Is it healthy to fast every other day?

Every Day Fasting: A Complete Guide for Beginners

Fasting every other day is a form of intermittent fasting.
On this diet, you fast every other day, but on non-working days you eat whatever you want.

The most common version of this diet actually involves a "modified" fast, where you can eat 500 calories per fasting day.

This type of fasting is a very powerful weight loss aid and can help reduce the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Below is a detailed guide for beginners.

How long should I fast every other day?

Dr. Varady is currently studying this question as part of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study is planned for a year - during the first six months of weight loss as a result of fasting every other day, and during the second six months - weight maintenance.

She will compare the results to the traditional approach of calorie restriction and weight maintenance, which recommends eating 100 percent of your energy needs each day.

“The research is almost finished,” she shares. “Already today we see that people can use an alternate-day diet to maintain weight. However, you will need to change it a little - reduce the number of fasting days to three days a week, and, instead of consuming 500 calories on each of these days, consume 1,000...

If you compare this to daily calorie restriction, it really is better. People in the every other day diet group were able to maintain their weight slightly better than people in the traditional weight maintenance group."

That is, it turns out that when you reach your desired weight, you will have more options for maintaining it. By looking at what exactly to eat, Dr. Varadi's book ultimately advocates for a transition to a Mediterranean-style diet .

“We really want people to slowly change their eating habits. But we believe that if we say that you not only need to “eat 500 calories every other day,” but also immediately change your entire eating pattern, then people will quit the diet and do nothing at all,” she doubts.

"It's good if you can just start an approach to eating where you eat 500 calories every other day and then slowly work your way up to whole foods and generally healthier foods."

To sum it up, there is no need to commit to intermittent fasting for the rest of your life if this lifestyle strategy is not suitable for you in the long term.

If you need to lose 50 pounds, expect to do about six months of intermittent fasting before you can return to a more regular diet.

However, I highly recommend paying close attention to the food selection. Even on ordinary days, I consider it important that the diet contains:

Lots of healthy fats . Many people will benefit from 50 to 85 percent of their daily calories coming from healthy fat from avocado, organic butter from grass-fed milk, free-range egg yolks, coconut oil and raw nuts such as peanuts, pecans and pine nuts. Moderate amounts of quality protein from organic, grass-fed meats. Most people generally need no more than 40-80 grams of protein per day. Unlimited amount of fresh vegetables , ideally organic.

How to fast every other day

This type of fasting is an intermittent fasting approach.

The basic idea is that you fast one day and then eat what you want the next day.

So you need to limit what you eat half the time.

On fasting days, you can drink as many non-calorie drinks as you want. Examples include water, unsweetened coffee, and tea.

If you follow the modified approach, you are also allowed to eat about 500 calories on fast days, or 20-25% of your energy needs.

The most popular version of the Alternate Day Fasting diet is called the Alternate Day Diet by Dr. Krist Varady. She has done most of the research on this type of fasting.

The health and weight loss benefits appear to be the same whether fast day calories are consumed at lunch, dinner, or in small meals throughout the day.

Research shows that many people find it easier to stick to a day of fasting than traditional daily calorie restriction.

Most studies used a modified version with 500 calories on fasting days. This type is considered much more sustainable than complete fasting on such days, but it is no less effective.

In this article, the term alternate-day fasting (ADF) refers to a modified approach of about 500 calories on fasting days.

Complete fasting versus intermittent fasting

A complete fast is when you regularly drink only water for 24 hours (from midnight to midnight). This type of calorie restriction has documented health benefits, including longevity, but adherence rates are low. For the vast majority of people this is too difficult.

Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of fasting types, including the 5:2 approach. But, as a rule, intermittent fasting involves cutting calories in whole or in part - a couple of days a week, every other day, or even every day, such as the eating schedule that I personally practice.

Dr. Varady's research shows that alternate-day fasting, where you consume about 500 calories on fast days and can eat whatever you want on normal days, is as effective at promoting weight loss as fasting completely, and maintaining that a type of modified fasting regimen is much easier.

Participants in her recently completed study ate a low-calorie meal for lunch or dinner on a fasting day. It was found that dividing a 500 calorie meal into several smaller meals throughout the day was not as effective as one meal once a day.

The main problem is compliance. If you really only eat 500 calories a day, you will lose weight. But if you eat just a few times a day, you're much more likely to want more, so the likelihood of cheating increases dramatically.

Fasting every other day and weight loss

This type of fasting is very effective for weight loss.

Studies among overweight and obese adults show that it can lead to 3-8% weight loss in 2-12 weeks.

Interestingly, HDG seems to be particularly effective for weight loss among middle-aged people.

Research has shown that HDF and daily calorie restriction are equally effective in reducing harmful belly fat and inflammatory markers in obese people.

However, a 2021 review study concluded that HDF may be superior to daily calorie-restricted diets because the diet is easier to stick to and produces greater fat loss and retention of more muscle mass.

Additionally, combining HDF with endurance exercise can result in twice the weight loss and six times more weight loss than endurance training alone.

In terms of dietary composition, HDG appears to be equally effective whether it is used by people with high or low body fat.

Fasting every other day and its effect on hunger

The impact of HDF on hunger is quite controversial.

Some studies show that hunger eventually decreases on fasting days, while others claim that hunger remains unchanged.

However, research agrees that modified HDF with 500 calories on fasting days is much more tolerable than complete fasting.

One study comparing HDF with calorie restriction found that HDF produced slightly more harmonious changes in the satiety hormone leptin and the hunger hormone ghrelin.

Likewise, animal studies found that HDF resulted in decreased hunger hormones and increased satiety hormones compared to other diets.

Another factor to consider is compensatory hunger, which is a common downside of traditional daily calorie restriction.

