Fasting is a good thing we should give our body from time to time to experience its numerous health benefits. It’s important to note that, different lengths of fasting give different health benefits. When going into fasting, decide on the health benefits you plan to achieve, and adopt the most suitable fasting period for the intended health benefits.
According to Dr Mindy Pelz in her book titled “Fast Like a Girl”, she highlighted six different fasting periods and their potential health benefits. These fasting regimens include:
- 12 – 16 hours: Beginner’s friendly (intermittent) fast
- 17 hours and above: Autophagy fast
- 24 hours (one-meal-a-day – OMAD): Gut-cleansing fast
- 36+ hours: Fat-reducing fast
- 48 hours: Dopamine revival fast
- 72 hours and above: Immune system rejuvenation fast
Health Benefits of the Beginner-Friendly Fasting Period (12 – 16 hours)
This is the shortest possible time you could go without food and gain some interesting health benefits including weight loss, clear cognitive function, and energy gain. The easiest way to accomplish this, for a beginner, is to take your dinner early (before 6 pm) and eat the next day around 10 am, with no snacking in-between the two-eating window.
In about 15 hours of fasting, the body has completely switched from glucose- to fat-burning energy supply. Interestingly, weight loss is easily experienced when the body burns fats instead of glucose.
Recall that in our previous blog I mentioned that the best energy source for the brain is the ketone bodies. At 15 hours into fasting, the concentration of ketone bodies in your blood system increases, which will be supplied to the brain for mental clarity; better focus, attention, and ability to think critically. Good supply of ketones to the brain improves brain fog that you experience after eating a heavy meal packed with high carbohydrates and over-processed foods.
The third benefit of the 12 – 16 hours fasting is energy boost. The ketones supply a more sustainable and long-lasting energy than glucose. In comparison to ketones, glucose will give a quick energy boost which clashes almost immediately and throws you into renewed episode of hunger.
This beginner-friendly fasting regimen is quite simple and easy to adopt with three amazing benefits.
Health Benefits of the Autophagy Fast (17 hours and above)
Autophagy, in a simple term, is the process by which cells cleanse themselves by removing dead cells and revamping the weak ones. This cleansing process happens whenever we fast for 17 hours and beyond, and it leads to detoxification, reset of sex hormones, and prevention of cold. Cognitive clarity is further improved as autophagy happens.
If you plan to get rid of all the damages you did to your body as a result of eating junks and toxic products over the years, try autophagy fast every now and then to gradual cleanse your cells of accumulated toxins.
Try autophagy fast whenever you have cold or flu because it boosts your immune system and helps ward off disease causing pathogens. Our immune system is strengthened whenever we fast for 17 hours and above.
Sex hormone production could be enhanced through weekly autophagy fasting. Dr Mindy in “Fast Like a Girl” reported a 2021 small study on fifteen women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) who adopted a restricted eating window (16:8) for five weeks and improved their menstrual cycle, lost some weight, reduced their inflammation, and lowered their insulin levels. She also reported that autophagy fast could be beneficial to women trying to get pregnant and women in their perimenopausal years.
Health Benefits of Gut-Cleansing Fast (OMAD-24 hours)
24 hours fast leads to the production of stem cells in our gut, which repairs damaged inner lining of the guts caused by chronic inflammation. OMAD has the following health benefits boosts the population of good gut microbes and fights against small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
When we eat over-processed and very sugary foods, take antibiotics, and/or birth-control pills, we alter the balance between good and bad bacteria. These actions reduce the number of good gut bacteria you need for a healthy living.
To boost numbers of healthy microbes in your gut, go on 24 hours fasting every now and then. After the 24 hours fasting, break your fast with foods rich in probiotics such as kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut, cheese, etc. These probiotics will help replenish the healthy bacteria in your gut.
