Simply put, intermittent fasting works for me. This morning I weighed in at 211 pounds (down from 218 – goal of 185). I don’t have to schedule fasting like a trip to the gym. Fasting requires no extra time from my day. And as Dr. Jason Fung says, it’s free. Even so, a lot of people I tell about intermittent fasting think it’s just starving yourself. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Not Starvation
Fasting is not starving myself. It is purposely not eating to cause a desired effect in the body. One of the obvious effects is to change my metabolism. Instead of being a sugar burner, I am becoming a fat burner. When your body is deprived of carbohydrates, it begins to convert stored fat into ketone bodies.
Fasting is not starving yourself. It is purposely not eating to cause a desired effect. Click To TweetAnother benefit of slightly longer fasting is autophagy. According to Thomas DeLauer, this process happens more during a longer fasted state. During a fast, the cells scavenge degraded cells in the body. It’s like a cellular survival of the fittest.
Live Longer
Autophagy also leads to an up-regulation in the liver. My brother died of liver failure, so I pay attention to anything about the liver.
People who fast regularly also tend to look younger, because of autophagy. Sagging skin shrinks back down, reports Dr. Ken Berry, MD, a former self-admitted morbidly obese man.
On a side benefit, my total cholesterol has dropped from 391 to 266. I’m still on the high side, but not in the danger zone. In fact, many informed MDs are saying not to worry about cholesterol saying that it is not an indicator of anything sinister.
Stay Sharp!
Mental sharpness continues to increase for me. As I am finding out, the brains runs better on ketone bodies than it does on glucose. Just what the fasting advocates say! My morning brain fog has begun to abate. I am more able to extract facts that were previously on the tip of my brain but not on my tongue.
What’s Next?
I am now studying the ketogenic diet and the keto lifestyle. I am been told that once you have become fat adapted, cheating once or twice in a month won’t derail your progress.
I have done “dirty” keto previously. This entails using My Fitness Pal to track my macronutrients. I lost 20 pounds in a month. The “keto flu” is what concerns a lot of would-be keto practitioners. This is what happens to some folks when they abruptly halt (or severely limit) a previously high carbohydrate intake.