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Fasting diets are the big new trend at the moment and some people swear by them. But is it really healthy to deprive your body of food? There are a lot of different fasting diets out there, some of which require you to limit when you eat food during the day while others require you to go days and days without eating anything at all. If you are looking for a way to lose weight and you are considering a fasting diet, read these pros and cons first to decide if it’s for you.

Pros

It’s not complicated

The best thing about a fasting diet is that it’s not complicated. Some diets make you cut out certain food groups and count your calories, so you end up spending so long checking the labels on every single thing you buy. It’s easy to slip up with a complicated diet but fasting diets are simple, you just don’t eat.

You can eat what you want

Other diets like the keto diet, for example, work by limiting a specific food group like carbohydrates. This is an issue for some people because it means that they have to change the way that they eat, making it harder to stick to. With a fasting diet, it’s not about making drastic changes to what you eat, it’s just about reducing the overall amount that you eat with periods of fasting.

It works

Studies into fasting diets have shown that they do work. They encourage weight loss and many people have had good results. However, it’s important to consider the downsides when deciding if this is the right diet for you.

Cons

It affects mental health

Your diet has a big impact on your mental health and this is something you should consider with a fasting diet. Many people experience mood swings, irritability, increased stress levels, and fatigue when they are fasting. These symptoms may go away after an adjustment period but for a lot of people, they don’t.

It reduces physical activity

Exercising when you are fasting can be tough because you lack energy. This means that people struggle to keep up with other aspects of their health routine, which is why alternatives like the prolon fasting mimicking diet are becoming so popular. These diets offer the same benefits of fasting by carefully managing the nutrients that you eat so your body is still in a fasting state, even though you are eating. This solves the issues with lack of energy and other side effects, so it’s often the best option.

It can encourage overeating

You would assume that fasting means you eat less, but that isn’t always the case. Fasting is always followed by a period of eating and when people haven’t eaten for a long while, they are far more prone to overeating. There are no restrictions on what you can eat, so this can lead to big binges that undo all of the progress made during the fasting stage.

The bottom line is, fasting diets do get results for some people. However, there are some big downsides and it’s important that you take them into account before starting a fasting diet. In many cases, fasting mimicking diets are a healthier choice.