When all else fails, intermittent fasting might be an effective way to shrink stubborn belly fat. Nearly all peri- and post-menopausal women face the challenge of belly fat, as a result of reduced levels of hormones in women. (In men, hormone changes can bring the same effect, but it’s often just drinking beer!)
Does Intermittent Fasting Burn Stubborn Belly Fat? Watch on Intermittent fasting helps to lose all the stubborn fat in your body. When we eat, our bodies go into storage mode. Our insulin levels go up, and this signals our body to start storing stuff.
Intermittent Fasting Kills Belly Fat! As you know, a large number of people start intermittent fasting in order to lose weight. More specifically, they are looking to lose that stubborn belly fat.
Secondly, intermittent fasting increases catchecholamines in the bloodstream. These hormones increase blood flow to the subcutaneous fat regions, meaning the stubborn belly fat is targeted for fat mobilization. Lastly, by fasting for more than 12 hours at a time you shift the primary fuel source of your body from carbohydrates to fat.
Intermittent fasting is highly effective for weight loss Intermittent fasting is a simple, effective approach to fat loss that’s relatively easy to stick to (4). Studies have shown that when it comes to weight loss, intermittent fasting can be just as effective as traditional calorie restriction, if not more so (5, 6, 7, 8).
In a review of studies on intermittent fasting and alternate-day fasting, people experienced a 4–7% decrease in abdominal fat within 6–24 weeks. What Is Intermittent fasting?
Fasting mimicking, which I like to call modified fasting, was the quickest and easiest way for me to lose belly fat. My experience is confirmed by Dr. Valter Longo’s research as he found that his Fasting Mimicking Diet helped reduce belly fat.
A new study, conducted in mice, found that despite all the benefits of intermittent fasting, losing that spare tire isn’t one of them. In fact, according to this latest study it can actually make your losing your belly fat harder, which isn’t great since stomach fat is strongly linked to diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
One popular method involves 24-hour fasts once or twice a week. Another consists of fasting every day for 16 hours and eating all your food within an 8-hour period. In a review of studies on intermittent fasting and alternate-day fasting, people experienced a 4–7% decrease in abdominal fat within 6–24 weeks. What Is Intermittent fasting?
How long should I fast intermittently?
Start slowly with your fasting time. Start with a 10-12-hour period of no eating and build up to more.
As a side note, when study participants did a 14-hour fast AND exercise, the benefits of both increased. The research suggests starting with a 10 to 12 hour fast, working up to 14 or 16 hours.
Start slowly with your fasting time. Start with a 10-12-hour period of no eating and build up to more. Eat better quality food when you do eat: Avoid sugars, processed food, and refined grains. But don’t worry about having pizza on Fridays with your friends and family!
The issue, then, becomes that endurance athletes don’t have enough energy to do hard workouts well while fasting 16 hours a day. The research just isn’t there to be able to both do effective workouts AND be fasting to lose weight. It’s far better to pay better attention to your fueling and keep doing your workouts!
So athletes do their workouts in a fasted state in order to “turn on” the fat burning as a fuel source. But it just doesn’t work that easily.
There is no conclusive evidence at this point that one method of fasting is better than the other. However, the plans that encourage not eating for several days, then eating for some might encourage some unhealthy views of food with binging and starving.
We often mistake cravings and self-soothing through eating with actual hunger. Since dieting fads are not something we can sustain for a lifetime, intermittent fasting may also be something that is not sustainable.
How does intermittent fasting help in fat loss?
Intermittent fasting and stubborn fat loss 1 Fasting increases catecholamine levels. 2 Fasting increases abdominal subcutaneous blood flow, which means that catecholamines will have an easier time reaching those hard-to-get areas. 3 The low insulin level reached during the fast inhibits a2-receptors. A greater time spent in the low insulin state equals a greater time spent in a state where fat can be mobilized from stubborn areas. Now you’re probably thinking “why not just go on a low carb diet” to keep insulin low, but keep in mind that triglycerides inhibit HSL in a similar manner as insulin. 4 My research has indicated that the ideal state of fat burning is reached after 12-18 hours of fasting. Coupled with high levels of catecholamines, increased blood flow to stubborn regions, and low insulin for a2-receptor inhibition, this time interval is the “golden age” of stubborn fat mobilization.
What is stubborn body fat? Stubborn body fat refers to areas of the body that hold on to fat the longest. Generally speaking, these areas include the lower abs and lower back in men, and the lower body in women. These areas are damn hard to get lean. How come these areas are stubborn in the first place?
In this case catecholamines trigger fat mobilization by activating hormone sensitive lipase (HSL), which then shuttles the fat out of the cell to be burned off. Now here’s the critical difference between regular fat and stubborn fat: regular fat have a lot of beta-2 receptors in proportion to alpha-2 receptors.
My research has indicated that the ideal state of fat burning is reached after 12-18 hours of fasting.
* 14-20 hours in a completely sedentary state should easily equal 12-18 hours in real life.
Important: Keep in mind that insulin negates the effects of yohimbine on alpha 2-receptor inhibition. Always take it in the fasted state and never between meals. Considering the half-life of yohimbine is very short (30 min), you can also experiment with more frequent dosing during the fast.
While FFA oxidation increases the longer time you spend in the fasted state, the contribution of fatty acids to whole body fat oxidation changes. In short-term fasting there’s a significant increase in subcutaneous FFA oxidation. That’s just a fancy way of saying that you’re mainly burning body fat and nothing else.
Sharing is caring, don’t forget to share this post with friends !