In the past, fasting was considered to be the main culprit to make people anorexic. However, a new study has shown that regular fasting would not only help in cutting down your weight, but it can also increase your life expectancy! This comes as a big surprise to all those dieters, who thought that regular fasting was just a way to quickly get rid of the body fat and increase hormones. Now, they will be more than happy to know that it can help them to live longer.
The research showed that a person who abstains from food for about 24 hours on regular basis (monthly or weekly), carries some beneficial qualities. For instance, asthma patients who fast regularly have better airway function than the others.
It is very common to hear the paradox that in order to lose weight, one must never stop eating. Some say that the fasting for small intervals of time will never help people in their conquest to burn the body fat. Moreover, they say that fasting would only stop the person form losing weight in the future.
Some claim that the above argument is completely biased, and it is said only to increase the sales of some major production companies. However, recent studies have proven otherwise. These short-term regular fasting really does help a person lose weight.
To question the issue, a research was recently conducted by a select team of specialists and nutrition experts on a group of athletes and body builders. Their research pool consisted of about twenty elite powerful athletes were selected for this examination, whose metabolic activities were observed and studied very closely, under various weight loss programs for about a month. These scientists, closely observed how the body responded ‘before, during and after’ every experiment. Most of these experiments showed some surprising results, which were completely opposite to the ones that they expected. The main question was: ‘What happens to the body if the person starves?’ It was found, that their routine was not disturbed during these fasting sessions even after about a month.
This was really amazing, especially since their research group was elite athletes who have to stay on top of their game 24/7. However, these results were questioned by some experts. There were mixed views amongst the nutritionists, where some felt that dieting is an easy way to cut the excessive calories and lose weight at a faster rate, and others stood against it. They thought that fasting is not meant for each and every person. It is completely dependent on the body of the person in question.
My personal opinion is that both sides have valid points… so the best thing to do is to consult with your doctor before getting into fasting.