Water Fasting: Everything you need to know!
As you age, you realize that it is essential to develop a healthy lifestyle. While there is no hard and fast rule to health, there are basics that everyone should live by. These include diet, work, sleep patterns, and exercise.
It is essential to note that when making decisions on your health, it is best to take a holistic approach. You must make a plan that includes your diet and your daily patterns. That way, you eliminate poor habits and start to live healthily.
Most diet plans concentrate on what you eat, but it is also crucial to plan when to eat. You may have heard of fasting and even tried it if you are trying to keep fit and stay healthy. A popular fast in the fitness club is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting involves going off food for certain periods to create a calorie deficit.
Several tweaks to intermittent fasting ensure that it works for all body types. These moderations have given rise to variations of intermittent fasting. Now, you can choose what works best for you. A variety of intermittent fasting is water fasting, which may work best for you.
Water Fasting: What Is It?
Water fasting is intermittent fasting, where you go without food and consume just water for a period. In this type of fasting, you may go without food for up to 72 hours or pace yourself for a shorter period. This type of fast has several health benefits, but if you do not follow the rules, it might lead to complications. might lead to complications. This article will guide you on what to expect and how to go about water fasting.
There are several benefits of water fasting. These include detoxification, ketosis, and increased airflow to the body. The body also lets go of unhealthy acids during water fasting.
Water Fasting Tips
When performing water fasting, it is safest to ease yourself into it. This means that you should take baby steps and pace yourself till you can do more. You will soon see the results you seek when you work at your body’s pace.
Here is a guideline that will help:
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Mark Your Fasting Period:
A great way to begin water fasting is by marking it on your calendar. This way, you can monitor your progress and have a record. So, start with one-day water fasts and increase your fasting periods with time. If you have health conditions, discussing them with your physician before choosing a diet plan is wise. This helps them to monitor your progress and advice you appropriately.
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Pace Yourself
If you have never fasted before, do not start with long periods of water fasting. Instead, you can start by eliminating some foods from your meal plan. These will include teas, caffeine, processed and sugary or salty foods.
You can then transition into replacing a whole meal with water. For example, you can skip breakfast and drink water in the morning. For the first week, try knocking off meals or reducing the size of your meals. Then, if you feel comfortable, you can try taking a whole day’s meal off and replacing it with water.
This process allows you to sensitize your body to a comfortable water fasting schedule. In the third or fourth week, you may be able to go two to three days of water fasting.
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Align Your Fasting Period with Your Schedules
The best time to engage in water fasting is during low-stress periods. At such periods, you need minimal energy to function. So, your body caters only to its basic functioning. On the other hand, fasting is quite stressful for the body, so you might be unable to combine it with stressful work routines.
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Eat Healthy on Non-fasting Days
Recall that fitness is to be holistic and involves all your daily routines. So, even when performing water fasting, you must keep your diet healthy.
Avoid salty, sugary, and processed foods when making a meal plan. These are high in saturated fats, salts, and unhealthy sugars, which cause your body to build unhealthy fat stores. Instead, you can add fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and healthy proteins to your meal plan. These help with muscle building and provide you with beneficial antioxidants.
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Spread Your Water Intake
As a rule of thumb, women can drink 9 glasses of water daily, while men can drink as much as 13 glasses. Yet, the best way to perform a water fast is to spread your water intake throughout your day. So, you can drink a glass of water at 2-hour intervals. This will ensure that you get a sufficient water supply throughout the day.
Also, during your fasts, you may get bouts of hunger. You can combat these by taking a few sips of water. These sips may help the food cravings to pass or recede. You can also create fun ways to take your mind off food. These may include exercise, reading, or sleeping.
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Pro Tip
When breaking your water fast, do not eat large meals. This is especially if you have performed 2 to 3 days of water fasting. Instead, you can have fruits first and then eat small meals every two hours. You can spread out your meals this way for 24-48 hours.
When engaging in water fasts, it will be best to avoid strenuous exercise. This is because your body is undergoing autophagy to provide energy. So, your energy reserves are low at this point. It is okay to do mild exercise, but extensive stress might cause you to break down.
Also, get sufficient rest within the water fast periods and avoid staying up late at night. If you notice adverse side effects of the fast, it is best to visit your doctor and seek medical advice.
Conclusion
Water fasting is a great way to stay fit and lose unhealthy fat stores. It is easy and safe to follow the basic guidelines for intermittent fasting.
Yet, you must know that dieting involves making a holistic meal plan. This means that your meals must be wholesome and the periods between meals healthy.
A fitness plan involving lifestyle and diet sets you up for success. So, when creating your water fasting fitness plan, include other healthy habits.
Summarily, the keys to a successful fitness goal are determination and consistency. We would love to hear from you and help you on your fitness journey. Stay healthy!