Intermittent fasting continues on its way, thanks to your incredible Fasting results. For my part, I am beginning to know the benefits of fasting a little every day, and you? In this article, I wanted to take stock in 2021 of radical changes that you enjoy with intermittent fasting. You are thousands to practice it every day for weight loss. Learn about Intermittent fasting effects on health..
But for health? The results of my research are incredible. You know me, I make sure to always validate scientifically before you talk about it …
The time and money needed for human studies make the findings a bit slow, but it happens! The good news is that the returns continue to be positive and the new discoveries bluffing. Science continues to make progress, and studies on the subject are flocking.
Without further ado, I propose to see the 15 effects that will change everything when we fast regularly. You will see that they accumulate for a total change in metabolic, physical and of course health. Your metabolism changes with a new rhythm.
Summary : Intermittent Fasting Effects on Health
- Effect 1: A change in the circadian rhythm
- Effect 2: Reduction of insulin production
- Increase in growth hormone
- Effect 4: Metabolism acceleration
- Effect 5: You will lose weight
- Mostly reduce your body fat
- Effect 7: Diabetes Risk Reduction
- Effect 8: Better response to oxidative stress
- Autophagy of diseased cells
- Effect 10: A reduction in cell proliferation
- Radiation resistance
- Effect 12: Slow aging of the brain
- Reduction of anxiety and depression
- Effect 14: A reduction of cardiovascular risks
- An increase in the service life
To explain in two words what is called metabolism is the way your body works: what hormones are produced, what time, and especially your energy consumption throughout the day.The effects observed will therefore have a very strong impact on your entire body. It starts with the interior!
Effect 1: A change in the circadian rhythm
The circadian rhythm is a little clock of your metabolism. At certain times, it triggers the release of hormones that wake you up in the morning, make you hungry for lunch and sleep at night. For many of you, this rhythm is broken. You’re hungry all day, you can not fall asleep at night … you wake up without much energy.
What is most surprising when you start Fasting is to see how easy it is to change the pace. By forcing meals at fixed times and reducing its range of food, the body re-organizes itself on this new organization.
Day after day (think of jet lag), you get used to it and you end up with a new circadian rhythm: you are hungry when it’s time to eat, you sleep better and your mornings are full of energy. This first change will influence all others … just by changing your schedules, your “hormonal planning” evolves and transforms you from within.
Effect 2: Reduction of insulin production
I often talk about insulin because it is at the heart of weight gain: it is the hormone that is in charge of storage.
When you are overweight, you tend to over-produce, and the body develops resistance. This insulin resistance is one of the biggest public health concerns, because of the lack of physical activity and the abundance of food in our modern society.
To be able to lose weight and limit storage when you eat, reducing levels is a priority. If you stop eating for several hours, the production is reduced … immediately but also chronically, which means that you enjoy this effect over time, day after day.
Your body learns to do its job with less insulin: your sensitivity is improved. This change alone leads to a cascade of positive effects (muscle gain easier, less storage, faster satiety . This effect has been demonstrated in men ( see study ). Insulin is at the heart of managing your weight, this change alone would be enough to lose weight.
Effect 3: Increase in growth hormone
The youth hormone as it is often called (because of its almost immediate rejuvenating effects), or also fitness hormone produced during exercise, is increasingly difficult to produce as we aging. This is one of the reasons why losing weight is harder with age.
It helps to build muscle mass and recover faster. For these reasons, it is prohibited in sports competitions and is considered doping. You can afford injections at gold prices … or increase production naturally.
The first way is to do physical exercise, a well-known effect to keep you in shape … the other is to fast a few hours. And yes, not even need sports for that: production rises sharply when one abstains from eating (in 24h, 1300% in the woman and 2000% in the man). ( see the study )
In addition to improving your fitness (it forces muscle building and reduction of fat), this hormone slows down aging.
Intermittent fasting effects on health
Effect 4: Metabolism acceleration
There is an old myth lying around: skipping meals would reduce the metabolism, we would stock up after a fast … that’s wrong! Contrary to these received ideas, not only the metabolism does not decline … but it increases!
Still thanks to the hormonal modifications, one notes an increase of the metabolism between 3.6 and 14% ( see study ). So you will spend more energy in your day. This difference will end up on the scale …
In short: when you fast, you reduce insulin levels while increasing those of growth hormone. It has the effect of accelerating the metabolism. A triple advantage .. especially when you want to lose weight. Short-term fasting improves physical fitness
It goes almost without saying for a site dedicated to the weight loss, but it is the aspect of the fast which has been most tested in the studies on the subject.
