Is Intermittent Fasting a Miracle Cure?

In the previous article, we looked at how you could use fasting for promoting better health.

In this article, we take a look at what intermittent fasting (IF) really is, the different IF styles and why you might choose this route on your quest for better health.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this series is for information purposes only and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, neither is it to be construed as such. It does not create any patient-physician relationship and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment where required. Consult a doctor for medical advice, treatment or diagnosis.

If you ever intend to go on a fast, do clear it with your healthcare provider.

So, you’ve seen the adverts…

…you know, those ones featuring people (mostly women) who have lost weight through Intermittent Fasting and are showing off the results.

You want to try it, however…

…you’re not sure.

If you are new to fasting, before reading this article, I would suggest going back to the previous one to familiarize yourself with the concept and practice.

Attitudes to fasting

When it comes to the discussion of practices such as fasting, you might find that people fall into four different camps/attitudes:

• hardliners/traditionalists: those who say things should be done a certain way,
• liberals: those who are prepared to bend the rules and experiment,
• progressives: those who come up with a “new revelation” which, if accepted as truth, often results in dogma, and
• moderates: those who define themselves by what they do not do.

This typology could be applied to just about any field of human endeavor, including sex, politics, religion, etc.

Dogmatic beliefs can be a hindrance for those of us who are seeking to map out our own path to physical health and/or spirituality.

These dogmatic beliefs are often rooted in fear and ignorance.

You know that word prejudice.

Prejudice is often rooted in fear and ignorance.

This can also be true of academic scholarship and research. While it has its uses, it can stand in the way of those of us who are seeking to strike out in a different direction in order to take control of our health.

In this sense, you could say that it is all part of “the matrix”.

On the other hand, there are right and wrong ways of doing things.

Wrong practices can be lethal.

However, enough of that…

So what is Intermittent Fasting (IF)?

This is a very popular form of fasting which is described as a PATTERN (a way of eating) by those who insist that, because it doesn’t tell you WHAT to eat but WHEN, it doesn’t count as a diet.

However, the current trend might suggest that the lines are being quickly blurred.

Why would you want to do it?

It is quite likely that people engage in this particular form of fasting for the following reasons:

Reason #1: Variety

One of the things about us humans is that we like variety. We are quickly bored with stability and want to try something new.

After all, variety is the spice of life, right?

Granted, I am writing as a person who straddles the world of the traditionalist and liberal (as described above).

While I am a traditionalist when it comes to fasting, I am prepared to remain open-minded on the topic.

Well, somewhat…

Why?

I see this reason of having variety when it comes to IF coming under what you would call “body-hacking”.

Reason #2: Breaking a Plataeu

This is somewhat related to the need for variety. It also suggests that you are already someone who practices fasting regularly. You may have reached a plateau in terms of your weight goals, and you are looking for a small boost.

Emphasize the word small.

After all, fasting is actually a very dull and boring practice.

Thus, you will want to do anything you can do to switch things up.

Reason #3: Failure

You have tried other diets and failed. If you choose to try fasting, do speak with your healthcare provider.

Especially if you are a woman.

Whether you are pregnant or not.

Breast-feeding or not.

Another reason within this category of failure could include trying for your first child and finding that either you or your partner is infertile.

Or you both are…

Apparently, fasting works better for men than women.

So, do speak with your healthcare provider.

No such thing as failure?

I like the way Silva Method practitioners look at failure.

This is a core philosophy of the Silva Method which says

There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.

Silva Method

How do you look for feedback with your weight reduction (eg) goals? When you do get it, what is that feedback telling you?

Reason #4: Experimenting

Perhaps you are not particularly concerned with your weight.

However, you would like to improve your overall health.

You might also be considering advancing on a spiritual path.

However, you have never fasted before.

As with areas you are unfamiliar with, start small.

If you want to become a bodybuilder, for example, you don’t go straight into the gym and pick up a 1000lb weight to do curls.

Therefore, the easiest way to begin would be to skip breakfast. Your body would already be in a fasted state during sleep.

As an aside, my story in the previous article about doing the 40-day fast. I didn’t just go full steam ahead with this. I had already had lots of practice with mini-fasts.

How did IF come about?

It would appear that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have periods when they had plenty to eat, followed by days whereby they had no food. These times were unavoidable.

What is happening today could be attributed to progressives (read: internet marketers?) taking an unavoidable happenstance and marketing it in a new way.

The dictionary meaning of the word “intermittent” is

occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady

taken from Dictionary.com

With our modern lifestyles, this might be sailing a bit close to the wind of body-hacking?

What do you think?

