Intermittent Fasting – My Journey

In The Beginning

I heard the whispers of Intermittent Fasting a few years ago but now it seems to have exploded into the health and fitness world.

I know fasting has been carried out for thousands of years. There hasn’t always been a supermarket around the corner and somehow the human body coped with periods of food restriction or fasting without keeling over.

I know many religions systematically fast, for spiritual reasons. Hey even Jesus gave it the thumbs up.

I know fasting seems logically a very good idea. We do it every night.

BUT is its worth the effort, the discipline, the self denial?

To be honest this is a subject I have been turning the cold shoulder to for too long. Why? I really love food and quite frankly I don’t want to go without it unless I have an overriding reason.

What follows is my intermittent fasting journey. The whats, whys and hows along with my own failures and successes.

What is it?

Fasting is simply making a voluntary decision to go without food for a period of time.

I often ask my Mum:

“Mum have you been fasting again?”

She replies:

“David, I have been doing lots of fasting recently”

I turn away in a satisfied triumph, which is short lived, as she goes onto say:

“I have my breakfast, then fast before my next snack”

Frustratingly my Mum is technically correct, as always. However the type of fasting I have been journeying on is intermittent fasting (IF), where you abstain from food for a window of time throughout the day or fast for up to 24 hours once or twice a week.

Why do it?

“Instead of using medicine, rather fast a day.” – Plutarch

Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine and Paracelsus another high flyer in the medical world both believed fasting enabled the body to heal itself.

These are fascinating claims!

Lets take a step back.

Food is essential to life (even though we can last around 40 days without it). Food is a good thing. BUT like so many good things in this world we try to suck the life out of it, we get extreme and “too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing”.

We have run away from “eating to live” to “living to eat”. The consequence is that we generally over eat, not just over eat but over eat with rubbish, which is the key.

What happens when you keep putting the wrong kind of fuel in your new Ferrari? It breaks. Our bodies are amazing creations, capable of the most incredible things but we fuel them with toxins, sugar and chemicals. The obvious step is to minimise this wrong fuel. The next is to start IF, which is like having a regular MOT and service.

Here is a simplified step by step process of how IF works:

1. Your food intake is temporally stopped.

2. Many of the systems of the body are given a break from the hard work of digestion (think how tired you get after a big meal) and this creates time and energy to start the clean up process.

3. The liver and immune system start detoxifying and healing the body.

4. Your body is forced out of go-go mode (triggered by food intake) and into repair mode.

5. The body moves from cellular reproduction to cellular repair.

We know some well educated Doctors that lived a long time ago digged fasting, we know fasting is the equivalent to an MOT and now we know the healing process that takes place but IS IT REALLY WORTH IT? Is IF a tool I want to use for the rest of my life? These are the questions I started to ask.

I began the search for the truth behind IF, I wasn’t willing to change my life for the latest fad that seemed logical but lacked compelling evidence.

What I found was that IF research was still very much in its infancy, the vast majority of tests have been done on animals with only one human trial up to date. Nevertheless the findings are more than shocking!

Here are some reasons why I have started IF and why I want you to embark with me on this journey with me:

A. Its one of the most effective tools for fat loss

•   Fasting improves insulin sensitivity (a hormone that prevents the release of stored fat)
•   Fasting causes you to be fat burner (with lower insulin levels the body becomes reliant on stored fat for fuel rather than sugar)
•   Fasting causes your body to burn energy at a faster rate (the hormonal trigger, catecholamines, is increased)
•   It decreases body fat without destroying muscle and bone density

B. Its one of the most effective tools for chronic illness, even depression

•   Fasting causes resistance to illness (“normal cells” go into survival mode and display extreme resistance to stresses. Cells such as cancer cells have no way to transform for production)
•   Fasting enables healing from illness (The body is taken from a go-go survival state to a repair state)

C. Its one of the most effective anti-aging products

•   Similar to exercise being a good stress to the body, fasting forces the body to adapt into becoming stronger and healthier.

D. Its one of the most effective tools for enjoying food!

•   Breaking a fast turns a routine meal into a moment of enjoyment.

How to do it?

There are numerous way to fast!

I have experimented with some.

•   24 hr fast
•   Calorie restriction fast (over two days, can consume 500-600 kcal each day)
•   Fasting for a window of time during the day (fasting until 1pm, having your biggest meal then decreasing your food quantity through the remainder of the day)

Everyone is different so please do your own trial period of what method works best for you. Personally I have found the 24-hr fast to be the most effective and convenient. I eat my last meal at 6pm then eat again at 6pm the following day (sleep time counts as fast time). I generally carry out a 24 hr fast once a week. I wouldn’t recommend this method more than twice a week due to muscle loss.

I found with the calorie restriction method that I lost too much weight (inc fat and muscle) which I felt wasn’t healthy. I do know my parents and some of my clients follow this method with great results. My only concern here would be if you were to spread the food intake out throughout the day this would diminish the “cleansing process” of the body. On another note if you were to fill your calorie allowance with poor nutrition or high carbohydrate foods this could cause blood sugar problems and be counter productive!