Effect 5: You will lose weight
To lose weight, it is “enough” to eat less than what is spent. There are endless ways to get there (both reducing the size of your meals and playing sports), but reducing the number of meals is one of the easiest.
It sounds stupid, but the less time you spend eating in a day … and the more you reduce your calorie intake without even thinking about it … the hormonal effects do the rest of the work. So for that, no need to make incredible efforts, portions or sports.
Studies show on average a reduction in caloric intake of 30% when you start intermittent fasting … about 1 kilo per week. That’s exactly what I recommend with Fasting.
Effect 6: Mostly reduce your body fat
It is good to weigh less, but it is useless if you lose muscle or water … with fasting we are lucky: it is mainly fat. The reason is the hormonal improvements we saw in the previous section: with less insulin, more growth hormone and others (adrenaline and cortisol), you facilitate the breaking of fat and its use in energy.
In this study for example ( see study ), participants lost mostly around the waist, which shows visceral fat loss (the worst fat, those around organs). Compared to a classic calorie reduction, alternating fasting preserves muscle mass much better ( see study ).
More muscle means less fat for two reasons: proportionally you reduce the% fat … and also, it helps you lose weight because the muscles spends more energy than other tissues.
In short: Reducing your nutrition period helps you eat fewer calories without thinking too much … while increasing your metabolism, making it a very effective tool to slim down easily.
Intermittent fasting effects on health
Effect 7: Diabetes Risk Reduction
Type 2 diabetes occurs in the course of life and depends a lot on our lifestyle (unlike type 1 with which we are born). The main concern is to have too much sugar in the blood, and not enough insulin to store it in time: sugar concentrations become toxic.
This is mainly because the body no longer reacts to insulin: it is desensitized. You remember that fasting improves insulin sensitivity (and thus its effectiveness). It has a preventive effect against the formation of diabetes. ( see study ). Regular fasting has an impressive effect on the presence of sugar in the blood and thus on the onset of diabetes, both in rats and in men.
This effect is so impressive that a 2-year experience is underway to cure type 2 diabetics with fasting. No more insulin injections, more drugs … results in 2017!
Effect 8: Better response to oxidative stress
Mitochondria are the energy generators of our cells. When they produce energy, they leave waste, called free radicals. They are free because unattached and go adrift.
Imagine small asteroids wandering in the space of your cells. Their trajectory is random and contact with other molecules can do damage. Often, they react with molecules of the body without being supposed to do so: proteins, DNA … which disrupts the functioning of the body and generates mutations.
Faced with this, the antioxidants (vitamin C, E, calcium) of your diet “catch” free radicals before they do too much damage. This is especially where comes the health aura of fruits and vegetables, the main source of anti-oxidants in our diet.
Intermittent fasting effects on health
When you fast, you force the body to change in two ways:
- to be more effective, it replaces the “old” mitochondria, those that produce the most free radicals, with new ones
- it increases the natural production of antioxidants
So you have better energy production, and you are more resistant to oxidative stress thanks to your natural superdose of antioxidants. As I explained in my article on “benign stress” ( on this page ), it’s much more effective than taking it in food or capsules.
The development of cancers is linked to the appearance of free radicals, because these generate mutations when they encounter DNA branches. Better management of oxidative stress as seen above will therefore prevent the occurrence of these cancers.
In addition to this prevention, abstaining from eating would have two additional effects against cancers …
Effect 9: Autophagy of diseased cells
This little “bonus” effect shows us that once again, stress is not necessarily a bad thing because it pushes the body to defend itself. Imagine that you already have cancer cells. The mutations are there.
These cells are less effective than healthy cells, and therefore do their job less well. When you fast, you force your body to clean up. As soon as he needs protein, he will break the “sick” cells in order to recover the materials and build healthy cells with (a bit like the mitochondria).
With each fast, you do something new while cleaning the sick cells ( see study ). This effect also serves to make you stronger: the body does the same thing for the muscles, breaking down the weaker fibers first.
Intermittent fasting effects on health
Effect 10: A reduction in cell proliferation
When cancer develops, diseased cells reproduce faster than healthy cells, until they reach other parts of the body (metastasis). It is at this point that the chances of survival are reduced.
Preventing cell proliferation is therefore essential to stay alive. In mice, it is precisely observed that tumors develop much less well when they follow a fasting protocol.
