7 Powerful Intermittent Fasting Benefits That Can Help You Do More Than Just Lose Weight
16:8 intermittent fasting can work miracles
Hello readers,
Here’s what’s top of mind for me this week: Fasting. It has so many benefits to my health and fits into my lifestyle.
Have you tried it before?
Fasting isn’t a weird fad. It’s what our bodies have evolved to do. Throughout human history, food has been difficult to obtain. But even though that’s still true for some parts of the world, most people in modern society can’t imagine going without a meal or two.
Humanity has always been able to go hours without eating large meals. Back in the cave dweller's day, there were no supermarkets or drive-through windows. The human body evolved to survive for a few hours without food being crammed down its throat.
What if food abundance is one of our biggest problems? Maybe we shouldn’t force ourselves to eat three square meals a day.
Maybe we shouldn’t snack. Ever.
It’s no mystery that eating too much causes big problems. The more you overeat, the bigger your problems get. With convenient and calorie-packed meals all around us, we almost have no choice but to grab big piles of food and jam it in there.
It’s easy to put too much energy into our bodies.
Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment/ informational purposes only. Please get checked out by a medical professional. At the minimum, it will give you a baseline to compare yourself to later. Some medications or illnesses might impact fasting safety. Children and adolescents shouldn’t be forced to fast. Eating disorders are also a concern. There’s a chance that intermittent fasting could lead to overeating or bingeing in those who have certain triggers and tendencies.
I only discuss 16:8 Intermittent Fasting here. It’s the method I use. According to the experts, other fasting protocols such as One Meal A Day (OMAD) and 5:2 (5 days regular eating, 2 days restricted) have similar benefits.
I’m 55, But I’m Healthier Than I Was in My 30's
Fasting is keeping me young.
I passed my last physical at the doctor with flying colors, and all of my bloodwork shows healthy levels. For a 55-year-old guy, that’s a big deal.
I have regular blood pressure.
I’m not on a single medication. Except Vitamin G (gratitude!)
I’m constantly mistaken for a man ten to fifteen years younger than my chronological age. I’m loaded with energy and feel healthier than I did in my 30s.
On special occasions, I eat breakfast. This is usually part of a social gathering or a celebration with my wife. Otherwise, I will wait until noon or later.
I’m happy with my weight. I don’t count calories or pay attention to how much I eat. (But I pay attention to WHAT I eat - I keep the Frankenfoods low!)
How Does Intermittent Fasting Change Your Body?
Eating and food digestion is complicated. I’m not going to pretend I understand the entire process. Here is a basic description of some things that happen when you use IF (Intermittent Fasting.)
Your body uses up all the glucose readily on hand first. The speed of this process depends on several factors. Your diet, overall condition, activity level, etc determine the exact length of time until you run out of glucose.
The glucose stored in your muscle tissue and liver gets used up. This takes, at minimum, 8 hours. If there’s still food in the digestive tract, this timeline is affected as energy and nutrients are absorbed. If you’ve got an extra full belly, it will take longer than 8 hours.
Once there’s no glucose left, your body starts tackling the fat and converting it to a usable form. You are now fasting and have started to benefit from the following eight processes and effects that result from that fast.
1. Maintain Muscle While Losing the Flab
There’s evidence at PubMed.gov to show that intermittent calorie restriction conserves lean mass.
It’s widely accepted that calorie restriction alone can result in losing muscle mass over time. Intermittent fasting doesn’t seem to cause this.
Dr. Jason Fung, a Canadian nephrologist and top expert on IF, has found that intermittent fasting does not result in losing all of your lean muscle mass. He wrote three books on obesity, diabetes, and fasting.
“It is virtually impossible that humans were designed to store food energy as body fat, but when food was not available, we burn muscle. This would mean that all peoples up to the 20th century following this feast-famine cycle either through periodic starvation or fasting would be almost pure fat. Instead, they were lean and strong.” — Dr. Jason Fung
I proved the truth myself. I’ve been fasting this way for four years. If I were losing muscle mass continually, I’d be weak, skinny, and near death. My arms and legs would look like sticks, and my chest would be scrawny. Instead, I’ve put on some lean mass through workouts and exercise.
2. Lower Chronic Inflammation Levels Everywhere
Are you inflamed? If your body has a hidden condition called chronic low-level inflammation, your cells are being silently damaged.