Types of IF

The three most popular IF methods are:

• The 16/8 method. With your body in an already fasted state from sleeping during the night, you skip breakfast, eat between lunch time and 8pm. Then you stop eating after 8pm. You then do not eat until noon the next day. This method is popular with fitness enthusiasts.
• Eat-Stop-Eat method. This is fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week. I have done this once before in preparation for a three-day fast the following weekend.
• 5:2 method (or 5 to 2). This is where you eat normally for five consecutive days. On the other two days you restrict your calorie intake to somewhere between 500 to 600 calories.

The one thing these approaches have in common is the whole notion of restricting calories.

And, if you are restricting calories, of course you are going to lose weight.

However, ignorance as to how your own body works is not bliss.

Calories are calories, right?

The whole idea behind behind IF is that because you are going without food for several hours, the body uses up its sugar stores and then starts burning fat.

Erm…whatever happened to the energy stores derived from protein intake?

In a sense, your body takes the path of least resistance when it comes to using energy stores. It first uses up the sugar stores, then the protein (muscle glycogen) stores.

Only when those stores are used up – THEN the body will go for the fat stores and burn those for the energy you need to function.

What are we getting at here?

Your body is largely composed of fat, muscle, and water.

Thus, it is more than likely that any weight loss you are experiencing includes water loss as well as muscle loss, because you have used up the glycogen stores in your muscles.

To paraphrase Gertrude Stein: A calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie.

In other words, not all calories are equal.

Fat calories are not the same as sugar and protein calories. In fact, fat calories as at least twice as much per gram compared to the other two.

Are we allowed to eat or drink anything when doing IF?

Apparently, IF proponents advocate foods and drinks that are allowed and make only one restriction.

The advice on what is allowed is as follows:

• Keep yourself with water (plain or carbonated)
• Coffee and tea (both plain)
• If you use apple cider vinegar, dilute it
• Healthy fats
• Bone broth

My response

• Drink water at room temperature, especially during cold periods.
• Carbonated water can disrupt your digestive tract (unless you want to hack your body: even this hack attempt you MUST do properly).
• Coffee and teas for the same reason. They can also disrupt the urinary tract.
• It might be useful to sip apple cider vinegar in between meals, not with them.
• Bone broth is good for the digestive tract. This is probably preferred over coffee, tea (unless herbal), and carbonated water.
• Healthy fats during eating periods – good.
• The only restriction is not to eat or drink during your fasting hours. Well, that goes without saying, yes?

And you still say that this is not a diet?

Even if it tells you when to eat, it still has rules for allowing and restricting what to eat and drink during calorie-restricted periods.

Not to mention that it also ignores The Law of Individual Differences. One size does not fit all.

A sensible approach to food and fasting

Apart from the three most popular IF approaches discussed above, there is a much more sensible approach to food and fasting.

It goes like this:

You eat when you are hungry and stop eating when you are full (or just about to be).

If you are eating, say, every three to four hours, there might be a time on your meal schedule when you are not hungry.

Do you skip that meal, or force yourself to stick to the schedule?

What happens when you force yourself to stick to the schedule?

Bear in mind also that with this approach you are not forced to do any calorie-counting (unless you really want to [or must]).

Oh, and there is a term for this approach: spontaneous fasting. It is not just unstructured. It is more intuitive.

Last thoughts

Some things to note:

This IF-fy thing is not something you would wish to do over the long-term. Especially right off the bat. You are not a yogi on a 200-day fast.

It is, after all, the reason it is described as “intermittent”.

By that definition, even yogis do IF.

Nor is this – to answer the question posed in the topic – a magic bullet or a miracle cure.

Your goals are much simpler, aren’t they? You might also give some thought as to your real reason for doing IF, plus

• your emotional relationship to food, and
• your emotional relationship with your body.

We treat fat (or even food) as if we are in daily combat with the enemy who must be shot down and destroyed at all costs.

Given the so-called obesity epidemic, that kind of thinking is not surprising.

Surely that kind of thinking is stressful.

For athletes who need to be at contest/fighting weight, the thinking is, of course, very different.

Lastly, the effects of IF appear to be more favorable to men than women. I would like to come back to this point in a later article.

I wonder (assuming these testimonials are real), whatever happened to those women who were showing off their bodies in those adverts? Did they keep the weight off? Are they in better health mentally and emotionally, as well as physically?

Does this really have to be so complicated?

Hmmm…

In the next article, we will debunk some “myths” (you will see why I put this word in quotes).

We will also have a look at some caveats.

To a better, wiser, strong – YOU!

Sources:

Intermittent Fasting: Women vs Men. Located at International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA [online]),
https://www.issaonline.com/blog/post/this-hot-diet-trend-is-not-recommended-for-women [Accessed November 27, 2023]