Get rid of your belly fat effortlessly…
You wake up one day, just an average day as always, and you put on your Saturday’s Best – Ready to hang out with your long-time friends whom you haven’t seen in decades… oh, what’s happening? Have your trousers started to shrink!? You shrug yourselves off, sucking your stomach in as you zip your pants on.
Then, you put on your favorite blazer, which symbolizes your unity amongst your peeps during university, that you’re about to meet again finally… oh, not again! Then, you started to question yourself; Did I use too much hot water? Maybe I need to call a maintenance specialist?
It’s a typical phase that most of us must face as we reach the age of 40, that we would like to reliveour times during our 20s. But soon, we realized our belly starts to protrude out and lose all hope and move on to something easier… being in denial.
Until you become self-aware of your current state, you would’ve continued with the unhealthy lifestyle until you reach a point where your body starts to fight back.
Now that you’re older and out of shape, performing strenuous exercises can worsenyour condition even further, so what can you resort to instead? Fasting.
What is Fasting?
Fasting is the practice of restricting oneself from food and drinks for a particular time per day or week.
Fasting is practice present in most religions, such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and more, to practice self-control and increase one’s purity.
However, fasting has recently become popularamongst the health and fitness community, and that’s what you are here for; how does one burn belly fat with the help of fasting?
Fasting 101
If you are new to the world of fasting, you may want to learn the common do’s and don’ts that people have come to realize for centuries.
To prevent you from making these mistakes, I’ve prepared some things you can follow and ease your weight loss journey:
Watch Your Calories!
You think that just because you’re fasting, you can eat whatever and however much you want, but think again… the biggest mistake most newbies face when they go through the fasting period, and by the end of it – they gain more weight!
Therefore, you will learn how to prevent that, and if you do decide to binge a bit, you can at least understand the right foods to eat.
What to Eat Before and After a Fast
The first thing you want to eat to prepare for the long fast is making you full longer. That means eating fatty foods, which sounds ironic as many associate this with making you fat, but that’s not the case!
Simply put, insulin is the primary suspect for your weight gain. What causes them to spike is taking in more refined carbohydrates and sugar, which weakens your insulin sensitivity; that leads to your body storing excess carbohydrates into fat rather than energy.
To combat this terrible cycle, restricting your carbohydrate intake and consuming more fats as your primary energy source will help take your body into ketosis.
This process allows your body to start burning fat as your primary fuel instead of glucose – helping you burn both dietary and body fat as energy and lose more weight throughout your fasting period.
Also, during your ketosis mode, the body will start to regulate your insulin and leptin hormone functions, which will decrease your appetite and faster weight loss.
So, what should you eat to achieve these benefits?
The ketogenic diet is your safest bet for those who are obese and having trouble losing weight through exercise alone.
Following a ketogenic diet plan and fasting together can help you finally burn those pesky belly fat for good! Here are some of the foods that will help you eat your belly fat away much easier:
● meat: red meat, steak, ham, sausage, bacon, chicken, and turkey
● fatty fish: salmon, trout, tuna, and mackerel
● healthy oils: extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil
● eggs
● avocados: whole avocados or freshly made guacamole
● cheese: unprocessed cheeses, e.g., cheddar, goat, cream, blue, or mozzarella
● low carb veggies: green veggies, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc.
● butter and cream: grass-fed butter and heavy cream
● nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, etc.
● condiments: salt, pepper, herbs, and spices
Now that you’ve learned the right foods to eat, what type of fasting should you choose?
Types of fasting methods
There are plenty of fasting ways out there, and I’ll list some of the most popular fastings that one can get into below and see which one is right for you:
Intermittent Fasting (IF)
There are various types of fasting plans within IF, and the most popular one is called the 16/8 plan.
Suppose you choose to do IF; the most consensus among the health and fitness community is this plan. This plan consists of a 16 hour fast and an 8 hour feeding period.
This plan is popular because half of the fasting can also happen during your sleep, so if you average rest for 8 hours a day, you need to fast another 8 hours during the daytime.
So you will be missing breakfast and eat during the lunch period, which is eating between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. or noon and 8 p.m.
There are other plans within IF, and they are:
● 14/10 fasting plan (14 hours fasting, 10 hours feeding)
● 5:2 fasting (2 days of fasting)
● Eat:stop:eat method (24-hour fasting)
The 5:2 method is best for those who wish to fast during the weekends only, except for non-fasting days between them. You arelimited to consuming 500 calories (about 25% of the average daily calorie intake).
