Unlock the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting in Blackpool
Many have given intermittent fasting a go as a method for managing weight or supporting healthy insulin and cholesterol levels. However, most don’t stick at it long enough to really see the benefits. The good news is that there are several ways to succeed at intermittent fasting—and the efforts are truly worth it. Keep these do’s and don’ts in mind as you incorporate intermittent fasting into your lifestyle here in sunny Blackpool.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
First off, let’s ensure we’re on the same page about what intermittent fasting actually is. Put simply, intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of eating and fasting each day. The idea is to go longer periods of time—say, 16 hours, much of which is while you’re sleeping—without eating. This allows your body to tap into stored fat for energy and supports healthy blood sugar levels.
With that in mind, let’s start with some tips that will help you get the best results from intermittent fasting right here in Blackpool.
Do:
- Start slow. You wouldn’t jump straight from couch potato to marathon runner. The same principle applies to intermittent fasting. If going full cold turkey feels a bit much, then start with small, achievable goals, like not snacking after dinner or eating breakfast an hour later. Then gradually work towards a longer fasting period as your body adjusts.
- Pick the intermittent fasting schedule that works for you. Many find the best results with the 16:8 method, which means fasting for 16 hours between dinner and your first meal the next day. For example, you would eat all your meals between noon and 8 p.m., and then fast until noon the next day. Feel free to adjust your fast start and end times to work best with your lifestyle. If you need to eat earlier in the day, try starting your fast at 5 or 6 p.m. If a 16-hour fast isn’t feasible, cut back to 12 or 14 hours. The trick is to find a fasting length that is doable long term. Try as many schedules as necessary to find the one that you’ll be able to maintain.
- Drink lots of water. It’s good to give our bodies breaks from food, but not from water. Staying hydrated helps our bodies function better overall. Plus, drinking plenty of water helps us feel fuller and curb cravings.
- Eat wholesome meals. However long your eating window lasts, make sure to fill it with fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, lean protein, and fiber. Fueling your body with wholesome foods not only helps you get the nutrients you need each day, but also makes it easier to go longer periods without food. Foods high in sugar and simple carbs (like white bread and pasta) often leave you feeling hungry an hour later and can lead to inconvenient cravings.
- Keep an IF journal. When you’re first getting started, track the foods you eat, the different schedules you’ve tried, and how you feel each day. This will help you determine what is and isn’t working so you can build a long-term plan customized to your needs.
Don’ts:
- Binge during your eating window. Just because you fasted for 16 hours doesn’t mean you get a free pass to eat all the things for eight hours straight. The food you eat still matters, even though you’re consuming it in smaller amounts of time. Focus on wholesome foods and try to avoid high-calorie foods that aren’t filling.
- Avoid extreme calorie restriction. Be careful not to swing to the other extreme and not eat enough. Remember, intermittent fasting isn’t a diet, but rather a time-based eating pattern that allows our bodies to tap into stored fat for energy, rather than relying on a constant supply of carbohydrates.
- Give up too soon. To start to see the benefits of intermittent fasting—and trust me, there are many!—you’ll need to stick with it for at least 30 days. Once your body is used to its new time-based eating schedule, that’s when you’ll really start to see results. If you find intermittent fasting too hard, try fasting for a shorter time rather than giving up altogether. Who knows, after getting used to fasting for 12 or 14 hours a day, you might be able to bump that window up to 16 hours without too much trouble.
- Expect perfection. You don’t have to nail intermittent fasting every single day to succeed. A bad day will not diminish your progress. A late-night dinner with friends won’t set you back indefinitely. Interruptions are a normal part of life, and your eating habits will be affected from time to time. The key is to aim for consistency rather than perfection. As long as you’re intermittent fasting correctly most of the time, you’ll be on the right track.
When Willpower Isn’t Enough
When it comes down to it, willpower alone may not be enough to succeed at intermittent fasting long-term. Luckily, with a little help, intermittent fasting becomes much more doable.
Two Unicity products—Unimate and Balance—work together to help you extend the time between dinner and your first meal the following day. Unimate is a yerba mate drink that contains up to 10 times the amount of chlorogenic acid (the feel-good, “get-up-and-go” component) found in a premium cup of coffee. It helps boost mood and supports mental stamina, focus, and motivation. It also helps fend off cravings and reenergize between meals.
Balance is a pre-meal drink with a patented fiber matrix that includes bioactive plant compounds, polysaccharides, and micronutrients. The fiber matrix is designed to help ease some of the impact that excess carbohydrates and cholesterol can have, and the soluble fibers help curb your appetite.
We call these two products combined with intermittent fasting the Feel Great Program because, well, people feel great when they stick to this method. Learn more about the Feel Great Program and see how it can help you get the most out of intermittent fasting, making the process smoother and more effective.