Why is intermittent fasting good

Lower insulin levels, higher HGH levels, and increased amounts of norepinephrine noradrenaline all increase the breakdown of body fat and facilitate its use for energy. For this reason, short-term fasting actually increases your metabolic rate, helping you burn even more calories 7 , 9. In other words, intermittent fasting works on both sides of the calorie equation.

It boosts your metabolic rate increases calories out and reduces the amount of food you eat reduces calories in. This is a huge amount Visceral fat is the harmful fat in the abdominal cavity that causes disease One review also showed that intermittent fasting caused less muscle loss than continuous calorie restriction In this diet, you fast for 16 hours a day and have an 8-hour window to eat.

After testing a subset of the participants in person, the researchers also found that the people who fasted lost a significant amount of lean mass.

This included lean muscle More studies are needed on the effect of fasting on muscle loss. All things considered, intermittent fasting has the potential to be an incredibly powerful weight loss tool.

Intermittent fasting helps you eat fewer calories while boosting metabolism slightly. Its main feature is high blood sugar levels in the context of insulin resistance. Anything that reduces insulin resistance should help lower blood sugar levels and protect against type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, intermittent fasting has been shown to have major benefits for insulin resistance and to lead to an impressive reduction in blood sugar levels One study in mice with diabetes also showed that intermittent fasting improved survival rates and protected against diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication that can lead to blindness What this implies is that intermittent fasting may be highly protective for people who are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. However, there may be some differences between the sexes.

One study in women showed that blood sugar management actually worsened after a day long intermittent fasting protocol Intermittent fasting can reduce insulin resistance and lower blood sugar levels, at least in men.

Oxidative stress is one of the steps toward aging and many chronic diseases It involves unstable molecules called free radicals. Free radicals react with other important molecules, such as protein and DNA, and damage them Additionally, studies show that intermittent fasting can help fight inflammation , another key driver of many common diseases 17 , Studies show that intermittent fasting can reduce oxidative damage and inflammation in the body. This should have benefits against aging and development of numerous diseases.

However, much of this is based on animal studies 10 , 21 , 22 , The effects of fasting on heart health need to be studied more in-depth in humans before recommendations can be made. Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day two days a week.

There are many different intermittent fasting schedules. Mattson says that after hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat.

He refers to this as metabolic switching. Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the calories consumed during your last meal and begins burning fat. Once you get his or her go-ahead, the actual practice is simple. You can pick a daily approach , which restricts daily eating to one six- to eight-hour period each day. Williams is a fan of the daily regimen: She says most people find it easy to stick with this pattern over the long term.

Another, known as the approach , involves eating regularly five days a week. For the other two days, you limit yourself to one — calorie meal. An example would be if you chose to eat normally on every day of the week except Mondays and Thursdays, which would be your one-meal days.

Longer periods without food, such as 24, 36, 48 and hour fasting periods, are not necessarily better for you and may be dangerous.

Going too long without eating might actually encourage your body to start storing more fat in response to starvation. But, he observes, research subjects who make it through the adjustment period tend to stick with the plan, because they notice they feel better. But what Williams likes about intermittent fasting is that it allows for a range of different foods to be eaten — and enjoyed. She adds that eating with others and sharing the mealtime experience adds satisfaction and supports good health.

You can hardly go wrong when you pick complex, unrefined carbohydrates such as whole grains, leafy greens, healthy fats and lean protein. Research shows that the intermittent fasting periods do more than burn fat. These include a longer life, a leaner body and a sharper mind. Some people try intermitting fasting for weight management, and others use the method to address chronic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, high cholesterol or arthritis.

Williams stresses that before you try intermittent fasting or any diet , you should check in with your primary care practitioner first. Some people should steer clear of trying intermittent fasting:. But, Williams says, people not in these categories who can do intermittent fasting safely can continue the regimen indefinitely.

Initial human studies that compared fasting every other day to eating less every day showed that both worked about equally for weight loss, though people struggled with the fasting days. So, I had written off IF as no better or worse than simply eating less, only far more uncomfortable. My advice was to just stick with the sensible, plant-based , Mediterranean-style diet. New research is suggesting that not all IF approaches are the same, and some are actually very reasonable, effective, and sustainable, especially when combined with a nutritious plant-based diet.

Our metabolism has adapted to daytime food, nighttime sleep. Nighttime eating is well associated with a higher risk of obesity, as well as diabetes. Based on this, researchers from the University of Alabama conducted a study with a small group of obese men with prediabetes. They compared a form of intermittent fasting called "early time-restricted feeding," where all meals were fit into an early eight-hour period of the day 7 am to 3 pm ,or spread out over 12 hours between 7 am and 7 pm.

Both groups maintained their weight did not gain or lose but after five weeks, the eight-hours group had dramatically lower insulin levels and significantly improved insulin sensitivity, as well as significantly lower blood pressure. The best part? The eight-hours group also had significantly decreased appetite. But why does simply changing the timing of our meals to allow for fasting make a difference in our body?

Fasting is evolutionarily embedded within our physiology, triggering several essential cellular functions. Flipping the switch from a fed to fasting state does more than help us burn calories and lose weight.

The researchers combed through dozens of animal and human studies to explain how simple fasting improves metabolism, lowering blood sugar; lessens inflammation, which improves a range of health issues from arthritic pain to asthma; and even helps clear out toxins and damaged cells, which lowers risk for cancer and enhances brain function.