Learn about Jennifer Lopez's Intermittent Fasting Experience

Born on July 24, 1969, Jennifer, nicknamed J Lo, is an actress and a singer. It has been more than 30 years since her debut. Although at the age of 52 now, she showed her good figure on the red carpet, and especially in 2019, she made the final appearance at Milan fashion week and amazed many people. J. Lo’s sexy and healthy body has far exceeded the scope of beauty. It seems to be a symbol of self-confidence, making J. Lo more energetic in life and more shining on the stage.

How has she managed to seemingly become so youthful and charming?

“What you eat doesn’t just affect your body, it can also affect the way your skin looks”, she said.

Exactly, it’s the healthy diet and lifestyle that matter.

J. Lo Has Been Known to Turn to Intermittent Fasting.

J. Lo’s discipline and dedication are really important when it comes to health and fitness. And recently, she has been known to turn to intermittent fasting. You may have heard of intermittent fasting, but you may not know what it is. Simply speaking, also known as IF, intermittent fasting is more of a diet plan than a concrete diet. What it focuses on is the eating and fasting window.

In other words, it’s more about when to eat rather than what to eat. The core of intermittent fasting lies in the control that strictly regulates people’s eating and fasting time to provide the food that has been consumed enough time to be metabolized to finally stop fat from being generated and stored on their bodies.

J. Lo Follows the 16:8 Intermittent Fasting Method.

When you dive into the world of intermittent fasting, you’ll find endless streams of information on what, how, and when you should eat. And 16:8 intermittent fasting method is one of the most popular ways of fasting, which means you can eat only at an eight-hour window during the day and fast (AKA not eating) for the remaining sixteen hours.

How to exactly do? For example, people with very busy schedules like J. Lo skip breakfast and start their first meal at 1 pm and their last meal stops at 9 pm.

What are the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting?

Beneficial for Weight Loss

Here comes a common guideline, that is, the less time you allow yourself to eat, the fewer calories you will consume. Based on the discussion on the working scheme of intermittent fasting, it aims to expand the time between meals so that more fat can be effectively burnt. And according to a 2014 review of the scientific literature, intermittent fasting can significantly cause weight loss of 3–8% over 3–24 weeks, which is really a huge amount.

Beneficial for Health

Heart disease is the biggest and severest killer in the world. But a series of studies have shown that intermittent fasting can reduce risk factors for heart disease, such as blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.

In addition, cancer is considered one of the key health problems in developed countries as it largely affects people’s expectancy and quality of life. However, much evidence from animal studies indicates that intermittent fasting may help prevent cancer.

Beneficial for Lifespan Prolonging

Based on the Honoring Clive McCay and 75 Years of Calorie Restriction Research by Roger B. McDonald and Jon J. Ramsey, a conclusion that rats with severely restricted diets lived up to 33% longer has been known. Therefore, a limit on calorie intake is beneficial to expand people’s lifespan, which is also where intermittent fasting stands.

Beneficial for Concentration

Concentration is what you need when you do everything. One thing, whether at work or in life, can only be done well if you concentrate on it. Apart from weight loss and body health, some research has proved that intermittent fasting boosts focus, memory, and brain health.

J. Lo Has Followed Many Rules during Intermittent Fasting.

Intermittent fasting isn’t a new fad, but it’s certainly one that’s held on in celebrity circles for years. “How To Even Begin To Try To Look Like J. Lo” articles have been plaguing the web for years, but the reality is, she works very hard to look the way she does. Part of that reportedly includes the following rules:

Rule#1. Start a day with a glass of warm water.

How to healthily start a day? A glass of warm water just can do. Stella Metsovas, clinical nutritionist and media health expert in Food and Nutrition Sciences, says, “Physicians recommend drinking warm water in the morning, usually, with a polyphenol-rich lemon immersion, or with a tea shown to decrease free radical activity in the body.” Water is essential in people’s life. Nobody can live without water. And staying hydrated is also what you should do during intermittent fasting. Besides, according to one of J. Lo’s trainers, Dodd Romero, “She drinks a minimum of seven glasses a day”. That’s a lot of H2O! In fact, research has shown that even mild dehydration may impair memory and mood in everyone from children to the elderly. Therefore, remember to “water” your body!