In a study of January 2015, a group of scientists deduced that fasting would prevent the development of breast cancer, particularly through the reduction in blood sugar reported in Effect 2 ( see study ). How is it possible ? Unlike healthy cells that accept different types of energy, cancer cells need glucose (sugar).
Fasting participates in a less sweet metabolism thanks to the positive effects on the metabolism I mentioned above. Less sugar, fewer cancer cells.
Intermittent fasting effects on health
Effect 11: Radiation resistance
Finally, the third effect that will protect you against cancer: fasting, your healthy cells are more resistant to aggression. It could be an effect all by itself: fasting strengthens the immune system … to the point of renewing it completely in 3 days.
As we have seen, cancer cells (mutated) are not as functional as healthy cells. They do not protect themselves as well, especially in the absence of glucose (blood sugar), their favorite fuel.
If you follow radiation therapy (exposure of tumors to radiation), fasting just before will protect healthy cells … while cancer cells will be rather weakened. ( see study )
Metabolism changes happen in a few weeks, as your body gets used to your new lifestyle. When you think of all these years where you have worked differently, it is very fast.
I pass you the beneficial effects directly related to the weight loss: when one loses weight one tends to be in better health. Many studies are ongoing in the long term … which means that we will not have definitive results right away. On the other hand, there are some changes already established which justify continuing fasting beyond weight loss.
Effect 12: Slow aging of the brain
Human and animal studies have shown that intermittent fasting influences the plasticity of the brain (basically its ability to adapt, learn and memorize), improving performance on memory tests in the elderly.
I touched on this surprising effect in a complete article . The functioning of the brain is complex, of course, but the principle is quite simple: when you put your cells in a situation of controlled lack (fasting in this case), they become stronger and more effective at managing stress.
In some cases, it can even lead to the creation of new neurons, something that was thought impossible a few years ago. And simply by fasting! Suddenly, fasting helps reduce the risk for neurodegenerative diseases … but also improves the quality of life of those already affected by these diseases.
Effect 13: Reduction of anxiety and depression
You may have noticed, but when you fast you tend to feel calm, focused and generally fit. A review of fasting studies ( see study ) showed that this effect is reflected in the experiments, with an improvement in mood in a few days.
Scientists do not know exactly which mechanism, but assume that improved quality of sleep and hormone production play a crucial role …
Intermittent fasting effects on health
Effect 14: A reduction of cardiovascular risks
Statistical studies have shown that people who fast for cultural or religious reasons have fewer heart problems. Hard to draw conclusions for us: they tend to smoke less and abstain from drinking alcohol.
In animal studies, scientists have noticed improvements in the cardiovascular system similar to exercise: better blood pressure and reduced circulating cholesterol.
Early human studies also confirm these benefits ( Study 1 – Study 2 ). Even if at first the blood cholesterol increases (both bad LDL-C and good), it allows the body to use the fat as energy (instead of sugar), and reduce the number of fat cells .
After only 6 weeks, the LDL cholesterol and triglyceride (fat) levels circulating in the blood drop (-12%), and the blood pressure is reduced. While waiting for these results to show that everyone can fast safely, consult your doctor before fasting if you are pregnant, diabetic or have heart problems.
Effect 15: An increase in the service life
With all these beneficial effects, this last conclusion is not surprising. Since the 1930s, we know that in mice, simply fasting regularly extends their life. In a May 2000 study, it increased on average by 40%, from 48 to 64 weeks ( see study ).
This kind of study is difficult to reproduce in humans … Will we live up to 120 years just by fasting? Hard to say!
Studies that conclude an improvement in longevity in humans are based on markers such as insulin production, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, blood pressure … all of which improve with fasting. So by combining the 14 previous effects, each one influencing health undeniably, there is no doubt that you will live longer … if only by losing your visceral fat.
It was already established that our health (and longevity) is improving by reducing our caloric intake. Intermittent fasting goes in this direction: by eating on a reduced period, you will eat less and lose weight.
Other effects related to this less sweet metabolism (you force the body to tap into the fat reserves) accumulate and contribute to the general health of your body. From insulin resistance to diabetes, to cancers and brain health.
So there is a metabolic advantage to taking breaks in your diet … whatever you eat the rest of the time. I can not wait to see the results of the ongoing studies, to continue to share the good word and show the world that yes, it works! If you followed the Fasting for a moment, tell me in comment what it has changed for you.
Intermittent fasting effects on health
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