Crescendo Fasting: The Best Method for Women?

Crescendo Fasting | Best Method for Women | Benefits | How to Start

There is a lot of information on the Internet that claims that intermittent fasting is for men only. However, fasting is a natural state our ancestors mostly did not choose.

The fact that not only the male body is built for it is based on the fact that we exist today. For this, women, in particular, had to survive food shortages.

However, hormonal and genetic differences exist between men and women, which plays a role in intermittent fasting.

That is why Crescendo Fasting was developed – a fasting method tailored to the sensitivity of the female body.

Find out if the crescendo method is really the best intermittent fasting plan for women and how exactly it works in this study-based article.

What Is Crescendo Fasting?

The Crescendo Method is a type of time-restricted eating. For this reason, it is closely related to the all-too-familiar 16/8 intermittent fasting.

In these classic intermittent fasting methods, eating is restricted to a strict period during the day – the rest of the day is spent fasting.

Crescendo fasting is a gradual method that introduces you to 16/8 intermittent fasting step by step.

It was developed because sudden changes in diet may affect women’s hormonal balance. Hence, how and what you eat can impact the phases of your menstrual cycle.

While some women report fewer premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms after they begin intermittent fasting, others claim that fasting initially messed up their cycle.

Nature is interested in reproduction above all other things. Therefore, the female body always focuses on the ability to produce healthy offspring that will survive and do the same.

For this reason, the female hormonal balance tends to be more sensitive to changes in diet and other external circumstances. This way, the body can adapt more quickly to external events.

For example, the hunger hormone ghrelin can rise again more quickly after a meal in women than in men.

Because of these subtle yet numerous differences, intermittent fasting methods for women have been developed to provide a gentler start.

Shorter fasting windows of 12-14 hours do not immediately upset hormonal balance and cycle. Therefore, they often offer a more successful start.

Since men do not face these hurdles, they tend to have an easier time with relevant dietary changes.

Accordingly, crescendo fasting is the entry-level method for women.

The less extreme weekly schedule does not immediately disrupt the production of your fertility hormones and allows a smooth transition to the 16/8 method. Your starting point is a simple 12-hour fasting window.

Intermittent Fasting 12/12

Let’s start with the simplest method that numerous online sources explicitly suggest for women.

It consists of fasting for 12 hours daily, of which you sleep for 8 hours. According to this, it is not so much fasting as eating within a specific time frame.

Twelve hours makes the three classic meals of the day feasible. After that, there is simply no more snacking, which is already a significant step in the right direction for most people.

For this reason, even simple 12/12 fasting can help you get emotional eating under control.

For example, stop eating after dinner at 20:00 and don’t eat the next calories again until 08:00 with breakfast the following day.

Since it is easy, this method can be a gentle introduction to intermittent fasting. Ultimately, you don’t have to skip any meals –give up snacking before bed.

In 12/12 overnight fasting, the intervals are simple:

• Fasting window: 12 hours
• Eating window: 12 hours

However, this daily schedule does not take full advantage of the benefits of fasting. The longer the fasting period, the more significant the fat loss.

In addition, the health benefits of autophagy do not become apparent until about 14 hours (Yang et al. 2017¹).

These facts lead us to the classic 16/8 method. It has proven to be the most sustainable guarantee of success for women because of the better balance between fasting and eating time.

Intermittent Fasting 16/8

Although various forms of intermittent fasting exist, eating within a window of 8 hours a day has proven successful, not just for women.

Classic 16/8 Intermittent Fasting is also known as the Lean Gains Method, Time-Restricted Eating, or Peak Fasting because it allows you to gain muscle mass while losing body fat.

Therefore, this classic method of intermittent fasting is no stranger even to bodybuilders, as they have been using it for decades.

As the name time-restricted eating already reveals, this method is the mother of intermittent fasting. It gives you a specific period in which you may eat. However, strict fasting takes place during the remaining time of the day.

For example, you eat between noon and 8:00 PM, allowing the body to fast for 16 hours with an 8-hour eating period. Since you sleep 8 of the 16 fasting hours, classic intermittent fasting is more comfortable than you might think.

Depending on your daily routine and experience, modifications have also proven successful for some women. These are, for example, 14/10 or 18/6 fasting protocols.

