I know! Fasting?
If someone ever suggested fasting before, I would have said “no way, not me, I love my food”!
I remember a friend of mine saying to me years ago that she sometimes totally forgets about eating. How does that ever happen? Definitely not in my life!
I just love my food and eating! But when I found out about the amazing effects fasting has on my health and weight, I changed my mind. I decided to experiment with it on myself first, with excellent results.
During fasting the energy storage process reverses and insulin falls. That decline is a signal that our system should start using some of the stored food energy to power our body.
Dr.George Cahill (1927- 2012) is an American scientist who significantly advanced the diabetes mellitus research of the 20th century. He investigated how fasting affected obesity and diabetes.
He described the 5 stages between eating and prolonged starvation/fasting;
1st Stage
For the first few hours after you have eaten;
- Insulin is always higher and your body continues to draw on the glucose you have eaten.
- All the tissues of the body use glucose for energy production.
- You still store food energy as glycogen and the excess is stored as body fat. My clients generally notice body fat or visceral fat stored around the waist but it will also be stored in other areas, mostly in and around your liver and in your blood vessels.
2nd Stage
4 to 16 hours after eating;
Glycogen stores last for approximately 24 hours
3rd Stage
16 to 30 hours after eating;
Gluconeogenesis = Creation of new glucose
In this stage your body transitions from using glucose (which is becoming scarce) to using fat and protein (from available body stores)
4th Stage
30 hours to 24 day’s after eating
Clinical evidence shows that alternating 24 hour repeated fasting/feeding does not cause muscle loss.
The proteins that burn most rapidly are the first proteins to be catabolized for glucose including the skin and intestinal lining.
That means with longer fasts you will loose your excess skin.
In his intensive dietary program Dr. Fung uses therapeutic fasting for weight loss and has not yet sent any of his clients for skin removal surgery. Including those who lost over 100pounds.
This is more evidence of the body’s innate ability to heal itself.
There is a significant difference in metabolizing protein between lean and obese people.
Obese people will burn 2 to 3 times less protein compared to lean people.
This means when people have more fat to burn, their body will use more of it.
If there is less fat available the body will be forced to rely on protein.
Other amazing effects with fasting!
Did you know that after fasting for 24 hours your body starts building new stem cells?
Stem cells are non-specific cells in your body, which are regularly divided to produce new body tissues for maintenance and repair.
Adult stem cells can divide or self-renew indefinitely. This means they can generate various cell types from the original organ or even rebuild the original organ.
It is fascinating to study the scientific evidence of stem cell research
When I heard about that I was immediately on board; I wanted to give my body the chance to heal itself.
If you would like to learn more how the effects of fasting could help you individually please get in touch.