Hey!
It has been years since I have known of this kind of diet. In fact, I tried it before when I was younger but gave it up when I went to college. Afterward, I resumed it and benefited a lot from it… and had to stop it once more because of school. With a few other bad things mixed in, I became very unhealthy, in every way. Going back to fasting, I began to realize how fulfilling it was and how much I have benefited from it, so I finally did my researches to understand the why and the how.
How can you benefit from intermittent fasting? Simple:
SKIP BREAKFAST AND FAST FOR 16-18 HOURS
Push your first meal at around 1-3 PM. Let me share with you why this intermittent fasting is an awesome type of diet to follow:
1) Improves Digestion
Fasting helps your body extract the most energy it can from things since he is forced to adapt to a starvation period and make the most out of what it has. Also, it allows your body more time to recover, as since digestion is the most energy-intensive biological operation the body carries out (about 65% of the body’s energy is directed towards digestive organs after a meal), so being much better at nutrient absorption when you let it have a break. Also, it allows your gut membranes time to recover and clean itself up from wastes, reducing intestinal inflammation and improving motility (bowel movement).
2) Improves Skin Health
By helping hormonal function balance and cutting back on the number of insulin spikes you give your body (typically this happens when you eat), you can enjoy clearer skin with fewer or even no acne, spots, black spots, and excess sebum. Before, I had a lot of spots on my forehead because of my liver and several over-consumed foods. After a couple of years of continuous intermittent fasting, I only get spots now and then because of too much sugar or fatty foods.
3) Improves Insulin Sensitivity
Fasting has been shown by scientific studies to improve insulin sensitivity through promoting adiponectin production, which is a hormone getting your body more sensitive to insulin and that also cured insulin resistance in mice. Eating fewer meals gives you fewer insulin spikes, so it can stay regulated up until you get a big protein and carbohydrates meal. And because you are more sensitive to it, that means more muscle recovery, more carb turned into glucose stored in muscle glycogen rather than fat (as long as you train and eat well) and also way less need to charge up the carb intake than before.
4) Boosts Testosterone And GH Production
Fasting has been scientifically proven to raise the testosterone level in several ways. Firstly, fasting gets you more insulin sensitive, and it is directly linked to your testosterone levels. The more you are sensitive to insulin, the higher your testosterone levels are. Also, when fasting, your body uses excess body fat as fuel to do its job (mainly, promoting and maintaining homeostasis). This adipose tissue is what mediates the link between testosterone and insulin sensitivity, so when you get rid of it, both improve and fasting promotes it (call it a virtuous cycle). Finally, testosterone and GH levels are directly linked. Like I said earlier, fasting allows you to make your insulin level drops and also get more sensitive to it and it is actually a competitive hormone to testosterone and GH. Thus, having it lower and just periodically high create a fantastic environment to have high testosterone and high GH levels who also synergize together.
5) Improves The Circulatory System
Since digestion isn’t being intensive, energy is better distributed through the body than if digestion were not halted, which means more blood and lymph should flow nicely through the body. Also, digestion causes the body to concentrate a lot of blood in the midsection area to facilitate the transportation of nutrients to the bloodstream (glucose, etc). When you fast, your body releases fat into the bloodstream as it starts breaking down fat cells for energy. The fat tissue has a lot of “waste” and “toxins” stockpiled, so they go into your system once again to get rid of them. That is one of the reasons fasting can make you feel weird or bad sometimes, or suddenly have excessive sebum production with pimples at key places on your body (I will discuss it more in another article). However, in the long term, you will notice that you get a better pump, no more running nose, no cold hands/feet… everything related to poor circulation.
6) Improves Your Immunity
When you fast, your insulin levels drop, as we said earlier. The longer the level stays high, the less capable certain cells become of absorbing glucose and metabolizing it efficiently, and this loss of ability affects a particular type of white blood cell called T lymphocytes, whose job is to regulate inflammation. Intermittent fasting, along with longer fasts (two or three days), has been shown to render your white blood cells drop since they rely on glucose to survive. This triggers stem cell production to supply new and more white blood cells, which are all sensitive to insulin and able to absorb optimal glucose levels, thus defending you better against things not meant to be here.
7) Promotes Autophagy
Autophagy is a big topic in itself, so I will resume it briefly: your body disassembles old, damaged cells to recycle their components into new ones. This balance of activation/disruption takes place in the brain; when it gets activated, the body shifts into lipolysis mode (fat-burning mode) and increases the sensitivity to insulin, while when it gets disrupted is when prediabetes and metabolic syndromes symptoms occur. During fasting, you actually enter this autophagy mode, wherein your body burns fat and removes also chemicals and toxins from your body.
8) Allows You To Cook Healthier And Bigger Meals
Fasting will force your body to reap the most out of less, and thus, it will want the highest density of micronutrients in food. You will not crave sweet stuff and/or salty foods, but more very specific ones like bananas, dark chocolate, whole eggs… Because you still want to get your targeted kcal for the day, whatever the goal is, you will be able to enjoy huge and tasty meals. Replace the little piece of chicken and a side of veggies with half a kilo of veggies plus a full pound of beef and some more! It won’t make you fat since you will automatically go for healthy things. Even if you go for processed food or not-so-healthy choices, as long as it’s in your kcal range, you will be fine. Another benefit is that you will want to cook your own tasty things at home instead of going out because the portions sizes won’t be enough kcal AND nutrients wise!
9) Builds Discipline And Focus
When a person is used to eating several times a day, he or she often feels empty and has a craving for food when some fasting protocol, such as intermittent fasting, is adopted. That often occurs because you are bored, not working, studying nor learning, or didn’t eat well enough last time. With fasting, you will experience hunger usually at the time you are supposed to eat or just half an hour after, hunger will subside in about ten minutes and then will go away. This will allow you to avoid pausing/resuming what you were doing, maybe go to sleep earlier, or focus on the tasks ahead rather than always being so preoccupied with when it will be time to eat. At first, it can be difficult, but then it becomes a discipline, and usual.
10) Gives You More Freedom
A lot of people have eating disorders, either because of emotional distress or hormonal issues. The latter will be easily fixed with fasting, as ghrelin and leptin will auto-regulate. Now for the first point, fasting will make you more proactive about things that can make you feel emotional or bad. It can -and will- it will enable you to free yourself from these pulsions. Like everything else, it will be hard at first, it’s going to hurt, but it’s all for the better. Hunger and impulses will quiet down and then disappear. Your entire approach to food will change with it.
This is freedom. You aren’t a slave to your cravings and food. Nor a slave to marketing teams and their colorful commercials, filled with happy people eating shit and “new magical tasty” products, etc. Not anymore. You can live your life, focus on your goals, dreams, aspirations, do better/faster the work, studies or tasks you have, with more drive. You can achieve the “Flow” faster and stay in longer.
Hope this article helps you with your health and fitness goals. Share your story and thoughts in the comments down below, and be sure to check my consulting services if you want help and teamwork to achieve your goals!
Your lightkeeper,
-Hersovyac.
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