However, it always occurs water intake is forgotten. Fastyle water tracker is suggested with its feature reminding users to consume enough water every other hour and allowing users to set daily water intake amount.

Rule#2. Power up on lean proteins.

Apart from a glass of warm water in the morning, J. Lo is also known to follow a “clean” eating pattern including lean proteins to promote the feeling of fullness. She skips processed food and only eats organic items. For lean proteins, Romero also shared that her main sources of lean proteins are egg whites in the morning, white meat turkey, lean cuts of chicken, and grass-fed beef throughout the day. In fact, incorporating lean proteins is helpful to lose weight and build muscles.

13 Best Sources of Lean Proteins

Beef, especially grass-fed beef
Bison
Black Beans
Chicken
Eggs
Greek Yogurt
Ground Turkey
Pork Tenderloin
Quinoa
Soybeans
Tilapia
Venison
Whey Protein

Rule#3. Eat leafy greens and fruits.

Leafy greens such as kale and spinach and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower are J. Lo’s favorites. Unlike some certain vegetables such as carrots and sweet corn that have higher amounts of naturally occurring sugars, these vegetables are healthier and often seen in J. Lo’s plates. As for fruits, she likes mostly berries such as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, which can deliver a bevy of benefits including helping preventing cancer and improving insulin response according to some research.

Rule#4. No caffeine or alcohol.

It’s important to know what you should put into your body, but it’s more important to know what you shouldn’t put into it.

In J. Lo’s case, she avoided caffeine very well. She always drinks decaffeinated coffee. Researchers have found that caffeine is a major trigger for headaches and can greatly reduce the amount and quality of a person’s sleep. If you strongly depend on coffee every day, don’t worry, then because coffee works with intermittent fasting with no sugar or sweeteners added. In addition, it’s worth noting that she does not drink alcohol. J. Lo once admitted, “That really wrecks your skin as you get older.”

Rule#5. Get at least 8 hours’ sleep.

“The number one tip is to always get enough sleep. I can’t stress this enough,” Jennifer told InStyle. “I would love to get nine or ten hours of sleep, but either way, I always make sure I get at least eight.” Research shows that most people need at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep to function optimally.

Rule#6. Do “Fasted Cardio” workouts.

Apart from the healthy diet plan, workouts are necessary for J. Lo’s life. She now is trying out a new weight loss method-fasted cardio, which means working out without eating breakfast. This way is similar to the idea behind intermittent fasting and can help burn the reserved fat in the body. A 2016 study has shown that doing cardio in a “fasted state” led to 20 percent more fat burning.

J. Lo Diet Challenge: No-sugar, No-carb

Do you still remember the 10-day J. Lo diet challenge that once caused an immediate spike in Google traffic in January 2020 with a post on the superstar’s Instagram? What is exactly the J. Lo Diet challenge? It is actually a diet completely cutting out different forms of carbs and sugar such as starchy vegetables, candy, baked goods, certain fruits, grains, condiments with sugar, sweeteners (even artificial sweeteners), dairy, soda, and alcohol. And she invited her followers and other celebrities like her boyfriend Alex Rodriguez to take part in the challenge with her.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average American eats up to 170 pounds of sugar a year. A huge number! It’s worth noting that excess sugar and carb intake links to many health problems like obesity, diabetes, and also heart disease. Therefore, doing a J. Lo diet challenge can help reset your palate and establish a healthier, low-sugar lifestyle in the long term.

Bottom Line

One of the secrets of Jennifer Lopez’s good figure is intermittent fasting, a healthy eating method that allows you to eat during a specific time.
During intermittent fasting, J. Lo has also many rules including starting a day with a glass of warm water, powering up on lean proteins, eating leafy greens and fruits, no caffeine or alcohol, getting at least 8 hours sleep and doing “Fasted Cardio” workouts.
A no-sugar, no-carb J. Lo diet challenge once made headlines and you can have a try!

References:

Iris Padley

Iris is an experienced writer and a proponent of intermittent fasting. And she joined the Fastyle team to contribute to collecting new and scientific information on IF to better spread knowledge of a healthy lifestyle. For several years, Iris has become a faithful practitioner of IF and developed a healthier eating habit. She hopes to help more Fastyle users to achieve the goal of a healthy, active and scientific way of life.

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