in today's video we're going to be talking about the different stages of fasting and how long you
have to fast in order to obtain certain benefits of course fasting can be effective for weight loss
but it also has additional benefits as well it can reduce inflammation improve digestion contribute
to the reversal of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and even prevent certain diseases and
this is just scratching the surface of the amazing benefits that fasting has to offer
so in today's video we're going to talk about the different stages of fasting
for both intermittent fasting and extended fasting hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new
here my name is kait i'm a health coach and i post videos on a high fat nutrient-dense way of eating
if you like this video please give it a thumbs up feel free to share and make sure to subscribe and
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single day today's video is sponsored by adapted nutrition for electrolyte supplements specifically
formulated for intermittent fasting in the keto diet head to healthcoachkait.com electrolytes
and use code hck 10 to save 10 off your order the topic of today is fasting and the different stages
along the timeline fasting is defined as the wolf or refrainment from eating so anytime you are not
eating you are fasting we are all fasting when we sleep but a lot of us do not spend much time in
this state when we are awake we are told to eat breakfast first thing in the morning and i know
that a lot of us are guilty of late night snacking as well and because of this we are missing out
on the amazing benefits that fasting has to offer now there are two main types of fasting
and underneath these there are several variations the two main types are intermittent fasting and
extended fasting intermittent fasting is when you have a fasting schedule and you fast for a
certain amount of time each day the most popular variation is 16 8 where you don't eat for 16 hours
including the time you spend sleeping and you eat all of your calories for the day within an
8 hour window but intermittent fasting can range anywhere from 12 to 24 hours
now when you fast longer than 24 hours this is going to be an extended fast the difference with
extended fasting is it only needs to be done periodically in order to reap the benefits
depending on the length of your extended fast you might only need to complete one monthly quarterly
or even yearly if you do extended fasting too frequently you can start to get diminishing
returns especially if you are a woman and especially if you have a low body fat percentage
and i really want to stress this before we begin longer fasts do not always equal better so often
i see people treating fasting like a competition and boasting about how long they fast every day
but and we are going to get into this during this video some of the benefits peak at a certain time
and then start to decrease but anyways let's get into the different stages of fasting
so the first stage of fasting or i guess the stage before it officially begins is the fed state we
are in a fed state when we have eaten and are digesting food now one question i am asked a lot
is do you start counting your fasting hours after you eat your last meal or after your food has
been digested and i mean it really is impossible to know when you have fully digested your food
so start counting after you have finished your last meal the timeline i'm going to be taking
you through today is based off after you had your last bite of food so the fed state is the opposite
of the fasted state during this time your blood sugar will increase as your food is broken down
an insulin will be released to bring the excess blood sugar to your cells ghrelin the
hunger hormone will decrease during this time and leptin the satiety hormone will increase
during this time your body is digesting your food and absorbing nutrients now as i already said you
can never truly know when this stage ends of course it will depend on how big your meal was
what the macronutrient breakdown was and your lifestyle and metabolic health but just assume
that your fasting window starts after you have your last bite of food now around four to eight
hours after your last bite of food your blood sugar and insulin levels will drop to baseline
and again this time frame is going to vary depending on those factors that we just mentioned
if you are eating a keto or a low carb diet for example these diets mimic fasting in a lot of ways
the main one being that they do not raise blood sugar and insulin significantly when you eat so
of course someone following these diets is going to see their blood sugar come back to
baseline much quicker than someone who is eating a high carb diet and keep this in
mind as we go through this video because someone who usually eats a low carb or a ketogenic diet
is going to experience all of these benefits a few hours sooner than someone eating a high carb diet
but anyways usually between four to eight hours is when you see your blood sugar come down and
your body will start using your stored glucose for energy at around the 12 hour mark a hormone called
human growth hormone will begin to increase human growth hormone helps to regulate body composition
body fluids muscle and bone growth and sugar and fat metabolism when we are in a fed state the
secretion of human growth hormone is significantly lower it is for this reason that most people only
have a significant amount of human growth hormone released while they are sleeping now at around
the 16 hour mark is when your stored glucose is running out and your body starts to look for a