These methods likewise represent time-restricted eating with a shorter or longer fasting window.

As you’ll notice, intermittent fasting easily adapts to your day and body.

Nevertheless, by far, the most popular intermittent fasting daily plan remains as follows:

• Fasting window: 16 hours
• Eating window: 8 hours

The following method is a modification of the popular 16/8 intermittent fasting, which aims to provide a gentle start that cannot upset the hormonal balance. Thus, you might know it as a beginner method for women.

Crescendo Fasting

The crescendo method is the middle ground between the previous two fasting protocols.

In short, it is a hormone-friendly form of 16/8 intermittent fasting designed to get you started.

Instead of daily fasting, you fast on two to three non-consecutive days per week. For example, you could choose Tuesday and Thursday or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

This way, you don’t risk abruptly causing excessive caloric restriction when fasting.

The gradual fasting method allows you to test how your body and hormonal balance react to the change.

Accordingly, you can approach your ideal fasting schedule individually in two dimensions.

On the one hand, the fasting window of the daily plan can gradually increase from 12 to 14 to 16 hours. On the other hand, the weekly plan calls for intermittent fasting only every other day when starting.

However, you can also increase this dimension, slowly approaching the whole week. As a result, you get the following range of fasting intervals for crescendo fasting:

• Fasting window: 12-16 hours
• Eating window: 8-12 hours

In addition, many women also successfully limit fasting to weekdays. That way, you’re not restricted on weekends, when free time and social interactions are paramount.

To avoid disrupting fertility hormone production, you should avoid intense workouts on fasting days. Instead, you can practice yoga or walk to get your fat-burning rolling through exercise.

The female fertility hormones are the crux of why crescendo fasting was developed specifically for women.

We now look closer at why it is essential not to disregard the hormone balance when changing diet.

Is Crescendo Fasting the Best Method for Women?

You may have heard that the crescendo method is women’s best intermittent fasting plan. However, making such sweeping statements can be dangerous.

One thing is clear: Crescendo fasting was created for a sensible reason. However, there are situations and times to which it was tailored. Therefore, it is not the best intermittent fasting method for women in every circumstance.

We’ll look at when and why you should use it in detail now. Before that, I want to give you an overview of what benefits crescendo fasting can offer to your health.

Health Benefits

Here are the main study-proven health effects that make excellent arguments for crescendo fasting:

• Enhanced gut health: Fasting periods give the gut a rest, starve bad gut bacteria, improve intolerances, and thus increase life expectancy (Catterson et al. 2018²).
• Improved fertility: Intermittent fasting was shown to increase the release of luteinizing hormone in women suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which could help promote ovulation (Nair et al. 2016³).
• Less dangerous body fat: Intermittent fasting burns unflattering fat under the skin and visceral fat in organs, which is particularly dangerous to health (Catenacci et al. 2016⁴).
• Reduced inflammation: Numerous studies show intermittent fasting can lower inflammatory markers contributing to weight gain (Faris et al. 2012⁵).
• Better insulin sensitivity: One study of over 100 overweight women showed that intermittent fasting over six months could reduce insulin levels by 29% and insulin resistance by 19% (Harvie et al. 2011⁶).
• Improved type 2 diabetes: Some studies suggest intermittent fasting reverses insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (Halberg et al. 2005⁷).
• Increased life expectancy: According to recent studies, fasting can slow the aging process, increasing life expectancy (Nakamura et al. 2018⁸).
• Boosted metabolism: The increased release of norepinephrine during fasting boosts energy levels and the basal metabolic rate (Zauner et al. 2000⁹).
• Better muscle gain: Fasting is the most effective way to stimulate growth hormones naturally (Ho et al. 1988¹⁰).
• Improved memory function: Fasting increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) – a neuronal growth hormone that forms new neural connections and increases memory function (Witte et al. 2009¹¹).

Safety First

Fasting affects everyone differently, depending on their health and other lifestyle factors, such as stress.

However, it is typical for diet and weight loss changes to affect the menstrual cycle.

When caloric intake is too low, the production of two fertility hormones is affected (Meczekalski et al. 2008¹²):

• Luteinizing Hormone (LH).
• Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH)

If they do not communicate appropriately with the ovaries, periods may stop. The primary triggers for hormone impairment are (Meczekalski et al. 2014¹³):

• Excessive stress
• Excessive sports
• Weight loss (due to extreme caloric restriction)

The extreme caloric restrictions of conventional diets upset the female cycle and put reproductive health at risk (Martin et al. 2007¹⁴).

