{"id":34362,"date":"2023-09-04T15:02:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T13:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/?p=34362"},"modified":"2026-01-06T09:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:56:23","slug":"intermittent-fasting-advantages-and-disadvantages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/intermittent-fasting-advantages-and-disadvantages\/","title":{"rendered":"Intermittent fasting advantages and disadvantages"},"content":{"rendered":"

I briefly tell you what intermittent fasting is, how it works, what the advantages and disadvantages are AND I give you my opinion on this diet.<\/p>\n

What is intermittent fasting?<\/h2>\n

Intermittent fasting or alternate fasting is a method where regular fasting is part of the diet and lifestyle.<\/p>\n

There are several forms of intermittent fasting. For instance, you can fast part of the day, fast every other day, or fast periodically like 5 to 2 (eat 5 days, fast 2 days).<\/p>\n

A popular topic I get a lot of questions about is intermittent fasting. For example, there are both men and women who successfully practice intermittent fasting within The hormone factor lifestyle<\/a>. These experiences and results, by the way, do not mean that this is suitable for everyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"discount<\/a><\/p>\n

How does intermittent fasting work?<\/h2>\n

There are several reasons why people choose periodic fasting. For instance, it can be a way to lose weight, because chances are your average calorie intake<\/a> goes down in the short term. Whether this is also true in the long term and whether there is a yo-yo effect depends, of course, on the person, the person's motivation and whether this fits or will fit seamlessly into his or her life. In addition, there is also something to be said for giving the digestion, immune system and metabolism some rest from time to time by not eating for a while (1)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are the benefits of intermittent fasting?<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. It often reduces your calorie intake, allowing you to lose weight (in the shorter term).<\/li>\n
  2. Digestion<\/a> gets rest and that can be an advantage when there are many complaints in this area.<\/li>\n
  3. Blood sugar is less likely to be disrupted. When you suffer from blood sugar fluctuations and insulin-resistant<\/a> are, this may offer advantages.<\/li>\n
  4. The immune system is activated less frequently and this can lower inflammatory activity in the body. This can be seen in reduced inflammatory activity and better cholesterol<\/a> profile (LDL vs HDL). Every meal time, the immune system needs to be on standby and especially when you do not digest and tolerate these foods optimally.<\/li>\n
  5. Fasting can growth hormone<\/a> increase (2)<\/a>, (3)<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What are the disadvantages of intermittent fasting?<\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. Not everyone can sustain prolonged periods of not eating in an obesogenic world full of temptation. Sometimes it even leads to compensatory behaviour (with unhealthy food choices) and a higher calorie intake. Also, social pressure will sometimes be hard to parry when you once again have to explain why you don't cozy up to dinner (4)<\/a>.<\/li>\n
    2. Not everyone can exercise well on an empty stomach. This also depends on what kind of sport you do. By the way, you can adjust your timing of meals accordingly if this bothers you (5)<\/a>.<\/li>\n
    3. At adrenal exhaustion<\/a> the risk of low blood sugars and feeling lethargic is increased when doing intermittent fasting. Cortisol<\/a> after all, is one of hormones that is supposed to maintain blood sugar and after chronic stress (burnout), this system is sometimes suboptimal. In some people, this goes away after a few days and in others it does not.<\/li>\n
    4. It is not always suitable if you are on medication and with certain illnesses. It is also not recommended for women when pregnant and while breastfeeding.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      What is my opinion?<\/h2>\n

      I think intermittent fasting is an excellent method if you are highly motivated and can apply it well in your daily life and sporting endeavours.<\/strong> Also, if you have digestive problems, this method can be a good way to take some of the load off your digestive system.<\/p>\n

      However, if the fast is much effort and if you suffer from blood sugar dips, lethargic feelings and compensatory behaviour then I would use a different method<\/strong> choose. Side note, of course, that the food sources and meals you use are healthy and that you don't opt for unhealthy junk food in an intermittent fasting pattern, but that should come as no surprise.<\/p>\n

      The Hormone Factor method<\/a> I have developed for a larger target group that wants to stay closer to the average Dutch eating behaviour, which is why I opted for 4 eating moments a day: breakfast, lunch, snack at 15.30h and dinner.<\/p>\n

      My advice always remains: go on the search and find out what works best for you. After all, we are all different.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I briefly tell you what intermittent fasting is, how it works, what the advantages and disadvantages are AND I give you my opinion on this diet.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34362"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44491,"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34362\/revisions\/44491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/export.ralphmoorman.nl\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}