It is essential that you keep your fluids up throughout IF, as our body grabs a large part of its water requirements through the food we eat. I usually drink green/black tea, herbal teas and plenty of water. If you are a tea fan (you’re not going to like this), I would limit or fast from this too to give your body a break from the caffeine.

For me Fasting it’s a love hate thing. But a vital one at that, which I will continue for the rest of my life.

Questions:

How will I feel in a fasted state?

There is a feeling called hunger, you might feel that. Remember when you were a child and you cried out “I’m starving!” (you still may do this) you may feel hungry like this but don’t worry, just as you didn’t die as a child, the hunger won’t kill you now.

The comforting part is that the hunger feelings will come in waves. Even extreme hunger passes, especially as you set your mind on other things. If this is the first time you have fasted, please persevere! Your body will fight against any form of change, even a good one and will demand to eat when it’s used to being fed, stay focused, dig deep and take on some fluid instead.

I normally have a “heightened” feeling during a fast, where I don’t feel lethargic but switched on. If you do start feeling sick or completely drained of energy, eat something!

How to start and break a fast?

The most helpful principle I have adopted to maximise the effectiveness of fasting is becoming fat adapted. Being fat adapted means that you can easily access and burn fat for your main source of fuel rather than sugar.

Many of us are sugar burners from consuming excess sugar in the form of carbohydrates in our diets. The advantage of being fat adapted when it comes to fasting is that your body won’t struggle with the stress of fasting as a sugar burner would.

If you are fat adapted the body senses the food shortage and will fuel your body with energy from fat reserves in a smooth transition. For a sugar burner they will experience cravings for more sugar as their stored fat from excess sugar is much harder to access. Sugar burners’ bodies think they’re starving when in fact they’re just having difficulty accessing that stored fat (that’s where cravings can come from).

Become fat adapted – increase your good fat intake, especially leading up to a fast. Avoid a high carbohydrate meal before your fast, as your blood sugars will only crash and it will be hard to fight those overriding cravings for food.

I normally break my fast by eating a small meal slowly, really enjoying it! Please ensure you do eat enough after your fast to boost energy levels, and to avoid blood sugar spikes during that night’s sleep. As always never over eat.

Can I exercise in a fasted state?

There is research to support that exercising in a fasted state actually increases performance in exercise. Its almost a peek into what life was like when we had to hunt for our food. The body, aware of its need for food, takes itself to the next level and prepares for action.

Our bodies are adapting machines. They have to respond or we would die. Exercise is a stress that causes adaptation, fasting is a stress that causes adaptation, couple the two together and you get a greater improvement. Why? Essentially fasting forces your body to function with lower glycogen (stored carbohydrates) and use glycogen more efficiently.

What about ongoing calorific restriction for health benefits?

There is increasing evidence that ongoing calorific restriction increases longevity.

Personally I believe you can get all the health benefits including a longer life expectancy from fasting, without the unpleasant negative effects of a calorie restricted diet.

One of my goals is to be able to keep up with my future grandkids as I chase them across the beach! My granddad is mid 70s now, he can still beat me in an arm wrestle, he can keep up with me on a sprint and match me at press ups (well almost!). A calorie restricted diet destroys all the means by which this dream is kept alive:

•   It destroys muscle mass
•   It destroys bone density
•   It makes you really grumpy (speak to my friends and family when I haven’t been getting enough fuel onboard… not pretty!)

This extreme way of living just doesn’t make sense. We have been designed to live life not just endure it until the bitter end. Imagine if you had been living for healthy perfection then you get hit by a bus, where’s the fun in that?!

Is it the ultimate cure?

In my enthusiasm please don’t get the impression that fasting will fix all your problems! It’s a wonderful tool that should be used alongside others.

For instance if you’re stressing about the topic of fasting, that would hinder the benefits its giving you!

Ironically health conscious folk like myself could be doing all the right things but going about it the wrong way, a way that controls you, stresses you out and robs you of living. Let’s be blunt – stress kills you – so let’s not hold any tool as an ultimate cure and stress about it in the process.

Are there reasons that I should not fast?

Fasting is a stressor to your body so I would strongly recommend that you do not fast if any of the following apply:

•   Chronic lifestyle stress
•   Overtraining
•   Sleep deprivation
•   Blood sugar problems
•   Pregnancy
•   If you are still growing
•   Eating disorders

This is by no means an exhaustive list. I think its especially dangerous for those with eating disorders to undertake a fast, as for those individuals we don’t want to make food an even bigger deal than it already is. Also for those that haven’t stopped growing I wouldn’t recommend fasting, although skipping a meal once in a while will do them no harm.

Ultimately you have to listen to your body and how it responds. For some It may be suitable to fast for a window of time rather than a straight 24 hr block.

For instance it is good practice to get the bulk of our food intake on during the day and fast before bed. During the day is when we need the energy the most and our systems are fully functioning. Once you start overeating in the evenings (generally because you haven’t eaten enough quality nutrition in the day) this diminishes how well you digest the food and can disrupt sleep, as food can decrease melatonin levels. However there is not hard and fast rule, everyone is unique.

Please remember to contact me, Dave Wall if you are interested in personal training in the Dorchester area or if you would like to trial an exercise / fitness class. Increase fat loss, strength and functional fitness to get you moving better and feeling better.

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