This article was previously published on September 4, 2020 and has been updated with new information.
Fasting is a term that describes a variety of approaches to limiting food intake over the course of 24 hours or longer. One popular method is intermittent fasting, in which people limit the number of hours they eat during the day. There are many approaches to intermittent fasting, and none is better than the other.
Others prefer a vegetarian diet in which they don’t eat for 24 hours, two or three times a month. Longer fasts are possible but they require additional support and knowledge to reduce any negative effects from lack of preparation.
Going without food for longer periods of time was probably normal for human ancestors, who didn’t have refrigerators or restaurants around every corner. Intermittent fasting is less of a lifestyle than a diet, but ultimately, it’s a way of eating that has a significant impact on your metabolism and health.
Fasting stimulates metabolism
In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists revealed data from participants who underwent 58 hours of fasting. A research team from Okinawa University of Science and Technology, Japan evaluated the effects of fasting by analyzing the blood of participants starting at 10 hours and ending after 58 hours of fasting.first
During a fasted state, the body switches from burning glucose to burning fat for energy, and thus produces ketones. Other well-known by-products include butyrate, acylcarnitines, and branched-chain amino acids.2 Four volunteers registered 58 hours of fasting and blood was taken at 10, 34 and 58 hours.
Some compounds peaked at 34 hours, while others did not peak at the end of the 58th hour of the fast. In total, they identified 44 substances that changed during fasting. In previous studies, the researchers identified only 14.
In addition, none of the participants were obese, as this is known to change markers during fasting. The researchers identified two butyrates that were “nearly invisible” at the 10-hour mark but reached “peak after 34 and 58 hours of fasting.”3 Butyrates help maintain intestinal homeostasis by protecting the intestinal barrier and mucosal immunity.4
The researchers also identified compounds involved in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle that “reflect enhanced mitochondrial activity in tissues during fasting.”5 Researchers who have previously studied animals have demonstrated that fasting can prolong life.6 The researchers in this study were looking for “unknown health effects of human fasting.”7
Fasting supports anti-aging metabolism
Three metabolites that decline with age include leucine, isoleucine and ophthalmic acid. However, testing shows that fasting people have higher levels of these metabolites, which may help increase life expectancy.8
The data also reveal that during fasting, the metabolism of pyrimidine and purine is enhanced. These substances are important for gene expression, which suggests that this approach can help reprogram protein cells and promote homeostasis. The metabolism of pyrimidine and purine affects antioxidant production, which the researchers found was significantly increased during the 58-hour fast.
They believe the data suggest that antioxidant production could be a marker of fasting that may “promote the production of certain age-related metabolites, which are abundant in young adults, but exhausted in old age.”9 Dr. Takayuki Teruya, the first author of the paper, commented:
“We have been studying aging and metabolism for many years and decided to look for the unknown health effects of fasting.
People are interested in whether humans can enjoy the effects of preventing metabolic diseases and prolonging life through fasting or calorie restriction, as with model animals. Understanding the metabolic changes caused by fasting will give us wisdom in maintaining health. “
Low-carb breakfast improves weight loss efforts
As important as intermittent fasting is the time you eat your meals during the day. For many people, intermittent fasting is a healthy way to lose weight they can maintain. In one study of 70 patients, researchers evaluated the difference in breakfasts that were limited in carbohydrates or with the same number of calories as in a typical Mediterranean-style diet.ten
Of the group of participants, 58.6% were overweight or obese women and almost a third had diabetes. The group was randomly assigned to either breakfast, but the rest of the food in their daily diets was identical.
The average intake is between 1300 and 1500 calories per day. While both groups showed improvement, at the end of the study those who ate a carbohydrate-restricted breakfast showed an impressive 3.5 kg (7.7 pounds) more weight loss than the control group.
All participants in the carbohydrate-restricted group lost at least 5% of their body weight at the end of the study compared with 65.7% of all individuals in the control group.
The researchers found no other improvements in the low-carbohydrate breakfast group, including improvements related to blood sugar results. Dr Dimitrios Tsilingiris presented the findings at the 2018 meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. When commenting on the results, he said:11
“The morning carbohydrate-restricted diet may offer certain benefits by encouraging compliance … and the rapid weight loss seen with this diet can be used to starting a long-term diet or as an additional feature in weight maintenance, even though it has not been tested for this.
