Intermittent fasting is not only a Useful tool for weight lossIt is also shown that Many advantages for metabolic health – Regardless of weight loss. However, many people can find intermittent fasting as a challenge, especially if you follow version 5: 2 of the diet where calories are seriously limited two days a week.
But My latest study Show that you do not need to seriously restrict your calories to obtain the metabolic advantages of intermittent fasting. Even restrict the number of carbohydrates you eat twice a week may be enough to improve your metabolic health.
Intermittent fasting seems to be so beneficial for health because of the way it changes our metabolism.
After a meal, our body enters the postprandial state. While in this state, our metabolism pushes our cells to use carbohydrates for immediate energy, while storing some of these carbohydrates as well as fats for subsequent use.
But after several hours without food, in the postabsorgus “fasting” state, our metabolism passes to the use of some of our energy stores for energy.
In this regard, intermittent fasting ensures a better balance between the sources it uses for energy. This leads to Improved metabolic flexibilitywhich is linked to Better Cardiometabolic Health.
In other words, this means a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
My colleagues and I previously led a study to demonstrate the Effects of a fast on the body. We observed that after a day of total fasting or severe calorie restriction (eating only 25% of each person’s daily calorie requirements), the body was better to clean and burn the fat of a full English breakfast the next day.
Fasting has moved the body from the use of carbohydrates to the use of fat. This effect took place both during fasting and the next day.
Our research also compared the effects of intermittent fasting to a diet by caloric or limited in calories. The two groups followed the diet until they lose 5% of their body weight.
Despite the two groups losing the same 5% body weight and, at the same rate, the intermittent fasting group has experienced greater improvements in their metabolic manipulation, similar to what we saw during the previous test.
Other researchers Who have compared the effects of variant 5: 2 of the intermittent stinging diet at a caloric and limited calorie diet also found that fasting is beneficial for metabolic health.
Advantages for metabolic health
But why exactly is the intermittent fasting If beneficial for metabolic health? This is a question that I tried to answer My latest study.
For people who follow the intermittent fasting diet 5: 2, the typical fasting days are, by their nature, very low in calories – equivalent to only a few hundred calories per day. Because people consume so few calories on fasting days, it also means that they consume very little carbohydrates.
Since the postprandial state is governed by the availability of carbohydrates, this raised the question of whether it is the caloric restriction or the restriction of carbohydrates which creates the metabolic effect during the intermittent fast.
We recruited 12 overweight and obese participants. Participants first received a very low carbohydrate diet one day. Another day, they received a seriously elongated diet (about 75% less calories than they would normally eat).
After each day of fasting, we gave them a meal rich in fats and rich in sugar (similar to an English breakfast) to see the ease with which their bodies burned the fat.
What we found is that the transition to fat burning and improving fat management of the meal rich in calories was almost identical after the traditional and rapid “fast” day and the low day in carbohydrates. In other words, the restriction of carbohydrates can cause the same favorable metabolic effects as fasting.
It will now be important that more studies are carried out using a greater cohort of participants to confirm these results.
These results can help us solve some of the practical problems with which we face intermittent fasting and traditional regimes with a low carbohydrate.
For diets on an intermittent fasting, a severe restriction of calories on fasting days can increase Risk of nutritional deficiencies If I don’t pay attention. It can also be a trigger for Disorderly.
A strict restriction on carbohydrates can also be Difficult to join in the long termand can lead to a Unhealthy fear of carbohydrates.
The other limitation of intermittent fasting and the continuous restriction of carbohydrates is that weight loss is a probable result. Consequently, these approaches are not universally beneficial for those who need to improve their health without losing weight or those who seek to Hold their weight.
We are now testing the feasibility of an intermittent restriction diet in carbohydrates, or a low carbohydrate 5: 2. So, instead of restricting calories two days a week, you would limit the number of carbohydrates that you consume twice a week.
If this is proven to be beneficial, it would offer the advantages of fasting without restricting calories on “fast” days.
Adam CollinsAssociate Nutrition Professor, University of Surrey
This article is republished from The conversation Under a creative communs license. Read it original article.