Intermittent Fasting

Read about one of the most popular weight loss methods!

Intermittent fasting has become increasingly popular over the past few years. If you check the fitness side of social media, especially Instagram, you'll see tons of people raving about this popular weight loss method. From nutritionists to dietitians, each person has their own opinion about whether intermittent fasting is worth it.

Many people approach this method of weight loss without knowing very much about it. Intermittent fasting can be a huge change for your body, often times stressful. Here at That NutriGenius, we want to make sure you guys are being safe about your choices. We're not here to control or influence your decisions in any way, but we want to provide information that will keep you up-to-date on the topic. Down below, we give you all the details you need to know about intermittent fasting.

What Is Intermittent Fasting:

There are tons of other weight loss methods out there. A lot of people take on dieting, which is where you focus on what you can and can't eat. Fasting, however, focus on when you can eat. First, we should probably go over what fasting is. This is when, for a certain period of time in your day, you don't consume any food at all. Intermittent fasting consists of different eating plans for when an individual would like to consume food or fast.

Fasting might sound exhausting, but did you know our bodies were actually used to this? Interesting fact, in prehistoric times, hunters and gathers had to go through a similar fasting process. When these people had to gather their food, they would often have long periods of time where they couldn't eat. Just think about it: it probably took a lot of time to collect fruit and hunt animals for meat. Nowadays, things have changed. Obviously, we have evolved alongside the world. We have food that is available for us whenever we would like, whether it's straight from a grocery store or the fridge. So, there's not a lot of fasting we have to go through.

How Does It Work:

There are several different methods of intermittent fasting. However, the main idea of them still sticks. You have to choose a certain time where you can eat and fast. Down below, we list the different eating plans...

The 5:2 Method: With this eating plan, you focus on "fasting" for two days out of the week. As you have 5 days where you can maintain your regular diet, those other two days will have to be focused on capping your calories. Think about having a 500 to 600 meal once, for two days back-to-back or separate.

Time Restricted: With this plan, you have set fasting and eating windows that work for you. Ideally, you should be fasting for 16 hours of the day, which gives you an 8 hour window to eat all your meals. If you want something a bit easier, you can also choose to fast for 14 hours in the day and have a 10 hour eating window.

Alternate Day Fasting: With this approach, you will have to "fast" every other day. Think about it like this: You eat as you would, and then the next day, you eat about about 25% of your normal intake of food. This type of intermittent fasting is a bit harder than the others. Could you see yourself eating a 500 calorie meal 3 to 4 times a week?

Whole-Day Fasting: With this eating plan, you can only eat once per day. So if you choose to fast the whole day and eat dinner, then you'll have to wait until dinner the next day to eat again. This is basically a 24 hour fast, which can be quite hard to do.

So, there are all these different types of intermittent fasting, but how does it actually work? Before we jump right in, we want to start from the basics. Let's talk about macronutrients. These are nutrients that our bodies need in a larger amount, so we can be filled with energy. There are three main macronutrients we want to cover here: carbohydrates, protein and fat. It's important that we consume these three, since our body can't produce the nutrients by itself. These three macros (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) are all energy sources for the body. Our body uses these energy sources one by one, when the previous energy source runs out.

We can't rely on the sugar (glucose) that comes from carbohydrates for very long, since this is a fast burning energy source. The same goes with protein. Then, our body looks to the dietary fats that our body has consumed. So, the theory behind intermittent fasting states that our bodies, when they are restricting food during the fasting period, will use our stored fat for energy. During digestion of dietary fats, they get stored in the body. Some of that excess fat that our body doesn't use, gets stored in adipose tissue (body fat). When our body's main source of energy is now the fats we have eaten, our body eventually goes in a state of ketosis, similar to what happens with the keto diet. If you want to know more about that, check out our recent post.

Anyways, simply put...

"Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the calories consumed during your last meal and begins burning fat." - John Hopkins Medicine

The Pros:

There are definitely reasons why intermittent fasting has become increasingly popular. It has a lot of benefits for your well-being.

Let's start off with the main reason why this has gotten so much love. It's great for weight loss! As you read up above, the body has to use dietary fats that the body has consumed, as an energy source. When our body's main source of energy is now the fats we have eaten, our body goes in a state of ketosis. This is a metabolic state where our body has to burn fat for energy instead of using glucose. The body doesn't have enough sugar (glucose) from our macronutrients to make energy, so our liver will break down fat and produce ketones. These are then used as the body's primary energy source, and we began to slowly shed those pounds. Again, a similar process of what happens during the keto diet.