In addition, they are often combined with excessive exercise when people start them. Stress on the body caused by this can disrupt the female cycle.

For these reasons, crescendo fasting was created. It is not an abrupt change of diet but leads you step by step to intermittent fasting.

You don’t have to maintain a calorie deficit, but learn to concentrate your food intake over time to optimize your hormones for weight loss.

In addition, crescendo fasting gives you the advantage of doing strength training and more intense workouts on days when you’re not fasting without disrupting hormone balance.

Although crescendo fasting may take a little planning initially, you’ll get the hang of it quickly.

In addition, it’s a great stepping stone to more advanced intermittent fasting methods.

After two weeks, you should have ramped up to three fasting days per week. Ultimately, continuity makes all the difference in losing weight.

Provided you feel comfortable, you can move cautiously towards 16/8 intermittent fasting.

In my experience, it is helpful to establish a fixed 16-hour fasting window on weekdays after a one-month familiarization phase.

How to Start Crescendo Fasting

You will not find more conflicting information in any other sector than nutrition. And intermittent fasting is no exception.

Therefore, women should take the following three tips seriously when starting crescendo fasting to improve health and well-being without experiencing annoying side effects.

1. Stay Hydrated

Especially when fasting for the first time, it is essential to drink a lot. Otherwise, the fluid loss caused by glycogen breakdown will inevitably lead to headaches.

Also, drinking is the best remedy for cravings. One of the most common beginner mistakes in intermittent fasting is confusing thirst with hunger.

Instead of reaching for water or tea, we snack since solid food keeps us hydrated.

When we forgo habitual snacks, we don’t automatically replenish the fluids they had previously given us.

As a result, we think we feel hungry. Accordingly, with intermittent fasting, you often don’t have cravings, just cravings for fluids.

Three drinks, in particular, have proven effective against cravings:

• Mineral water: Water before a meal reduces hunger. Carbonic acid also helps with an unsettled stomach. In addition, mineral water contains electrolytes that the body has flushed out when emptying the carbohydrate stores.
• Black coffee: While caffeine can boost metabolism, the antioxidants in coffee help suppress hunger. For this reason, decaffeinated coffee can also be a good option.
• Green tea: Green tea has proven to be a good choice when fasting due to polyphenols and other antioxidants. It reduces hunger, stimulates metabolism, and helps with weight loss.

How much should we drink during intermittent fasting? More than a gallon of water daily?

No. Drink when you are thirsty or feel cravings. No one needs to force themselves to drink ill, especially since overhydration can also have adverse effects.

In addition, fluid needs are individual, so there can be no blanket rule. However, a glass of water or tea will not hurt in case of doubt.

2. Do Not Fear Salt

In addition to fluid loss, a second significant aspect is responsible for physical complaints such as dizziness.

An undersupply of salt (sodium) is the primary trigger for this. Therefore, even in strict therapeutic fasting, natural salt is allowed in addition to water.

Besides other electrolytes, sodium, in particular, is flushed out of the body while breaking down carbohydrate stores. Since salt has an unjustly unhealthy image, nutrition-conscious people often save with it.

However, we now know that those countries with the highest salt consumption have the lowest rates of cardiovascular disease (Park et al. 2016¹⁵).

Moreover, salt takes the bitter taste out of food and acts against cravings. Since it also has a negative feedback loop, unlike sugar, your body will tell you when you’ve had enough salt.

While sugar consumption promotes insulin resistance and body fat storage, salt increases insulin sensitivity and aids weight loss (Sakuyama et al. 2016¹⁶).

Finally, salt is the natural antagonist of sugar. If you want intermittent fasting without problems, salt your food as you like.

Furthermore, if you have a headache during fasting, you can dissolve natural Himalayan salt in water or drink homemade sole water.

3. You Do Not Have to Take It Easy

A popular myth about intermittent fasting is that you must take it easy.

Unless you already feel tired, the surest way into sluggishness is to rest even more. Instead, activities can help your body go to fat-burning faster.

If you feel a sense of fatigue while fasting, it’s usually a sign that your carbohydrate stores are emptying. However, this is not a bad thing.

