Why Is Intermittent Fasting Beneficial?
Obesity is a risk factor for a number of different types of cancer, so it is possible the weight-loss aspects of intermittent fasting are responsible for reducing the cancer risk some studies have suggested. A Harvard study discovered that intermittent fasting can slow the aging process by reducing weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Fasting has also been shown in studies to slow cancer growth and help prevent the recurrence of breast cancer. Fasting, which involves caloric restriction, has also been shown in studies to increase the longevity of even healthy people.
CHOLESTEROL CONTROL
In addition to bodyweight reduction, such fasting may help reduce cholesterol, improve glucose control, lower fat stores in the liver, and improve blood pressure. In rodents, and to a certain extent monkeys, intermittent fasting (IF) is the fountain of youth, reducing body weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol, improving glucose control, reducing systemic inflammation, maintaining brain health, and even increasing endurance and coordination. In humans, studies show various forms of IF can be effective ways of losing weight, controlling blood sugar, and keeping blood pressure down. A recent review on intermittent fasting found intermittent fasting improves blood pressure, insulin sensitivity (how efficiently your body regulates blood sugar), and reduces cholesterol levels in ways that are similar to limiting calories every day.
YOU FEEL GOOD YOU LOOK GOOD
If you feel good while you are fasting, and find that it is a sustainable eating pattern, it could be a very powerful tool for losing weight and improving health. In addition to increasing weight loss and fat burning, other benefits of fasting include blood sugar regulation, protecting your brain, keeping your heart healthy, and reducing inflammation. Fasting for a set amount of hours every day, or eating only one meal for a couple days each week, may help your body burn fat. Extremely limiting calories or going without food for a prolonged period is not right for everyone.
Many people attempt fasting for weight loss, but if it is not something you can consistently do — and if the program is not sustainable — you could end up regaining the weight. This diet is also less effective than daily caloric restriction to reduce fat. In a few studies in which intermittent fasting was used as an intervention to lose weight as well as as a strategy for maintaining healthy weight, intermittent fasting subjects had lower blood glucose levels, which is coincidentally the central aim of prevention and management of diabetes. They found that intermittent fasting was just as effective as continuous restriction at improving weight loss, insulin sensitivity, and other health biomarkers
Resistance training (such as lifting weights) can help to prevent the muscle losses of intermittent fasting. According to a 3-week study published in Obesity Obesity, fasting every other day can help reduce total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol if done with endurance training. These possible benefits may be driven more by the decreases in body weight and percent fat from the caloric restrictions that intermittent fasting influences, but studies have nonetheless shown overall positive effects on blood glucose levels during intermittent fasting
Originally published at https://ssjxmars.space on August 26, 2022.
