Kourtney Kardashian Swears By Intermittent Fasting
People around the world consult Kourtney Kardashian for diet and exercise advice — all of which she generously gives to paying followers on her app. One of her posts divulges how intermittent fasting has become a normal part of her routine through the keto diet. Specific methods of intermittent fasting fad vary from person to person; some people fast for a few hours, others fast for days.
"For me, this meant not eating for 14 to 16 hours after dinner," Kourtney's post explains. "I wouldn't eat past 7 p.m. at night and then I would wait to eat breakfast the next day until after my morning workout, which would be around 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m."
One day per week, Kourtney partakes in a 24-hour fast where she "only drank homemade bone broth, water, and green tea."
Whether or not intermittent fasting really works to promote health or weight loss is under debate in the health community. Author Naomi Whittel explains that the diet serves an integral purpose in the methodology behind her book, Glow15: A Science-Based Plan to Lose Weight, Revitalize Your Skin, and Invigorate Your Life.
"It's like a metabolic confusion, so your metabolism is almost forced to do a better job," Whittel told People. "[Your body] never knows exactly what's happening and it's really, really healthy for us. It improves our immune systems."
However, some experts aren't as sure.
"Focusing on a specific diet like this detracts from other health goals and leads to a preoccupation with food, feelings of guilt, negative body image, and lower self-esteem," Alissa Rumsey, registered dietitian and intuitive eating coach at Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness explained to The Daily Meal.
"Diets don't work in the long term," Rumsey continued. "More than 95 percent of people who lose weight on a diet regain it within two to five years, and two-thirds of people gain back more than they lost. Repeated cycles of weight loss and weight re-gain are linked to worse health outcomes over time."
Heart disease, for instance, has been linked with this repeated weight cycling in clinical studies.
"While I get the appeal of following a diet that the Kardashians are doing, eating like them does NOT mean you are going to look like them," Rumsey explained. "Every person is different and if you're choosing what to eat based on other people, you'll lose sight of your body, what it is trying to tell you, and what it needs."
Whittel, on the other hand, claims that this is not an unsustainable diet and instead is "a lifestyle, it's allowing ourselves to detox and cleanse and be more youthful."
Kourtney Kardashian's first attempt at the diet didn't last, of course — she worked with her doctor to try it temporarily, and plans to try another round later this year. But the Kardashians aren't exactly known for giving realistic or sustainable diet advice. One of our editors bravely took on Khloé's diet last June and struggled, to say the least.
If intermittent fasting is not for you, but you're trying to make a few healthy changes, here are some easier, really small diet changes that make a big difference.