Research shows that intermittent fasting is a way to manage your weight and prevent several forms of chronic diseases.
Scientific studies are showing that intermittent fasting may help reverse chronic unhealthy trends of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses.
Intermittent fasting is all about when you eat.
With intermittent fasting, you only eat during a specific time. Fasting for a certain number of hours each day or eating just one meal a couple days a week, can help your body burn fat. And scientific evidence points to some health benefits, as well.
Intermittent fasting is based on choosing regular time periods to eat and fast. For instance, you eat only during an eight-hour period each day and fast for the remaining sixteen hours. Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day two days a week.
After hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. This is referred to as metabolic switching.
Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the glycemic calories consumed from your last meal and begins burning fat. Glycemic is basically the presence of glucose (or sugar) in your blood.
Intermittent Fasting Benefits
Research shows that the intermittent fasting periods do more than burn fat, explains Mark Mattson, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins neuroscientist, who has studied intermittent fasting for 25 years. “When changes occur with this metabolic switch, it affects the body and brain.”
One of Mattson’s studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed data about a range of health benefits associated with the practice. These include a longer life, a leaner body and a sharper mind.
“Many things happen during intermittent fasting that can protect organs against chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, age-related neurodegenerative disorders, even inflammatory bowel disease and many cancers,” he says.
Here are some intermittent fasting benefits research has revealed so far:
- Thinking and memory. Studies discovered that intermittent fasting boosts working memory in animals and verbal memory in adult humans.
- Heart health. Intermittent fasting improved blood pressure and resting heart rates as well as other heart-related measurements.
- Physical performance. Young men who fasted for 16 hours showed fat loss while maintaining muscle mass. Mice who were fed on alternate days showed better endurance in running.
- Diabetes and obesity. In animal studies, intermittent fasting prevented obesity. And in six brief studies, obese adult humans lost weight through intermittent fasting.
- Tissue health. In animals, intermittent fasting reduced tissue damage in surgery and improved results.
Autophagy and Anti-Aging
After 16 to 18 hours of fasting, you should be in full ketosis. Your liver begins converting your fat stores into ketone bodies — bundles of fuel that power your muscles, heart, and brain.
If you can do intermittent fasting for 16-18 hours a day, you’ll burn through body fat and fill up quickly when you break your fast, which makes it easy to stay in a calorie deficit and lose weight.
After a full-day fast, your body goes into repair mode. It begins recycling old or damaged cells and reducing inflammation. If you’re looking for anti-aging or anti-inflammatory benefits, a 24-hour or greater timeframe fast is required. .
When your body is under mild stress (such as exercise or an extended fast), your cells respond by becoming more efficient.
Intermittent fasting is a valuable and an effective tool to improve your mental and physical health.
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