To Fast or Not to Fast?

There are so many diets out there and intermittent fasting is really popular now. On the contrary, for some people it’s best to consume protein within one hour of waking, otherwise your blood sugar will be a roller coaster the rest of the day.

If the blood is too low, then you may feel fatigued, lack of concentration, “hangry”, or even lightheaded. But if Photo Credit Marco Verch your blood sugar is too high, extra sugar gets turned into FAT by your liver. So having a properly managed blood sugar is important not only for your waistline but may be key if you are having problems losing weight.

What’s wrong with insulin resistance, or borderline hypoglycemia? When the blood sugar dips low, it triggers your body to secrete cortisol (a stress hormone). Low blood sugar is a stress to the body. But that does not mean to keep eating carbs or sugar to prevent the hypoglycemic dip because doing so will cause a rebound effect of triggering the low blood sugar dip. Generally eating proteins and healthy fats keep your blood sugar steady, which is good.

Cortisol imbalance can create feelings of anxiety, stress, lack of focus, increased inflammation, immune suppression, hormone imbalances, fatigue, and cause your body to gain more weight especially in your belly area. So eating in a way that works with your body’s physiology is very important when it comes to your health, living longer, mood and if you are wanting to lose weight. What about fasting?

After 12 hours of Fasting the body secretes growth hormone. What does GH do?

• Stimulates fat loss in a process called lipolysis. “lysis” means bursting of cells. So essentially it explodes your fat cells and kills them.
• GH prevents aging and keeps you looking young. GH stimulates your body to secrete IGF-1 which stimulates new healthy cell growth. If you have more breakdown of cells and tissues (catabolism) you age. If you have more regeneration (anabolism) it is anti-aging and anti-inflammatory.
• GH involved in healing which fasting will trigger

You can simply achieve this by eating an earlier dinner, sleeping for 8 hrs and then having a breakfast after 12 hours of your last meal.

After 18 hours of fasting autophagy is induced.

 “Auto” means self and “Phagy” means eat. What does Autophagy do and what is good about it?

• Gets rid of Advanced Glycated End Products (AGE) which are bad. You get AGEs from burnt foods, charred foods, fried foods, smoking etc. AGEs are carcinogenic (cancer causing) but after 18 hours of fasting, Augophagy is triggered allowing your body to get rid of AGEs.
• Gets rid of Amyloids. Amyloids are bad molecules found in aging or chronically inflamed people’s brains. They are associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.
• Starts to eat away at abnormal cells or cancer cells.
• Augophagy of bad microbes such as molds, yeasts, bad bacteria, viruses etc.

You can simply achieve this by skipping 1 meal.

After 24 Hours of fasting

• Inflammation starts to decrease. Many autoimmune, allergic or other inflammatory conditions get a chance to heal.
• You may start to switch to Ketosis, a state the Ketogenic diet aims to induce. Ketosis allows you to burn fat as fuel rather than glucose (sugar). This helps with burning fat, weight loss.
• BDNF is stimulated to start repairing brain cells. Thinking may start becoming more clear. And this may have long term effects of preventing age related memory loss.

You can simply achieve this by skipping 2 meals.

Most people can easily prolong all the benefits listed above by extending the fast to 36 hours, which is basically skipping 3 meals plus the time of a night of sleep. Never fast without drinking water. Sometimes it is beneficial to supplements with certain nutrients or protein during a fast, sometimes not. If you suffer from medical conditions, are very depleted, fasting may not be the best for you initially without supervision. But fasting may be one of the keys to support healing. Some people do well on a weekly fast, intermittent fasting, ketogenic diet, FODMAPS diet, anti-inflammatory diet, blood type diet and many other methods. If you are confused as to what is best for you and your health goals, please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you.