Can you believe that fasting can help you be fit? Most of you may not believe this. People think that only going to the gym and following a strict diet can keep your body in fit shape. Many people may be taking New Year Resolutions for 2020 to do so.
Now, you don’t need to sweat in a Gym or miss your favorite dishes. All you need to do is to fast and get similar results. Mark Mattson, Ph.D., is a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He concludes on December 26th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine that “intermittent fasting can lead to a healthy lifestyle”.
You can adopt intermittent fasting in two ways: one, daily time-restricted feeding, that will give you a narrow window during which you can eat. It is usually 6-8 hours a day. Another way is 5:2 intermittent fasting. People need to eat only one moderate-sized meal twice each week.
Mattson was researching the impact of intermittent fasting on health for the past 25 years. He was himself following this for 20 years. He found on researching that fasting and eating in rotations can help in cellular growth. This alternation help cells to release fats stored in them to be used as energy. This alternation helps in improving blood sugar regulation, resistance to stress and prevents inflammation.
As most people take three meals a day, they don’t get benefits from this. Not just this, it also decreases blood pressure, blood lipid levels and resting heart rates. It can also decrease the risks of diabetes and obesity. Mattson also told about its benefits for brain health.
A survey at the University of Toronto found that healthy adults who kept a constrained calorie diet showed improved memory signs in a series of tests.
According to Mattson, the researchers have not fully understood its mechanism till now. And some people are not ready to accept their routines. It takes time for the body to accommodate intermittent fasting. Hunger and irritation are common feelings in the starting period. After some time the brain and body become familiar with it.