In light of it being Good Friday, many Catholics tend to fast on this day. But is fasting good for you? A new diet plan says that it is. What are the benefits and what tragic events could start? Let’s find out!
Many will say that intermittent fasting, or IF, is more of a lifestyle than it is a diet. In simple terms, IF is simply making a conscious decision to skip certain meals. By fasting and “feasting” on purpose you choose to eat your calories at a certain time of day, then fast the remainder of it. A couple of examples is to eat only between the hours of noon – 6 p.m; or taking a full 24-hour fast in between normal eating patterns.
This is how it works:
When you eat a meal, your body spends a few hours processing that food, burning what it can from what you just consumed. Because it has all of this readily available, easy to burn energy in its blood stream (thanks to the food you ate), your body will choose to use that as energy rather than the fat you have stored. This is especially true if you just consumed carbohydrates/sugar, as your body prefers to burn sugar as energy before any other source.
During the “fasted state,” your body doesn’t have a recently consumed meal to use as energy, so it is more likely to pull from the fat stored in your body, rather than the glucose in your blood stream or glycogen in your muscles/liver.
Burning fat = win.
The same goes for working out in a “fasted” state. Without a ready supply of glucose and glycogen to pull from (which has been depleted over the course of your fasted state, and hasn’t yet been replenished with a pre-workout meal), your body is forced to adapt and pull from the only source of energy available to it: the fat stored in your cells!
IF is said to do the following:
- Reducing blood glucose and insulin levels (improving the state of the overall glucose metabolism)
- Increasing fatty acid oxidation with increased FFAs (through increasing lipolysis hormones GH, glucagon and adrenaline)
- Sparing and preserving muscle tissue (lean mass)
- Increasing various health factors (lower inflammation, lower blood pressure, reduced oxidative stress, increased protection against neuro-degenerative diseases, and more)
- Keeping the metabolism strong/healthy (as eating more meals does not “speed up” your metabolism)
Some cons to IF:
- Not enough protein synthesis, as your muscles require constant proteins to grow
- Can cause significant Adrenal stress which can cause you to hold onto extra pounds and fight with your goals
- Poor metabolism and body composition, inability to build muscle, infertility, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders, a pro-inflammatory state, and increased risk of disease.
Take Away: Intermittent fasting can produce fat loss, but it is NOT the best method. In fact, it puts you at risk of altering your hormones and circadian rhythms. You may compromise your body’s ability to regulate itself, leading to exhaustion and disease. Instead, I suggest the following tips for performance, health, and body composition:
• Eat 5 to 6 meals a day from high-protein, low-carb, healthy fat, whole food sources.
• Eating and hunger should not cause you more stress than not eating. Use the presented evidence to find a meal frequency pattern that works for you.
• Avoid using coffee or stimulants to keep you from eating.
• Honor your food. It’s a privilege to eat well, though eating should not be a reward.
• Eat a variety of foods—see the link to my varied Meat and Nut Breakfast at the end of this article.
• Avoid all processed and refined foods in favor of whole foods.
• Use workout nutrition wisely—see the link to an article at the end.
• Hydrate yourself. Muscle gains correlate with hydration status.
• A cleanse that includes fasting is recommended but out of the scope of this article.
• If you are still considering intermittent fasting and are a female of reproductive age, be aware that sporadic eating does not support fertility and female health. Please do more research before engaging in intermittent fasting.
Eat well. Work hard.
See you in a heartbeat
coreelynn 