Facts about fasting: will it help you lose weight?

Fasting to lose weight: learn the facts

Many of my clients are aren’t unsure on the facts about fasting.

Fasting is simply restricting the time you are eating and putting a stop when you are not eating. For example, a common fasting time is 16:8, which means that you are fasting for 16 hours, and only allowed to eat within that 8 hour window. Another way of fasting is 20:4, which means that you are fasting for 20 hours and eating within a 4 hour window. 

You can determine when you’ll do the fasting and when you’ll be able to eat. Many people move their fasting time on when it’s convenient for them or when they think it will have the most benefits.

Will fasting help me lose weight faster?

That depends! Fasting is another way of restricting HOW much you eat. When you restrict or stop when you are eating at a certain time, you are potentially eating less than what you could be eating. 

So the question “will fasting help with weight loss” is not a yes or no question but more like “it depends”. If you are eating in a deficit (eating less than what your body needs), in that time frame, you WILL lose weight.

On the other hand, if you eat MORE than what your body needs, despite fasting, you will either maintain or possibly gain weight. 

So whether or not you will lose weight faster or not, is dependent on how much you are eating at that time that you are allowed to eat. 

Is fasting better than not fasting to lose weight?

Many swear by fasting because it helps them lose weight and control their eating. 

There are also people that lose weight by NOT fasting. 

So what’s the deal?

The MOST important thing to do when it comes to losing weight you can stay consistent with it. 

Fasting works for some people because it can help them stay consistent. 

Not fasting works for some people because it can help them stay consistent.

The MOST important thing is to stay consistent.

Not perfect.

But STAY consistent. 

So it’s not that one thing is better than the other. It’s that they just stick to it, day in and day not. 

They don’t give up easily.

Will fasting make me healthier?

Fasting has also been claimed to make someone healthier and therefore more people should fast.

While that’s a pretty broad claim, let me clear up a couple of things that someone that is PRO-fasting won’t tell you. 

When you lose weight because of fasting, it could have potentially have benefits because losing excess body fat usually will make your blood pressure better, you’ll be more energized, less tired, better labs (aka your cholesterol and blood sugar could potentially go lower). 

In other words, just reducing extra body fat on you through more physical activity, more fruits, vegetables, and eating more mindfully MAKES you physically healthier. 

Fasting itself does not make you healthier. In fact, if you were going to fast but still eat more than what your body needs and you’re not physically active, it will NOT make you healthier. 

Will Fasting Help YOU?

Fasting is just another way of restricting the amount you eat by putting a strict time on when you are eating and when you are not eating. 

If that structure works for you, then great! Fasting might work for you. 

On the flip side, if you don’t like being rigid with the window of when you are suppose to eat and when you’re not supposed to eat, then fasting may not be for you. 

Also, with that window of time to eat, the principle of being in a calorie deficit still applies. If you want to read more about the science of fasting, you can read it HERE.

Meaning that you must eat less than what your body needs in order to lose weight. If you are able to eat only in a 4 or 6 hour window, but eat more than what your body needs, you will not lose weight. Plain and simple. 

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