Inflammation is part of your body’s defense mechanisms. Fluids from the lymph and circulatory system get sent to an injury or an infection. It causes heat, pain, redness, and swelling in an injury as your body makes repairs. This is a natural process.
But when your body enters an inflamed state and can’t get out of it for days, weeks, or months, your healthy tissues get attacked, too. This abnormal condition hurts cells, tissues, and organs. You will get DNA damage and tissue death and be at risk for diseases like arthritis or cancer.
Due to diet or environmental factors, your body can be in a chronic, low-level state of inflammation for years. This inflammation might increase aches and pains but not have any specific symptoms.
Three separate clinical studies have shown that intermittent fasting lowers markers in the blood that indicate inflammation. Fasting could likely help with any inflammation going undetected right now.
There’s a relationship between high levels of insulin in the bloodstream and inflammation. If you’re developing insulin resistance due to diet or other factors, your body will be more inflamed. But in a fasted state, insulin levels drop since there’s less glucose present, and you don’t need to release as much.
Why not reduce the risk of diabetes and low-level chronic inflammation by lowering your insulin resistance? Fasting will do that.
3. Reduce Free Radicals and Oxidative Stress
Lowering inflammation goes hand in hand with removing free radicals and reducing oxidative stress.
Free radicals are created inside you naturally as you break down foods to create energy or consume them directly. Smoking, chemical exposure, and fried foods will load you up with extra free radicals. These reactive molecules will bond with your cells and tissues and cause damage or oxidative stress.
Antioxidants are all about reducing free radicals. Aside from loading up on blueberries and leafy green veggies, you can use intermittent fasting to help remove these harmful molecules. One study noted that “the beneficial effects of IF and CR result from at least two mechanisms — reduced oxidative damage and increased cellular stress resistance.”
If you want to maximize the effects of any healthy foods and antioxidants from your diet or supplements, IF might be a great way to target those free radicals from both ends and really clean house.
4. Puts Cellular Repair Into Overdrive
Speaking of cleaning up, IF can get the process of autophagy working for you. The body tears down old cells and uses them to build new, healthy cells. You don’t want misfolded or damaged proteins and other metabolic junk gumming up the works.
IF increases autophagy in your body. Interesting findings from a study called Autophagy and Intermittent Fasting: the connection for cancer therapy, shows us that there’s definitely something to it.
Whenever you are full of food, a lot of your body’s resources go to digestion. Broken-down nutrients flood the bloodstream and get sent far and wide. Extra food gets stored as fat. Repairs go on the back burner while you deal with the inbox.
It makes sense that your body will be able to focus on junk removal and repair when it isn’t spending all of its time dealing with digestion.
Fasting = body repair time!
5. Target Visceral Fat
Belly fat is part of the picture. And what about all the fat packed around your heart and internal organs? It’s hard to measure without a CT scan, but you can make an educated guess based on your waist and your body mass index.
Visceral fat can be extremely harmful, giving you a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, heart disease, and certain cancers. It’s also a big part of the chronic inflammation problem mentioned above.
It also affects your appearance. Everyone wants a smaller middle. Carrying a spare tire makes you less healthy and look less appealing. When I was bulging out of my pants, I felt terrible about how it made me look.
Intermittent Fasting can help reduce visceral fat, especially with exercise and healthier eating.
6. Lower Your Blood Pressure and Reduce Heart Disease
According to the World Health Organization, heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide. It causes an estimated 17.9 million deaths each year. Using any tool we have to keep our hearts healthy makes sense.
If you get rid of some visceral fat, it will considerably cut down the body's load.
Imagine the extra blood flow and blood pressure required to keep pounds of flab on your middle. The more of you there is, the harder the heart works, and the more strain there is on the entire system.
Research shows intermittent fasting can help lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, control diabetes, and reduce weight. If we can accomplish all of these things, it will make our hearts healthier.
7. Live Longer
Lower your inflammation levels. Reduce free radicals. Boost autophagy. Drop a few pounds. Have a healthier heart.
There’s no doubt that if you achieve all of those things, you have a better chance of living a long, healthy life.
Compare an IF user to someone who uses the let-er-buck method of eating and has 15 pounds of fat, filling all the extra space in the body cavity. This person might be a walking time bomb with multiple diseases in an advancing state and not even know it.
With aging, nothing is guaranteed. But the odds are against you if you are overweight, have chronic inflammation due to insulin resistance, and have a huge buildup of free radicals that your body never got around to dealing with.
