Intermittent Fasting – How it works

Intermittent Fasting is a key component of the advanced 60 Day Turnaround… the part that follows the first 30 days, and really, a part that is only truly achieved by the committed.  Not because it is do much harder to fast, than it is to give up all sugar and all things that turn to sugar readily.   That is actually the hard part.  Giving up food for 12-18 hours at a time is nothing compared to that.

No, the reason why only the committed get on that path, is because people like to eat.  Even when they are eating healthy cardboard… it seems like they still want it.  People just don’t want to give up eating, but there is a wonderful little thing that occurs on the other side of fasting that I highly recommend.

First off, lets kill the notion that it is too stressful on the body to go for a window of time without food.  The roots of this style of diet are in every early civilization known to man.  Eat like a king, thanks to the recent kill, or the time of the year relative to harvest, or some other phenomenon that could not be readily controlled by individuals; followed by significant periods without eating.  Or simply traveling between towns.  It was somewhat commonplace to find yourself on a long journey without much food.  Rations were common, and the mimicking of this style of diet, can be seen in the idea of intermittent fasting.  Reducing the caloric intake so significantly, that the body reduces digestive effort to nearly zero, while demanding the release of free fatty acids into the blood stream to satisfy caloric needs.

I wanted to cover this, because a popular nutritional company, that teaches the paleo diet, and specifically the whole 30, attacked my idea that one should be comfortable fasting, and conducting normal life as they do it.  Their response was that the stress on the body would be so high, that the massive amounts of cortisol released, would overwhelm the system into utilizing the sugar produced from cortisol, over any free fatty acid.    I disagree entirely.

The cultural body is going to be a cortisol machine for many people.  You are stressed, your adrenals want to fire out cortisol in every instance, and conversion of protein to sugar is the first thing that happens.  However, when you begin a pattern of new life habits, your body will begin to recognize the process, and alter its response.  This is a fixture of all human science.  Adaptation.

So through a continuous process of intermittent fasting, which in my formula is best described as eating nothing from the time you wake up, until 1pm, 2pm, 4pm, or 7pm.   And the night before, you did not set the alarm to get up at 4am for a snack.  This is assuming you eat at 8pm, or a light snack at 9pm at the absolute latest the night before.  Typically during the 60 day turnaround, I go until 4pm on Fridays, with a little cream in my coffee being the only thing that I eat.  It is as effective as eating nothing.

I also like to work out if I can during the fast.  It is a great way to increase the rate of adaptation, teaching your body that it needs to fuel you during periods of drought.  And that fuel will quickly become free fatty acid.

Which brings me to the conclusion, which is that the value, is in becoming a more proficient fat burner.  It provides energy, and reduces the addiction to sugar… dramatically.  Balances hormones, and ultimately helps you maintain the right weight for your body.

Fasting works.  Join me, as I begin a 3 day Suero Viv cleanse on Monday 10/1, the first day of the 60 Day Turnaround!  Be well and Be blessed! – Dr. E