In India, we have a custom of ‘fasting’ during some of the festive occasions. We eat only fruits or sometimes nothing. People think skipping meals or starving is unhealthy. But timed periods of fasting is a good regime! There are many such pieces of evidence that talks about fasting benefits. Let's discuss some of these benefits.

Helps Weight loss

Intermittent fasting is proved to be even more beneficial than regular dieting for attaining weight loss. Intermittent fasting involves controlled fasting within sets of hours. It is more effective in burning fats as compared to dieting. It puts body fats to proper usages by making it as the primary source of energy instead of sugars.

Metabolism fastens

Fasting provides rest to your digestive system. This puts your metabolism at work to burn calories more efficiently. Intermittent fasting improves your digestion and keeps your bowels clean and healthy. Metabolic functions speed up and become more active.

Longevity improves

The less you eat, the longer you live! The key to staying young is to gear up your metabolism regularly. Aging leads to a slower metabolism. A young body has speedy faster metabolisms. Eating much puts your digestive system at work and slows the metabolic activities. Thus eating less lessens the burden on your digestive system, making your metabolism faster and you stay young for long!

Insulin sensitivity increases

Fasting can handle sugar much better than eating. It improves your insulin sensitivity. Fasting for a regular period of time stimulates your insulin to make use of glucose in the blood. This is proved by research and studies.

You feel real hunger

Fasting makes you feel real hunger. You experience the real hunger when you eat little or don’t eat at all for as long as 12 to 24 hours. Fasting properly regulates the hunger stimulating hormones in your body. Obese people can’t feel the correct hunger due to their improper excessive eating habits. Fasting for longer durations releases correct hormones to make you feel actual hunger. This will also make you feel fuller quicker as you eat.

Eating habits improve

Fasting is best for those who have improper eating habits or have imbalanced eating schedules due to work and other commitments. It’s okay to skip lunch and eat at some other time of the day you feel comfortable at. Eating properly and at a fixed time of your day daily is good enough even if you don’t eat the rest of the day. The key is to have the required daily intake of calories every day!

Brain power increases

Fasting improves the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This protein triggers various chemicals promoting neural health and keeps them safe from various neural disorders. It helps to build new neurons by activating brain stem cells.