(This article follows my two previous articles on IF. In article #1, I explained the benefits of fasting, which should avoid fasting, the protocol I personally use. In article # 2, I explained why the advice to “eat less and move more” may be unhelpful and flawed, why fat loss is not influenced solely by “calories in versus calories out” and how low-calorie diets can keep us overweight and hungry simultaneously.)
Many people fear going into “starvation mode” when dieting. This is also probably the biggest thing that puts people off trying intermittent fasting.
The fear is that if we don’t eat for long periods of time, our body will slow down our basal metabolism, meaning we will consume less energy/calories and the body will hold on to fat.
I described in the last article how a low-calorie diet can reduce the amount of calories we burn, meaning people must continue to reduce their calories to lose weight.
Let me explain why this is not the case with intermittent fasting.
IF vs calorie counting – impact on body composition
I was concerned about this myself when I first started fasting. I was afraid that my body would burn fewer calories and refuse to release fat if it went into “starvation mode,” and also that my muscle mass would decrease and I would lose strength.
It was 8 years ago. At the time, there wasn’t much scientific research to reassure me. But looking around at who was practicing IF made me question my fears. Even though IF was not yet well known, many very fit, strong and lean people were enthusiastic about the benefits they received from it (Martin Berkhan and Eric Cressey, to name a few) .
So I decided to try it.
I’m very glad I did!
I didn’t really understand why at the time, but I found that I was losing fat without negatively impacting my strength and fitness – in fact, my progress improved.
The science is still in its infancy, but growing evidence suggests that fasting preserves lean muscle mass and, as long as we get a good diet during the “eating window,” our energy expenditure remains high – that is, we burn fat, we do not lose muscle. and our metabolic rate does not slow down.
Fasting allowed me to stay strong while losing fat.
Today, it makes perfect sense to me. Think about that…
When we fast, as far as the signals in our body go, we’re not running out of fuel because we don’t have insulin keeping our fat stores locked up. The body knows that our energy supply is not low, we are simply switched to. our fat reserves as fuel which, in the absence of insulin, are released. The body therefore does not need to slow down our BMR to preserve energy.
Better yet, because the body knows we haven’t eaten in a while, it wants to keep us strong, energetic and mentally sharp – historically, this would have helped us hunt and gather.
One way this happens is through the increase in human growth hormone (HGH).
Human growth hormone is essentially what it sounds like: a hormone that stimulates the body to grow. It helps us build and maintain our muscles, keep our bones dense and strong and our cells healthy. HRH also helps keep our metabolism functioning properly and is believed to make us look and feel younger.
Cardiologists studying the health benefits of fasting have found that rapid HGH in 24 hours increases by 1,300% in women and 2,000% in men (yes, that’s the right number of zeros!) .
In another study, after 4 days of fasting, people’s BMR was increased by 12%. Another small study found that even after 22 days of alternate day fasting, there was no drop in BMR… Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should fast for that long, I’m just illustrating the fact that fasting does no harm. it does not reduce the BMR.
I am also NOT saying that we will never lose muscle or bone cells while fasting, but thanks to autophagy This could actually be a good thing…
Healthy muscle tissue is preserved while aging cells are recycled.
Autophagy rocks
I first heard the term autophagy a few years ago, in 2016. That year, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries around this bodily process that renews and recycles our cells .
Around this time, much of what I had experienced with intermittent fasting began to make more sense.
The word autophagy literally means eating oneself. In this process, which occurs when we fast, the body recycles old and damaged cells, using the components to help rebuild new cells.
So, thanks to autophagy, the tissues that we lose during fasting are old or damaged and the body recycles them to make new healthy tissues.
This is how fasting keeps our muscles and bones strong and functional.
In fact, autophagy helps keep our entire body healthy by destroying diseased cells, including cancer cells.
Immune cells are regenerated, healing occurs throughout the body, including the brain. It is even thought to help prevent genetic diseases by promoting the expression of “good” rather than “bad” genes.
It’s easy to see that a process that replaces old and damaged cells could help us stay young – we are indeed being renewed and rebuilt!
Even the condition of our skin improves.
(Interestingly, many experts claim that people who lose a lot of fat by fasting have less loose skin, but I haven’t researched this much…maybe I’ll get to that later.)
Opinions differ on how long to fast to benefit autophagy, but most experts recommend at least 24 to 36 hours.
However, by regularly doing shorter fasts, like the 16/8 fast that I practice regularly, and keeping carbohydrates in our diet low, we can help ourselves enter autophagy earlier during our fasts.
Mental health
Before we start talking about the practical side of how to start intermittent fasting, I just want to quickly explain why I mentioned earlier that IF can be great for our mental health.
Happiness foods can actually make us quite unhappy if eaten too often.
Foods high in sugar and fat (cookies, donuts, cakes, chocolate, etc.) stimulate our bodies (and brains) in ways that no natural, unprocessed foods do. The effect produced by this combo has been compared to a chemically induced effect, sometimes described as a “bliss point”.
Opinions vary, but many experts believe that some of these happiness-inducing foods can be as addictive as heroin. (Personally, I always thought this was a bit extreme – but nonetheless, as most of us know all too well, these foods can definitely be very rotten and hard to quit once you’ve taken the habit of eating them.)
In the last article I explained how insulin causes intense cravings and constant hunger. Obviously this isn’t good for mental health, but it doesn’t stop there. This is often accompanied by frustration, irritability, fatigue, ups and downs, a feeling of loss of control.
Additionally, blaming others for tempting us or not supporting us, or feeling guilty for not having enough willpower can impact our relationships with others and ourselves.
Unfortunately, because of all of the above, many people feel deeply shitty most of the time and their only fleeting relief comes from eating hyper-appetizing processed foods, which only give them a few moments at the “bliss point” before to want more spice. In.
Is it any wonder that we are facing an obesity crisis?
No, that’s not the case.
I’ve never been obese, but I’m definitely addicted to high-carb foods. You feel like you’re going crazy. Sometimes you just can’t stop eating. You don’t want to, you desperately want to lose weight. You know that eating these foods makes you gain weight, but you can’t stop. You sometimes feel hungry, even when your belly is full.
You have crazy arguments running through your head as you try to justify why you “need” this food, right now, even though you’ve decided to “be good.” You feel totally out of control, you feel tired, you feel angry at yourself and the world, sometimes you may also be obsessed with food.
This is what I am referring to when I talk about the connection to mental health.
But there is a way out. Many of us just need to open our minds a little and accept that skipping a meal at a time when we are already overfed won’t hurt us. Feeling a little hungry is a natural part of the human experience and nothing to be afraid of. We don’t need sugary or carbohydrate foods for energy when our fat cells are already filled with fuel.
If we can step outside of our programming enough just to try a different approach, we can escape what seems like an impossible maze.
It takes an adjustment period to adjust to intermittent fasting combined with a healthier diet, but when we do, these fleeting moments of happiness can be replaced by naturally high and sustained energy levels, the mental fog goes away. dissipates, we enter a more productive state, we connect to our body and we feel happier, calmer and in better physical and mental health.
Does it look good?
In the next article I will give more detailed advice on how to get started.
In the meantime, if you want to prepare your body to benefit from the best benefits of fasting, come train with me!