Healthy Fasting Happy Life

One of the most important element during Ramadan is fasting. It is a founding principle of Islam and obligatory for moslem's people to fast during this times.

A big part of Ramadan is the food. Different assumption emerged on what type of food (Tajil) should be consume first after Iftar, the breaking of the fast. Is it something sweet? or savoury? Sometimes, we can not control the hunger and consume too many food during Iftar.

We breakdown how to keep healthy during fasting.

What happen with your body during fasting?

In the fasting state your body will developed energy from its storage. In the first 6-9 (six-nine) hours, the energy will be developed from the energy storage in the liver (glycogen) and then after that, the body will look for energy from body storage by mean of gluconeogenesis. In Gluconeogenesis the body will breakdown its protein from the muscle and lipid from body fat.

How to fast safely during Ramadan?

In the fasting month of Ramadan, to successfully fast the whole month in a healthy and happy state, we need to manage our daily diet, as well as our activity. Started from Sahur, it is recommended to eat most of your carbohydrate from the complex one. Why? The complex carbohydrate will be slowly changed to energy, as for the simple carbohydrate will be immediately changed into energy. So, the complex carbohydrate will make us stay energized longer, before the body breakdown its storage. At break fasting, the first two words are “go slow”. Start with something sweet from the simple carbohydrate, as it will raised immediately blood glucose and served the immediate energy. After that, we can eat our main course. Make sure that your meals during the fasting month is in a balance diet.

Exercise during Ramadan? When is the best time to do the exercise? Should it be limited?

Exercise during the fasting month of Ramadan is safe, and the best time to do the exercise is 1-2 hours before breakfasting. Why is this the best time? It is because that we will be able to change our energy and fluid loss immediately. Should our exercise be limited during the fasting month of Ramadan? Not really, as long as your body accept your daily exercise. We can measure our body acceptance of the exercise by calculating our pulse, our breath frequencies and fatigue. Start low and slow in exercising at the few days in the early month, then add gradually the days after.

Is Fasting can be a healthy diet to lose weight?

Yes, fasting is one of the way to lose weight. We can start by consuming enough energy for our daily life, make sure that our daily meal is in balance diet, along with the limitation of salt, oil (fried food) and simple carbohydrate (sugar) consumption. Choosing the food type and the processing of the food is another way to start your diet. In example, fish and poultry is a good source for lean protein, choose them to avoid fat. Sugar, syrup and flour are the source of simple carbohydrate, avoid them because excess of this food will be stored in our body as fat. A variety in colour of vegetable and fruit are a good source for vitamins and minerals. In processing the food, try to avoid frying and the use of oils, margarine and butter. Boiling, stewing and steaming is the best way to process food to lose weight.