According to the Global Wellness Institute, health and wellness is now a $4.2 trillion industry.
This number includes figures from personal care and anti-aging products, preventative medicine, wellness tourism and even investments in wellness real estate. Fitness and nutrition are, as always, central to the picture.
Mentioning diets and weight loss, we inevitably hear of popular regimens like Atkins, Keto, South Beach, etc. “Intermittent fasting” (IF) stands shoulder-to-shoulder with these standard diets and is one of the most popular health trends today—sworn by a legion of practitioners as an effective way to lose weight.
But technically, unlike South Beach, Atkins, and Keto, intermittent fasting is not really a diet.
Intermittent fasting doesn’t focus too much on the type of food to eat. It instead emphasizes the cycles of fasting and feeding. While diets give counsel on the levels of nutrient intake—such as “low carbs” or “high protein”—intermittent fasting looks to eating patterns.
The overarching goal of IF is to compel practitioners to operate on a caloric deficit. By following specific cycles of eating-and-fasting, one is ultimately ingesting fewer calories, leading to pounds shedding.
“Intermittent Fasting” is an umbrella term. There are actually many different eating schedules you can follow. Depending on your daily activities and personal goals, one might be more appropriate than the others. Here are five of the most popular ones:
The 16:8 Method
The 16:8 method prescribes a 16-hour window of fasting.
This is the easiest and most natural of the fasting protocols, allowing for an 8-hour window where you can eat whatever you want, within reason. It’s also referred to as the “Lean Gains Protocol,” a regimen popularized by fitness expert Martin Berkhan.
Adherents of this schedule usually skip breakfast and have their first meal at lunch. Practitioners don’t eat anything after 8 PM either. So a good night’s rest, complemented by a skipped breakfast, and you have a natural 16-hour food-free stretch that’ll get you fit, fast. (For women, a 14-hour interval is said to be optimal.)
When it’s time to feed, one is usually free to eat anything. But it’s still vital to be eating nutritious, natural food—like a balanced ratio of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals. After all, you can’t really expect to be healthy by consuming junk food and processed products.
During the fast, liquids like water, coffee, and low-calorie drinks can be taken to help stave off hunger.
Eat-Stop-Eat
This fasting regimen requires 24-hour fasts once or twice a week.
You can begin the fast after a meal—say, right after dinner. You’re not supposed to take any solids (water and low-calorie liquids are fine), until dinner time the next day. You can do breakfast-to-breakfast or lunch-to-lunch, so long it’s a full day of your body not taking in any calories.
Space these 24-hour marathons properly and avoid stringing two consecutive days. So for example, if you’re doing the first 24-hour fast on a Tuesday, don’t do the second one the very next day (Wednesday). Give your body enough time to recover and get the needed nutrients. So in this case, perhaps Saturday would be a better pick.
It’s very important to eat normally on non-fasting days. Do not compensate for the lost calories by eating more than your usual amount. Do not bulk up or anticipate the fast either by consuming more than what you usually have. There’s no sense in doing intermittent fasting if you’re only going to recover the calories lost on the very next day.
The 5:2 Diet
The numbers in the name refer to days of the week. This is similar to the previous method where you eat normally for 5 days. But on those two special days, instead of counting 24 hours where you’re not eating at all, you count calories and eat only 500-600 calories for those days.
Unlike “Eat-Stop-Eat,” there are really no days where you don’t eat anything. But there will be two days of the week where you only have two light meals of 250-300 calories each.
How much is 250-300 calories?
As reference, one large egg (around 50 grams), according to the USDA, contains about 72 calories.
Day Fast, Night Feast
This is also known as the Warrior Diet popularized by Ori Hofmekler.
In this version of intermittent fasting, you can munch only small amounts of fruits and vegetables during the day, but eat a considerable portion at night. This “feast” element is done on a 4-hour window, after which you fast until the next day—when you’re allowed very conservative eating. Another way to look at this: You eat like a pauper during the day, but feast like a king at night.
This type of fasting also emphasizes healthy food choices like meat, eggs, fish, fruits, and vegetables. You’re also told to avoid processed foods, sugary drinks, grains, and dairy products. This food plan looks very much like the Paleo Diet.
Alternate Day Fasting
This is an advanced regimen and is not recommended for beginners—involving a full fast every other day of the week. A modified version would be to eat only 500-600 on “fasting” days. Liquids such as water, coffee and tea are allowed during fasting days.
You can eat as much as you want and whatever you want on non-fasting days. The idea here is that even though one might ingest more calories on non-fasting days, it will still not be enough to compensate for the lost calories during fasting days.
(If you wonder why some people prefer Alternate Day Fasting when it’s more challenging, it’s usually because they find the program easier to stick to than the daily caloric restriction involved in other schedules.)