This method is a bit more difficult for newbies to perform despite having to fast for only two days per week, so those who has the willpower would do so?
Eat:stop:eat method is similar to the 5:2 way, but you are required to fast for the whole, which you can expect side effects, such as headaches, irritability, hunger, fatigue, and lack of energy.
Most people perform this method from breakfast – breakfast or lunch – lunch. Following this method, side effects will disappear once you return to your non-fasting days on a healthy diet plan.
Water Fasting
If you like to challengeyourselves, then water fasting is for you.
Water fasting is fasting, except for consuming water only throughout the period. This form of IF is the most challenging as you may have to fast for 24 hours to 72 hours, or if you can go through it, up to 21 days or more.
Before water fasting, you have to consult with your doctor and ensure that you are physically and mentally fit for the challenge. Then, once you get the green light, you can start preparing.
During the water fast, you can expect to drink around 9 – 13 cups of water per day and space them out by sipping a cup every hour or when you feel thirsty and drink sufficiently until your hunger slowly disappears.
Once you have completed your fast, start by breaking your fast with a healthy orange juice or apple juice, and gradually move towards a healthy diet by eating smaller portions every two hours.
This way, you can prevent yourself from binge eating and gain more weight, putting you in a worse position than before.
Type of Exercises
Fasting alone is beneficial towards your weight loss journey. Still, when combined with exercise during your fasting period, you can expect your weight loss journey to shorten the distance towards your destination.
However, before you start exercising, you must learn that your performance will not be the same as if you weren’t fasting. It’s also important to consult your physician before beginning any exercise routine and see if any of the exercises mentioned below is safe for you to perform.
Walking
Walking is the easiest way you can lose weight during a fast. To lose just 1 pound per week from walking, you need to take 10,000 steps per day or lose 500 calories per day. Sounds too much?
An average person walks at a pace of 4 miles per hour, burning roughly 400 calories per hour.
You can choose to walk around the track for 1 hour and 20 minutes and achieve the daily calorie deficit, or you can choose to select a destination with the same duration to reach there and back – exploring the surroundings throughout your journey.
Opt for the alternative if you decide that walking for you is a chore as this will motivate you to walk more throughout the journey.
For those who are fasting, you may not be able to fulfill these, but adding just a 30-minute walk is sufficient for you as your body is currently at ketosis, making you burn fat instead of glucose.
Staying in this phase will allow you to lose more than just 1 pound per day, making your weight loss destination closer.
Thus, it is the best time for obese individuals to start by following this daily walking routine, especially towards those over 40, as they begin developing knee problems.
Weight-lifting
Lifting heavy weights during fasting is not advisable for those who are fasting. However, your primary focus should not be on gaining muscles but on maintaining metabolism.
Metabolism is the process your body performs to produce and burn energy from food and drinks. Calories from eating, drinking, and breathing release the energy your body needs to function throughout the process.
Being is a continuous process; even when you’re lying on your couch, binge-watching Netflix for hours, your body still burns energy from breathing, blood circulation, controlling hormone levels, and maintaining cell health.
All these require a certain amount of calories your body needs daily, known as basal metabolic rate.
Everybody’s metabolism is different, and the factors that determine your metabolism includes:
● The older you get, the more your muscles start to decrease and be outweighed by your body fat, causing a calorie-burning decline.
● Gender – Males have less body fat & higher muscle density than women, despite similar age and weight, causing them to burn more calories.
● Body size – People who are muscular and massive tend to burn more calories, even at rest
What do all of these factors have in common? That’s right… your MUSCLES.
During your fasting period, you’ll start to lose a lot of muscle mass due to starvation, and your body starts to utilize your fatty acids to fuel your brain, instead of your muscles, transitioning your body into ‘survival mode’.
Then, since you haven’t eaten for some time, your body starts to burn away some of your “structural proteins” towards your brain health. These proteins are the source for your muscles, which begin to crumble the longer slowly you are into your fast – losing your muscle mass along the way.
Loss of muscles results in a lower metabolic rate, and thus, your fat burn rate starts to slow down. So how can you prevent this? By weightlifting.
Weight training can help you lose more weight during your fast and not sacrifice your lean muscles. At the end of your weight training session, your body will enter the ‘afterburn mode’. This allows your muscles to use more energy for its repair and cause you to lose more fat throughout your resting & fasting period – maintaining your metabolism throughout your fasting period.
