Losing weight is easier said than done as is evident with the countless people who find themselves struggling to shed even a few pounds here and there. Going on extreme diets is often taken up by those who want to lose a lot but most of the time, this is difficult to sustain. If extreme diets are hard to sustain, how will you be able to lose weight? Well, you might want to consider going fasting to help you jump start your metabolism.
Different Types of Fasting
There are several types of fasting that you can do to help you achieve your desired weight. Just keep in mind that the protocols and results do tend to vary depending on the fasting that you are going to use. Here are a few that you might want to take advantage of.
Dry Fasting
This is actually the most straightforward of the lot because you are not allowed to drink or eat anything during the fasting period. This is not really recommended for long periods of time because you are putting yourself at risk from dehydration
Liquid Fasting
As the name suggests, liquid fasting requires you to drink or consume liquids throughout the fasting period. It can be just water, juice, soups, and broths. There are no solids allowed in this diet because the goal of this fasting is to flush the toxins in your body to help jumpstart your metabolism. This can last for a few days to a week depending on how many pounds you want to lose.
Intermittent Fasting
Another type of fasting that you can do is the intermittent fasting. This is actually a good choice for those who cannot sustain strict diets because here, you will be able to eat what you like during the window hours while skipping on consuming anything during the diet hours. What’s great about this diet is that you can actually adjust it according to your lifestyle. For example, you can go for a 12 or 14 hour fasting where your last meal will be at 8 in the evening until 8 in the morning for a 12-hour fasting.
Alternate Day Fasting
Based on the name of this type of fasting, there will be days when you are allowed to eat and days when you cannot consume anything except water or liquids. During the fasting days, you will be restricting your calorie intake severely so you better prepare for this. On non-diet days, you will be able to eat to your heart’s content. However, you might want to ease up during the non-fasting days because you have a goal in mind. Binging during non-fasting days will only defeat the purpose of this fasting.
Daniel Fasting
Another type of fasting that you might want to try, not just to lose weight, but to achieve spiritual awakening is the Daniel Fasting. This type of fast was patterned to the Daniel in the Bible where he fasted for 21 days. Also considered as a partial fast, here you will be required to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains but will not be allowed to eat meat, alcoholic beverages, and coffee just to name a few. Those who have tried this fast discovered a new sense of peace to them especially with regards to their spiritual health.
Fasting does help you with your weight loss goals as these are all designed to restrict your calorie intake. Of course, reducing your consumption is all well and good, but these types of fasting are actually encouraging you to eat healthier to speed up the weight loss.
