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Could Intermittent Fasting Help You ?

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Intermittent fasting is one where you feast on some days and cut down greatly on calories on other days.

Our bodies were originally made to deal with periods of feasting and then famine as we used to have to hunt for food as it wasn’t as accessible as it is these days. When we caught food we then feasted upon it and we didn’t know when the next meal would arrive.

Fasting has been found to have a number of health benefits:

  1. Improved cardiovascular health
  2. Reduced cancer risk
  3. Gene repair
  4. Longevity

Dr. Micheal Mosley is a recent convert to Intermittent Fasting and he set out to see if fasting would improve his health because he had recent blood tests that showed that he was borderline diabetic and his cholesterol was high, which his doctor wanted to treat with medication. Dr. Mosley set out to investigate what were his alternatives.

Dr. Mosley discovered that what might be driving the process of disease is the fact that we eat too often. This suggests that we are in constant “feast mode” and that the body is not repairing or rejuvenating itself when this is happening.

Strict calorie diets do promote weight loss and longevity in animal models but this kind of starvation diet is not very appealing.
You can get the benefits of calorie restriction through intermittent fasting.
This then is closer to the eating habits of our ancestors.
Benefits for Intermittent Fasting:
  1. It normalises insulin and leptin sensitivity.
  2. Boosts mitochondrial efficiency.
  3. Sugar is a source of energy but too much for the pancreas to deal with causes the cells in your body to start to resist the insulin and therefore can lead to possible diabetes and other disease such as heart disease and cancer.
  4. Intermittent fasting helps to get your body back to using fat as the primary source for energy.
  5. When your body becomes used to using fat as the energy source and not the sugar then you noticeably reduce your risk of chronic disease.
  6. When sugar is no longer the main source of your energy the desire for sugar drops.
  7. Ghrelin the “hunger hormone” is normalised. This a hormone that tells you when you are hungry and that you need to eat.
  8. It promotes the human growth hormone (HGH). Fasting can increase the HGH in both men and women and this plays an important part in health, fitness and slowing the aging process. HGH is also a fat burning hormone
  9. Lower triglyceride levels
  10. Other biomarkers of disease are lowered.
  11. It may have an effect on reducing dementia.
Different types of Intermittent Fasting
The 5:2 Intermittent Fasting Plan
This where you eat normally on five days and fast on two days of the week. On fasting days you cut down your intake of food to about a quarter of your normal diet e.g. 600 calories for men and 500 for women. For more information you can read Dr. Mosley’s book “The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy and Live Longer”.
Alternate-Day Fasting
Another one is the alternate day fast. This involves fasting one day and eating normally on the next and so on. It involves going to bed on the fasting day with an empty stomach which can be a bit tough.
Dr. Krista Varady, who wrote” The Every Other Day Diet: The Diet That Lets You Eat All You Want (Half the Time) and Keep the Weight Off claims that this has a greater compliance rate.
Another fasting diet is to not eat for 16 hours every day and that obviously means you only eat within the 8 hours remaining. It’s a bit tough to start off with the full 16 hours and I recommend that you start with12 hours fasting and gradually work up to 16 hours. I know someone who has made a difference with just doing 14 hours fasting a day.
Which ever one you decide to do, if any, then it’s important that you also exercise as well if you really want to make a difference.
Intermittent fasting is appropriate for most people, but if you’re hypoglycemic or diabetic, you need to be extra cautious. People that should avoid fasting include those living with chronic stress (adrenal fatigue), and those with cortisol dysregulation. Pregnant or nursing mothers should also avoid fasting.
Check with your doctor if you are thinking of fasting.

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