The body is telling us that readily available energy is running low by feeling sluggish. And that’s what we want to achieve.

Nevertheless, the body does not immediately expend extra metabolic energy to burn fat, especially if you start fasting.

Accordingly, like a savings account, body fat is only attacked when carbohydrate stores, the checking account, are empty.

That’s why it helps to increase your energy needs with exercise. This way, you force your body to switch to burning body fat.

Nevertheless, when fasting, it is crucial to listen to your body. If you feel good about fasting and strength training, there is nothing wrong with it.

If you feel unwell, you can always break the fast.

For example, intermittent fasting and muscle-building work great for me since fasting releases enormous amounts of growth hormone.

However, it is important to always exercise during fasting to maximize fat burning. If you eat before exercising, insulin production will prevent fat burning (Meijssen et al. 2001¹⁷).

The Bottom Line

In summary, Crescendo Fasting has a clear goal: It allows women to start intermittent fasting without unpleasant side effects.

Conventional diets and more extreme intermittent fasting methods can mess up the female cycle. However, this does not happen with the crescendo method.

Still, that’s not why it’s the best intermittent fasting method for women. Find out why you should switch to 16/8 in the long run, which advantages it brings, and how you can integrate it playfully into your individual professional life in my new book:

Intermittent Fasting 16/8 for Women: Achieve Hormone Harmony to Lose Weight Fast Without Losing Your Mind – Incl. 30-Day Fasting Challenge and Meal Plan.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Which fasting interval is best?

While crescendo fasting is the best beginner method for women, intermittent fasting 16/8 is the best interval to get results and maintain in the long run.

How do I start gradually fasting?

Instead of daily intermittent fasting 16/8, you fast on two to three non-consecutive days per week. For example, you could choose Tuesday and Thursday or Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

How long does it take the body to be in a fasted state?

The greater health benefits of a fasted state do not become apparent until about 14 hours of fasting.

How long does it take for intimate fasting to work?

You will feel the first weight loss within a week when water depots in the body empty. For efficient fat burning, your body may need 3-6 weeks.

Studies

#1-5

¹Yang JS, Lu CC, Kuo SC, Hsu YM, Tsai SC, Chen SY, Chen YT, Lin YJ, Huang YC, Chen CJ, Lin WD, Liao WL, Lin WY, Liu YH, Sheu JC, Tsai FJ. Autophagy and its link to type II diabetes mellitus. Biomedicine (Taipei). 2017 Jun;7(2):8. doi: 10.1051/bmdcn/2017070201. Epub 2017 Jun 14. PubMed PMID: 28612706; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5479440.

²Catterson JH, Khericha M, Dyson MC, Vincent AJ, Callard R, Haveron SM, Rajasingam A, Ahmad M, Partridge L. Short-Term, Intermittent Fasting Induces Long-Lasting Gut Health and TOR-Independent Lifespan Extension. Curr Biol. 2018 Jun 4;28(11):1714-1724.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.015. Epub 2018 May 17. PubMed PMID: 29779873; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5988561.

³Nair PM, Khawale PG. Role of therapeutic fasting in women’s health: An overview. J Midlife Health. 2016 Apr-Jun;7(2):61-4. doi: 10.4103/0976-7800.185325. Review. PubMed PMID: 27499591; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4960941. 

⁴Catenacci VA, Pan Z, Ostendorf D, Brannon S, Gozansky WS, Mattson MP, Martin B, MacLean PS, Melanson EL, Troy Donahoo W. A randomized pilot study comparing zero-calorie alternate-day fasting to daily caloric restriction in adults with obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 Sep;24(9):1874-83. doi: 10.1002/oby.21581. PubMed PMID: 27569118; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5042570.

⁵Faris MA, Kacimi S, Al-Kurd RA, Fararjeh MA, Bustanji YK, Mohammad MK, Salem ML. Intermittent fasting during Ramadan attenuates proinflammatory cytokines and immune cells in healthy subjects. Nutr Res. 2012 Dec;32(12):947-55. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2012.06.021. Epub 2012 Oct 4. PubMed PMID: 23244540.

