Benefits of fasting.
The human body was never designed to be snacking and eating all day long. Our digestive system is supposed to have breaks between meals to completely clean out.
During the overnight fast we would greatly benefit from being able to switch over to our secondary energy source which is ketones. This switch happens as the body depletes available glucose in our blood, and glucose that has been stored in our muscles, fat and liver. When the glucose stores are depleted, the body will start to create ketones from stored body fat.
As glucose is our preferred energy source, there are also many benefits from being able to create ketones, including brain health.
Becoming efficient in switching between the two energy systems is when we start to see a lot of the health benefits from a fasting lifestyle.
Some of the benefits from living a fasting lifestyle are:
- Weight loss
- More energy
- Clear mind
- Less inflammation
- Less pain
- Lower cholesterol
- Stabilize blood sugar
- More insulin sensitive
- Ability to contain muscle mass while losing weight
Fasting styles
There are different fasting styles, and they all have their place, but the most important thing is that it suits your lifestyle and that it is sustainable. There are also many benefits from mixing up your fasts and not follow the same routine every single day.
For women it is also crucial to be fasting according to your monthly cycle to support your female sex hormones.
Intermittent fasting
Or time restricted eating where you have a fasting window between 13-16 hours.
Autophagy fasting
Autophagy starts around 17 hours of fasting. An autophagy fast can be between 17 hours and 24 hours where you then would move into a gut reset fast.
Gut reset fast
24 hours of fasting. When giving the gut time to completely clean out, bad bacteria will start to die off, and you will have an opportunity to introduce new good bacteria.
Fat burner fast
36 hours of fasting. It's called the fat burner because you force the body to start burning stored fat.
Dopamine fast
48 hour fast to reset the dopamine receptor sites in your brain.
Immune reset fast
3 day water fast, or 72 hour fast. After 72 hours your body start making new white blood cells.