Therefore, they may be useful in managing obesity-related type 2 diabetes. However, these diets often have limited flexibility, and the availability of low-carbohydrate foods can reduce adherence. Normally, we fast overnight and in the morning, with breakfast, our insulin goes up and then drops again at lunchtime.
When insulin drops, fat stores tend to mobilize and act as energy substrates. Theoretically, inducing a lower insulin response after a low-carbohydrate breakfast would mean we could prolong our lows. [overnight] insulin and fat mobilization state, leading to effective weight loss and fat loss. “
Late dinner may increase diabetes risk
What you eat and when you eat have a significant effect on your health, specifically your risk of obesity and diabetes. A study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism was led by a team from John Hopkins University.twelfth The researchers recruited 20 healthy young adults to spend two periods of time in a clinical research unit, where the scientists structured the participants’ meals and sleep patterns.
The goal was to analyze the metabolic effects of eating late at night. During one period, the participants ate their regular dinner at 6 p.m. and during the second they ate at 10 p.m. The calorie counts of the meals were the same at both visits.13
The researchers measured hourly insulin, plasma glucose, triglycerides, and dietary fatty acid oxidation throughout the night and first thing in the morning. The participants also underwent a sleep study.
The results showed that eating dinner late increased glucose levels and decreased fatty acid oxidation. The study’s senior author, Dr. Jonathan Jun said the study:14
“… Unraveling how late supper worsens glucose tolerance and reduces fat burned. If the metabolic effects we observed in a single meal continue to occur If it is chronic, eating late can lead to consequences such as diabetes or obesity.
We still need to do more experiments to see if these effects continue over time and if they’re behavioral (such as falling asleep early after a meal) or the body’s circadian rhythms. can cause more. “
Intermittent Fasting Improves Metabolic Health
The evidence continues to reveal that what you eat and when you eat affects your health. Intermittent fasting affects immune metabolism, which is the link between metabolic health and the immune system.15
I believe this is easily one of the most important areas in emerging medicine and supports what researchers already know – metabolic health is important for strong immune function.
In my interview with Dr. Paul Saladino, a board-certified and board-certified psychiatrist in nutrition, we discussed the importance of insulin resistance, which Saladino believes is the cause. cause multiple comorbidities that cause severe COVID-19 illness. The overarching principle is that what matters most to your longevity is your immune and metabolic age, not your biological age.
While the focus of that article is on supporting your metabolic health to reduce your risk of severe COVID-19, these principles are, in fact, important in supporting your overall health. protect you against chronic and infectious diseases.
By ditching the idea of eating three meals a day and switching to trying intermittent fasting, you can adapt to a body that wasn’t designed to be fed continuously. When you eat all day, your body adapts to using glucose as its main fuel. This encourages energy to be stored as fat and increases your risk of gradually becoming insulin resistant.
Although many people consider intermittent fasting as a way to lose weight, it also improves insulin resistance, increases human growth hormone production, enhances fat burning, lowers blood pressure, and boosts energy. volume, efficiency, and biosynthesis of mitochondria.
Take control of your health with intermittent fasting
While it’s likely that intermittent fasting is beneficial for most people, it’s important to remember a few points:
• Intermittent fasting does not involve calorie restriction – Fasting should not make you feel weak and lethargic. The goal is to limit the number of hours you eat.
• Sugar cravings will be temporary – As your body begins to burn fat for its primary fuel, it will be easier for you to fast for 18 hours and your hunger and sugar cravings will dissipate.
• Intermittent fasting is not recommended with a daily diet of processed foods – While this process may sound like a panacea to health, by itself it will not give you all the benefits. The quality of your diet plays an important role.
If you’re new to the idea of intermittent fasting, consider starting by skipping breakfast and eating lunch and dinner in an eight-hour time frame. Make sure you stop eating three hours before bed. As demonstrated in the previously mentioned study, eating close to bedtime can increase nighttime glucose tolerance and increase the risk of weight gain.
Focus on a diet with healthy protein in moderation and minimize your net carbs by trading them for healthy fats like avocado, coconut oil, and raw nuts. Overall, these strategies can help get your body into a fat-burning mode.
It may take a few weeks, after which you can fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry. By adapting to a whole-food diet and incorporating intermittent fasting, nearly every aspect of your health will begin to improve as well.
