Fasting has been a common practice throughout human evolution. Hunter-gatherer community didn’t have the luxury of three square meal and two snacks per day. Also, they do not have the knowledge of cultivating, processing and storing food. If the hunt was not successful, they forced to fast. That’s the reason after every successful hunt, there was celebration. (camp-fire)
Humans evolved to be able to function without food for extended period of time. This also protected them from metabolic disorders. Fasting is a more natural process of not only survival, but also to live healthy. I would say fasting is an ancient secret of health. Later, the fasting practiced often for religious or spiritual reasons.
Fasting is nothing but, staying longer period of time without eating food. More precisely without any calories, just drinking only water. (I do not encourage or support fasting without drinking water)
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Intermittent fasting (IF) as name suggest, you define the eating pattern, where you feast within a specific time window and fast the rest of the time. People do IF 16:8 (fast : feast) to begin and ramp up to 18:6 and 20:4 (20 hrs of fast and 4 hrs to feast) or even more like 24 hrs during week end. fast.
16:8 can be achieved easily by skipping the breakfast. Skipping the breakfast is the first step to the healthy life. But, unfortunately breakfast had been projected as the most important and healthy, thanks to pseudo-science. I strongly suggest that everyone should go for 16:8 cycle with just one big HFLC meal or 2 small HFLC meal or One HFLC meal with one snack
During the fasting, cold or luke warm water preferred. However, lemon juice with salt, black coffee without sugar / sweetener are allowed. During the Feast HFLC only allowed. (Avoid all kinds of sugar, refined carbs, and processed food)
What happens during Fasting :
During the fasting period, there are a number of physiological mechanisms that triggers the Body cells initiate important repair processes, can able to access make stored body fat and convert as energy and have better control on hormone secretion which regulate the metabolism.
IF benefits & how it works
As we know from the previous post, very strict Insulin and Blood sugar level which helps to reverse the metabolic disorder like diabetic (T2) and Insulin resistance.
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Insulin plays an important role in storing fat and preventing to use fat as fuel to produce ATP. During IF, the Insulin level stay at very low which increases the release of the fat burning hormone noradrenaline.(lipolysis) Result, you burn the fat that stored in abdominal (adipose tissue) and loosing not only weight, getting in to a perfect shape.
During IF, cells break down proteins and other cell components and use them for energy. Intermittent fasting is a key to reduce the triglycerides, inflammatory markers and increase HDL. Which are the typical all risk factors for heart diseases. IF stimulates growth of new nerve cells and promote brain function / health.
IF protect against chronic disease, improved brain function, increased longevity, decreased sugar and food cravings and increased energy levels.
The most important benefits of intermittent fasting is autophagy. During IF, a hormone called glucagon (opposite hormone to insulin) is dominates and triggers an important biological process called autophagy.
Autophagy is cellular self-cleansing process that breaks down and recycles damaged molecules and cellular organelles. Autophagy is the most natural way to control cancer cell growth and aging process.
Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2016 for his research on how cells recycle and renew their content, a process called autophagy and IF is the easiest way to trigger the autophagy and keep our body healthy and young.
What to eat during feast hour :
People who have issues with blood sugar regulation, (hypoglycemia / diabetes) have to be careful with IF. They need to be monitor their blood sugar level closely and alter the medication based on their physician advice.
