The Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting, also referred to as time-restricted eating, means allowing your body to take a break from food intake for set intervals of time. While fasting is a therapeutic means for maintaining a healthy body weight and improving overall health and longevity, it’s a concept that is oftentimes misunderstood and confused with not eating enough, malnourishment, skipping meals, ignoring hunger, and/or overeating at the next meal. This beneficial practice isn’t about starving or gorging yourself; it’s simply about decreasing the frequency of caloric consumption to make yourself healthier, metabolically flexible, and to have more control over food cravings and consumption.

The Basic Science Behind Fasting

The best way to think of your body’s metabolism is that it has two modes: feasting and fasting. When you feast, you’re eating and storing energy. When you’re fasting (not eating), you’re burning recently consumed calories and stored food energy.

When we consume carbohydrates, our bodies break them down into simple sugars for energy. Unused calories are stored as glycogen in the liver and as fat throughout the body. The pancreas plays an important part in this storage process by producing insulin, an essential hormone that facilitates blood sugar (glucose) moving into the cells. While in the feasting mode, insulin levels increase.

When we stop consuming food and enter into a fasting mode, our insulin levels drop and become more sensitive and we burn the glycogen in our liver and peripheral fat for energy and fuel, which can lead to the therapeutic production of endogenous ketones. Ketones are known to have a number of long-term health benefits like preventing cancer and improving overall longevity.

The Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Taking a break from eating allows your gut to rest, which ultimately allows your body to burn fat for fuel. By giving your gut a break, it also allows your immune system to concentrate on supporting other areas in the body outside of your gut where most of your immune system resides when you are eating. There are several ways in which to fast, but the goal is to include a window of time in which you do not consume food.

Fasting has a number of positive mental and physical health benefits. It has been shown to:

• Increased lifespan and longevity
• Lower insulin resistance (promotes insulin sensitivity)
• Improve blood sugar management
• Reduce stress on the pancreas
• Prevent, reverse, or slow Type II diabetes
• Enhance cognitive function
• Protect the brain against degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases
• Improve metabolic function and reduce visceral fat (abdominal fat) and body weight in overweight individuals
• Increase human growth hormone (HGH), which aids in metabolism, cell repair, and muscle growth while at the same time reducing body fat
• Lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides
• Improve heart health and reduce risk of heart disease
• Decrease blood pressure levels
• Reduce hunger
• Eliminate sugar cravings
• Decrease chronic inflammation in the body
• Lower risk of cancer
• Improve immune system function
• Improve mitochondrial energy efficiency
• Balance hormone irregularities
• Improve energy
• Help control and maintain your healthy ideal weight

 

Wiseman Health Take-Home Advice

Before trying any kind of fasting protocol, it is important to speak to a medical provider first for guidance. Individuals who are pregnant or breastfeeding, take certain medications like diabetes medications, have insulin sensitivity, have experienced any kind of eating disorder, or have other health conditions that require close nutritional monitoring should not fast. It is also important to note that children should not fast.

Here are a few important take-home points that are helpful and sustainable when fasting:

• Before you begin intermittent fasting, the first stage is to convert from an overly processed diet that is high in sugar and carbohydrates to a minimally processed diet that is low in sugar and carbohydrates. Eat whole foods that are high in fat and protein such as tree nuts, avocadoes, wild-caught salmon, grass-fed beef, grass-fed butter, and pasture-raised chicken. This can be considered the beginning stage of fasting known as a “sugar and carb fast,” or a ketogenic diet. Once your body is acclimated, then you can try more advanced forms of fasting.
• The next phase of fasting and the easiest form of intermittent fasting is known as the 16:8 fasting approach. Start with one to two days a week and restrict all calorie intake to an 8-hour window so that you consume calories, for example, between 11:00 am–7:00 pm or 12:00 pm–8:00 pm. This means you are consuming calories in an 8-hour window and calorie-fasting for a 16-hour window. Once acclimated to this 16:8 approach, many people will incorporate it into their daily routine and do it every day of the week. Be wary of calories in coffee or tea. For example, your early morning coffee should be calorie free, so drink it black or with a natural non-sugar sweetener like stevia. When starting with the 16:8 daily fast, many find that at first they will continue to eat three meals during the 8-hour calorie window; however, over time, they eventually start to consume only two meals during that period.
• Once you start to get comfortable with 16:8 fasting on a consistent basis, you can try longer, more advanced fasts like a 24-hour, 32-hour, 48-hour fast, or a 3–5 day fast. We don’t recommend fasting longer than five days, as we believe most of the fasting benefits can be achieved at the various time frames in under five days.
• Many people like to track their ketones when doing a longer fast. Ketones are usually internally produced around the 24–36 hour mark of fasting. Ketones are produced when all sugar and carbohydrate reserves are consumed and one is now burning fat for fuel. Many of the benefits of longer fasts come from ketone production. Fasting will ultimately lead to a healthy ketone production, which is defined by ketones higher than 0.5 mmol/L. For a great ketone meter, we recommend this ketone and glucose combination meter to track ketones (and glucose if desired) once or twice daily. Tracking how you feel at various levels of ketone production can be a very empowering approach to fasting.
• Whenever breaking a fast that is 24 hours long or longer, break it with a light, high-fat meal such as a butter coffee, broth, avocado, or eggs.  After a fast that is 24 hours or longer, it’s important that you don’t overeat with the first meal that breaks the fast.
• Whenever you are fasting, it is paramount that you stay hydrated, preferably with natural spring water because it has natural electrolytes in it. Some people like to add electrolytes to their water. Make sure these electrolytes are all natural and calorie free. A good natural electrolyte additive can be found here.
• In addition to drinking plenty of water, drinking unsweetened tea or black coffee during fasting phases can be helpful to break up the monotony of a fast. Black coffee, for example, decreases hunger cravings, especially during the early phases of fasting which can be helpful.
• Over time, when your body becomes more metabolically flexible with fasting, you’ll notice a decrease in hunger overall, especially with sugar and carbohydrate cravings.
• Remember, fasting is so much more than a great approach to maintaining your healthy weight. It really is an overall approach to longevity and disease prevention. Make it a consistent weekly or monthly approach. Many people combine shorter daily or weekly fasts like an 16:8 fast or a 36-hour fast with longer fasts that are 3–5 days in duration every 3–6 months. Find the routine that works best for you.
• To learn more about the benefits of fasting and alternate ways to fast, read The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting  by Dr. Fung.
• Another popular read about fasting in general, over the years is The Miracle of Fasting: Proven Throughout History by Paul and Patricia Bragg.
• A great book on the ketogenic diet is Fat for Fuel by Dr. Joseph Mercola. This diet is for beginners who are preparing their bodies before a fast by eliminating most carbohydrates and sugar.
• Try the Zero Fasting app for extra support; guidance with tracking your fasting protocol, goals, and health markers; and to tap into a library of educational content provided by health experts.