The real, practical benefits of different fasts

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*There is so much convoluted research about fasting and its effects.* Fasting and various spin-offs have become very in vogue in today's diet culture. People are sometimes just doing a 12/12 fast, or a 16/8 (16 hours fast, 8 hour eating window) but others are fasting for 36, 98 or longer, and guess what? They all have huge benefits if done properly! This contradicts with what many of us were told for decades on end. The conventional breakfast, lunch and dinner paradigm is a classic. It seems like that's all we ever heard! And how about "breakfast is the most important meal of the day"? We're told that if you stop eating for long enough your body will start to burn lots of that hard earned skeletal muscle. We will go into starvation mode. It turns out that a lot of this was a big ol' pile o' dooky when it comes to the real world, and largely commercials for business interests (what else is new) who had a huge hand and influence in food studies and therefore legislation of any form such as the infamous food pyramid, which in no way resembles what it did just ten years ago. So it seems that the rules of eating, having energy, getting nutrients and even putting on muscle are not what they seemed at first. What gives? ## Eating, fasting, hormones and the endocrine system ## Don't worry, we won't go too in depth into the science, just the basics. After all, its the basics that are usually the most applicable in real life. mTOR and amyl-cyclase levels and processes don't transfer to real life experience (but they make you sound cool!). Namely, when you eat, depending on the food your body releases insulin into the bloodstream. This is natural to prevent hyperglycemia (too much blood sugar) which can cause death. So that's good that the old pancreas is looking after us after a big meal. Insulin is like the storage hormone. And like every hormone it has a sort of diametric opposite, in this case glucagon and also cortisol which cause your body to break down tissue (one reason why stress can cause so much weight loss). Due to the overwhelmingly junky western diet we tend to consume far too much sugar and starchy carbs and even too much protein. This causes abnormal rises in blood insulin and sugar is stored usually as fat. The insulin removes blood sugar and this is one of the key facets that is controlled with fasting. Obviously, when you are not eating anything, or at least a very low sugar diet, your insulin levels do not rise. This causes a fantastic effect in the muscle tissues called insulin sensitivity. Without going to far with the science again the opposite of this effect is insulin resistance which is caused by rapid and constant releases of insulin. It causes tissues to need more and more insulin to store the sugar, and over time this is the prime cause of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in general, as well as heart disease and high cholesterol. So, when you fast your insulin levels stay lower and the blood sugar levels stabilize. At first someone used to eating more grains, breads, pastas and other sugary foods may feel light headedness as the blood sugar stabilizes but this usually goes away after a few days (that's right, you can not eat for 3 days and be just fine!). Another important hormone with fasting is HGH (human growth hormone) which, ironically increases in secretion over prolonged fasts. This actually causes muscle sparing properties, however if you do fast completely for prolonged periods a little muscle loss is inevitable. Which leads us to the question… ## What about working out while fasting? ## It would seem obvious that working out with resitance training while fasting would simply have to lead to lots of muscle loss, right? Here's where it gets interesting. What are two things that resistance training and fasting have in common? They both increase that insulin sensitivity. This is the reason that weight training is recommended for diabetics in general as it helps keep insulin secretion lower and blood sugar stabilized. So combined with working out, fasting creates a huge insulin sensitive environment which also means that the muscle cells are primed for nutrient-absorption which is another trait of insulin. *We can never simplify it too much. Insulin might control blood sugar but it does far more than that and probably more than we are even aware of now. But when it signals cells to "store" energy that includes vitamins, minerals and whatever other stuff is floating around your blood stream, including water.* Now, there are various ideas and strategies, literally endless combinations of working out, fasting, and eating for optimum health and muscle gain. I'll highlight a few that make a bit more sense at least in my eyes: 1. Eating just in the morning, fasting throughout the day and working out in the evening, and then fasting again until morning. We're imagining a 2–3 hour window in the morning here, maybe more, maybe less, with the rest of the day, including after the workout in a fasted state. The idea here is to consume protein, carbohydrates and fat earlier, and then allow the body's blood sugar to stabilize throughout the day and hopefully cause a pseudo-keto effect where the body is burning primarily fat during the workout, keeping the lifter lean as well as strong. 1. Intermittent fasting. This is a 16 our fast and an 8 hour "window" where basically you can eat as much as you want. This is my preferred method. The 16 hour fast gives your digestive tract plenty of time to heal and recover, something it rarely gets in this day and age. On top of that you have the insulin sensitivity and blood sugar benefits. Resistance workout in the evening, within the 8 hour window. Typically I eat between 1–9 pm and fast the rest of the time. 1. Single day fasts. For lifters that workout every day, hard (like I do). This means that you actually eat fairly "normally" during the rest of the week, meaning no fixed limits, and maybe even all day eating bonanzas if you're trying to pack on weight. One day during the week you completely fast. This actually turns into a 36 or so hour fast as you count the fast from the last time you ate the night before to the first meal on the day following the fast. This is a very long healing period for the digestive tract and immune system. One thing you'll notice is that a recurring theme with fasting is letting the digestion heal. We are so used to overburdening our gut with rapid-fire sugar and fat heavy meals, sodas and sugary drinks and whatever other crap people can manage to stuff in. This creates organ wear, and over time all types of bad things can happen including cognitive effects like brain fog. So people will report clearer heads, brighter skin and hair (a sign of a healthy gut) and better absorption of food. ## What to expect at the start ## Typically the worse your eating habits before hand the more pronounced the acute effects of fasting will be, but trust me, just fight through a few at the start and they will go away. Some might include: getting light headed, vertigo, stomach pains, bursts of low energy, sleepiness, headache, thirst These are all normal and explainable symptoms of the Western diet, where our bodies are so used to burning sugars as fat, and has stored numerous toxins in the fat tissues and brain tissues. Once you get over the light headedness your body, which is amazing by the way, will make the adjustment of fuel, preferring fat. Then magically the light headedness is gone. I experienced this a lot at first but after a few days of intermittent fasting energy stabalized, I routinely resistance train on prolonged fasts. Headaches and body aches can be the result of toxins being released from different tissues. Finally, your body has enough time away from digesting sugar to start to do some clean up work! And sometimes you feel the toxins as they are being released, especially smokers. Lots of people bail on fasts early because they view these symptoms as signs that they shouldn't be doing this. That's what makes it a difficult transition. But if you understand a bit of the science, what to expect and how its going to help you out, I think you'll find fasting as a nice little experiment!
Originally posted here: https://steemit.com/health/@zydane/the-real-practical-benefits-of-different-fasts