Interval fasting should be a term for everyone by now. One of the most important trends on the nutrition market.
Less is often more, even when it comes to food intake. A voluntary renouncement of food has amazing effects on our entire organism. The systematic renunciation lets pounds fall under circumstances and releases a set of desired effects.
I’ll show you exactly how it works and what else the method can do.
Interval fasting: Eating according to the clock
Intermittent fasting works according to the 16:8 principle. That is in 8h two full meals may be taken and the remaining time thus 16h one does without the food intake. This kind of fasting is very popular, since it can be integrated well into the everyday life.
Interval chamfering: Healing time out
This voluntary renunciation sets certain levers in the body in motion. The healing time-out keeps the level of our fat-storage hormone insulin low – a great prerequisite for undisturbed fat loss. The food breaks also ensure that special cleaning mechanisms and the waste disposal of the cells are increasingly set in motion (autophagy) – a cell cleaning that has a regenerating effect. Studies with worms, flies, mice and monkeys also showed that fasting prolongs the life of the animals by reprogramming the internal clock with its metabolic processes. Whether this effect can also be transferred to humans, however, must first be clarified in human studies.
Autophagy: spring cleaning for our cells
What does autophagy actually mean? That chamfered can still much more than only kilos melt to let is safe, chamfered vitalisiert also our cells. The mechanism behind this is called autophagy. Imagine you have a house in need of renovation. The roof is leaking, the fence is rotten, the house plaster is crumbling. Autophagy, in that case, would be the construction company that helps you fix your house and take down the dilapidated parts of the house. This self-cleaning program reaches out to the cell to dispose of damaged or misfolded proteins and even entire organelles and recycles them. This is important for cell vitality in that damaged cellular material weighs on our cellular health and can cost it in the worst case scenario.
Intermittent fasting – brings another benefit.
According to studies, Intermittent Fasting seems to have yet another benefit: Thus, “eating for time” brings our intestinal flora into balance. By the self-imposed meal break not only we, but also the microbial intestine inhabitants fast along, whereby the bacterial composition and variety of the intestine flora can change. Unfavorable bacteria are displaced by good bacteria. The exciting thing about these microbial changes is that the newly composed gut flora can actually help us in terms of weight loss.
Fasting – timing is of the essence
| 16:8 | There are 16 hours between the last meal of the previous day and the first meal of the new day. During the eight “eating hours” one may eat two meals. Usually it is sufficient to skip breakfast or dinner (dinner cancelling). |
| 5:2 | Fasting takes place on two days of the week. On these two fasting days you are allowed to eat a maximum of 500 calories. |
| 1:1 | Fasting and eating days alternate. On fasting days you should not take in any calories in the form of food or drink. |
Is there a JO-JO effect with interval fasting?
In order to clarify the question, we throw a view into the past: Already since beginning of mankind our metabolism was used to recurring chamfering periods. When there was abundance, we fasted until we dropped. In times of scarcity, however, the stomach remained empty, sometimes for days. However, our body was prepared. By building up energy reserves and lowering energy consumption, we were able to survive even longer periods of hunger. Moreover, after a few days of starvation, our organism still has the ability to draw on muscle protein for energy.
To return to the actual topic: No matter whether food shortage or diet, our body reacts as before: If the calorie supply is throttled, the organism puts its metabolism on the back burner after some time. Muscle mass can also be lost in this way. If we then start eating normally again, even though our metabolism is still saving energy, we quickly gain weight again. And often more weight than we have lost. If this happens more than once, the yo-yo effect sends its regards.
And how is that now with interval fasting? This method seems to be exempt from the yo-yo effect when used correctly. The crucial difference between interval fasting and longer calorie-reduced diets is that short-term fasting does not slow down the metabolism. The key difference between interval fasting and longer calorie-restricted diets is that short-term fasting does not lower metabolism or cause loss of muscle mass.