#6-11

⁶Harvie MN, Pegington M, Mattson MP, Frystyk J, Dillon B, Evans G, Cuzick J, Jebb SA, Martin B, Cutler RG, Son TG, Maudsley S, Carlson OD, Egan JM, Flyvbjerg A, Howell A. The effects of intermittent or continuous energy restriction on weight loss and metabolic disease risk markers: a randomized trial in young overweight women. Int J Obes (Lond). 2011 May;35(5):714-27. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2010.171. Epub 2010 Oct 5. PubMed PMID: 20921964; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3017674.

⁷Halberg N, Henriksen M, Söderhamn N, Stallknecht B, Ploug T, Schjerling P, Dela F. Effect of intermittent fasting and refeeding on insulin action in healthy men. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2005 Dec;99(6):2128-36. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00683.2005. Epub 2005 Jul 28. PubMed PMID: 16051710.

⁸Nakamura S, Yoshimori T. Autophagy and Longevity. Mol Cells. 2018 Jan 31;41(1):65-72. doi: 10.14348/molcells.2018.2333. Epub 2018 Jan 23. Review. PubMed PMID: 29370695; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5792715. 

⁹Zauner C, Schneeweiss B, Kranz A, Madl C, Ratheiser K, Kramer L, Roth E, Schneider B, Lenz K. Resting energy expenditure in short-term starvation is increased as a result of an increase in serum norepinephrine. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jun;71(6):1511-5. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/71.6.1511. PubMed PMID: 10837292.

¹⁰Ho KY, Veldhuis JD, Johnson ML, Furlanetto R, Evans WS, Alberti KG, Thorner MO. Fasting enhances growth hormone secretion and amplifies the complex rhythms of growth hormone secretion in man. J Clin Invest. 1988 Apr;81(4):968-75. doi: 10.1172/JCI113450. PubMed PMID: 3127426; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC329619.

¹¹Witte AV, Fobker M, Gellner R, Knecht S, Flöel A. Caloric restriction improves memory in elderly humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jan 27;106(4):1255-60. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0808587106. Epub 2009 Jan 26. PubMed PMID: 19171901; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2633586. 

#12-17

¹²Meczekalski B, Podfigurna-Stopa A, Warenik-Szymankiewicz A, Genazzani AR. Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea: current view on neuroendocrine aberrations. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2008 Jan;24(1):4-11. doi: 10.1080/09513590701807381. Review. PubMed PMID: 18224538.

¹³Meczekalski B, Katulski K, Czyzyk A, Podfigurna-Stopa A, Maciejewska-Jeske M. Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea and its influence on women’s health. J Endocrinol Invest. 2014 Nov;37(11):1049-56. doi: 10.1007/s40618-014-0169-3. Epub 2014 Sep 9. Review. PubMed PMID: 25201001; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4207953.

¹⁴Martin B, Pearson M, Kebejian L, Golden E, Keselman A, Bender M, Carlson O, Egan J, Ladenheim B, Cadet JL, Becker KG, Wood W, Duffy K, Vinayakumar P, Maudsley S, Mattson MP. Sex-dependent metabolic, neuroendocrine, and cognitive responses to dietary energy restriction and excess. Endocrinology. 2007 Sep;148(9):4318-33. doi: 10.1210/en.2007-0161. Epub 2007 Jun 14. PubMed PMID: 17569758; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2622430.

¹⁵Park J, Kwock CK, Yang YJ. The Effect of the Sodium to Potassium Ratio on Hypertension Prevalence: A Propensity Score Matching Approach. Nutrients. 2016 Aug 6;8(8). doi: 10.3390/nu8080482. PubMed PMID: 27509520; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4997395. 

¹⁶Sakuyama H, Katoh M, Wakabayashi H, Zulli A, Kruzliak P, Uehara Y. Influence of gestational salt restriction in fetal growth and in development of diseases in adulthood. J Biomed Sci. 2016 Jan 20;23:12. doi: 10.1186/s12929-016-0233-8. Review. PubMed PMID: 26787358; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4719732. 

¹⁷Meijssen S, Cabezas MC, Ballieux CG, Derksen RJ, Bilecen S, Erkelens DW. Insulin mediated inhibition of hormone sensitive lipase activity in vivo in relation to endogenous catecholamines in healthy subjects. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Sep;86(9):4193-7. doi: 10.1210/jcem.86.9.7794. PubMed PMID: 11549649.