There are many different ways on how to shrink the stomach (cara mengecilkan perut). One that has become popular in recent years is called intermittent fasting. This is a way of eating that involves regular short-term fasts.
Does intermittent fasting really help shrink your stomach (cara mengecilkan perut)? Find out the truth – according to doctors.
Your belly does boast rubber band-like properties—but that doesn’t mean you can change its size.
Fasting for short periods helps people eat fewer calories, and also helps optimize some hormones related to weight control.
There are several different intermittent fasting methods. Three popular ones are:
- The 16/8 Method: Skip breakfast every day and eat during an 8-hour feeding window, such as from 12 noon to 8 pm.
- Eat-Stop-Eat: Do one or two 24-hour fasts each week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.
- The 5:2 Diet: Only eat 500-600 calories on two days of the week, but eat normally the other 5 days.
As long as you don’t compensate by eating much more during the non-fasting periods, then these methods will lead to reduced calorie intake and help you lose weight and belly fat.
How Intermittent Fasting Affects Your Hormones
Body fat is the body’s way of storing energy (calories).
When we don’t eat anything, the body changes several things to make the stored energy more accessible.
This has to do with changes in nervous system activity, as well as a major change in several crucial hormones.
Here are some of the things that change in your metabolism when you fast:
Insulin: Insulin increases when we eat. When we fast, insulin decreases dramatically. Lower levels of insulin facilitate fat burning.
Human growth hormone (HGH): Levels of growth hormone may skyrocket during a fast, increasing as much as 5-fold. The growth hormone is a hormone that can aid fat loss and muscle gain, among other things.
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline): The nervous system sends norepinephrine to the fat cells, making them break down body fat into free fatty acids that can be burned for energy.
Interestingly, despite what the 5-6 meals a day proponents would have you believe, short-term fasting may actually increase fat burning.
Two studies have found that fasting for about 48 hours of boosts metabolism by 3.6-14%. However, fasting periods that are longer can suppress metabolism.
Intermittent Fasting Helps You Reduce Calories and Lose Weight
The main reason that intermittent fasting works for weight loss, is that it helps you eat fewer calories.
All of the different protocols involve skipping meals during the fasting periods. Unless you compensate by eating much more during the eating periods, then you will be taking in fewer calories.
According to a recent 2014 review study, intermittent fasting can lead to significant weight loss. In this review, intermittent fasting was found to reduce body weight by 3-8% over a period of 3-24 weeks.
When examining the rate of weight loss, people lost about 0.55 pounds (0.25 kg) per week with intermittent fasting, but 1.65 pounds (0.75 kg) per week with alternate-day fasting.
People also lost 4-7% of their waist circumference, indicating that they lost belly fat.
These results are very impressive, and they do show that intermittent fasting can be a useful weight loss aid.
All that being said, the benefits of intermittent fasting go way beyond just weight loss. It also has numerous benefits for metabolic health, and may even help prevent chronic disease and expand lifespan.
Intermittent Fasting May Help You Hold on to Muscle When Dieting
One of the worst side effects of dieting is that the body tends to burn muscle as well as fat.
Interestingly, there are some studies showing that intermittent fasting may be beneficial for holding on to muscle while losing body fat.
At the end of the day, intermittent fasting can be a useful tool to lose weight.
This is caused primarily by a reduction in calorie intake, but there are also some beneficial effects on hormones that come into play.
Intermittent fasting is not for everyone but maybe highly beneficial for some people.
