Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - Fasting every other day boosts healthy weight loss as it mimics 'caveman' routine

This research was also featured in The Times this morning, along with this interesting case study by a Times journalist:

Quote:

From The Times
London, UK
28 August, 2019

Case study: Illness I’d had for 20 years vanished after fasting

Jenni Russell

I have been an occasional faster for five years and couldn’t be more enthusiastic about it.

I came across fasting when I had a long-term autoimmune illness for which all drugs were becoming either toxic or too expensive for the NHS to bear.

Then I read about research by Valter Longo, of the University of Southern California, one of the leading fasting scientists, which showed that mice that were denied food for three days at a time generated new stem cells by the end of the third day, meaning that their immune systems began to repair themselves with each cycle. He said this held great promise not only for people with autoimmune conditions but for all of us as we age, since our immune systems become less efficient as the years pass.

I fasted twice, on water of various kinds, for just under and over three days at a time, before every symptom of an illness I’d had for 20 years vanished, never to recur. Since then I’ve become a fasting enthusiast, despite my natural greed and my chocolate addiction, only because the evidence and results are so compelling. Giving one’s body a break from food, for anything from 12 hours to five days is like taking a car to be serviced.

When you fast, your body goes into scavenger mode, breaking down and burning up anything it doesn’t need; damaged cells, tumours, viruses. This process is called autophagy.

I love food but I now fast whenever I feel my blood sugar’s quite high enough and I need a break. A couple of weeks ago, on holiday and eating splendid lunches and dinners with wine at every one, I stopped eating because I knew I’d had enough. I waited until I felt hungry again which wasn’t for 48 hours, irritatingly. Today it’s 5pm and I haven’t needed to eat since 8pm yesterday.

The first time you fast is a shock; you can feel faint unless you drink enough liquids, and your stomach complains at mealtimes. But hunger passes in an hour or two — it doesn’t get worse — and with practice you rapidly adapt. I can feel as I get older that I sadly don’t need as much food as I used to, and rather than dieting or calorie-counting, fasting is simple, and feels natural. And when you’re genuinely hungry again, you eat.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...sting-xjqstdzfb