Health Benefits of Fat-Reducing Fast (36+ hours)
Some people don’t experience weight loss with shorter fasting periods. For this set of individuals, they need to go on a longer fasting period of about 36 hours and more to achieve weight loss. The 36+ fasting period doesn’t only bring about weight loss, it also leads to cholesterol reduction and release of sugar stored in tissues.
Fasting for 36+ hours help people who are resistant to weight loss lose weight. Adopting the alternate-day fasting (36 hours fast followed by 12 hours eating period) style for thirty days in humans resulted in weight loss, continuous production of ketones in the 12-hours eating period, and reduction in cholesterol and inflammation1.
36 hours fast help the liver reduce the production of cholesterol and produce more ketones needed as energy source for the long fasting period.
During the 36+ hours fasting period, sugar stored in tissues for years is released into the blood stream which aids a weight loss process. It is a natural way of your body cleansing itself from prolonged storage of sugar which usually prevent weight loss using other methods.
Health Benefits of Dopamine Revival Fast (48 hours)
When you saturate your dopamine receptors with pleasurable events, in this case, frequent eating of sweet and highly flavored food, it becomes impossible for you to feel the delicious taste of your meals. You eat more of those foods to feel good and satisfied.
However, when you embark on a two-day fast, the dopamine receptors in your brain are revived and made more active to feel and experience the pleasure of every meal you take, no matter how “tasteless” it might be. You feel satisfied eating small quantity of food.
Two days fast also helps calm your brain down. Anxiety is reduced after a 48-hour fast due to the production of calming neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). You feel less anxious after a 48-hour fast.
Health Benefits of Immune System Rejuvenation Fast (72+ hours)
If you can fast 72 hours (three days) or more from food and any caloric drink, you will experience stem cells production. Stem cells are those cells with the ability to regenerate themselves and recreate tissue cells.
The health benefits of stem cells regenerated during a 72+ hour fasting include prevention and alleviation of chronic diseases, relieve of body/joint pains, and prevention of fast aging.
The more the stem cells formed during the three days fasting, the stronger the immune system which will help fight off chronic diseases cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases.
When stem cells are formed during this long hour fast, the body uses the stem cells to repair damaged tissues and make you look and feel younger.
The benefits of fasting are quite enormous with a zero cost. Fasting would improve your health and your economy because you won’t be spending money on so many junks found on grocery shelves.
Summary
If you have not fasted in a while or at all, don’t start off with a long fasting period. Rather, take a baby step with the 16 hours fast:8 hours eating regimen, and then graduate to one-meal-a-day. When you succeed with the OMAD, you can easily do the 36+ fast every now and even 48 hours and more.
Fasting is a gradual process. Your body needs some time to gradually adjust to the new lifestyle before embarking on multiple consecutive fasting days. Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Take it, one step at a time until you master the art of fasting.
If jump start your fasting journey with long fasting hours, you will be hit by severe hunger flash and fatigue, especially if you’ve been eating a lot of processed and packaged products that are highly sweetened with several additives.
Note the following:
- To succeed in any of the fasting regimens, without feeling so hungry and tired during the period, you must reduce the amount of carbohydrates (white rice, corn, wheat, natural sugar) in your meals, and you must avoid all highly processed and artificial foods such as the conventional vegetable oils, refined/white sugar, all junk foods, soft drinks, alcohol of any kind, bread, pasta, and many more).
- In your eating window, eat more of green-leafy vegetables, good fats like avocado, extra virgin coconut, red-palm and olive oils, and proteins including animal-base (preferably grass-fed and pasture-raised animals and eggs, wild-caught fish and other aquatic animals) and plant-base (nuts and legumes).
- Break your fast with probiotic, prebiotic and polyphenolic foods. Remember to eat carbohydrates and sweet fruits last.
- Thank you for dropping by. See you in our next post.
Reference
1. de Cabo R, Mattson MP. Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease. New England Journal of Medicine. 2019;381(26):2541-2551. doi:10.1056/nejmra1905136