different energy source which is when it starts to pull from your fat stores and produce ketones
of course this means you're burning body fat which is beneficial for weight loss but there
are additional benefits to ketones as well reduced inflammation increased mental clarity stable blood
sugar reversal of insulin resistance and increased endurance performance and i actually just posted
a video a couple of weeks ago talking all about ketones so if you want to know more you can check
out that video afterwards now when you get to the 18 to 20 hour mark this is where significant
autophagy begins and what is autophagy you might be asking autophagy is a cellular process where
your body cleans out damaged cells and regenerates new ones you can think of it like this the cells
in our body are not meant to last forever just like parts in your car at some point they will
become worn down and need to be replaced if your car gets a flat tire you will want to replace it
your car is not going to work very well if you are driving around and ignore the flat and the
same goes for yourself if one becomes damaged you want it to be replaced it is not fully understood
why autophagy increases when we are fasting but what is known is that when insulin is low
and glucagon is high the high glucagon triggers it at around the 36 hour mark this is when autophagy
really ramps up studies have shown an increase of up to 300 percent at this time and this means your
body is working overtime to recycle damaged cells which in turn can lead to disease prevention and
even accelerated healing autophagy has also been shown to increase longevity at around the 48 hour
mark human growth hormone begins to ramp up as well up to 500 percent and again this helps with
body composition maintaining lean muscle mass etc okay now if you have made it to the 54 hour mark
this is when you will start to see significant improvements to your insulin sensitivity
so i have a lot of videos on my channel talking about insulin resistance but what
you need to know is that most people in the modern world are insulin resistant
meaning the cells in their body are not responding to insulin correctly and this leads to difficulty
losing weight blood sugar regulation issues pcos for women type 2 diabetes heart disease and more
and if you're still confused about what insulin resistance is it is the exact same thing as
metabolic syndrome metabolic syndrome actually used to be called insulin resistance syndrome
until it was relabeled for whatever reason but the point is if you are insulin resistant you want to
become more insulin sensitive and this will mean your cells are taking in glucose efficiently
and fasting is the best way to improve your insulin sensitivity if you are doing any length
of fasting you are going to see improvements to your insulin sensitivity but again around
54 hours is when it really increases around the 72 hour or three day mark is when autophagy peaks
and from my research at least this is probably the ideal time for most people to end an extended
fast anything longer and you are going to get diminishing returns in some areas as i spoke about
earlier there are definitely benefits to going longer as well but i really think that 72 hours is
the sweet spot for most people now before we get into the benefits past the 72 hour mark i'm going
to take a quick moment to tell you about today's sponsor adapted nutrition adopted nutrition makes
electrolyte supplements specifically for fasting and the keto diet and let me tell you electrolytes
can make fasting a million times easier especially when you are first getting started electrolytes
are electronically charged minerals that control the balance of fluids in the body and regulate
nerve and muscle function some of the most common ones include potassium sodium and magnesium
so if you are feeling light-headed or dizzy during a fast or maybe you are experiencing muscle cramps
or heart palpitations these can all be signs you are low in electrolytes consuming electrolytes
on their own does not break a fast however most electrolyte supplements on the market contain
added sugars artificial ingredients and fillers and these ingredients do break a fast and that is
where adapted nutrition comes in adapted nutrition is committed to providing simple science-based
hydration products from natural sea minerals their keto k-1000 electrolyte powder is one of
my favorites and i especially love it when i'm doing an extended fast if you want to check them
out you can head to healthcoachkait.com forward slash electrolytes and use code hck10 to save 10
off your order thank you to adopted nutrition for sponsoring this video now from 72 hours to
120 hours is when your stem cell activity is going to be maximized fasting dramatically improves stem
cell's ability to regenerate new immune system cells animal studies and a couple of human studies
have shown a decrease in risk for cancer and a decrease in cancer growth rates from fasting
because of this and those are the different stages and the benefits of fasting let me
know in the comment section down below what your current fasting routine looks like if you have one
if you did enjoy this video please remember to give it a thumbs up and click that subscribe
button if you haven't already if you did like this video you might also like my video on the
different variations of fasting so that can be a water fast a dry fast bulletproof fasting
i talk about all of those in this video right here if you want to catch up on my most recent
upload you can find it right here and if you want to check out my keto diet and carnivore
night coaching programs you can find them here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye