Fasting Diet Plans All You Need To Know

Looking for fast ways to lose weight? Try fasting diet plans. On a fasting diet, you can lose up to 12lbs in 6 weeks, even more, if you spice it up with regular exercise. Checkout this article “List of Body Weight Exercises You Can Do at Home“.

What does fasting mean?

Fasting, as a diet, does not mean that you stop eating entirely. According to Dr. Michael Mosley, the creator of the official 5.2 diet, fasting means limiting your daily calorie intake to 500 calories for women and 600 calories for men.

What does a fasting diet plan look like?

Currently, there are two main types of Fast Diets:
1. The 2 diet, also called intermittent fasting, implies that you wilel eat normally for 5 days and fast the other 2 days in a week. The 2 fasting days may or may not be consecutive – it’s up to you (but they are generally non-consecutive).
2. The alternate-day fasting diet (ADF), a diet for the strong-willed, involves fasting every other day.

Which fasting diet plan is the fastest way to lose weight?

A fasting diet plan seems to be a healthy choice and an effective and safe weight loss method.
There is no short answer to this question. An ADF study conducted by Krista Varady, the author of The Every Other Day Diet, resulted in up to 2lbs weight loss per week, mostly body fat, in the subjects. Michael Mosley promises the same weight loss with the 5.2 diets if you combine it with High-Intensity Training three times a week. Without training, you can expect a 1lb weight loss per week. The best diet plan for you is the one you can stick to.

How much I should eat?

The fasting diet is not a prescription diet, so during a fasting day, you can eat whenever you want. Some prefer a big meal later in the day, while others would rather split the calories into several small meals. Krista Varady recommends dieters to have one 500-calorie meal at lunch, but that can be adjusted according to your lifestyle. It is “possible to move that meal to the evening and still reap the same health/dietary benefits”, says Krista Varady. Experiment and choose whatever feels best for your body.

What will I eat?

While following a fasting diet plan, focus on protein and fiber intake. In an interview given to The Telegraph, Michael Mosley talks about the ¾ rule: eating 75 percent vegetables and 25 percent protein. Avoid sugar, fats, and alcohol. Your best bet is soup; home-made soups are healthier than store-bought ones, with cabbage soup being top of the list in all diets. If you need a snack, have an apple, a carrot, or a handful of almonds. Don’t forget to hydrate yourself: drink plenty of water, herbal tea, and limit coffee, and stick to low-fat milk.

For how long should I Stay on the fasting diet?

The length of the diet depends on how much weight you want to lose. Krista Varady recommends keeping the diet for at least one month before giving up, while Felicity Cloake, Guardian columnist and award-winning food writer, says that the 5:2 diet “feels like a long-term project” that is not difficult to stick to. “After all, if you really want a biscuit, you can always have one tomorrow – a thought I find extremely cheering”, she adds.

3 things you may not know about fasting diet plans:

• In the 2 diets, a fasting day actually lasts 36 hours, not 24. “If you finish your last full evening meal at 7.30pm on Sunday, then Monday is your fast day, you are not going to be eating normally till Tuesday morning 7.30am. That is 36 hours”, says Michael Mosley.
• Having a fasting buddy will keep you motivated. Start your fasting diet plan with your partner or friend, join Facebook groups, or have a family member as a supporter. The time will come when you will need all the moral support that you can get to not give up on your diet.
• The “normal eating” fasting diets refer to doesn’t mean that you can stuff yourself with takeaways and cake. A fast way to lose weight entails keeping meals under 2000 calories for women and under 2500 for men during non-fasting days.

There are a few fast ways to lose weight, prescription pills, gym, diets, and fasting, I choose the last. A fasting diet plan seems to be a healthy choice – “an effective and safe weight loss method”, as defined by The Medical Dictionary – an adequate diet for food lovers who cannot give up their favorite pizza for long, and for busy or lazy people (like myself) who can’t or choose not to spend hours a day training.
For a really good guide to get you started on the 5:2 diet, please check out this intermittent fasting diet plan.