Intermittent Fasting For Women: How To Effortlessly Improve Health, Control Hunger, Lose Weight

Intermittent fasting is a very natural way of structuring our eating. Before we had a constant supply of food on demand, fasting was the norm, and it is still a very natural process for many animals, some of which don’t eat for weeks or months at a time while hibernating. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors, after all, did not have the luxury of constant access to food, so fasting was not really a choice for them, but they survived some seriously difficult conditions all the same.

Our energy requirements are, of course, very different today than they were during the age that we had to hunt our own food. At that time, we needed bursts of energy in order to overcome situations that occasionally cropped up. Today, our energy requirements are more sustained, so it stands to reason that we would not fast for extended periods.
In explaining what intermittent fasting is, it is perhaps pertinent to explain what it is not. Intermittent fasting is not a free ticket to binge on everything your eyes see as long as you ‘starve’ yourself within the required period. Anyone approaching intermittent fasting from such a standpoint is doing themselves more harm than good. The basics of good nutrition, lean proteins, plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, good sources of fiber, and good fats do not change because you are structuring the times at which you eat. If you wish to see all of the benefits that intermittent fasting can offer, then maintaining good nutrition with the occasional treat is imperative.

Intermittent fasting has nothing to do with starving yourself. The term ‘starvation’ implies that you do not have access to food and that you are, in some way, experiencing negative health effects from not eating. Starvation is generally not deliberate or controlled. Instead, intermittent fasting means that although you do have access to food, you choose when to eat and the experience is not damaging to your health in the way that starvation would be. Intermittent fasting involves assigning a pattern for eating around specific times.
You may be wondering how that is any different from eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at specific times. If you consider the fact that you usually don’t eat meals at specific times but rather when and if you are hungry, that shows a distinct difference between the two ideas. When you practice intermittent fasting, you structure your day in fasting hours and eating hours.

It does take a mindset change to introduce intermittent fasting as a lifestyle since you have likely grown up with the idea that having three square meals per day is the healthiest way to eat. We have also had phrases like “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” drummed into our heads, which is usually just a marketing tool for sugar-filled cereal brands.
An intermittent fasting lifestyle has a huge number of health benefits including weight loss, fat burning, stabilization of blood sugar, limiting of disease, increased rate of cell repair, and increased longevity.

Remember: Intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody. It's not something that everybody needs to do. It's simply an instrument that can be valuable for certain individuals.
Once you’ve made up your mind to attempt intermittent fasting, always bear in mind that you have to eat well too. It's unrealistic to gorge on food during the eating time frames and hope to get more fit and improve in wellbeing.