When it comes to nutrition and diet, we are all looking for shortcuts. Too many of them lead to a yo-yo diet, unprofitable plans, and very expensive exercise equipment or memberships, which are unused. Where does the alternating fast, one of the flourishing dietary trends, now fit into this world? This is no fad. Science is promising, its history is long, and if approached with patience and thoughtfulness, it can really burn fat, promote weight loss and improve overall health. Of course there will be sacrifices. Here’s how to tackle intermittent fasting and what to expect.
The benefits of intermittent fasting
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December last year, is a summary of decades of research on the practice that found that intermittent fasting leads to weight loss and improves blood pressure, cholesterol, asthma symptoms and the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. Less conclusive evidence, for example clinical trials, suggests that fasting may improve insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, improve surgical outcomes by reducing tissue damage, delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis and reduce the growth of tumors. . Animal studies have found that intervals have been fasted to improve the body’s response to stress, reduce tumor growth, reduce symptoms multiple sclerosis, and reduces cognitive symptoms after brain injury.
So how does it work? If we eat regularly, the body relies on glucose, a simple sugar found in carbohydrates, for energy. When we fast, the glucose stores run out, forcing the body to go to triglycerides, a type of fat, for energy. ‘Every time you eat, you replenish the glucose stores in the liver.”Say dr. Mark Mattson, Professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and author of the NEJM study. It takes about 10 to 12 hours not to eat to make this switch. During every hour thereafter, fat is broken down into ketone bodies that supply energy to the brain. This metabolic switch has a number of effects that are good for our health.
Mattson says that most cancer cells are dependent on glucose, so that the body can rely on ketones, can deprive cancer cells of energy and inhibit the growth of the tumor. There are currently ongoing clinical trials of intermittent fasting in patients with breast, ovarian, prostate, endometrial, brain and colorectal cancers. And animal studies have found that fasting tumor growth and improves the body’s response to stress, which, according to Mattson, gives reason to believe that it can improve the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, both of which are very stressful for the body.
In Mattson’s research on rats, fasting activated the parasympathetic nervous system, the opposite of the combat or flight response. This explains the positive effects of intermittent fasting on blood pressure, cholesterol and heart disease. The parasympathetic nervous system slows down the heart rate and lowers blood pressure, similar to aerobic exercise, Mattson says. Intermittent fasting also appears to protect the rat’s neurons (specialized cells that transmit information in the brain) against aging, reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and stroke.
In the future, alternating fasting may even be used to treat some forms of diabetes. Emerging evidence suggests that it helps regulate insulin, the hormone that controls how much glucose is in the bloodstream. When the body is sensitive to insulin, it can quickly process food and sugar from the blood, says Dr. Felicia Stager, a registered dietitian and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. If insulin is not sensitive, blood sugar stays high, which can cause problems with the eyes and kidneys and lead to type two diabetes. In a study men with prediabetes who ate the same amount of calories as usual but limited their meals early in the day to a six-hour window, increased insulin sensitivity and reduced blood pressure and oxidative stress – a type of inflammation caused by an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants that can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cancer.
Why would earlier meals help? Stager says it’s all about the circadian rhythm, or the sleep-wake cycle. In the morning we are more sensitive to insulin, which helps control blood sugar. She describes the circadian rhythm as an anticipatory system. Your body expects it to lighten, and increases insulin sensitivity in the morning to prepare for the day and reduces it at night in anticipation of sleep. ‘Eating in accordance with the daylight hours really closes the brain clock in accordance with the body clock, ”says Stager.
How to implement intermittent fasting
The fasting periods in the second study were severe – participants ate all their meals within six hours and ended the dinner before 15:00. But Stager says it doesn’t have to be that dramatic. ‘In general, we know that reducing someone’s normal eating patterns, so if someone normally eats over a period of 12 hours, it will probably have an advantage if reduced after a period of ten hours. I think more than the duration of the fast is the timing of the fast, ‘says Stager. To start with, she recommends moving the dinner up just a little earlier.
After a few weeks of eating habits, the participants in the early study with limited feeding night lost their appetite at night, and it is likely that it is relatively easy to maintain after overcoming the initial bump of 2-4 weeks. But for those who struggle to go long hours without eating, exercise can help speed up the time it takes before the metabolic switchover takes place. ‘[Exercise] will accelerate the depletion of liver energy stores and the switch to fat, ”says Mattson. While many people find it easiest to stick to a short eating window by skipping breakfast, Stager says that waiting all day to eat and then eat at dinner will not be as beneficial as you probably would. will eat differently than you would before. the day.
If you are looking for alternating fasting to help you lose weight without changing what you eat, you need to know that it is not that simple. The NEJM study states that intermittent fasting is a weight loss method that is just as effective as diet, citing a literature review of six short-term studies. These studies rely on alternating fasting with alternate day, in which participants went a few days each week and ate only a few hundred calories. It makes sense that reducing food for an entire day will lead to weight loss. But researchers have noted that these types of eating habits are “not well tolerated.”
Early time restriction of nutrition, the kind of intermittent fasting that was the subject of the second study, in which subjects ate all their meals in a six-hour day, did not lead to weight loss, although it was by design. Participants said that eating all their regular meals within such a short period of time was more difficult than not eating at night, and therefore this type of behavior could not be repeated from a laboratory environment. Either way, the results of the study suggest “It really is not a weight loss method,” says Steger, noting that people who lose weight if they lose a maximum of 1 to 2 percent of their body weight. “I refer to it as a backup for people who are really struggling to make any other changes to their diet,” says Stager.
Like other healthy but difficult to maintain habits, the effects of alternating fasting work just as long as you do. Benefits can already be seen within 2-4 weeks, but they return just as quickly if you stop fasting. ‘IIt’s a kind of decrease in yields, ‘says Mattson, comparing it to exercise. Although you would be interrupted with the alternating fast, the benefits will not be sustained if you eat normally again. If you lose weight, you will regain it in the same way as when you are off a different diet, says Stager. So iIf you use fasting to lose a few pounds and then stop, the weight loss will be no more sustainable than doing a crash diet and then resuming the normal eating pattern again.
Plus, the effects of intermittent fasting pale in comparison to those you would see with weight loss significantly. And nor can it contain healthy eating habits. ‘If someone eats really bad, they should probably focus on what is different than when, ” Say Stager. Children, the elderly, pregnant women and anyone who has struggled with bending and cleansing should be fasted at intervals. In general, it seems to have some benefits if you graze all day to limit your meals to a shorter period. But nothing replaces a balanced, varied diet.
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