Why Intermittent Fasting Helps You Lose Weight, Sleep Better, Renews Cells, and Simplifies Your Life
Born from necessity when food was scarce, the practice of intermittent fasting goes back to our oldest ancestors. Today, it is an internationally accepted health practice that has recently gained from emerging science.
It’s not a fad. Intermittent fasting is here to stay
The reason intermittent fasting has quickly gained popularity is that it simply asks that you eat at different time intervals. For that, intermittent fasting frees you from ordinary diet plans that place calorie restrictions (CR) on food intake. This allows you to access more benefits with less real and perceived restriction.
And none of us need that stress.
Intermittent fasting also provides a structured way to incorporate a specialized diet into your health routine like Keto. In this article, we’ll cover how intermittent fasting can simplify your life to successfully lose weight, renew cells, optimize sleep, improve blood lipids and insulin sensitivity, plus help support DNA repair.
How does intermittent fasting work?
Intermittent fasting works by making time adjustments to what are called the fed and fasted states. In the fed state your body is digesting and absorbing food. This starts when eating and lasts about 3-7 hours. In this state your body releases hormones and has food for energy so it has little need to use stored body fat for energy.
Now, in the fasted state your body has no immediate food for energy, so it increases fat burning hormones to use stored bodyfat for energy.
Autophagy. Intermittent fasting’s superpower
When your body is not digesting food it also induces the process of autophagy, which plays a key role in maintaining “clean” cells and is how the body scavenges, removes and replaces worn out cells.[1] In this way intermittent fasting goes beyond weight management into the realm of supporting systems that have been shown to reduce metabolic damage, cellular aging and extend lifespan.[2]
Setting up your intermittent fasting plan
Arranging your intermittent fasting plan starts with scheduling a daily 16-hour fast with an 8-hour feeding window. Any time sequence that you feel you’ll follow works. Once you get the used to 16/8 intervals you can experiment with these two science-based options.
Early time-restricted feeding –– is where all your meals are eaten in the early hours of the day. For example, between 8 am and 4 pm, and fasting from 4pm to 8am.[3] The benefit of this early time restricted program included changes in body weight, waist circumference, cognitive and physical function, blood pressure, plus health-related quality of life improvements. [4],[5]
Dawn to dusk fasting –– as the name suggests this plan calls for the fasting period to be from sunrise to sunset, with a feeding window during daylight (yes even cloudy days). This usually amounts to 14-hours of fasting daily. The power of this plan seems to be keeping with the body’s natural sleep cycles which mirrors when our ancestors fasted because it’s dark.
Improving the sleep/wake cycle makes intermittent fasting even more powerful
Research in 2020 suggests that combining intermittent fasting with our natural sleep wakes cycles may provide the greatest benefits. The key seems to be combing an optimal cell renewal process during sleep, with the breakdown and removal of dead or worn out cells through autophagy. This powerful combination has been suggested to be protective against cancer, metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and DNA damage.[6]
The MaxLiving Intermittent Fasting Quick Start
- Pick time intervals for your 16-hour fasts with an 8-hour feeding window
- Make an intermittent fasting diary to track progress.
- Have plenty of liquids for your fasting window that will not break your fast. These include, anything calorie free, such as teas, waters, and black coffees.
- Make food notes about what you want to eat in the feeding window.
- Maintain your exercise program, we recommend 1-2 hours after your feeding window when energy levels are greatest. MaxT3 fits ideally with intermittent fasting based on the type of exercise and the time requirements. MaxT3 is a 12 minute a day exercise program that incorporates high intensity interval training to boost your intermittent fasting goals.
References
[1] Mizushima, N., & Komatsu, M. (2011, November 11). Autophagy: Renovation of cells and tissues. Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2011.10.026
[2] Nct. (2019). 2-A-Day Study: twice a Day Meals Study. Https://Clinicaltrials.Gov/Show/Nct03809299. Retrieved from https://www.cochranelibrary.com/central/doi/10.1002/central/CN-01795949/full
[3] Outcomes included changes in body weight, waist circumference, cognitive and physical function, health-related quality of life, Anton, S. D., Lee, S. A., Donahoo, W. T., McLaren, C., Manini, T., Leeuwenburgh, C., & Pahor, M. (2019). The effects of time restricted feeding on overweight, older adults: A pilot study. Nutrients, 11(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11071500
[4] Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Insulin Sensitivity, Blood Pressure, and Oxidative Stress Even without Weight Loss in Men with Prediabetes PDF Sutton E, Beyl R, Early K, Cefalu W, Ravussin E, Peterson C Cell Metabolism, vol. 27, issue 6 (2018) pp. 1212-1221.e3 Published by Cell Press
[5] Outcomes included changes in body weight, waist circumference, cognitive and physical function, health-related quality of life, Anton, S. D., Lee, S. A., Donahoo, W. T., McLaren, C., Manini, T., Leeuwenburgh, C., & Pahor, M. (2019). The effects of time restricted feeding on overweight, older adults: A pilot study. Nutrients, 11(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11071500
[6] Mindikoglu, A. L., Abdulsada, M. M., Jain, A., Choi, J. M., Jalal, P. K., Devaraj, S., … Jung, S. Y. (2020). Intermittent fasting from dawn to sunset for 30 consecutive days is associated with anticancer proteomic signature and upregulates key regulatory proteins of glucose and lipid metabolism, circadian clock, DNA repair, cytoskeleton remodeling, immune system and cognitive function in healthy subjects. Journal of Proteomics, 217, 103645. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jprot.2020.103645
