Intermittent Fasting
The word “Intermittent” is described in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary as “continually stopping and then starting again:- not constant, the following are examples – intermittent lightning or intermittent rain”.
It is necessary to see the first six words of the meaning given in the dictionary, which would enlighten us, as what the word “Intermittent” is all about.
“Continually stopping and then starting again”, which means in more simple words, that something which happens “regularly” happens to stop and restart again.
We eat “regularly”, which means we consume three meals a day and have been doing it perennially since we can remember and our parents did so and their parents before that.
Our children would follow us through the habit of eating three meals, which we call breakfast, lunch and dinner and it is invariable that their children would follow suit in the future.
Breakfast
It is really “break the fast”, which means that when we have our breakfast in the morning the last meal we have had would have been dinner the previous night.
The time between dinner and the breakfast is the longest time we would spend without consuming anything because invariably we would be sleeping during this interim period.
So in effect we are “fasting” even though we are sleeping and the first meal after the “fast” is our morning meal which we call “breakfast”.
We would have often heard the saying “have dinner like a King, and breakfast like a pauper”, this is because when we consume our dinner we go into a period of inactivity and rest, hence eating frugally would be advisable and when we wake up in the morning we need to consume a good meal because we would have the most active period of the day.
To be active we need food in our stomachs, which is the “fuel” to run the engines of our body effectively and efficiently till we take in the next meal.
Lunch
When we reach mid afternoon the breakfast we consumed would have been crushed, tossed around and left our stomachs on its way out, and whilst providing whatever nourishments it composed of to our bodies.
It is when we have no food in our stomachs that we feel hungry and consume or eat the next meal which we call “lunch” and depending on the quantum of outdoor or indoor physical activity prior to the meal, or the time constrains of a busy office, lunch could either be a light or heavy meal.
Lunch is necessary to take us through the rest of the day and like said before this meal would depend on the type of work you would be doing and could also be considered an important meal of the day.
Dinner
The last meal of the day, which should be a light one because you are going to bed a couple of hours after and it is generally and metabolically advisable to limit the quantity of food intake so that that body manages the period of inactivity adequately.
Fasting
The above mentioned dictionary refers to “fast” as “to eat little or no food for a period of time”. So it is pertinent to understand that we eat three meals which is a normal pattern and then “we stop or eat little” for a period of time.
We could fast by eating smaller quantities of what we would normally consume or we could skip a meal or two of the regular ones that we eat.
Intermittent fasting – What it is
Fasting would “throw a spanner” in the elaborate and complicated metabolic activities that our bodies perform day in and day out, which means 24×7 all year through.
This is what intermittent fasting is all about, where you break the monotonousness of your body’s metabolic activity and let the last meal or the reduced quantity that you had consumed to pass through.
We need food in our stomachs and about that there is not much of a doubt but how and what we consume or eat during the three meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, is very important.
Intermittent fasting would also ensure that your digestive tract which includes the stomach and the rest of the organs take a well deserved rest.
Imagine running your car for miles and miles without a break, it is sure to pack up at some time or other and it is true for our bodies too, and if we could give it a rest we should do it.
Intermittent fasting – What it is not
If you break the normal routine of your body’s meal intake and consume one huge meal and thereafter refrain from consuming any meals to a long period of time that is not intermittent fasting, in the real sense.
The large quantum of food that you consume at one meal could do you more harm than good and for that there could be many reasons.
When you consume a large amount of food at once, your stomach expands to accommodate it all, which would not be a very healthy way to practice fasting of any type especially if the reason to practice intermittent fasting is for health reasons and not religious.
The stomach and the digestive system would need to handle a large amount of food and could be stretched to the limit trying to cope with it and could store food like fat within the body without proper breakdown to assimilate.
Practicing such a trend regularly would increase other complications like heart problems, increase cholesterol levels to unmanageable limits, could cause the incidence of diabetes and many other diseases.
Conclusion
You should carry on with your normal diet that you would have been consuming over the last six months to one year and in between or to be more precise intermittently fast which is to either eat less than normal or skip a meal or two, but said that it would be important that you eat a good breakfast.
Skipping lunch or dinner is perfect but again not both, and definitely not breakfast if you want a healthy lifestyle.
