Keeping up with health trends, what’s healthy, and “what works” can cause a major headache. It seems like every day someone is coming out with a new way to eat, to burn fat faster, or avoid eating in some cases. Intermittent Fasting is a style of eating, which often promotes an idea of freedom with food choices and suggests that it’s easier to fit into busy schedules. Before you cross over, consider a few of these reasons why Intermittent Fasting may not be the ideal diet for everyone.
Strict Structure
With the freedom to indulge on many foods most diets advise to avoid, Intermittent Fasting also comes with… fasting. Yes, that means there are long stretches where individuals are required to avoid eating. Fasting, as one can imagine, is a crucial part of intermittent fasting. If this part is disregarded, a person may not see the weight loss results they were hoping for, or sometimes can result in weight gain. Fasting during specific hours are a strict requirement of this type of eating, and sometimes this can be difficult to integrate into everyday life. Especially if you’re suppose to be fasting but you’re body is telling you you’re hungry. Intermittent fasting may work well on busy days, but is not quite as flexible on other days.
All Eyes on Food
As mentioned before, Intermittent Fasting promises to create a feeling of being stress-free with your eating habits by promoting a time limit to be able to eat relatively what you want. However, depending on the structure of fasting you choose, your days may be more focused on when you’re eating more than before. With the focus entirely on when you are or aren’t eating, you may find your days more limited as it takes a little more work to make sure you’re getting all your nutrients in during the small windows of time to eat. While you may have more freedom in food choices while practicing intermittent fasting, you might find yourself limited on how to plan your day around it.
May Not Promote Quality
Intermittent Fasting does not necessarily promote quality eating patterns. While of course the goal is to eat well balanced and healthy meals, eating infrequently or in large quantities all at once leads to increased cravings for less healthy items. Preventing yourself from eating when you’re naturally hungry tends to magnify the intensity of your appetite and cravings. Ever grab a plate of food and afterwards think, “My eyes were bigger than my stomach,” often followed by the feeling of being overly full? Getting to that point of extreme hunger often leads to overeating or eating less quality foods more frequently. Even if you’re trying to burn more fat via fasting, it’s not effective if you find yourself caving to cravings often.
When it comes to eating healthy, don’t make it complicated! Depriving yourself of food is something we never want to promote. Eating frequent, well-balanced meals are much easier to incorporate into everyday life and much more satisfying. Don’t get lost in trendy diets, stick to a way of eating that allows freedom to enjoy all foods anytime of the day!