined Sugar, Artificial colors, flavoring and alcohol and processed products. C.R.A.P foods continue to build on the empty calorie category, except with these foods they actually include ingredients that steal the nutrients from your body leaving you feeling cloudy, drowsy, or fatigued and as most C.R.A.P foods contain refined sugar they are likely to cause you to overeat leading to gaining weight.
Keto Fasting - This is a combination of the Ketogenic diet, and fasting. This diet being more rigid you will have to adhere to a specific macronurtient split (carbohydrates, proteins and lipids) to achieve the best and fastest fat burning results from fasting. With this method you should set up a routine of daily fasting and breaking the fast, and during the feeding window, minimize carbohydrate consumption to under 10% of your daily calorie intake. For example when I tried this method I would fast until 12pm, have my feeding window until 6pm and start the fast again until 12pm next day. Some of the results I noticed using this method were feeling more energy, a more stable and positive mindset during the day, no more mental fog, an ability to enjoy peace and quiet without feeling anxious or needing to comfort eat, and feeling happier in general.
Extend the length of your fast - As we now know that fasting is one of the most effective ways of lowering insulin levels (the fat storing hormone), we can logically assume and see that extending the period of fasting can further speed up the fat burning process in the body at an exponential rate. So instead of having a feeding window of 8 hours, eventually with experience you can lower it to 6 and even 4 hours. There are some athletes and bodybuilders that only eat 1 meal a day and are in extremely healthy shape, even outperforming their competition.
I hope you got something of value from my post.
Thanks for reading.
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