Reflecting on 5 days of intermittent fasting

Before I write about my experience with intermittent fasting, I want to disclose I am not a nutrition expert or a medical doctor. Please do your research and/or speak with your doctor first if you are planning on doing intermittent fasting.

I've visited intermittent fasting several times throughout my health journey. My previous goals were to maintain my current weight while I was more sedentary. I didn't know much about intermittent fasting and its health benefits; the only fact I knew was to eat as many calories as I could with my one meal and fast for the rest of the day. Revisiting intermittent fasting (IF) today, I wanted to educate myself on the health benefits and how to maximize my nutrition while fasting. Here's what I've learned.

There are two main eating schedules for IF: a 16-hour fast with an 8-hour eating window and a 14-hour fast with a 10-hour window. There were other schedules I briefly read about that had to do with calories, however, I wasn't about to count calories and opted for a 14-hour fast with a 10-hour eating window.

To start with the basics, there was an article from Johns Hopkins Medicine that briefly covered what IF was and how it worked. An interesting fact I read was that our bodies have evolved to go without food for many hours, even several days. Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when our bodies have burned through calories consumed and begin burning fat. Research has shown that IF is a way to manage your weight, and prevent or even reverse some forms of disease.

A research study done by Atunes et al., looked at how fasting can reduce the development of age-related diseases (e.g. diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases, etc.). Research has shown that dysfunctional autophagy can contribute to many diseases including cancer. Some medical jargon for you - autophagy is when the cell dies and it's a routine, biological process to get rid of unnecessary or dysfunctional components. When autophagy goes out of whack, that is when you start seeing age-related diseases. However, you can do fasting-induced autophagy and that is when you start seeing the health benefits, which is what the next research article explains.

A research study done by Hannon and Rahman et al., found that fasting-induced autophagy can improve cellular resistance to stress by increasing the metabolic buffering capacity of cells and preparing the human body to deal with various stresses. I thought of this as "what doesn't kill makes you stronger." The body adapts to various stresses constantly and the next time it's faced with a similar situation, your body will automatically adapt.

Reflecting on the 5 days of IF, I found it was easier this time around to eat foods I knew were going to keep me full. One thing I would change for the next time, is to increase my protein intake just a little bit and add in vitamin C as well, one thing I am not consistent about taking. Other things I noticed, were I had an increase in energy and my focus at work was stronger. Every body is different and I highly recommend you do your research before starting a longer fast. Listen to your body and see what works for you. I didn't want to get too scientific with it, however, if you want to read the science behind IF, the research articles I read are in the references. I hope this was helpful!

References:

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/intermittent-fasting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work#:~:text=With%20intermittent%20fasting%2C%20you%20only,intermittent%20fasting%20for%2025%20years.

Antunes F, Erustes AG, Costa AJ, Nascimento AC, Bincoletto C, Ureshino RP, Pereira GJS, Smaili SS. Autophagy and intermittent fasting: the connection for cancer therapy? Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2018 Dec 10;73(suppl 1):e814s. doi: 10.6061/clinics/2018/e814s. PMID: 30540126; PMCID: PMC6257056.

Hannan MA, Rahman MA, Rahman MS, Sohag AAM, Dash R, Hossain KS, Farjana M, Uddin MJ. Intermittent fasting, a possible priming tool for host defense against SARS-CoV-2 infection: Crosstalk among calorie restriction, autophagy and immune response. Immunol Lett. 2020 Oct;226:38-45. doi: 10.1016/j.imlet.2020.07.001. Epub 2020 Jul 10. PMID: 32659267; PMCID: PMC7351063.