What’s The Deal With Intermittent Fasting

What is Intermittent Fasting? ( If)

Intermittent Fasting sounds too good to be true. It's not about WHAT you eat, but WHEN you eat it. Sound great right? Not so fast this doesn't mean the floodgates are open to eating whatever you want (pizza, ice cream, soda, etc)

When you are in the fed state, it's very hard for your body to burn fat because your insulin levels are high. It is much easier for you body to burn fat in the fasted state (8 – 12 hours) because your insulin levels are low. Fasting puts your body in a fat burning state that you rarely make it to during a normal eating schedule.

Our bodies run on glucose, or simple sugar, but when we fast for a longer period of time, that energy source becomes unavailable. The body begins to convert certain types of body fat into fatty acids, which are easily absorbed by the blood. Most of the studies reviewed by Anton and team revealed that, while participants did lose body fat, no significant amount of lean tissue — which includes organ tissue, muscular tissue, and bone tissue — was lost. (source)

Many Different Intermittent Fasting Styles or Programs

These are the some of the popular methods:

The 16/8 method:

Also called the Leangains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours. So if you breakfast and eat lunch at Noon, you can eat from noon to 8 PM. Then you fast for 16 hours in between. This means you could eat again at Noon the next day (16 hours from 8 pm)

Eat-Stop-Eat:

This involves fasting for 24 hours, You would do this once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.

The 5:2 diet:

With this methods, you consume only 500–600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the week but eat normally the other 5 days.

Obviously, with the reduced calories, this should lead to weight loss assuming you don't binge eat on the five days and eat healthily.

Many people find the 16/8 method to be the simplest, most sustainable and easiest to stick to. It’s also the most popular.

Why in The World Would I Starve Myself?

When you fast, human growth hormone levels go up and insulin levels go down. Your body’s cells also change the expression of genes and initiate important cellular repair processes.

Short-term fasting may increase your metabolic rate by 3.6–14%. Source

Intermittent fasting can have many benefits for your body and brain. It can cause weight loss and may reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. It may also help you live longer.

Side Effects

I was shocked to hear that the main side effect of Intermittent Fasting is, (get this ) HUNGER. Who knew? Here are some other things to keep in mind

You may also feel weak and your brain may not perform as well as you're used to.

This may only be temporary, as it can take some time for your body to adapt to the new meal schedule.

If you have a medical condition, you should consult with your doctor before trying intermittent fasting.

This is particularly important if you:

Have diabetes.

Have problems with blood sugar regulation.

Have low blood pressure.

Take medications.

Are underweight.

Have a history of eating disorders.

Are a woman who is trying to conceive.

Are a woman with a history of amenorrhea.

Are pregnant or breastfeeding.

All that being said, intermittent fasting has an outstanding safety profile. There is nothing dangerous about not eating for a while if you’re healthy and well-nourished overall.

As with all changes in diet or exercise – consult with your doctor to see if this is right for you.

Can I Eat ANYTHING? During The Fast?

From what I've read, no. You can have water, coffee, tea and other non-caloric beverages are fine. Do not add sugar to your coffee. Small amounts of milk or cream may be okay.

I Thought Breakfast Was the Most Important Meal of the Day?

Some people are now saying that people who eat a breakfast, actually eat a healthier meal (not fruit loops, and coco puffs). So skipping the bowl of sugar drenched in milk, isn't that bad.

When deprived of glucose for 12 hours or more, our bodies, and cells start burning fats for fuel, in a process called ketosis. In metabolizing fats, ketosis produces ketone bodies that serve as fuel for our brain (our brain gets priority when our bodies think we are starving) and healthy cells in our bodies. But senescent cells, and cancer cells are rather bad at being able to make the switch from using sugars to using fats as fuel. These cells have lost their metabolism flexibility, and we can use that to our advantage.

What About Starvation Mode?

If you have fat stored up, it never gets burned because we keep eating When we quit eating, we start burning fat. Breakdown of muscle tissue happens at extremely low levels of body fat – approximately 4%. This is not something most people need to worry about (source)

I played with some Intermittent Fasting Apps

Life

From their website:

The LIFE Intermittent Fasting app by LifeOmic makes it easy and fun to harness lifestyle changes to improve metabolic health. Overnight fasting for just 12 hours or more may result in improved metabolic flexibility, reduced inflammation and lower risk of diseases of aging. Track your progress on any fasting schedule with LIFE, see when you start burning fats for fuel, and intuitively log how you are feeling. Share your fasts and give and receive encouragement within custom circles of other LIFErs you care about, from friends to coworkers to healthcare providers.

With the LIFE Fasting Tracker app you can:

– Supports all types of fasting, including all intermittent fasting methods.

– Start and stop fasts with a single button.

– Easily change your target fasting time.

– See when you enter ketosis.

– Create and join groups of other fasters.

– Post your mood and help people with their intermittent fasting goals.

The LIFE Fasting Tracker app is available for FREE on the Apple App Store. (no Andorid Option)

More information at https://medium.com/lifeomic/life-intermittent-fasting-app-ab9382de0c5f

Zero

From the Zero website

When you dig through the data, it starts to get pretty exciting. It decreases breast cancer risk and recurrence by as much as 36%, improves sleep, has positive effects on markers of systemic inflammation, and regulates blood glucose levels and other aging biomarkers. Furthermore, Dr. Longo’s clinical trials have demonstrated efficacy for type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and cancer patients.

All the benefits mentioned above (and more) are covered in a wonderful video series by Dr. Rhonda Patrick, where she interviews scientists Dr. Valter Longo, Dr. Satchin Panda, and Dr. Ruth Patterson. I highly recommend that you watch all three of these videos if you’re new to fasting.

Zero https://medium.com/@kevinrose/introducing-zero-a-new-app-to-help-you-fast-209935e8245d

TIMER

This is not an app. When I say “Timer” I mean go to your app, set an alarm for 16 hours from now and click start. Want to see how much longer you have? Look at your phone. Now, this does not have the cooler trophies and history logs, but if you're looking for simple, here it is. When the alarm goes off, eat. At night when you are done with your last meal, set the timer again

Studies https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/102/2/464/4564588

Studies: https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-abstract/31/3/363/4725632?redirectedFrom=PDF

Studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20815899