Of course, now with weight loss, we have other added benefits. One very important one being that it can help reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes. Before we jump into that, we want to explain a main cause of diabetes. Let's talk about insulin. This is a hormone produced in the pancreas which helps to lower the amount of glucose in our blood. Basically, it controls our blood sugar levels. With type 2 diabetes, however, the pancreas doesn't produce as much insulin and the body develops insulin resistance.

"Over time, though, insulin resistance tends to get worse, and the pancreatic beta cells that make insulin can wear out. Eventually, the pancreas no longer produces enough insulin to overcome the cells' resistance." - American Diabetes Association

When you are fasting, your body helps to control the release of glucose into the bloodstream. How? Well, when you are limiting your consumption to specific eating windows, you can lower fasting glucose levels.

Everyone wants to become smarter, right? Did you know that fasting can help boost our brain power? We don't really want to get into the science of things, so we're going to keep it nice and simple. Fasting can make our bodies use ketones for energy instead of glucose, and some studies suggest that this process actually helps our brain cells. How, you ask? Well, ketones can help the brain produce more of a certain protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). This protein is essential for our functions of learning and memorizing.

"BDNF stimulates the growth and differentiation of neurons and synapses. It thrives in the hippocampus, the cortex, and the basal forebrain, which are the areas vital for memory, learning, and higher cognitive functions." - National Institutes of Health

The Cons:

Well, there are two sides to everything. Even though intermittent fasting can hold many benefits, there are just as many drawbacks. Let's take a look at why fasting might not be such a good option.

Let's face it. The world has been taken over by social media. Influencers have opinions about the latest trends, and these include new methods of weight loss. These influencers tend to reach a lot of people, but many of these people... are teens. Some of them might even be kids! Intermittent fasting hit fast on social media, and we know many of you have became interested. While this could be okay for certain age groups, fasting might not be a good idea for kids. These people are still growing and still developing their bodies. When you are growing up, your dietary needs are different. So, the last thing you need is fasting to mess with growth hormones.

This brings us to our next point, actually. We listed a couple of intermittent fasting plans above. Each of them does have the same purpose, where you have to choose a certain time where you can eat and fast. However, with such a drastic and sudden change, there can be consequences. During those periods of fasting, you can develop immense hunger which you can only be satiated during your eating window. Sometimes, you can slip into a state of fear or stress, where you began to binge-eat. You'll eat a lot of food, and you feel like you won't be able to stop. It can be mentally devastating, with the feelings of guilt and shame afterwards. So, we highly advise anyone with an eating disorder, like bulimia nervosa, to not do intermittent fasting.

Along with eating disorders, we want to bring up a big issue: malnutrition. With fasting, you are making drastic changes to when you eat, because you are limiting the numbers of each macronutrient that is needed. Keep in mind, with each type of macro we eat, we also consume micronutrients. When a person is restricting the times of when they can eat food, they are also limiting the nutrients they can get.

"Intermittent fasting isn’t a substitute for healthy eating. In other words, you can’t just gorge on burgers and fries when your fasting period ends. Aim to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein." - Mass General Brigham

If you don't get all the nutrients you need in your eating window, it can quickly lead to malnutrition. From that, you'll get other health problems that will just get in the way of your healthy living.

Our Take:

Before we say anything, we just want to say that we are not trying to tell you what you can or can't do. With all the information we gave you, we'll just say that fasting isn't for everyone. It can be dangerous for certain age groups, especially for kids or the elderly. It can cause health issues for your body if done wrong. There are physical issues that can arise like hunger and fatigue. If it becomes worse, it can also lead to vomiting and weakness. Then we have mental health issues, such as developing unhealthy eating habits or worsening eating disorders.

However, it has also helped many people with their goals. Fasting can certainly help with weight loss through burning fat and shedding those pounds. This can lead to a newfound confidence and a feeling of happiness. It can also help to reduce diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. So, fasting has many benefits just besides weight loss. Still, since intermittent fasting isn't safe for everyone, we strongly recommend you to check in with a doctor and ask them for their advise.

So, be happy! Be healthy! Be a NutriGenius!

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