What to Consider When on Intermittent Fasting

Definitely, you heard of this diet technique and heard a number of nutritionists telling poems and legends about it.

We all dream of the fastest diet plan that can remove a great amount of kilograms in no time. Though we are always warned by doctors and nutritionists that nothing works as magic to turn our shape into new ones in a blink of an eye without severe consequences, we have never stop pursuing any trendy alluring diets emerging from time to time.

Intermittent fasting is one of the diet plans that went viral recently and as usual lots of people viewed it as a magical solution.

Its pattern, as described by dietitians, is all about quitting eating everything for 14-16 with the permission to drink preferably tea and coffee with no sugar or artificial sweeteners for the sake of boosting metabolism.

Theoretically, it leads to weight loss dramatically. Since this pattern is familiar to us in the Islamic world for being similar to our religious fasting’s one in Ramadan month, we practice it in the same way except the part of drinking during the cutout hours. We are not allowed to drink anything during the 14-16 hours, not even water.

In the intermittent’s method, during the open 8 hours, you can eat and drink, but some people overconsume food during this period, which means they lose the benefit of quitting eating all those long hours. If even adhered to the calories, in the long run, they start to feel dizzy, increase in heartbeats and symptoms of low sugar or low blood tension, as a result of the high intake of caffeine with no sugar at all as well as stomach troubles from tea and coffee consumption to an empty stomach.

This is how practically this diet plan does to the body.

I am not talking about here out of doctors warnings, or researchers‘ conclusions, rather, out of my own experience.

When I heard of it for the first time, I was excited to try it as it had positive reviews from all. So, I said to myself “it is not new to me, at least I will be able to have tea and coffee“ and I started.

The first day, there was a little hunger but I felt no problem.

The second day, I felt a little dizzy after the second mug of tea.

The third day, I had an increase of heartbeats.

The fourth day, I felt dizzy, blurring vision, cold fingers.

The fifth day, I cut off tea, then I felt less dizzy but not much better than the past days.

At this moment, I decided not to follow it anymore even if it would make me Barbie. I realized it is not healthy at all especially to those prone to hypo-tension. Even to those healthy persons, they usually start to feel health complications in 4-6 weeks.

Though religious fasting is tiring but it has no teas and coffees during the cutout period. Hence, no severe hypo-tension or high caffeine intake symptoms. In addition, it does not last more than a month. After that, it can be done for two separate days a week and three successive days every month.

I believe if it had been easy and valid for the lifetime, God would have ordered us to stick to it forever. Luckily, It did not happen.

I believe that for all the above mentioned flaws, some professional dietitians recently showed up and warned against it. Consequently, I do not recommend it all.

Instead, I decided to have three meals a day, as per the old-fashioned regime we are familiar to, with approximately six/seven-hour intervals with nothing between them except a cup of tea, tea with milk or sometimes a cup of coffee. Besides, 30 minutes of exercise every other day was a good idea and accelerated the process immensely. That was a great, reasonable diet plan for me where I never felt hunger or change in heartbeats, and I lost weight healthily.

In case you have to apply it, avoid caffeine during the cutoff period, especially if you are prone to hypotension or low sugar symptoms. In addition, try not to apply it for long periods, rather, short intervals every few weeks. This way, it might be safer while you lose weight.