Intermittent Fasting 18:6

Even when you eat normally the rest of the time, following an intermittent fasting diet plan can help you lose weight. If you keep healthy otherwise and make sure you are following the diet correctly, you can lose weight at a healthy rate. Several health effects of intermittent fasting promote weight loss:

• Caloric restriction:People following a 5:2 diet consume about a quarter fewer calories every week than they otherwise would.² Not only does this promote weight loss, but the caloric restriction is a way to reduce inflammation in your body and extend your life expectancy.⁴
• Lower risk of type II diabetes: Consuming fewer calories, especially when avoiding eating late in the evening or during the night, results in lower blood sugar and lower insulin production.² This helps keep your body from developing insulin resistance, which is associated with obesity and other health detriments.  
• Temporary ketosis: Your body can enter a state of ketosis in as quick as 12-14 hours of avoiding carbohydrates.⁵ Even if only temporary, ketosis causes your body to burn stored fat faster.⁶
  

There has been some debate as to whether women benefit from intermittent fasting as much as men do. Some studies have shown that women do respond to fasting somewhat differently than men. For example, men’s bodies process blood glucose faster than women do while fasting.⁷ However, clinical research has found that women still can lose weight at similar rates to men on this kind of diet.⁸

In fact, women may also benefit from intermittent fasting in other ways. One clinical trial found that women who fasted intermittently during the follicular and luteal phases of their menstrual cycles (before and after ovulation) had lower cortisol levels during these phases. High cortisol is associated with stress, and lower cortisol may help alleviate some of the symptoms women experience during the menstrual cycle.^{9        ;}   

Some doctors have warned against the potential effects of intermittent fasting on reproductive health. These concerns have come from research on rodents. The studies on rats that found impaired fertility used much harsher fasting regimens than what humans would normally use, such as no food at all every other day.¹⁰ The actual effects of intermittent fasting on the reproductive health of women are not well known yet.