Have you heard of intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting(IF) is basically a way of eating that includes intervals of fasting between meals. There are many ways of IF being applied depending on what you like.
For example, the most common IF being performed is 16:8, which basically means you fast for 16 hours in a day, while you have 8 hours where you’re allowed to consume as per normal.
Some people tend to fast for longer period of time, such as 18:6 or even 20:4. My personal favorite is the 16:8, which also tends to be the easiest to perform. Basically, I sleep throughout my breakfast and start having lunch, normally about 12pm.
Should you be interested to start IF, you can start with a 12:12 schedule, and eventually working your way up depending on how well you feel. Don’t worry if you can’t fast that long, just slowly work your way up! Everybody starts somewhere!
What are the benefits of Intermittent fasting?
There are many articles out there that provides the various benefits of intermittent fasting, so we’ll just cut it short for you.
The main benefits are :
- Increased metabolism
- Reduce inflammation
- Reducing blood sugar levels
- Improving insulin sensitivities
- Weight loss
How does Intermittent Fasting work?
When we are fasting and do not consume any food, the insulin levels in our bodies drop. Fat burning is turned on, and our bodies start to produce ketones.
Because of the decrease in Insulin levels, the mTOR levels are inhibited and as a result, fat cell and bad cell growth is prevented.
Autophagy is then increased due to the decreased levels in mTOR.
*Autophagy is the body’s way of cleaning out damaged cells, in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells, according to Priya Khorana, PhD, in nutrition education from Columbia University. “Auto” means self and “phagy” means eat. So the literal meaning of autophagy is “self-eating.”
Consequently, one can derive that in order to maximise and activate autophagy in our bodies, we need to keep the mTOR levels inhibited.
However, Blood Glucose, ATP (energy), aminos (protein), Insulin, Cytokines etc all have an effect on mTOR levels. This means that when our bodies are fed energy or sugars (in the form of food), we are effectively kicked out of autophagy, due to the increase in blood glucose.
But when we are fasting, our bodies do not have enough energy to bring us through the day.
Impaired performance is often observed by people who fast for long hours, and this can impede our daily lives as we cannot avoid the need to go to work or carry out activities that require energy.
Introducing the BEST WAY to stay in the fasting state
Because of this, Dave Asprey, a famous bio-hacker, studied how to minimize the levels of mTOR while still giving energy to body.
The result is what he calls Bulletproof Coffee:
Clean Coffee + grass-fed butter + MCT oil
(We will elaborate more on this in another post)
To mitigate the negative effects of fasting on our bodies, the butter suppresses the hunger, and the MCT oil helps the body to produce ketones, and we stay in the overall fasting state without being kicked out of it.
Sugar cravings because of the low energy state we are in due to fasting are suppressed, and the use of such Bulletproof Coffee allows us to continue our Intermittent Fasting without hunting for a sweet snack or feeling starved.
‘Can I do IF without being on Keto/LCHF diet?’
Of course you can! There are no restrictions to IF no matter what kind of diet you are on. Even though being on a Keto/LCHF diet helps with greater weight lost, you can still do IF while being on a normal carb focused diet.
If you are thinking of going on a Keto/LCHF diet, IF will be a good point to start for you to slowly adapt! Slowly cycle out your carbs, and eventually switch to a high-fat diet.
If you don’t feel confident about being able to do an IF diet, such as being afraid that you’ll be too hungry or unable to focus in the morning or during the fasting window, check out our bulletproof coffee. We also have an article on the bulletproof coffee in all the awesome benefits that it will bring you!
Fasting is not recommended for pregnant women, mothers who are breast-feeding, or children. If you have existing conditions such as Hypertension or Diabetes, and would like to start on Intermittent Fasting, do consult your doctor before doing soand let monitor your situation and adjust your medications accordingly.