Intermittent Fasting for Women: What's This New Trend?

In recent years, intermittent fasting women has gained more popularity.

By combining regular short-term fasts into your schedule, intermittent fasting focuses on when to eat rather than the majority of diets, which instruct you on what to eat.
You may be able to consume less calories, lose weight, and reduce your risk of diabetes and heart disease by following this eating plan.

Numerous studies, however, contend that women may not benefit from intermittent fasting in the same way as males do. Because of this, women might need to adopt a different strategy.

Here is a thorough introduction to women’s intermittent fasting.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

A practise of eating known as intermittent fasting (IF) alternates between fasting and regular meal times.

The most popular techniques include fasting every other day, every day for 16 hours, or twice a week for 24 hours. All regimens shall be referred to as intermittent fasting for the duration of this essay.

Contrary to most diets, intermittent fasting doesn’t need keeping track of your macronutrients or calories. It is actually more of a lifestyle than a diet because there are no rules regarding what foods to eat or avoid.

Intermittent fasting is a popular method of weight loss since it makes it easy to consume less and burn off body fat.

Additionally, it might lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease, maintain muscle mass, and enhance psychological wellbeing. This eating pattern can also help you save time in the kitchen by requiring you to plan, prepare, and cook fewer meals.

Benefits of IF for Women:

In addition to helping you lose weight, intermittent fasting may also reduce your risk of contracting a number of chronic illnesses.

Heart Health:

A common cause of death in the world is heart disease.

Some of the main risk factors for the development of heart disease include high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, and high triglyceride levels.

In just eight weeks, intermittent fasting reduced blood pressure by 6% in one study of 16 obese men and women. The same study discovered that intermittent fasting reduced triglycerides by 32% and LDL cholesterol by 25%.

Diabetes:

Your risk of acquiring diabetes may be effectively managed and decreased with intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting appears to lessen some of the risk factors for diabetes, much like continuous calorie restriction does.

It accomplishes this primarily by decreasing insulin levels and insulin resistance.

Weight Loss:

When done correctly, intermittent fasting can be a simple and efficient method of weight loss since frequent, brief fasts can reduce your calorie intake and help you lose weight. Numerous studies indicate that for short-term weight loss, intermittent fasting is just as effective as conventional calorie-restricted diets.

It should be highlighted that more research is needed to determine the long-term effects of intermittent fasting on female weight loss.

Intermittent fasting appears to help with weight loss in the short term. However, the amount you lose will probably rely on how many calories you eat throughout the day and how long you maintain the lifestyle,

How Intermittent Fasting Affects Hormones:

Your progesterone and oestrogen levels fluctuate over the course of the menstrual cycle. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is primarily responsible for controlling the rise and fall of your hormone levels. Fasting can prevent GnRH from doing its function and releasing the chemicals required to boost oestrogen and progesterone. GnRH can be quite sensitive to environmental influences.

The window of your cycle during which you can become pregnant is called ovulation, which is brought on by an increase in a few hormones. According to the hypothesis, fasting may cause your body to act as though there is a lack of food and that you could starve to death. These are not the best circumstances for a safe pregnancy. So, in order to avoid getting pregnant, your body suppresses ovulation.

This essentially lowers your body’s levels of oestrogen and progesterone, which can result in a variety of symptoms, such as: alterations to your menstrual cycle, a negative mood or irritation. sweating at night and hot flashes, headaches, hair fall, acne, difficulty sleeping and infertility.

Best Types of Intermittent Fasting:

There is no one strategy that works for everyone when it comes to dieting. This also holds true for sporadic fasting.

Generally speaking, women should approach fasting more laxly than men.

This may entail fewer fasting days, shorter fasting intervals, or taking fewer calories on the fasting days.

Some of the better forms of women’s intermittent fasting are listed below:

Crescendo Method:

Fasting for two to three days a week for 12 to 16 hours. It is recommended to space out fasting days evenly throughout the week, such as on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Eat-stop-eat,

or the “24-hour protocol” a full 24-hour fast once or twice per week (no more than twice per week for women). Start with fasts lasting 14–16 hours and gradually increase.
Diet plan 5:2

(sometimes known as “The Fast Diet”): Eat “normally” the other five days of the week while limiting calories to 25% of your typical intake (or roughly 500 calories) on the other two days. Allow a day in between days of fasting.
Modified alternate-day fasting

is when you fast every other day but consume food “normally” on the days you don’t fast. On a fasting day, you are permitted to ingest 20–25% (or roughly 500 calories) of your daily caloric consumption.
The 16/8 Method

(also known as the “Leangains method”): 16 hours of fasting every day, followed by an eight-hour window during which you consume all of your calories. It is recommended for women to begin with 14-hour fasts and work their way up to 16 hours.

No matter what you decide, it’s still crucial to maintain a healthy diet throughout the non-fasting periods. You might not see the same weight loss and health benefits if you consume a lot of bad, calorie-dense meals during the non-fasting periods.

The optimal course of action is ultimately one that you can endure, maintain over time, and has no detrimental effects on your health.

Intermittent Fasting for 40 – 65 years:

You are not alone if you are gaining weight because of the menopause. There are a lot of women just beside you. Life can be difficult at times.

The good news is that intermittent fasting might be beneficial. Short-term studies demonstrate that IF programmes like 18/6 can help both pre- and post-menopausal women shed weight.
Eat enough protein, and include strength training in your weekly schedule.

Of course, anyone of any age can take medication. However, as we age, we tend to use more prescription drugs. If you’re taking anything, be sure to check in with your doctor before starting any intermittent fasting plan, and continue taking them as prescribed (with food, on an empty stomach, etc.) even if you’re doing IF.

The Bottom-Line:

Regular, brief fasts are part of the intermittent fasting dietary pattern.

The 5:2 diet, modified alternate-day fasting, and daily fasts lasting 14 to 16 hours are the best options for women.

However, some research suggests that intermittent fasting may have adverse consequences on some women’s reproductive health and blood sugar levels. Intermittent fasting has been demonstrated to be advantageous for heart health, diabetes, and weight loss.

However, adjusted forms of intermittent fasting seem safe for the majority of women and might be a better choice than longer or more stringent fasts.

Women should absolutely think about intermittent fasting if they want to reduce their weight or get healthier.