Intermittent fasting might not be a magic bullet, but it does seem to help with many of these problems, and research on humans and animals supports this.
7.5 Bonus Point — Good For The Brain!
Experts think that IF can help maintain a healthy brain as you age. It has been shown to assist memory and keep cognitive abilities sharper.
More than a few neurosurgeons recommend IF as the best diet for mental sharpness. For more information, have a look at Life Lessons From a Brain Surgeon.
“I recommend it for anyone who wants to improve their mood and hit peak cognition.” — Rahul Jandial, MD, PhD
There is a lot of data from studies showing reduced risk of neurological disorders. IF might help mitigate Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke. It makes sense that your brain will work better if the rest of you is in better shape because of intermittent fasting.
Intermittent Fasting Can Be Convenient and Easy
This isn’t as much about what you eat but when you eat.
A 16:8 intermittent fasting eating plan means you will eat all your food in an 8-hour window. For convenience, most IF users skip breakfast and start eating at noon. Then, we close the food window at 8:00 PM until lunchtime the next day.
Skipping supper and breaking your fast at breakfast might be as effective, but it’s hard to align with our lives. If you skip evening eating, you miss out on a chance for social contact during meals. The social aspect is why most restaurants focus on supper, not breakfast.
Use This Simple Plan to Try 16:8 Intermittent Fasting Yourself
Decide on a frequency to try this method of eating. You could start with once or twice per week before considering making it an everyday habit to see how it fits best in your schedule.
Pick an eight-hour eating window. Many people choose noon to 8:00 PM. Some go with 9:00 Am to 5:00 PM. There is evidence to show that the earlier in the day you start, the better it is. But for most of us, having a long gap between dinner and bedtime will mean lots of temptation and snacking opportunities, so you might prefer to eat later in the day.
To maximize the benefits of your fasting, try to choose plenty of healthy options for food. Use most of your eating window for veggies, fruit, lean protein, and whole grains. If you eat the right foods first, you’ll be less hungry for what you know you shouldn’t eat, like giant sacks of Oreos or potato chips.
When you are in the fasting window, drink plenty of fluids to avoid becoming dehydrated and getting a headache. Start with plain water. Herbal tea, black coffee, or fruit-infused water are also great choices to keep your stomach empty of food. Remember, fruit juice has a lot of calories, so it will bump you out of your fast.
A hot drink of tea, black coffee, or herbal tea is a great way to curb any hunger. Remember not to add cream or sugar, and end your fast before the eating window.
Substack Fasting Posts
Here are a couple of fellow Substackers who talk about fasting.
Books About Fasting
These 3 books have a ton of information to help you get the entire story from experts in the field.
The Complete Guide to Fasting (Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting) by Dr. Jason Fung, with 4.7/ 5 stars and 9,682 ratings on Amazon.
The FastDiet — Revised & Updated: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting, by Michael Mosley, with 4.3/ 5 stars and 9,387 ratings on amazon.
Eat Stop Eat: Intermittent Fasting for Health and Weight Loss, by Brad Pilon, with 4.3/ 5 stars and 654 ratings on amazon.
Reasons to Fast:
Maintain muscle while losing unwanted weight and becoming a lean, mean, life-loving machine!
Lower chronic inflammation levels that are making you bloated and sick.
Reduce free radicals that are running rampant, smashing DNA.
Amp up the autophagy process to take care of the junk lying around inside you.
Get rid of visceral fat that is packed around your internal organs, quietly choking the life out of you.
Reduce your risk of heart disease.
Live a longer, healthier life and outlast the losers.
Keep your brain in top shape so you can outsmart the corporate bullshit!
If you tried intermittent fasting, how did it go? I’d love to hear your story.
I’ve been intermittent fasting for around 17 years before I had ever heard of it. I was never hungry in mornings and found myself most days eating one large meal around 4pm called my “snake meal” 🤣
Snakes only eat a couple times a week so every few days I’d consume a huge steak or a whole rotisserie chicken. Now I understand why I always felt so good when I stick to a 16 hour fast, 8 hour eating window. It is just natural now. Great article.
As someone who fasts religiously all I can say is it does get easier the more you do it because you'll find your stomach shrinking over time and naturally eat less food. I love intermittent fasting and I wish more people knew about it, not just for the weight loss, but for all the health benefits it adds:)