A phenomenon called intermittent fasting is currently one of the world’s most popular health and fitness trends. It involves alternating cycles of fasting and eating.
Many studies show that this can cause weight loss, improve metabolic health, protect against disease and perhaps help you live longer.
Intermittent fasting may not be ideal for women:
Intermittent Fasting is a diet trend that is recently followed by women in today’s day and age which basically involves skipping 1 or 2 meals per day. The diet trend seems very appealing to women as they want to be able to meet the criteria of “beauty standards” perceived by the people of this country. However, as appealing as intermittent fasting is, it can cause grave harm to one’s health which is very essential to be taken note of by women (especially of child bearing age 18-50), said Dr. Sukeshini Ramteke, Physiotherapy, Yoga Therapy, Fitness, Dietitian & Nutritionist at AXIS Hospital, Mumbai.
There are potential health risks from intermittent fasting which includes stark reduction in calories intake which can result in less release of thyroid hormone and can be very harmful especially for women who are already suffering from thyroid disease, she said.
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Dr. Ramteke further added, Menstrual cycle plays a very important role in a women’s life as it is directly related to fertility and their ability to conceive. However, less calorie intake can cause negative impact on the regularity of menstrual cycle and so it is very important for women especially who have sensitive cycles to be very cautious of intermittent fasting as it can completely disrupt normal cycle.
Surveys have been conducted on women who follow this diet trend and it has been observed that intermittent fasting increases the probability of developing an eating disorder with fasting. It is highly recommended that if anyone already suffers from eating disorder or has previously suffered from it in the past to not keep up with trend of intermittent fasting.
The trends followed by the youth of today although may give amazing results however it is very important to note that it can hamper one’s health in variety of negative ways.