The Nine Major Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Fasting has become a very popular topic over the last few years because it is fantastic for helping us lose weight, but there are plenty of health benefits beyond this. In this video, I’m going to take you through The Nine Major Benefits of Intermittent Fasting, and I’m confident that once you know these, you will want to make it a regular thing.

Hi, carb dodgers, I’m Dr. Dan Maggs. I’m so glad you’ve landed on my channel, which is all about achieving lasting Weight Loss through low-carb, real food, nutrition, and fasting. If that sounds good to you, then make sure you subscribe to my channel so you get notified whenever I release new videos.

Why Should You Consider Fasting?

But Why Should You Consider Fasting? at all? Isn’t it a bit unnecessary? Why should we deprive ourselves of food? Doesn’t that seem a bit like we’re punishing ourselves? Surely it can’t be good for us. I’ve heard all of these comments and more in the past, but the thing is, fasting should be the norm. Eating all the time is not normal. We haven’t always had access to an abundance of food, and, of course, many parts of our modern world still don’t.

The Neolithic Revolution, which was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, really only got started approximately 10,000 years ago. And in the grand scheme of human evolution, that is absolutely nothing. Humans did not evolve to eat all the time. When our ancestors had to hunt for food, not eating for extended periods of time was normal. And even a generation or two ago, we didn’t have endless coffee shops, takeaways, home delivery, and supermarkets that are open 24 hours a day. Typically, if we were lucky, we had three square meals a day and we easily fasted for 12 to 14 hours each night. But now, the average person in the Western world eats over a minimum period of 15 hours and many even longer. We evolved to deal with fasting and feasting, and we definitely haven’t evolved to eat all the time.

Why Has Frequent Eating Become So Common?

So why has it become so common to eat frequently? Well, we’ve already mentioned the 24-hour availability of food. Who’s behind that? As usual, it’s the food industry. They want us to consume their products and lots of them. Clever marketing and easy access have led us to believe that we have to eat from the moment we wake up, eat all through the day, and then all evening as we sit on the sofa. How else could we possibly cope? We eat at our desks, we eat while driving, we eat all through the movies. We even have our caramel latte while walking the dog. Even the fitness and diet industry has been completely taken over by food, claiming you must eat five to six times a day. You must fuel before, during, and after workouts. And even the kids are having a sugary sports drink at halftime in their football matches. We do not need to eat like this, and problems start to occur when we do.

Understanding Circadian Rhythms

We know that our bodies should work in tune with our circadian rhythms. The term circadian comes from the Latin circa diem, which means around the day. It’s our internal clock, which regulates different bodily activities and functions. The most well-known is the sleep-wake cycle to match the normal rhythms of night and day. But our digestive system and the endocrine system release proteins and hormones at timings to suit the normal wake cycle, which should correspond with eating periods. The sleep cycle should correspond to a fasting period. These are easily disrupted when we go against our natural biological clock and eat late into the evening over prolonged periods of time.

Improving Health by Switching Eating Patterns

So the big question is, is switching back to a pattern where we eat for shorter periods, increasing our time spent fasting, going to improve our health? Well, let me just share this quote from a 2015 research paper: “Several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that eating patterns that reduce or eliminate nighttime eating and prolong nightly fasting intervals could result in sustained improvements in human health. Prolonged nightly fasting may be a simple, feasible, and potentially effective disease prevention strategy at the population level.”

Now a quick word about the research here. While there is a growing body of studies being conducted in humans around fasting, these studies are based on small groups of people. Much of the data from larger studies is based on animals, but it is believed that this is applicable to human health. We hope. Unfortunately, the majority of funding for scientific research stems from the pharmaceutical industry, which has very little to gain from a drug-free approach to health improvement. That said, there are plenty of studies looking at the effect of shift work on human health. Shift work means a disrupted circadian rhythm and disordered eating patterns, which evidently leads to an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer over the longer term.

As normal, I’ll put the links to the science in the description down below.

The Nine Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

1. Weight Loss

Number one is Weight Loss. I’m going to get this one out of the way first. It’s the one that many of you will be familiar with as it’s one of the main reasons that fasting has become so popular over the last few years. But it’s important that we understand how it works because this will help us to understand some of the other benefits we will discuss shortly.

