>> SARAH: Hey, have you heard of this new diet?
>>FARAH: What diet?
>>SARAH: It's the intermittent fasting diet. It's all over social media.
>>FARAH: Oh yeah! Actually a couple of my friends are trying it out
right now they're loving it!
>>SARAH: That's so cool! I wonder if it actually works.
>>FARAH: Yeah, hmm...
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What is intermittent fasting? It is a type of diet that involves a feeding
pattern where there is a restriction of energy intake for a period of time
followed by a normal food intake reoccurring on a daily basis. For example,
Bob here follows the 16:8 type of intermittent fasting, where he starts
eating at 12 in the afternoon and the feeding window is open for 8 hours total.
Once it hits 8:00 he fasts from 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. a total of 16 hours.
There are multiple different methods of intermittent fasting including an every
other day fast or like Bob, a daily fast such as a 16:8 fasting diet. You might be
thinking, how does that make you lose weight? Is it healthy to fast for this
amount of hours? Well, let's take a look into the mechanisms and the science
behind it. After you eat a meal, your body will break down the components of food
such as carbohydrates, fats, and protein and uses them as an energy source to
fuel the body. Normally, the body prefers to burn carbohydrates first before any
other sources. That is, carbohydrates are the first to be broken down into smaller
sugar molecules which our cells utilize for energy. Extra energy that is not
immediately required gets stored into fat. With intermittent fasting and
prolonged fasting times, the body can no longer rely on carbohydrates as a source
of energy. Instead, the body will have to start getting energy from the previously
stored fat. Therefore, fasting allows the body to burn fat from those fat storages
reducing the percentage of fat in our body and make us lose weight.
A study by Li et al. looked into the effect of the type of
intermittent fasting known as the "Every Other Day Fasting" on mice in order to
understand the signs behind it and how that affects the metabolic processes.
They discovered that this particular diet causes our white adipose tissues to
turn brown and shrink, a process known as the beiging of white adipose tissue
which can lead to weight loss. This is driven by the reshaping of the gut
microbiota, which is a group of microbes in the gut that plays a vital role
in maintaining good health. Therefore, the effects of intermittent
fasting are improving metabolic health, increasing insulin sensitivity, and
reversing obesity. Tt is important to note that these experiments were done
on mice and it is important to test the metabolic processes on humans, as results
my slightly change.
The benefits of intermittent fasting don't just stop
there. In fact, intermittent fasting has several other scientifically proven
health benefits some may argue that the human body is meant for the fasting
state as our ancestors from thousands of years ago followed a diet comparable to
intermittent fasting and as such intermittent fasting positively changes
some processes in your body to adapt to it.
One of these major changes is enhancing
the process of autophagy, or boosting your body's automatic
cleaning system. Think of it as a Roomba vacuum in your body that automatically
cleans up the damaged or dead components of cells. Intermittent fasting promotes
autophagy, which is known to have anti-aging effects, keeping your cells
younger and healthier. Other studies have also shown that the increase in autophagy
due to intermittent fasting delays the onset of age-related diseases. These
include cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and heart disease. Lowering the risk of heart
disease is especially important as 29% of all the deaths
that occurred in Canada in 2013 were due to heart disease. In fact, a study by
Mattson et al. showed that the intermittent fasting mice
had decreased insulin resistance and risk factors for heart disease, directly
counteracting against type II diabetes and its risk. Another study that just
came out this year looked at the effect of the intermittent fasting diet in
obese people. The study used an 8-hour time-restricted feeding, which is an
eating schedule that restricted feeding between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and water
fasting between 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. for a total of 12 weeks. In this study, 23
people who are classified as obese were recruited and put on this diet. The
results were compared to a historical control group with the same size.
Subjects total daily intake of energy including fat, protein, carbohydrates,
cholesterol, and, fiber were recorded. Surprisingly, after the 12 weeks they
found a significant decrease in body weight and decreased calorie intake
compared to the control group. In addition, they also observed a decrease
in blood pressure among individuals who are on the diet. On the other hand, they
did not see any difference in heart rate, cholesterol level, blood sugar, and other
risk factors that might cause metabolic diseases such as diabetes. While the weight-
losing results seems promising, it is important to keep in mind that the
subjects of the study were mainly African-American women. Adherence to the
diet plan was also self-reported, therefore the eating duration and
calorie calculation may be subjective. You might be wondering now okay, so we
know it works, but how does this diet hold up compared to other diets? Is it
any better? Let's look into another study that looked at the effects of
intermittent fasting diet vs. caloric restriction on weight loss, weight
maintenance, and heart health in obese individuals.
The calorie restriction diet basically involves reducing the overall amount of
calories you intake during the day. The results showed that intermittent fasting
was not any better than caloric restriction. However, there were more
people that dropped out of the fasting group in the study compared to the
caloric restriction group. Overall, it seems to be a matter of personal
preference as both diets yielded similar results. More research is definitely
required to assess the long-term health effects of the intermittent diet.
>>FARAH: Let me actually call my friend right now so she can tell us a little bit more about it.
>>SARAH: Okay, yeah!
>>FARAH: Thanks so much for meeting up with me! >>FRIEND: Oh, no problem!
>>FARAH: I'm so curious about this diet. >>FRIEND: Yeah!
>>FARAH: So tell me what motivated you to go on this diet?
>>FRIEND: At the time I was like running a lot, and I wanted to be fit, I wanted to be healthy.
So I thought, this was a good opportunity to have a good diet and be strong and fit.
>>FARAH: What kind of meals do usually eat on this diet?
>>FRIEND: It's just mostly eat three meals a day for sure, snacks maybe once or twice but still eating healthy even though you're fasting.
>>FARAH: When you first started this diet did you find it hard to fast for this long hours or was it okay?
>>FRIEND: Um I actually found it very hard, I get hungry really quick. Especially in the morning, I'm like starving but then you get used to it.
>>FARAH: So do you combine your diet with like a workout routine to get better results? yeah
>>FRIEND: Yeah, definitely, I run, I do workouts too, and I think you are like what you eat
so if you're eating healthy you don't just want to not do any exercise at all too.
So I find working out has definitely been a good addition. I do most of my workouts earlier in the day.
>>FARAH: Did you see a difference in your body or your health after you started going on this diet?
>>FRIEND: Body not necessarily, maybe I got more definition.
Health-wise I felt lighter when I went to bed, like not as full, not as bloated, which helped with sleep and in the morning I would like
refuel so I felt like eating most of my meals during the day and not eating at night
has definitely become a routine and it's been like beneficial.
>>FARAH: Finally, would you recommend this diet to someone else?
>>FRIEND: I would recommend this diet. I would make sure to let them know that this is a long process, it's hard to get into that pattern of fasting for 12 hours.
I find digestive-wise, it would help digestively not eating, you'll feel better in the morning. So yeah, I'd definitely recommend it.
>>FARAH: Maybe, I'll try it out! >>FRIEND: Yeah!! >>FARAH: Awesome!
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