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Proponents of intermittent fasting often point to the physical gains involved—making the process of going on a fast worth it. According to studies, it has been shown that intermittent fasting leads to:
Weight Loss
The primary outcome of IF would be weight loss. Since the body is taking in fewer calories than it used to, pounds will naturally be shed in the process. But intermittent fasting not only causes weight loss because of decreased caloric intake. According to one study, it also increases the body’s metabolic rate. Our metabolic rate is our body’s calorie-utilizing mechanism. Increased metabolic rate means the body is more efficient in burning calories.
So intermittent fasting work on both sides of the equation: decreasing the amount of calories going into the body, while increasing the rates of burning it.
Reduced Risk of Diabetes
The main cause of Type 2 Diabetes is a state called “insulin resistance.” This is when cells become insensitive to the presence of insulin and fail to utilize the glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream. This results in glucose build up in the blood and, over time, leads to diabetes and its many complications.
Intermittent fasting has been shown to increase sensitivity to insulin. This means the body is now better able to read the signals from insulin and is able to efficiently process glucose in the blood—reducing the risk of diabetes and conditions like heart disease, kidney failure, and nerve damage.
Reduced Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress results from an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body. Free radicals are byproducts of the body’s metabolic processes. They are highly unstable molecules and can cause damage to cells, proteins, and DNA. Thankfully, there are antioxidants whose expressed purpose is to neutralize these free radicals.
Intermittent fasting has been shown to help reduce oxidative stress by keeping the healthy balance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body. Keeping oxidative stress is vital for health because it has been linked to diseases like cancer, hypertension, and diabetes.
Reversed Cognitive Decline
Intermittent fasting is now being used as a novel therapeutic program for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
A study on aging and Alzheimer’s has found that within 3-6 months of practicing IF, doctors noted marked improvements in the cognitive functioning of their patients. (Only those in the most advanced stages of Alzheimer’s failed to derive any benefit from the program.)
The same study also reported that the reversal of cognitive decline has been sustained years after initial treatment. Where other therapeutic programs have failed, intermittent fasting promises to be a viable route for wellness.
Cellular Repair
In animal research, studies have found that regularly fasted mice are healthier than their regularly fed peers. The conclusion is linked to the observation that fasted mice have increased cellular “autophagy”—the process of removing waste from individual cells. It turns out, that in the absence of energy-providing food, cells clear out their unneeded “junk” and turn them into energy instead.
With accumulated cellular waste thought of as one of the reasons for cellular damage and cellular aging, the study points to potential disease-busting benefits to humans—not the least of which, cancer.
Potential Risks of Intermittent Fasting
You don’t hear this often in popular media, but it bears noting that intermittent fasting is not a panacea. Like any standardized diet, it does come with risks and a practitioner has to look into them with sensible prudence. Here are some of the risks of intermittent fasting:
1) It’s not for everybody
If you are under 18, pregnant or breastfeeding you should not be fasting. You have higher caloric requirements and therefore should take regular meals.
If you have a serious illness (eg. a heart condition), then you should not engage in intermittent fasting. Or if you are taking medication and those meds need to be taken in conjunction with food, then give primacy to these medicines over IF.
If you are prone to eating disorders like bulimia, going on an intermittent fast might exacerbate your condition and be extremely harmful in the long run.
2) It’s not a magic pill
Ingesting a lower amount of calories is not all there is to health and wellness. While a caloric deficit will definitely lead to weight loss, you should also be mindful of the type of food that you’re eating.
What is the quality of the calories that you bring into the equation? “Junk” foods have calories, but they won’t do your body any good. Your body requires specific nutrients and a balanced diet that contains modest amounts of fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, carbs, and dairy is optimal.
Exercise should be part of your health plan as well. Also, a good night’s sleep. It ensures you’re perfectly primed for the day’s activities.
3) Beware: The Side Effects
Intermittent Fasting, especially in the early days, can be a real challenge. As you chart a new eating cycle, you will experience stress as your body slowly adapts to the new regimen. Expect to fight hunger pangs, light-headedness, mood changes, weakness, and lethargy.
Because your body is experiencing stress, cortisol levels are seen to rise as well. The negative effects of chronically elevated cortisol levels are well-documented. It can lead to a host of conditions such as a dampening of the immune system in general.
Before engaging in any of the intermittent fasting programs, it is best to consult your trusted physician. He or she can give counsel on your readiness to undertake a fasting regimen.
BloodWorks Lab offers a “Well-being Package” (cholesterol level, CBC, FBS, Lipid profile, Urinalysis, and Stool)—giving you a complete picture of your health. Results from these tests can help you and your doctor decide on a course of fasting most appropriate for you.
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