Intermittent fasting is a household term these days. There has been much ado about its potential power to influence health in a number of ways. What do we know and could it be a help to you?
What Intermittent Fasting Does – Some Exciting Hypotheses
When you eat a meal, the body digests the food and sends various materials into the blood stream. Your body then gets busy using them. When finished, the body is in a different state – a fasted state. Some research has shown benefits of the fasted state including weight loss, improved insulin sensitivity, improvements to memory and cognition, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, and more.1 The tricky part is figuring out why this might be the case. Here are three exciting possibilities:
Better Insulin Sensitivity: Insulin levels in your bloodstream are lowest in the fasted state, which may improve the body’s sensitivity to this hormone. That’s of particular interest given the rise of insulin insensitivity and type II diabetes in recent years. Insulin insensitivity is also associated with weight gain, so improvements may help with weight control.
Changes To The Microbiome: Another hypothesis is that fasting allows the composition of our microbiome to change. Perhaps in the fasted state certain microbes can outcompete others that flourish in the presence of food. This push and pull may help keep the microbes in better balance.2
Positive Stress: A more general but intriguing hypothesis is that fasting might stress the cells in our bodies, which causes positive adaptation in much the same way that exercise stresses our muscles and cardiovascular systems, prompting positive change.3
The important thing to understand is that these are all hypotheses. We do not yet have enough research to determine if any of it is true. Some studies suggests that fasting might merely lead to calorie reduction or other positive habit changes, as many diet protocols do.4 In that case, there would be nothing special about intermittent fasting at all.
Recommendations For Using Intermittent Fasting
Good Eating Habits First: The key to good health is a good diet. Nothing can make up for poor eating habits, not even exercise. Thus, if you are looking to improve your health and fitness the foundation is a healthy diet, so be sure to start there. Focus on whole foods, with an emphasis on vegetables. Cook at home most of the time. Try to buy local, if possible. Nothing outperforms these lifestyle choices.
Fasting Is Not Starving: There are protocols to intermittent fasting because it is important to carefully control how much time you spend in the fasted state. Long fasts are only done once or possibly twice a week at most. Protocols that involve more than one or two days are shorter fasts. Controlling the total time spent in the fasted state is key because fasting should never be about starving yourself. If you have ever struggled with disordered eating, you should not use intermittent fasting. For those who do try it, always remember it is about following a plan, not simply cutting food.
Consult Your Doctor Or A Dietitian: If you think intermittent fasting might be a benefit to you, you should consult your healthcare professionals. Ask your doctor what they think, and visit a dietitian if possible. If you are going to do it, you might as well get the most out of it, and professionals are there to help you do that.
The Bottom Line
Intermittent fasting might be a useful tool, but it is not a silver bullet. You might best think about it the same way you would think about a new workout program. It could be something to try, but you may find that it just doesn’t work for you. If you do want to give it a shot, consult with your doctor or with a licensed dietitian and get a protocol to follow. In the meantime, stay tuned to the research. Hopefully, we will get more clarity over time.