Written by: Daniel Vasile, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
What is fasting?
The first and most important question all of us should be asking BEFORE even starting a fast is the obvious: What is fasting and would it work for me?
Only after answering this question with clarity do you go on to How can I apply it in my life?
Would you agree?
The DEFINITION of FASTING simply means to go without!!!
Examples here would be: Fasting from Junk food (it is called eating healthier), Fasting from Carbs (it is called the ketogenic diet), Fasting from porn or even a not so nice vocabulary (depending on your religion), Fasting from meat and fish (it is called the vegetarian diet) and so on…
All of these things can make you STRONGER.
Again… FASTING LITIRELY MEANS to GO WITHOUT for an x period of time!
Most people mix up the Metabolic and the Cognitive as well as the Health Benefits of Fasting with the self-control benefits.
When you have a lot of things going on in your life that puts a huge amount of pressure on your cells and nervous system (stress comes in many forms) and on top of that, you decide to fast even if you may not be metabolically in good shape (due to the pressure/stress)…
What can happen is:
The GI (glycemic index/ blood sugar levels) will drop and you can start to yell at your kids, yell at your boss and it can end up as less of a good day… and you really can do it in a more beneficial way without experiencing pain and hunger.
What you would want to do during a fast is to avoid the two most important things that break a fast and these two things are: Refined sugars as well as Carbs and Proteins. In other words, you eat only natural carbs like fruits and vegetables as well as healthy fats like avocados and olive oil or coconut oil.
Now… before you continue reading any further, just take a moment and ask yourself one of the most important questions which is:
Why are you fasting?
What are you fasting for, is the weary first thing you would want to clarify so you know exactly how to plan for it and make sure that it is a success all the way thru.
One good reason to fast, would be to heal the gut. Now... for healing the gut you would do water fasting only where you can still have black (no sugar) bio coffee and green tea with ginger and/or lemon.
The human body is a weary intelligent machine, which means that you do not have to do anything to heal it because it heals on its own and the best way to help it is by not having anything in it.
Another good reason for fasting would be to have more energy which most of us would like to have.
Fasting has been around since the beginning of the human race and Mother Nature is the best to follow when talking about this subject.
For example: did you ever notice bananas growing in the North Pole? Didn’t think so
Let us take the “weight loss” or as it should be called FAT REDUCTION process.
Weight loss does not necessarily mean that you will burn ONLY FAT from your body… weight loss has the actual answer in its name: ‘’weight – loss” you are losing weight on the scale instead of reducing the body fat % from your waistline and the rest of your body.
The body breaks down muscle first and then turn to the fat (at some point).
Why does it do that? Because muscle consumes energy and fat does not...and if you don’t eat to fuel your muscles, it will turn to starvation mode thinking there’s a nuclear war or something.
Again…what is your OUTCOME?
Do you want to be lighter on the scale or do you want muscle definition? Because these are two different things.
Now… assuming that you want muscle definition (how much you want is up to you) and at the same time you want to have more energy during the day, here is one intelligent approach that you can start applying tomorrow. (or today if its morning when you read this)
Intermittent fasting
This can be done in many ways, but I am going to show you one of the simplest and less risky ones.
In this type of fasting, you simply eat in an 8h window and you fast for a 16h window.
The usual question I get here is: “Can I eat anything that I want in the 8h?”
And the answer is: YES! Even pizza
You are still going to get the benefits of fasting even if you eat junk food and you are still going to reduce some fat of your waistline. (as well as the rest of the body)
The difference, however… when you eat food that is not as natural as it can be and you just put any type of food in your mouth, your body has a tough time processing it and will give you some results /benefits instead of the best benefits/ results.
Here are some of the other benefits of this type of intermittent fasting:
1. It Changes the function of hormones, cells and genes.
a) Insulin levels. Blood levels of insulin drop significantly, which facilitates fat burning.
b) Human growth hormone (HGH) levels. Higher levels of this hormone facilitate fat burning and muscle gain, and have numerous other benefits.
c) Cellular repair. The body induces important cellular repair processes, such as removing waste material from cells.
2. Can help reduce the Visceral Fat.
Intermittent fasting enhances hormone function to facilitate weight loss. Lower insulin levels, higher HGH levels, and increased amounts of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) all increase the breakdown of body fat and facilitate its use for energy. For this reason, short-term fasting actually increases your basic metabolic rate, (the amount of calories you burn at rest) helping you burn even more calories. (long term)
3. Can Reduce Insulin Resistance, lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes.
In human studies on intermittent fasting, blood sugar has been reduced by 3–6% over the course of 8–12 weeks in people with prediabetes. Fasting insulin has been reduced by 20–31%
Interestingly, intermittent fasting has been shown to have major benefits for insulin resistance and to lead to an impressive reduction in blood sugar levels.
As you can see… Fasting helps you in many ways then just helping you reduce belly fat. Surprisingly when you fast, you get all the other benefits along with the body fat reduction.
It is important to REMEMBER that all of the other benefits are more available to you when you eat clean food.
When you are looking to reduce body fat percentage, Intermittent fasting can help ease the whole process. Two of the simplest ways you can start to apply this type of fasting TODAY is:
Start eating at 12 noon up to 8 pm and fast from 8 pm up to 12 noon the next day.
Start by having breakfast around 8 am up to 4 pm and fast from 4 pm to 8 am the next morning!
Now… you can move that window as you wish as long as you respect the protocol of 8 to 16h. (eat within 8h – fast for 16h). You can also change the windows if you feel like making a change!
NOTE! Avoid fasting for too long without any type of supervision!
If you choose to fast for more days (like doing a 3 or even 10 water fast) you need to avoid any type of physical exercise because when you move, the body consumes all of its glycogen stores (which is the form in the carbs are stored as in the muscles) and after that is consumed, the body starts to breakdown muscle mass to convert that into glucose…which means that you will lose muscle mass and not fat. (the goal being muscle definition)
REMEMBER!
It is WEARY IMPORTANT that you CLARIFY the REASON WHY you are fasting and then move on to see which type of fasting works best with your lifestyle and here I am including all of your environment (family and friends) because you might need emotional support during the fast so that you flow thru it with ease and ZERO STRESS.
Thank you!
Daniel Vasile, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
"Daniel, is an International Health and Wellness coach specializing in weight loss and Emotional health.
After being 29kg overweight and going thru a severe illness during childhood, Daniel has discovered how to get into the best shape of his life as well as how to recover from illness in record speed.
He has since dedicated his life to helping people get healthy, fit as well as helping people go thru various challenges like: Cancer, Diabetes, Severe Depression, Anxiety and more.
His mission is to get the whole world:
HAPPY ‒ FIT & HEALTHY FOREVER"
