The Function of Intermittent Fasting on the Body | Nutrition Specialist

Intermittent fasting is one of the most ancient secrets of health and wellness. Because it’s been practiced throughout all history. Intermittent fasting is considered a secret because this habit has been long forgotten.

But now, many people are re-discovering this dietary intervention. If it is done correctly, it may carry advantages, including reversing type two diabetes, weight reduction, more energy, and many other things. In this beginner’s guide, you can learn the function of intermittent fasting on the body.

How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

At its very core, fasting allows the body to burn off extra body fat. It is necessary to realize that this is ordinary for humans, and people have evolved to avoid its adverse health consequences. Body fat is merely food energy that’s been stored away. If you do not consume food, your body will “eat” its fat for energy.

Life is all about balance. The good and the bad. The yin and the yang. The same applies to fasting and ingestion. Fasting, after all, is simply the flip side of eating. If you aren’t eating, you’re fasting. Here is how it works:

Once we eat, more food energy is consumed than can immediately be used. Some of the energy must be stored away for later usage. Insulin is the hormone involved with the storage of food energy.

Insulin rises when we consume food, helping to keep the excess energy in two separate ways. Sugars can be connected into chains, called glycogen, and stored in the liver, and there is limited storage space; the liver starts to turn the glucose into fat after that is achieved. This procedure is called De-Novo Lipogenesis.

A number of the newly created fat is stored in the liver, but most are exported into additional fat deposits within the body. Even though this is a complex procedure, there is no limitation to the total amount of fat created. Therefore, two complementary food energy storage systems exist within our bodies. One is readily accessible but with limited storage area (glycogen), and the other is more challenging to access but has an infinite storage area (body fat).

The method goes in reverse when we don’t eat (fasting). Insulin levels fall, signaling the body to burn stored energy as no more is coming through food. Blood glucose falls, so the body has to pull sugar to burn for fuel.

Glycogen is the most readily accessible energy resource. It’s broken down to give energy to the cells, and this provides enough energy to power the body for 24-36 hours. After that, your system will begin breaking down fat for energy.

So, the body exists in two states, the fed (insulin high) condition and the fasted (insulin reduced) state. Either we are storing food energy, or it is burning food energy. It is one or another. Then there is not any weight gain if fasting and eating become more balanced.

If we start eating the moment we roll out of bed and do not stop until we sleep, we spend almost all our time at the fed state. As time passes, we will gain weight. We have not allowed our bodies sometimes.

To restore balance or lose weight, we need to boost the quantity of time we burn food energy (fasting). Essentially, fasting enables the body to use the energy that is stored. After all, that is what it is there for. The critical thing to realize is that there isn’t anything wrong with that. That’s how our bodies are designed. That’s what cats, dogs, lions, and bears do. That’s what humans do.

If you are constantly eating, as is frequently advocated, your body will utilize the incoming food energy rather than burn the body fat. You’ll only store it, and it will be saved by your own body for a while when there’s nothing to consume. You lack equilibrium, and you lack fasting.

Fasting is Not Starvation

Fasting crucially differs from starvation. Control. Starvation is the involuntary lack of food. It’s neither deliberate nor controlled. On the other hand, fasting is the voluntary withholding of nutrition for health, spiritual, or other factors.

Food is readily accessible, but you opt not to eat it. This could be for any time, from a couple of hours up to days or even weeks. You will begin a fast, and you may end it at will. You may start or stop a fast for any reason or no reason at all.

Fasting has no typical length, as it’s merely the lack of ingestion. Anytime that you aren’t eating, you are fasting. For instance, you may fast approximately 12-14 hours, between breakfast and dinner the next day. In that sense, fasting ought to be thought of as a part of life.

Fasting is a part of regular, everyday life, and it is possibly the oldest and most powerful dietary intervention imaginable. Yet somehow, we have forgotten its power and discounted its potential.

The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900. 

By Dr. Alex Jimenez

Additional Topics: Wellness

Overall, health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating balanced nutrition and exercising, and participating in physical activities to sleeping a healthy amount of time regularly, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.