Fasting lowers insulin levels. Eating, especially sugar and carbohydrates, causes our blood glucose levels to go up. Our pancreas responds by producing insulin. Insulin drives glucose out of our blood and into storage. When we have prolonged periods of going without food, it enables our insulin levels to drop nice and low. High levels of insulin keep us in fat storage mode; low insulin levels mean we can use our stored fat for energy, which is key for helping us to lose weight.

Extended periods of eating disrupt our appetite signaling. Remember our circadian rhythm that I mentioned earlier? And the hormones? Well, this can get messed up so that we feel hungry much more often than we should. Leptin is released by our fat cells and should function as the off switch to eating when we are full. However, too much leptin over time and we become leptin resistant, where the brain then doesn’t receive the off signal properly and so keeps stimulating us to eat. It also leads to decreased energy expenditure, as the fed signal isn’t there, and so we falsely think we’re starving and need to conserve our energy. Intermittent fasting can help to reset these hormones so that our appetite is better regulated and we naturally want to eat less, aiding Weight Loss.

Frequent eating negatively affects our gut microbiome. Prolonged eating periods don’t suit the natural rhythm of gastric emptying in our digestion. Our digestive systems need rest. The absorption of food, and in particular glucose, is much slower towards the end of the day. So you end up with raised glucose and insulin levels for a longer period of time, which can lead to weight gain. Again, prolonging periods of not eating and avoiding evening or nighttime eating will help improve the health of the gut microbiome, as it has plenty of time for rest and recovery.

And then, of course, there is straight-up calorie reduction. When you fast, you naturally consume fewer calories. So while people do tend to eat more when they are eating, it never quite seems to add up to the same. From a practical point of view, you could try to finish eating by 7 or 8 PM and not eat again until 7 or 8 AM as a basic rule before you consider any longer periods of fasting.

2. Diabetes Type Two Prevention or Reversal

Number two is Diabetes Type Two Prevention or Reversal. Now, I already mentioned insulin in the last point, but persistently raised insulin levels lead to insulin resistance, where the pancreas needs to produce more insulin to have the same effect on blood glucose. Eventually, the resistance can get so bad that insulin can no longer maintain a healthy level, and we end up with elevated blood glucose levels. This is basically what type two diabetes is. Periods of intermittent fasting can dramatically improve our insulin levels, and our insulin sensitivity can start to be restored back towards normal functioning. It really is incredibly powerful, and many of my clients have reversed their type two diabetes and pre-diabetes by combining intermittent fasting with a low-carb diet. A word of caution here, though: If you are already diabetic and on medication, then please consult with your medical practitioner first before introducing a low-carb diet or intermittent fasting, as you may well need your medication adjusted.

3. Reduced Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Number three may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is mainly caused by underlying chronic inflammation within our blood vessels. This causes damage to the inner cell layer of the blood vessels, the endothelium, and the development of plaques, which can lead to blockages of the blood vessels within the heart muscle, causing angina, heart attacks, and within the brain, strokes. Once again, elevated insulin levels are at work, causing widespread inflammation and damage. In addition to this, fat cells themselves cause inflammation as they release proteins called cytokines. Remember one of the hunger hormones that I mentioned earlier, leptin? Well, this too is inflammatory. The beauty of intermittent fasting is that it enables all of this inflammation to be reduced, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

4. Reduced Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

Number four, fasting may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is horrendous. One in nine people over the age of 65 in the USA has Alzheimer’s dementia. The rates here in the UK are slightly lower, but it is becoming more prevalent within our aging populations. You might have guessed it, but insulin resistance also wreaks its havoc in the brain. The blood-brain barrier can become insulin-resistant, which means not enough glucose is able to pass from the blood into the brain cells. Alzheimer’s disease is known as type three diabetes by many scientists, as the underlying mechanisms are so similar. This fuel shortage can be present many years before we notice actual memory problems. There is strong evidence that the brain is able to use ketones for fuel instead of glucose. Ketones are produced from the breakdown of fat and do not need insulin to get across the blood-brain barrier and so can bypass the problems with insulin resistance. Ketones are produced when we fast, as well as with a ketogenic diet. So intermittent fasting may prevent brain degeneration and may possibly even improve symptoms in those where they’re already apparent.

