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Intermittent Fasting vs Conventional Dieting

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There are currently hundreds of different diets you can go on to slim down for special occasions or if you want to lose some weight. Recently, there has been a huge influx of people starting intermittent fasting diets, rather than trying conventional dieting to lose their ideal amount of weight. However, what exactly is the difference between them? Does one offer you more benefits than the other does?

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is currently one of the world’s most popular health and fitness trends. There are many different reasons why someone would decide to choose to do intermittent fasting. These are to lose weight, improve their health and change up their lifestyles.

How exactly is it done?

Intermittent fasting is the alternating cycles of fasting and eating. Unlike other diets, e.g. some conventional diets, intermittent fasting does not tell you which foods to eat but tells you when you can eat them. If you were to look at your day, you ‘fast’ every day while you sleep. This simply extended that fast for a longer period.

There are different forms of intermittent fasting you can do. The most popular form is known as the 16/8 method. This is when you are fasting for 16 hours every day and restricting you’re eating to an 8-hour window.

Things to be aware of before you start intermittent fasting

As you can expect, hunger is a big issue that will occur to anyone who starts intermittent fasting. This is because your body is not used to you not eating for a long period of time. Even though no food is allowed during the fasting period, you are allowed to drink water, coffee, tea and other non-caloric beverages.

Taking supplements is allowed while fasting, as long as there are no calories in them.

If you are interested in using intermittent fasting in helping you slim down for the New Year, HealthLine has a 101 beginner’s guide on how to conduct it.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

As Intermittent Fasting allows you to have periods where you don’t eat, there are studies that have found this method of weight loss improves your way of life.

Here are some of the benefits of intermittent fasting:

  • Cause weight loss
  • Improve metabolic health
  • Protect against disease
  • Reduce inflammation in the body
  • Help the health of the heart
  • May prevent cancer
  • Help the health of your brain
  • It May help you live longer
  • Lower blood pressure

Conventional Dieting

There are many different types of conventional dieting each one having its own list of benefits.

Plant-based Diet

What can you eat?

  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Plant-based substitutes

Benefits

  • Reduced inflammation
  • Improved kidney function
  • Lower risk of type 2 diabetes
  • Reduced risk of heart disease
  • Lower levels of “bad” cholesterol
  • Reduced risk of dementia
  • Reduced cognitive development
  • Improved gut health
  • Reduced risk of certain cancers

Paleo Diet

What can you eat?

  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Unprocessed meat
  • Eggs
  • Nuts
  • Seeds
  • Seafood
  • Fish

Benefits

  • Improved Cholesterol
  • Lower Blood Pressure
  • Healthy blood glucose
  • Longer life span
  • Improves insulin sensitivity

Low-fat Diets

The low-fat diet follows a low-fat plan where meals contain less than 3 grams of fat per 100 calories.

What can you eat?

  • Whole grain
  • Lean meats
  • Whitefish
  • Lentils
  • Vegetables
  • Fruits
  • Reduced-fat dairy

Benefits

  • Lower chance of heart disease
  • Short term weight loss

The Mediterranean Diet

What can you eat?

  • Bread
  • Pasta
  • Fruit
  • Vegetables
  • Fish
  • Products made from veg oils
  • Eating less meat

Benefits

  • Prevents heart disease
  • Increase life span
  • Reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s
  • Reduce the risk of Parkinson’s
  • Prevents Type 2 Diabetes

Weight Watchers

What can you eat?

  • Most foods in moderation

Benefits

  • Don’t have to reduce the number of foods you can eat
  • Fits in with a busy lifestyle
  • Reduce the risk of diabetes

The DASH Diet

DASH means Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, this is recommended for people who wish to prevent/treat hypertension and reduce their risk of heart disease.

What can you eat?

This diet doesn’t list certain types of foods to be eaten but lists serving sizes per day.

  • Fruit – 4-5 servings
  • Veg – 4-5 servings
  • Lean meats: no more than 6 servings
  • Whole Grains – 6-8 servings
  • Dairy products – 2-3 servings
  • Nuts, seeds – 4-5 servings
  • Fats and oils – 2-3 servings
  • Candy and added sugar – no more than 5

Foods to avoid

  • Red meats
  • Salt (high amounts)
  • Sugar (high amounts)
  • Fats (high amounts)

Benefits

Following the DASH diet reduces the amount of daily salt intake, this aids in the decrease of blood pressure among other things. Here is a full list of benefits:

  • Helps to lose weight
  • Reduced blood pressure
  • Decreased risk of heart disease
  • Reduced risk of diabetes
  • Lowers risk of metabolic syndrome
  • The risk of cancer reduced

Low-Carb Diet

Benefits of a Low-Carb diet

  • Reduces your appetite
  • Lose weight quickly at first
  • Reduces harmful belly fat
  • Triglycerides in the blood lower
  • HDL at a good level
  • Reduce blood sugar levels and insulin levels
  • May lower blood pressure
  • Metabolic syndrome effective
  • Increase in heart health
  • Helps prevent brain diseases

If you are interested in using a low-carb diet to help you to lose weight EverydayHealth has a beginner’s guide for how a low-carb diet will help along with some tips and tricks.

How We Can Help

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