Intermittent Fasting Improves More than Just Your Weight (I Tried it – Here’s What I Think!)
Intermittent fasting has become a popular buzzword in the holistic health world for its ability to increase our fat burning powers and reduce weight. Basically, intermittent fasting (IF) is the practice of elongating the time between your meals. There are plenty of different options of intermittent fasting, with most methods suggesting waiting anywhere from 14 – 24 hours from your last meal to your next.
The fundamental premise of this pattern of eating is that it allows your cells to repair, promotes proper gene expression, and directs your hormones to use fat stores more effectively. Curious about its health benefits, I recently gave intermittent fasting a whirl. For the past two months, I have embarked on my own little IF experiment – using myself as a guinea pig – and I’ve learned a whole lot! As I gave it a try, I did a deep dive into some research and have found out that IF is not just beneficial for weight loss. In fact, I was more impressed with all the other great things it can accomplish for our health. I’m going to tell you how the body can benefit from IF, but first, here is a little more information on how to fast properly.
How to Intermittent Fast
When we sleep, we fast. Our bodies are well equipped and even used to a fasting period to recover, repair, and grow on a cellular level. IF can be as simple as extending this fasting period for a little longer. One of the most common IF patterns is to simply skip breakfast. So, if your last meal of the day was 8pm, you would wait until 12pm to have your first meal. This IF pattern is know as the 16/8 method: you fast for 16 hours and restrict your eating “window” to 8-hours per day. This method works best as a consistent eating pattern, meaning your fasting this way every day or at least 5 days per week. I prefer this method for women, as a longer fast can stress our hormones and adrenal glands.
Other ways to fast include:
Eat-Stop-Eat: fasting for 24 hours for one to two days per week
The 5:2 Diet: limiting your caloric intake to 500-600 calories per day for two days per week (non-consecutive) and eating normally the rest
Some of the Many Benefits of IF
Weight Loss
The most popular benefit of IF is weight loss. Besides the obvious reduction in calories, IF improves hormone function that can increase the breakdown of fat to be used as energy. Specifically, IF lowers insulin levels, increases growth hormone levels, and increases norepinephrine, which all work to facilitate the use of stored fat as energy (i.e. weight loss). These hormonal actions can increase your metabolic rate by up to 15%. When we increase our metabolic rate and decrease our caloric intake – we lose weight.
Reduce Insulin Resistance and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
As I mentioned, IF lowers insulin levels, thus improving insulin resistance and decreasing your risk of diabetes. Human studies have shown IF to reduce fasting blood sugar up to 6% and fasting insulin by up to 30%.
Heart Health
Although more human studies are needed, studies suggest that IF can improve most risk factors associated with heart disease, such as blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, and common cardio-inflammatory markers.
Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Disease
Studies suggest that IF can increase the growth of new neurological cells, increase brain hormones that can improve depression, and protect against brain damage linked to strokes.
In the case of Alzheimer’s Disease, studies show that IF may delay the onset of the disease and even reduce its severity. Case studies have also shown that daily short term fasting was associated with an improvement of Alzheimer’s symptoms in a majority of patients.
Reduce Oxidative Stress and Increase Longevity
IF has been shown to reduce oxidative damage in the body (aging) and reduce inflammation throughout the body. This essentially means that the aging process is improved with fasting. Numerous studies have suggested that continuous calorie restriction can increase our lifespan. The process of IF naturally reduces your caloric intake, thus contributing to a longer and healthier life.
My Personal Experience with IF
For my IF experiment, I decided to follow the 16/8 method, and add one longer fast (18-20 hours) one day per week. To my surprise, I didn’t struggle with hunger pangs as much as I thought I would. In fact, I hardly did. Shifting your mindset is helpful here – you’ve got a goal and your committed, the rest is all mental. I struggled most with incorporating my new eating pattern into my lifestyle. Trying to eat by 7 or 8pm every night was a challenge for me and took some time to get right. Once I did, I quickly noticed some really great outcomes.
In about 2 months, I was down roughly 20 lbs! This was a great outcome for me, as I had a goal to lose weight. I did make sure that the food I was eating was nutrient dense and stayed away from sugar, dairy, grains, and gluten (my usual diet of choice). IF not only decreased my caloric intake, but pushed me to be very deliberate about every meal I had. It naturally guided me towards a clean, nutrient-dense diet.
I also felt SO clear-headed. I tend struggle with brain fog and fatigue from time to time and this just was not the case with IF. My energy levels improved and I felt like my brain was working on a entirely elevated level.
To my surprise, I also felt better when exercising in a fasting state. I felt strong, energetic, and pumped up during my workouts. I found that breaking my fast right after a high intensity workout was the best routine for me.
I am planning on continuing my IF journey to see what other health benefits I may experience. If you’re thinking of trying intermittent fasting, I suggest starting with a 12 hour fast and gradually increasing to 14 or 16 hours over a one week period. If you give it a go and do not feel good – then IF may not be for you and that’s OK! I would also advise anyone with adrenal fatigue to avoid fasting. People with insulin resistance or diabetes should first get their blood sugar to a controlled state before attempting an intermittent fasting routine.
Kris Smyth, MNT, CHHC
Holistic Nutrition Consultant