Intro To Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting has grown in popularity over the past few years, with editorial and research pieces on the topic popping up everywhere. Celebrities such as Jennifer Anniston and Kourtney Kardashian have openly shared their love of this intuitive way of eating, and its numerous health benefits.

As a Nutritional Therapist specialising in weight management our Fab Founder, Gabriela Peacock, is an advocate for incorporating intermittent fasting into your lifestyle for both weight management and the array of other benefits that stem from this way of eating.But if the terms 16:8, 5:2 and 4:3 just look like numbers to you, we’ve broken down the basics of how intermittent fasting works and its benefits:

There are a number of different ways to ‘fast’, but here are a few of the most popular (and our Founder’s faves):

Alternate Day Fasting
This involves alternating between ‘fasting’ and ‘normal eating’ days. On a ‘fasting day’ women consume 500 calories and men eat 600 calories. This method is the most effective for weight loss and it helps sustain a calorie deficit if you eat mindfully on your ‘normal eating’ days. Our GP4:3 plan is based on the principles of alternate day fasting and makes the process simple so you can fit it around your lifestyle.

5:2
This involves ‘fasting’ for 2 days a week and eating normally for 5 with the same calorific limits as alternate day fasting.

Timed Eating
This is a daily variation of intermittent fasting involving limiting your food consumption to a restricted ‘feeding window’. The most popular method of timed easting is 16:8; this involves ‘fasting’ for 16 hours then eating all your meals in an 8 hour window. Unlike intermittent fasting methods based on a weekly timeframe, the ‘fasting window’ in this daily variation requires you to consume only 0 calorie liquids.

How It Works:

It’s all about the BS (blood sugar that is):
The food we eat is broken down by enzymes in our gut and eventually ends up in our bloodstream as sugars. Our cells use the sugar from our food for energy, in particular carbohydrates like refined grains and processed sugars are broken down very quickly into blood sugar. If our cells don’t use these sugars for energy they get stored as fat. But sugar can only enter our cells with insulin. Insulin essentially traps sugar into our fat cells. However, in between meals/ during periods where we’re not eating our fat cells can release these stored sugars to be used as energy. So, our bodies will use stored fats when our insulin levels decrease. By implementing periods of fasting into our lifestyles we’re encouraging this process.

Show Your Cells Some Love:
Periods of fasting have been shown to have a slowing effect on cell ageing and increase cell longevity. It can also help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress in the body. Intermittent fasting can also help promote cellular repair processes.

Calorie Deficit:
We all know that to lose weight we need to maintain that all important calorie deficit. Because you’re either eating in timed periods or consuming fewer calories on certain days you’re more likely to maintain a calorie deficit. It basically helps you consume fewer calories overall - a lot of our GP4:3 customers say they’ve become more mindful in what they eat in general and it’s helped them become more aware of the calorie density of the foods they eat.

Give Your Gut a Break:
Intermittent fasting gives your digestive system a break from all the hard work it does digesting and assimilating food. Fasting may help protect your gut microbiome which in turn can help boost your immune system!