If you plan on weight lifting, I advise you to start 1-2 hours after your meal at the beginning of your fast, so you’ll have the strength to lift heavier weights at shorter reps, but if you’re unable to, start with lighter weights.
Yoga
As a newbie, fasting can lead to lower energy levels throughout the day and make you want to eat straight after.
These activities can jeopardize your journey, and one way you can combat this feeling is to do yoga. Practicing yoga can be beneficial throughout your weight loss journey as it helps: aids digestion boosts your energy and prevents you from binging.
How?
Digestion starts to slow down from the inactivity from eating and drinking during your fast. As a result, it can lead to stomach discomfort and constipation caused by dehydration and inadequate dietary fiber intake.
By practicing yoga, you are aiding your digestion by performingphysical movement and increases blood circulation throughout your gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
In addition, practicing yoga will help boost your energy throughout the day. However, you can still gain power by performing deep stretches and slow movements in the absence of food.
Yoga not only benefits you physically but helps you mentally. It means that you will start to focus on what goes into your body by performing yoga daily – promoting mindful eating.
You’ll start to shun away from processed foods and start eating healthier in the long run. As a result, you’ll be mindful of the number of calories you consume per day, thus losing more weight faster.
By gaining all these benefits from yoga will help you get through your fasting by alleviatingsome of the side effects of fasting during the early fasting stages.
Who should not Fast
You may feel suspicious after learning all of these benefits of fasting and wondering whether this may cause more harm than benefits to you.
As explained above, I talked about several symptoms one can face, such as fatigue, constipation, dizziness, etc.
These are only temporary. However, fasting can be life-threatening towards individuals who have pre-existing conditions such as the following:
Diabetes
If you have currently been diagnosed with diabetes; fasting can be life-threatening without a doctor’s supervision.
After 4 hours of the fasting period, the body starts substitutingenergy from glucose from the food you’ve eaten to release glucose from the liver and muscles. It is perfectly normal for healthy individuals, but people with diabetes will have to experience a surge of glucose of 2 – 4 times more!
It means higher blood sugar and causes you to experience hyperglycemia. The early symptoms you’ll encounter are Increased thirst and hunger, blurred vision, frequent urination, headache, fatigue, vaginal and skin infections, slow-healing cuts, and sores.
The most severe symptoms are rapid heartbeat, confusion and disorientation, coma, and death.
You must consultwith your doctor to see if fasting is safe for you before you start.
Elderly
Healthy elderly individuals, but a bit overweight, may perform some fasting for short periods.
However, Fasting can be pretty risky. In some cases, we’re losing too much weight can affect our bone health, energy level, and overall immune system.
However, those on medications should be more cautiousabout taking part in any fast, especially those who are on blood pressure medication, should be careful as they are more likely to suffer from potassium and sodium imbalances.
If you still decide to take on intermittent fasting, especially if you have health conditions, e.g., diabetes or heart disease, consult with your doctor.
Pregnant Woman
Pregnant women should not fast as it puts their babies to risk in both the early stages and later in life. These risks include:
● Cognitive impairment
● Lower birth weight
Lower birth weight of their babies is associated with lack of nutrition towards their baby in the womb, causing improper fetal growth.
Due to insufficient nutrition, their organs would becomepermanently impaired.
Later in life, your child will suffer from various problems, including kidney problems and type 2 diabetes.
Also, the baby may develop a learning disability later in life and be in a constant state of forgetfulnessdue to the lack of nutrients received in the womb, causing elevating levels of cortisol hormone – resulting in cognitive impairment in children.
If you don’t fall into any of these categories and are healthy enough; expect the following benefits, you’ll receive from intermittent fasting.
What to Expect
During your intermittent fasting (IF), you’ll gain some of the tremendous benefits from IF; however, you will experience some of the drawbacks if you are a beginner. Not being able to control them can cause more harm than good.
No worries, as I will share with you the solution to combat these problems head-on and help your fasting and weight loss journey be more fruitful as you go through it during the long term.
Lack of energy
Experiencing low energy levels during the beginning are normal. I have explained how yoga, weightlifting, and walking are ways to rejuvenate yourself and stay productive throughout the day.
Overeating
The biggest misconception beginners have about fasting is eating whatever you want, and once they end their fast, start over-binging on whatever is within their sight.