5. Improved Sleep

Number five is Improved Sleep. We’ve all experienced the discomfort of trying to sleep when we’ve eaten a heavy meal late in the evening. Prolonged periods of eating distort the natural circadian rhythm of digestion. We’ve mentioned this a few times already. This has a knock-on effect of causing poor quality sleep. We know there’s an association between poor sleep patterns and poor metabolism, leading to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. So when you don’t sleep well, it also makes you tired and more hungry, as well as grumpy. And research has shown that people make poor decisions about food when they’re tired. And so starts the vicious cycle of continuous hunger, distorted hormones, poor sleep, and ultimately poor health. One of the standard pieces of advice we give out as doctors for people who are struggling with their sleep is don’t eat too late at night. Intermittent fasting, or at the very least stopping eating earlier in the evening, should help you to have a better quality sleep and break the cycle leading to poor health.

So let me know in the comments down below, how late do you typically eat your last meal or snack? Be honest.

6. Increased Levels of Human Growth Hormone

Number six, fasting increases levels of human growth hormone. Human growth hormone is a naturally occurring hormone that helps to maintain, build, and repair healthy tissue in the brain and other organs. This hormone can help speed up healing after an injury and repair muscle tissue after exercise. This helps to build muscle mass, boost metabolism, and burn fat. Human growth hormone production naturally peaks at puberty and decreases as we age. However, we can make the levels drop more quickly through behaviors such as poor sleep and, yes, you’ve guessed it, by eating too frequently. We need to try and increase the production of this hormone to increase muscle growth and prevent muscle breakdown. It is so important to maintain muscle mass, particularly as we age, as losing muscle mass can lead to frailty and an increased risk of falls and fractures as we get older.

The Role of Autophagy

The first section has considered the effect of our hormones on metabolism and how the risk of diseases associated with poor metabolic health can be improved and even prevented by intermittent fasting. The next three benefits are all related to the process of autophagy, although this is still connected to the hormones we’ve already mentioned, as you’ll see. Autophagy is the process by which our cells get rid of damaged or unwanted parts and recycle them into new fuel or new proteins. The term comes from the Greek word meaning “self” and “eat,” and it is an essential process to ensure the healthy functioning of our cells, which constantly need regenerating. Autophagy is switched on by fasting and turned off by eating. It is linked to another cellular protein called mTOR, which is the master regulator of nutrient signaling, basically influencing other hormones involved in the metabolism of our food. mTOR is active in the presence of insulin and is linked to cellular growth. It is suppressed by the presence of glucagon, insulin’s opposite number. Glucagon is raised when insulin is low and therefore enables autophagy. You can guess that if insulin levels are always raised, mTOR is overactive, and autophagy cannot happen. Like all things, there needs to be a balance. We need time for cellular clearance and a time for cellular growth.

7. Cancer Prevention

Number seven, fasting may help prevent some cancers. Many cancers occur when the normal cellular processes that regulate their growth become damaged, leading to growth becoming uncontrolled. If cells are unable to self-repair, then cells can become dysfunctional. This is made worse by the overactivity of insulin, leading to chronic inflammation, hyperglycemia, obesity, and poor sleep, all of which are associated with some cancers. Once again, intermittent fasting can help normalize hormonal function, increase autophagy, and normalize periods of cellular growth and repair. It is therefore possible that intermittent fasting may help to prevent some cancers and could, in certain circumstances, be beneficial alongside cancer treatments to make them more effective.

8. Prevention of Neurodegenerative Disorders

Number eight, fasting may help prevent some neurodegenerative disorders. Now, we’ve spoken about Alzheimer’s disease already with respect to insulin resistance in the brain, but it’s also thought that eating too frequently may be involved in the buildup of abnormal proteins that damage our brains. In the brain of someone with Alzheimer’s disease, abnormal levels of amyloid proteins clump together to form plaques that collect between neurons and disrupt cell function. The brains of people with Parkinson’s disease contain abnormal clumps of proteins called Lewy bodies. As we’ve discussed already, cellular proteins need to be replaced. And it is thought that when autophagy is unable to occur due to the overstimulation of that protein mTOR through the lack of fasting, it leads to neurodegenerative conditions. To quote one of the papers I’ve linked for you in the description down below this video: “Autophagy dysfunction is strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Conclusion

So we have seen from our nine benefits of intermittent fasting that it can really help to normalize hormonal control of metabolism, cellular repair, and regeneration. This enables us to have a lower risk of poor health, helping us to live and age well. And if you’ve started this video skeptical about intermittent fasting, what do you think now? Will you be giving it a go? Let me know in the comments down below.

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