Intermittent Fasting Diet and Menu

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) is currently one of the most popular health and fitness trends in the world. People use this diet to lose weight, improve their health and simplify their lifestyle. Plus, many studies show that intermittent fasting can have powerful effects on your body and brain, and may even help you live longer.

This article is a special guide for those new to the intermittent fasting diet.

What is Intermittent Fasting (IF)?

Intermittent fasting (IF) is an eating pattern that alternates between periods of fasting and eating. It tells you when you should eat them, not what foods you should eat. In this respect, it is not a diet in the traditional sense, but more accurately defined as an eating pattern. Common intermittent fasting methods include fasting for 16 hours a day or intermittent fasting for 24 hours twice a week.

Fasting has been a practice throughout human evolution. Ancient hunter-gatherers had no supermarkets, refrigerators, or food. Sometimes they could not find anything to eat. Naturally, as humanity, we are in a structure that is suitable for being hungry for a long time. In fact, occasional intermittent fasting is more natural than eating 3-4 meals a day all the time. So it’s in our nature!

This diet method, which is very popular in the world, has made this diet method very popular in Turkey with the Buse Terim intermittent fasting program. At the same time, doctors such as Osman Müttüoğlu contributed to the introduction of this method.

How Is Intermittent Fasting Done?

There are several different ways to do intermittent fasting, all of which consist of splitting the day or week into periods of eating and fasting. During fasting, you eat very little or not at all.

Most Popular Intermittent Fasting Methods

The 16/8 method: Also called the Leangains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and limiting your daily eating time to 8 hours, such as between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. Then you fast for the remaining 16 hours.
Eat-Stop-Eat: This includes fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week, such as not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next.
5:2 diet: With this method, you only consume 500-600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the week, but eat normally for the other 5 days.
All of these methods should result in weight loss unless you compensate by reducing your calorie intake by eating much more during periods of eating.

Many people consider 16/8 intermittent fasting to be the simplest, most sustainable, and easiest to stick to. The same is most popular among those who lose weight with intermittent fasting.

 

Intermittent Fasting Diet List Sample Menu (16/8 Method)

For those who are new to the intermittent fasting diet, we have prepared an example of an intermittent fasting diet list that is both easy and effective to apply. This is purely exemplary. You may also be eating your normal diet. The rule of thumb here is to starve for 16 hours and eat only within 8 hours. When we look at the comments of those who do intermittent fasting, you can see that this method is mostly used. Although what to eat in intermittent fasting seems like a logical question, our main question should be not to consume food during fasting hours rather than what to eat. So first of all, learn to comply with it, then you organize the food you eat.

Intermittent Fasting Hours

Before 12 o’clock:

1 cup of filter coffee or green tea

At 12:00:

Egg (2 pieces) omelet with curd cheese
Whole grain bread (2 slices)
Olives, cucumbers, tomatoes

At 15:00:

5 whole walnuts or 10-15 almonds

At 19.00:

Soup
Fish, veggie stew or chicken
Yogurt or salad

After 20:00:

Herbal teas
How Much Weight Can You Lose With Intermittent Fasting?

We know that you are most curious about the answer to this question. But let’s say this, whoever gives numbers about diet is lying. Therefore, we will not say the number again, because the question of how much weight is lost with intermittent fasting varies from person to person and according to the amount of calories taken at the time of eating. But it is a fact that you will get results. Just try it!

 

What Are the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting?

When you fast, many things happen in your body on a cellular and molecular level. For example, your body adjusts hormone levels to make stored body fat more accessible. Your cells also initiate important repair processes.

Here are some changes that occur in your body when you do intermittent fasting:

Growth Hormone (HGH): Growth hormone levels rise up to 5 times. It has benefits for fat loss and muscle gain, to name a few.
Insulin: Insulin sensitivity increases and insulin levels drop significantly. Lower insulin levels make stored body fat more accessible.
Cellular repair: When starved, your cells initiate cellular repair processes. This includes autophagy, where cells digest and remove old and dysfunctional proteins that build up inside them.
Gene function: genes involved in longevity and protection against disease