To the world of health, fasting is no longer a stranger. Many growing fasting statistics confirm that. Too many times, we’ve heard of intermittent fasting and its benefits in weight loss and disease conditions like diabetes. This intermittent fasting is of different types, ranging from the 16:8 fasting to the eat-stop-eat fasting.
This article is all about the whole day fasting, which involves going off food for twenty-four hours at a stretch.
Does this make any sense? Is it medically advised? Do people engage in it?
Read on to learn more!
The Mechanism Of Fasting
We must understand what happens in our bodies and to our bodies when we engage in a fast. Fasting is all about restraining the intake of food, or calories for some time. Fasting for a day means staying on calories or food for a complete twenty-four hours.
Naturally, our body cells, tissues, and organs derive energy from calories in the food we eat. This glucose is utilized for immediate energy needed, the excess is converted to glucagon and stored for later use.
When the body needs energy, in the absence of fresh glucose, this glucagon is then used. At this point, the body transitions into gluconeogenesis, where it makes energy from other sources in there, such as fats and amino acids. This happens when the glucose reserve is finished, about eight hours into fasting.
At this point, metabolism becomes slower, and the body begins to look for energy from another source, the muscle tissue. It however occurs several days into fasting. This is the mechanism by which fasting works.
Benefits Of Fasting One Day A Week
Health professionals have advised that staying off food at a stretch, for one day every week can have immense health benefits, and this is true.
However, it’s not an act that one would just engage in because he or she heard of it. It entails working with a dietician and physician that will determine how safe it is for an individual, and exactly how to go about it.
This is because fasting, although beneficial, can be harmful to people with certain diseases and health problems.
Nevertheless, let’s see some of the benefits.
- Fasting Helps In Weight Loss.
The thing with fasting is that it channels the body cells towards stored energy and fats for energy, instead of calorie intake. This, on its own, plays a role in the reduction in overall body weight, as fats constitute a great portion.
Research suggests that the difference in weight loss between people who observed intermittent fasting and those who modified their diet is very negligible. Does this mean that fasting for weight loss isn’t worth it?
Not really. Consistency in fasting, and maintaining a constant amount of calorie intake every other day, are very much required for the expected results to be seen. Moreover, the benefits of fasting once a week are not limited to weight loss alone.
- Fasting Helps In The Reduction Of Blood Pressure.
Deaths from heart-related conditions constitute the most common deaths in the world today. This is scary, hence any modification to enhance the health of the heart is a welcomed idea.
As fasting helps reduce body fats, it also aids in the reduction of bad cholesterol, i.e, triglycerides and low-density lipoproteins (LDL). These lipids, when present in high quantities, can cause an elevation in blood pressure, and eventually deteriorate heart health.
Research also stipulates that reduction in blood pressure by fasting can be brought about by fasting-related sensitivity to insulin and excretion of norepinephrine.
- Fasting Improves Insulin Sensitivity.
Research shows a link between beauty and insulin insensitivity. Fasting deprives the body of external glucose or calories, which in turn increases insulin sensitivity to other stores in the body. It also does this by increasing the sensitivity of muscle tissues and fats to insulin, via certain proteins.
This effect lasts even on the subsequent days when one isn’t fasting. A patient with a high blood sugar level won’t experience those sugar spikes, as insulin resistance reduces. Regardless, such a patient shouldn’t go about fasting on his or her own, but should always work together with the instructions of a physician.
- Fasting Helps To Boost Immunity.
By reducing inflammation, improving insulin sensitivity, helping to reduce unsafe cholesterol, and tons of other benefits it parts, the overall immune system is greatly improved.
Fasting for long hours at a stretch also allows for autophagy, where damaged cells are cleared off and used to produce energy, then worn-out cells are repaired and regenerated. This process also slows down aging and improves immunity functions.
- Fasting Improves Brain Health.
Improving brain health and overall smartness is another benefit of fasting. Good brain health with increasing age can go a long way in preventing age-related amnesia, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Research showed improved cognitive functions in laboratory animals used for the experiment and scientists believe that this can be so for humans too.
Most brain problems present with inflammation as a common symptom. With fasting reducing inflammation, both brain health and other conditions marked by inflammation, are greatly improved.
If fasting one day a week can begin to bring about these changes, imagine what fasting one day every other week will do.
Final Thoughts
Fasting one day a week is a type of intermittent fasting, known as the twenty-four hours fast, or the whole day fast, which entails staying off calories for a whole day in a week. It is of immense health benefits.
One thing is certain, fasting one day a week, for a month, won’t bring about these benefits, but consistency is key. To enjoy all the good parts of this, one will have to make it a routine to fast one day every week, and also maintain a healthy amount of calorie intake every other day.
Regardless, this practice requires a good state of health. So it is very important that all necessary medical tests and checkups are done first, and that one works alongside a physician.