If your goal is to lose weight; you should focus onfiber-rich foods and a ketogenic diet that’ll help you befuller for much longer and prevent you from overindulging.
Also, You would need to stay in ketosis, so you’ll be able to burn your continuously fat reserves – shrinking your belly even quicker!
Slow Down Metabolism
Going through long periods of consecutive fasts can jeopardize your metabolism, making your body burn energy slower as your body enters “starvation” mode – trying to retain enough power to survive.
However, it can be efficiently dealt with by having at least a non-fasting day after 1 – 2 consecutive days of IF. Then you can resume your regular healthy diet and maintaining high levels of metabolism for you to use for the next day of IF – continuing optimal fat-burning mode throughout the day.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
With a fiber-rich diet along with fasting, your days of IBS are soon to disappear.
Throughout IF your bowel takesa break from digestion, thereby giving it more time for maintenance and repair.
The presence of beneficial bacteria such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii inside your gut contributes towards better gut health.
Another bacteria, Akkermansia Muciniphila, assists your gut health by cleaning up the mucous layer above your gut line, and they perform at their peak when you’re fasting.
Weight Loss
A combination of eating a ketogenic diet and fasting helps you lose weight tremendously.
Following a ketogenic diet plan before and after the fast will allow your body to stay in ketosis, which means using burn fat as a source of energy instead of glucose.
It means that your body will continuously use up fat stored in your body as energy. Fasting helps you lose weight by the effect it has on your hormones.
These hormones that assist your fat-burning phase during your fast are:
● Norepinephrine: Your nervous system transfers this hormone to your fat cells, breaking down your body fat into fatty acids, an energy source.
● Insulin: Fasting decreases insulin and lower levels of insulin promote fat burning
Reduce Inflammation
Inflammation is beneficial against infections that enter the body. However, they might mistake other diseases, such as arthritis, and attack them – causing your immune system to react and cause damage to it and its surrounding healthy tissue.
Fasting can help prevent this by reducing the release of monocytes in blood circulation, which is a pro-inflammatory cell, and placing them in “sleep mode,” making them inactive.
Thus, it prevents severe healthy tissue damages.
Combat Aging
Fasting helps combat aging bydecreasing cellular damage and maintaining healthy DNA.
These two factors are mainly required to slow down their aging process as damaged cells lead to chronic disease, and aging causes DNA health to dwindle.
It will cause you to feel and look younger for years to come by preventing these two factors through fasting.
How to Stay Motivated During Your Fast
As you’ve read through this article, you’ve come to learn how physically and mentally challenging beginners have to face during the beginning.
I’ve described some ways you can combat this fatigue, but when you’re at the age of 40 and older, your body performance might not be responsive to those who are younger.
Therefore, I have the solution that will assist you through your fasting journey to weight loss called Hamer Candy.
Taking one candy per day will boost energy throughout your body and combat the fatigue you will feel every day during the early periods of your fasting.
With ingredients such as brown sugar, coffee, and ginseng – expect yourself to stay wide awake and active throughout your productive day!
Also, the benefits of ginseng are immense, and consuming this daily before your fast may MULTIPLY the effects! These benefits include (but not limited to):
● Lowers blood sugar
● Increases energy levels
● Fights inflammation
● Reduces stress
● Boosts immunity
● Anti-aging effects
Most of these benefits are related tofasting. So you can imagine how Hamer Candy can enhance these benefits.
To learn more about the benefits of Hamer Candy, click here.
But wait! There’s more…
For those who want to receive even GREATER results during your weight loss journey, I recommend taking Active Candy.
This candy contains the same ingredients bio-activation technology, an advanced form of fermentation technology, in which it multiplies its potency by MORE THAN X10!
Taking this candy before your fast will boost more energy and allow you to perform heavier tasks throughout the day, including more repetition during weight lifting.
To learn more about the benefits of Active Candy.
The Bottom Line
Fasting is the best starter for all walks of life, whether they need a boost their immune system, lose weight, control their binging habits, treat heart disease, and more.
However, beginning a fast can be difficult, and you’ve learned how to prepareyourselves before you start your fast and the types of exercises you can do during the fast.
Gaining the side benefits besides weight loss is a bonus for you and your long-term health. I’ve recommended that Hamer Candy and Active Candy assist you during this challenging but rewarding journey of your life.
You can find these products by clicking here, and I wish you the best with your weight loss journey!