To low-carbohydrate diets, based on real food, which are both booming we must add another increasingly popular factor: fasting. Specifically intermittent fasting.
We must bear in mind that fasting can benefit us if done correctly, but otherwise we may have some problems. There is one thing that we need to keep in mind and that is fundamental: we must not go hungry. Therefore, today we are going to talk about intermittent fasting.
Before we start to get into the subject of fasting, we want to stop and talk about how many people are damaged or affected by carrying out various diets. We mean diets where calories are being counted continuously, hungry and therefore our hormones and our body in general suffers. We must bear in mind that fasting is an aid for our body, to allow it to rest, is not a formula for weight loss and we do not have to go hungry. We should avoid any kind of diet that makes us hungry.
Contents
What is intermittent fasting?
Every human being is born in ketosis, that is, his metabolism works with the energy source he consumes or burns fat instead of glucose. Subsequently, with foods that are increasingly present in our diet, such as carbohydrates and sugars, that is, those that in our body turns into glucose, our metabolism changes energy source.
Ideally, we should maintain a diet that allows us to extract energy from both sources, fat and glucose, something known as metabolic flexibility. To achieve this we can use the diet (a low carbohydrate) and fasting.
Genetically, the human body knows how and when to fast, but because of the large number of times we eat a day, many without feeling hungry, this instinctive ability has been lost. It is a situation that is not stressful for our body because it is natural, provided we know how to perform this fast.
Never go hungry
Metabolically speaking, eating little with fasting is not comparable. When our body is being provided less food than it asks and we are hungry, a hormonal reaction happens in a matter of hours. It can affect our thyroid and our metabolism in a negative way.
We need to eat satisfying the nutritional needs of our body and then we can stay hours of fasting without it damaging us. This is related to how we feel more satiated by consuming healthy proteins and fats.
In this regard, it is important not to fast if we are not eating properly. When we eat this satiating way to keep our body’s needs covered, we will check how naturally we space our meals or even do not need to make more than three meals. And, most importantly, we will avoid the feeling of anxiety about food.
You don’t have to binge and fast to compensate
Fasting does not consist of not eating after we have been given a binge of food, in these cases (such as Christmas or a wedding or event) if it is beneficial to fast afterwards but we should not take as usual to eat a lot and fast to make up for it. If we do this repeatedly we will go into a food disorder. We must reserve this type of fasting for very specific times like those already mentioned.
How to correctly perform intermittent fasting to have its benefits?
Once we have managed to establish a suitable type of food for us, we can start fasting. We must listen to our body as long as we begin to do the fast.
We can start fasting naturally between 12 to 18 hours a day. This is achieved in a very simple way when satiating dinner, not biting anything after dinner and then unfasting when our body feels hungry. We don’t have to establish a specific number of hours, you just have to listen to what our body is asking us. In this way, if we have dinner at 21.00 hours and do not feel hungry until 9:00 hours, we will have already fasted 12 hours and allowed our body to rest. We must not force ourselves. The moment we feel hungry we must eat.
During fasting if we can and should drink water, infusions, water with a little salt or potassium, even bone broth. This is important because of electrolytes if we need them.
You can also include pure fats such as mtc oil, coconut oil, ghee, etc.. to a drink like a coffee. With this we wouldn’t be breaking the fast and we would be getting energy.
Particular situations
There are some cases when special care should be taken when performing an intermittent fasting:
If we suffer from hashimoto or problems with thyroid. It is essential in these cases to eat as soon as we feel hunger so as not to affect the thyroid.
When we have ferritin elevated; Triglycerides higher than 70 or higher than hdl;metabolic syndrome ;fasting glucose above 95 fasting, diseases such as cancer, etc… these situations are at higher cardiovascular risk. And it can be beneficial to make fasting between 24 to 72 hours, yes, first we must have our diet well regulated or it will be complicated.
It may be very curious that in the latter case a fasting of many hours, even days is recommended. This is due to autophagy and apoptosis.
- Autophagy is ‘eating oneself’ and it turns out that when we are more than 16-24 hours fasting, our body begins to eat all those erroneous cells it possesses, including tumors.
- Apoptosis is when cells destroy themselves. Erroneous or very old cells that are programmed to end.
Therefore, our body is regulated and cleaned during fasting and therefore it is important to perform them while we follow a nutritious and healthy diet for our body.
You may be interested in:
- Carnivorous diet: What is it? Is it healthy?
- Keto or low-carbohydrate diet in women
- Keto and Paleo food: differences
- Metabolism What is metabolism? How to speed it up?
