You have probably heard about intermittent fasting, the latest craze in dieting. But there’s another method of fasting that has been getting a lot of attention lately and that is reverse fasting.
Reverse fasting is somewhat similar to intermittent fasting. However, instead of fasting later in the day, this method of fasting requires that you eat your meals early in the day.
Read on to better understand how this method works and whether it’s really effective in helping you to lose weight.
What Is Reverse Fasting?
Fasting involves eating restrictively, which often results in extreme hunger pangs. With reverse fasting, you will not really restrict yourself by skipping meals. Instead, you just need to change your eating time.
For instance, instead of eating dinner at 8 PM, you will eat it at an earlier time, around 6 PM. When you wake up on the following day, you’ll break your fast by eating breakfast at around 6 AM. With this method, you’ll basically be fasting for 12 hours (from 6 PM to 6 AM). Since you’ll be sleeping for quite a lot of the time during this period, this method of fasting is doable for most people.
“With reverse fasting, you’ll fast when sleeping, meaning fewer feelings of hunger that may have been felt in the day.”
Can Reverse Fasting Help With Weight Loss?
It’s hard for most people to follow a particular diet program. This is why the reverse fasting method appeals to a lot of people who want an easier way to shed some pounds. Just like intermittent fasting, this method may also help with weight loss. Known in the medical world as “time-restricted eating”, the method has been well studied.
Both intermittent fasting and reverse fasting can help you lose weight but eating an early dinner is said to be more beneficial. This is why reverse fasting is said to be better than intermittent fasting. With this type of fasting, starving will be prevented because you will wake up to a breakfast meal after fasting for 12 hours straight.
Power of Circadian Rhythm
Reverse fasting is mainly about using the power of circadian rhythm in informing your body of your sleep-wake cycle and eating schedule. Basically, when nighttime comes, the actions of digestion will be turned off and the repair and restoration will be activated.
Our bodies at night will also become less sensitive to insulin. At this time, our body would rather focus on repairing genes, hormones, and gut health. So if you eat your dinner late in the evening, you could end up preventing your body from doing all these.
Your digestion is slower at night and this could lead to fat gain. But if you eat earlier, the digestive genes are usually more active and the food will be digested well and burned faster, leading to weight loss.
Conclusion
Remember that there’s no fast and easy way to lose weight. Although reverse fasting is truly effective in helping you lose weight, you also need to watch what you eat. Even if you eat dinner early, but you stuff yourself with unhealthy foods, you may still not lose weight.
If you’re going to follow this method of fasting, try to incorporate it with a healthy eating plan, such as a low carb diet like the keto diet. Also, when you break your fast in the morning, make sure you eat nutrient rich fruits and vegetables that can fuel you up for the entire day. As much as possible, avoid eating unhealthy processed foods.
If done right, reverse fasting can offer you with lots of health benefits, including weight loss and reversal of diabetes.
