The Complete Guide To Intermittent Fasting 2

Go for It! Many studies have shown that not only is IF safe for you, it’s also incredibly effective. IT’S EITHER THE MOST INTUITIVE diet ever, or the most counterintuitive: Just stop eating for periods of time. Intuitive…because of course it makes sense that if you don’t eat, you’ll lose weight. But that simple approach challenges decades of weight-loss advice claiming the opposite—that going without food for more than a few hours slows your metabolism and results in binge eating and weight gain. The concepts behind intermittent fasting go directly against recent diet orthodoxy. And yet, the popularity of intermittent fasting, or IF for short, is soaring. Since 2010, the number of online searches for the term has increased by about 10,000 percent, with most of that increase occurring in the…

1 MYTH Fasting is like starving. REALITY The difference between the two is clear, says Jason Fung, MD, author of The Complete Guide to Fasting: One is a choice, and one is involuntary. “It’s the difference between recreational running, and running because a lion is chasing you.” 2 MYTH You’ll binge when you break your fast. REALITY Studies show that people do eat a little more after fasting, but only a few hundred calories—not a binge, and still much less than you would have taken in if you had been eating every few hours. “And with repeated fasting, appetite tends to decrease as the fasting duration continues,” says Fung. 3 MYTH Going without food slows your metabolism. REALITY Fasting instead raises your basal metabolism, burning more calories, says Fung. It’s true that traditional…

IN ONE WAY, INTERMITTENT fasting is simple to define: You stop eating for a pre-planned period of time. But reams of research are demonstrating that doing so spurs a series of complex reactions in your body, from the functioning of certain organs to the behavior of cells, hormones and blood proteins. In order to understand how and why IF may not only help you lose weight, but also make you stronger and healthier, you need to take a deep dive into your body’s physiology. What you’ll find: some profound effects of the decision to, for example, not eat your breakfast until noon. Here’s what happens. Where It Started First a little evolutionary history: How did humans eat long ago, when our bodies were laying down the basic biology that exists to…

Blood Pressure One of the first benefits of IF is often lower BP. WHEN IF WORKS ITS MAGIC BY altering your body’s use of insulin, there’s a ripple effect: lower heart disease risk, improved blood sugar control, more definitive weight loss. And when it reduces inflammation and ups growth hormone, that increases your odds of living longer and avoiding dementia. Research has revealed a trove of physical and mental benefits as a result of what IF does in your body on a molecular level. Here are five ways it can help. Weight Loss The hope of dropping pounds is what prompts many people to try IF, often before they realize that fasting has other benefits. In a 2014 review published in Translational Research, IF was found to reduce body weight by…

Picture this: Your organs, bloodstream, hormones, even your mitochondria—the energy factories within each cell—respond to every period of fasting you go through. Even a standard overnight fast, from dinner to breakfast (when you “break” your daily “fast”), produces changes and adjustments in how your body functions. The surprise to many is that these changes are positive ones. By timing your fasts in a way that still provides you with optimum nutrition, you skip any detriments that come with true starvation mode, and instead reap the benefits of our innate human physiology—one that has adapted through millennia to thrive through periods of food scarcity. This blueprint shows how it works. PANCREAS This organ regulates blood glucose by releasing hormones like insulin to bring blood sugar back down to normal after you…

IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE A DIETARY pattern more time-tested than intermittent fasting—although the reasons people followed it in the past ranged much more widely than for weight loss or a longer life. Taking a look at those reasons helps shed light on why fasting is once again having a moment. The difference now? So much more study and science that backs up its appeal. Prehistory Anthropologists agree that periodic fasts were an inevitable part of early human life, though not by choice. Seasonal shifts, drought, war, insect infestations—all brought times of food scarcity, which taught the human body how to survive occasional famines. “We are the product of millennia of feast or famine,” says Michael Mosley, MD, author of The Fast Diet. “The reason we respond so well to intermittent fasting…