Adding extended breaks between meals has long been known to help with weight loss. Recent studies show that periods of fasting have many beneficial effects on the body. Intermittent fasting (IF) is a way of organizing one’s eating pattern to include prolonged periods of time during which one’s calorie intake is minimal. Periods of fasting longer than 12 hours start reducing insulin resistance and activating survival genes. This leads to burning fat as a fuel.  Intermittent fasting involves periods of fasting within your normal eating pattern, generally not longer than 24 hours in duration. There are a number of ways to accomplish this.

A cute explanation for the way that intermittent fasting works is found here.

Six popular methods of IF are found here.

Fasting is a ritual performed by millions of people all over the planet on a regular basis mostly for religious reasons but recently more and more for health reasons. Fasting causes the body to start to burn fat for its primary fuel. This continues until enough carbohydrates are eaten to shut down fat burning and re-establish glucose (sugar) burning as the primary fuel. When performed in a controlled way fasting often isn’t uncomfortable. It has the advantage of allowing more liberal eating during the non-fasting periods.

If you have any medical illnesses for which you take medications, fasting to should be reviewed with your health care provider prior to starting any fasting regimen.

All of the methods reported above involve brief to moderate fasts of not more than one day. Fasting longer than a single day especially with water only should be performed under the direct supervision of a specially trained weight loss clinic / physician.

There are three major mechanisms by which fasting benefits your body, as it extends lifespan and protects against disease, (courtesy of Dr. Mercola.com) including:

1. Increased insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial energy efficiency – Fasting increases insulin sensitivity along with mitochondrial energy efficiency, and thereby retards aging and disease, which are typically associated with loss of insulin sensitivity and declined mitochondrial energy.
2. Reduced oxidative stress – Fasting decreases the accumulation of oxidative radicals in the cell, and thereby prevents oxidative damage to cellular proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids associated with aging and disease.
3. Increased capacity to resist stress, disease and aging – Fasting induces a cellular stress response (similar to that induced by exercise) in which cells up-regulate the expression of genes that increase the capacity to cope with stress and resist disease and aging.

 

 

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