13 Surprising Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
One of the most effective habits you can implement for successful and permanent weight loss is to practice intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting involves narrowing the period of when you eat during the day versus when you are fasting and not eating anything. For example, I eat only between the hours 11:00 am to 6:00 pm during the day. That means out of my 24 hour day, I eat within 7 hours and fast for 17 hours. This is not a starvation diet, it is merely limiting the times during the day when you eat and cutting out unnecessary snacking.
Based on my own experience, it was the easiest and fastest way to lose weight and manage my weight for years. It gives your body a chance to burn its fat for fuel. When you cycle in and out of the fasting state, you become more sensitive to insulin. High insulin sensitivity allows your body’s cells to use glucose more effectively, thereby reducing your blood sugar and making it easier to stay thin for decades. Intermittent fasting helps you switch from a sugar burner to an efficient fat burner. This is the key difference between people who always seem to be “naturally thin” and those that try diet after diet after diet and never attain their goal — lasting weight loss.
There are many health benefits to practicing intermittent fasting besides easy and sustainable weight loss. Science is uncovering many health benefits related to intermittent fasting. Thirteen of these surprising benefits include:
- Intermittent fasting reduces inflammation in the body which can lead to many diseases, including auto-immune disease. [1]
- decreases insulin resistance and prevents the progression of type 2 diabetes. [2]
- Helps prevent cardiovascular disease. [3]
- Increases the production of Human Growth Hormone (hGH) in the body, which not only burns fat, it helps you gain more muscle and look younger. [4]
- Is a defense mechanism against malignancy, infection, and neurodegenerative disease. [5]
- Short-term fasting increases your metabolism, thus helping you burn more calories. [6]
- Protects normal cells, while decreasing carcinogenesis and oxidative stress. [7]
- Detoxes the body on a cellular level. [8]
- Has been shown to inhibit tumor growth and cancer in animals. [9]
- Promotes brain health and neuroplasticity. [10]
- Helps repair the permeability of the intestinal wall lining caused by leaky gut syndrome. [11]
- A 24 hour fast can dramatically improve your own stem cell’s ability to regenerate and proliferate. [12]
- Keeps your skin looking younger by boosting collagen production and removing cellular waste on skin cells caused by environmental factors. [13]
Discover more benefits of intermittent fasting in Chapter 5 of my book, Turn Heads At Any Age available on Amazon.
Intermittent fasting is nothing short of remarkable! It is your best tool to dramatically slow down the aging process, improve your health and lose weight.
An easy way to transition into an intermittent fasting lifestyle is by starting with a fourteen-hour fast every day. Once this becomes second nature, you can challenge yourself and extend your fasting state to sixteen or even eighteen hours. Just like anything we eventually master, the more you do it, the easier it gets. This will also help you develop a healthier relationship with food.
Fasting and intermittent fasting are the most important habits you can cultivate for significantly improving your health, turn back the aging process, and staying slim. I truly believe these two habits have enabled me to age well and enjoy excellent health and tremendous energy. Fasting is my “fountain of youth” and it could easily be yours too.
