Fasting and Benefits?

worldtraveller321

What are the benefits to fasting? I am needed to loose some weight still. Was wondering if occasional fasting would have benefits?

Also what is the best way to Fast? how do you interval that? some examples be helpful

AnnPT77

I wouldn't suggest it, personally. The occasional fast wouldn't deeply hurt you, and it's a common spiritual practice, but it can play havoc with energy levels for daily life, and can increase temptations to over-eat afterward. If it helps you reduce calories overall, and doesn't sap your energy, that's about the only benefit IMO. For me, too much unpleasantness and trouble to be worth it, but YMMV.

mmapags

What kind of benefits are you referring to? Most studies on humans conclude the only real benefit is calorie restriction. It is an area that is still under study as far as some of the benefits seen in animal studies applying to humans.

Runaroundafieldx2

I fast around 16 hours each day.

They used to call it skipping breakfast

pinggolfer96

a caloric deficit causes weight loss, not fasting. IF gurus with their "claims and benefits" are quacks

L1zardQueen

I skip breakfast because for me to easier to stay in my maintenance calories. No benefits.

kshama2001

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I wouldn't suggest it, personally. The occasional fast wouldn't deeply hurt you, and it's a common spiritual practice, but it can play havoc with energy levels for daily life, and can increase temptations to over-eat afterward. If it helps you reduce calories overall, and doesn't sap your energy, that's about the only benefit IMO. For me, too much unpleasantness and trouble to be worth it, but YMMV.

Yup, would definitely be counter-productive for me.

Years ago, I did complete a week long juice (and protein powder) fast, but that was at a yoga retreat center where I had no access to additional food. It was an...interesting...experience, but I definitely do not recommend it as a weight loss strategy.

AnvilHead

https://www.myoleanfitness.com/intermittent-fasting-what-to-eat-drink/

Excerpts:

Most research on intermittent fasting for improved health and longevity suffers from serious methodological limitations. What we currently know from research is that there MAY be health and longevity benefits to fasting, but that there is, currently, no strong evidence from research in humans in the absence of caloric restriction to support this. This also makes the question of what you can eat or drink during a fast when your goal is better health and longevity kind of irrelevant to begin with.

Okay, so you don’t, technically, have to fast to lose weight, but fasting can improve health and increase longevity, right? After all, scientific research has shown that fasting results in a number of health benefits, including:

improved insulin sensitivity,
lower levels of inflammation,
cancer-prevention properties,
better brain health, and
increased lifespan.

Well, unfortunately, if you take a closer look at the studies most health blogs usually cite, you will realize that the available scientific research suffers from a number of serious methodological problems, including that it is mostly limited to:

animal studies – a number of systematic reviews such as this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one, have demonstrated poor clinical utility of animal experimentation,

in vitro studies – i.e. with microorganisms or cells outside their normal biological context, usually in a test tube or petri dish,

mechanistic studies – i.e. studies discussing how one thing might affect another, but not actually trying it and seeing it happen in real life, and

studies that don’t control for caloric intake – caloric restriction and weight loss have been shown to have a multitude of health and anti-aging benefits in countless of studies. Since intermittent fasting tends to result in caloric restriction, it’s difficult to attribute the health benefits found to fasting per se, when there is the confounding variable of energy balance.

In short, what we currently know from research is that there MAY be health and longevity benefits to fasting without caloric restriction, but that there is, currently, no strong evidence from research in humans to support this.

kshama2001

I think there were some mouse studies that were getting overhyped a few years back...

AnvilHead

https://www.iifym.com/intermittent-fasting-myths-debunked/


Excerpt:

Based on the available well-designed trials, we can draw the following conclusions:

- Intermittent fasting and continuous energy restriction result in identical weight and fat loss when energy and protein intakes are matched between groups.

- In most studies, when measured on feeding days, the magnitude of metabolic rate reduction is similar with intermittent fasting and with continuous caloric restriction.

- When controlling for initial body fat levels, the degree of energy deficit, the extent and type of exercise performed, and the protein intake of the diet, there are no statistically significant differences in fat free mass loss with intermittent fasting or with continuous energy restriction.

- In studies that compared energy-matched intermittent fasting to continuous energy restriction or which were designed to ensure that there was no overall energy deficit or weight loss, variable results with regards to improvements in insulin sensitivity have been reported.

What is also clearly evident is that there is a need for more high-quality research comparing long-term outcomes of intermittent fasting and continuous energy restriction in order to establish any real benefits of the former with regards to controlling body weight and improving metabolic health in humans.

AnvilHead

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561417301255

Excerpt:

Conclusions:

The technique used to achieve energy restriction, whether it is continuous or intermittent, does not appear to modulate the compensatory mechanisms activated by weight loss.

AnvilHead

https://www.nmcd-journal.com/article/S0939-4753(18)30100-5/fulltext

Excerpt:

Conclusions

Both intermittent and continuous energy restriction resulted in similar weight loss, maintenance and improvements in cardiovascular risk factors after one year. However, feelings of hunger may be more pronounced during intermittent energy restriction.

Research review regarding above study: https://www.myoleanfitness.com/intermittent-fasting-vs-traditional-dieting/

AnvilHead

mmapags wrote: »

What kind of benefits are you referring to? Most studies on humans conclude the only real benefit is calorie restriction. It is an area that is still under study as far as some of the benefits seen in animal studies applying to humans.

k8eekins

worldtraveller321 wrote: »

What are the benefits to fasting? I am needed to loose some weight still. Was wondering if occasional fasting would have benefits?

Also what is the best way to Fast? how do you interval that? some examples be helpful

There aren't benefits to fasting IF fasting is too alien a concept for you. Otherwise, maintaining your caloric-deficit as best you can applying the parameters of what you'll allow via your eating plan ("dietary preferences") will help you drop weight.

Occasional fasting for some is conscious. For me personally, it's habitual. I can't load-up unless I'm done with responsibilities or a workout for example.

ETA: sp