Compensatory hunger is an increase in hunger levels in response to caloric restriction that causes people to eat more than they need to when they finally “allow” themselves to eat.

Research has shown that HDF does not increase compensatory hunger as much as chronic calorie restriction.

In fact, many people who try the modified HDF diet report that their hunger decreases after the first two weeks or so.

However, the effect of HDF on hunger likely varies from person to person.

Types of malnutrition

Often people resort to not eating in order to recover from serious illnesses. Therefore, variations of this method may be different. Experts distinguish the following types:

• Full or standard
• Combined
• Dry
• Fractional according to Voitovich
• Urine according to Erofeev or Malakhov
• Stepped to crisis
• Mixed
• According to Bragg
• According to Nikolaev
• According to Shelton
• According to Suvorin
• Cascade

I would like to draw your attention to the last point, namely cascade fasting. This method, today, is gaining popularity and winning new fans. What is its distinctive feature?

This option does not imply a complete 100% refusal of food. The main difference is that periods of hunger and non-hunger alternate. However, only raw plant foods are allowed to be eaten. We will talk about this type in another article.

GHD and body composition

HDG has been shown to have a unique effect on body composition both during dieting and during weight maintenance.

Studies comparing traditional calorie-restricted diets and HDF show that they are equally effective at reducing weight and fat mass.

However, HDF seems to be more effective in preserving muscle mass.

This is really important because losing muscle mass along with fat reduces the number of calories your body burns daily.

One study compared HDF with a traditional calorie-restricted diet with a 400-calorie deficit.

There were no differences in weight recovery between groups after either the eight-week study or 24 weeks.

However, after 24 weeks, the HDG group retained more muscle mass and lost more fat than the calorie-restricted group.

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Health benefits of HDCHD

HDG has several health benefits other than weight loss.

Type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90–95% of diabetes cases worldwide. Moreover, more than a third of the world's population has prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetes.

Losing weight and restricting calories is generally an effective way to improve or eliminate many of the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.

Similar to chronic calorie restriction, HDF appears to cause modest reductions in risk factors for type 2 diabetes among overweight and obese people.

However, HDG appears to be most effective in lowering insulin levels and reducing insulin resistance, although it has little effect on blood sugar control.

High insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) are associated with obesity and chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

In individuals with prediabetes, 8–12 weeks of HDF has been shown to reduce fasting insulin levels by approximately 20–31%.

Reducing insulin levels and insulin resistance should lead to a significant reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes, especially when combined with weight loss.

Heart Health

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for approximately 1 in 4 deaths.

Many studies have shown that HDG is a good option for overweight and obese people to lose weight and reduce risk factors for heart disease.

Most studies on this topic last between 8 and 12 weeks and are conducted in overweight and obese people.

Below are the benefits of HDCH:

• Reduced waist circumference (2–2.8 inches or 5–7 cm).
• Reduced blood pressure.
• Reduced LDL cholesterol concentrations (20–25%).
• Increase the number of large LDL particles and decrease the number of dangerous small dense LDL particles.
• Reduction of triglyceride levels in the blood (up to 30%).

One-day fasting: what happens to the body in 1 day on the water?

A famous way to lose weight, stay fit, and improve health (according to many) is one-day fasting!
Will fasting 1 day a week help you? Will such a tradition be beneficial or not?

How to fast correctly, even for 1 day, what rules should you follow to benefit from fasting for 24 hours in a row?

So, what happens in 1 day without food?

Let's figure out how one-day (24 hours) fasting affects the human body. If fasting begins in the evening, the next day a person feels mildly unwell due to lack of food intake.

Minor pain in the stomach and intestines may occur.

No persistent physiological changes are observed. Loss of 100 - 200 grams of body weight.

With a one-day (for some people two-day) fasting, no changes occur other than the feeling of hunger. There are no symptoms of discomfort. There is no pathological effect.

The body has enough nutritious proteins and carbohydrates to survive the period.

Your body is smart and has long been insured in case of a hunger strike. The body has stored energy “in reserve” in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscles.

When blood sugar levels drop and are not obtained from food, glycogen is broken down back into glucose, which allows for normal functioning and nutrition of the brain and the entire body.

The total amount of glycogen in the body is 300 - 400 grams.

The energy value of glycogen is 1.3 kcal per g. That is 400 gr. glycogen is 500 kcal. This is enough for 1-2 days, depending on physical activity and lifestyle.

Keep in mind that the body also wants to conserve energy until something else is eaten: therefore, activity begins to decrease, including blood pressure and heart rate, you don’t want to move much, and stuff like that.

Fasting for such a period brings neither benefit nor harm.

Let's look at such popular myths about the benefits of such fasting, such as:

“ A one-day fast gives rest to the digestive system . A lot of energy is spent on the digestion process.

When the constant supply of food is interrupted, the body receives the opportunity and energy to begin cleansing processes.”

It is also believed that “the putrefactive intestinal microflora dies, and the flora of fermented milk fermentation is healed and preserved, as a result, the synthesis of biologically active substances in the intestine improves.”

Of course, if everything were so simple, then people would not know the debilitating pain of the gastrointestinal tract. Roughly speaking, killing microflora in 1 day of fasting is unrealistic.

Let's take a closer look at what intestinal microflora is and why it is needed.

During the digestion process in the large intestine, obligate (obligate) microorganisms actively participate - obligate anaerobic bacteria (bifidumbacteria - 90% of the entire intestinal microflora) and facultative anaerobic bacteria (streptococci, E. coli, lactic acid bacteria).

Another name for these microorganisms is “probiotics”, i.e. "necessary for life." They are concentrated in the proximal colon and terminal ileum.

The percentage of normal intestinal microflora from the total body weight should be about 5% - 3 - 5 kg. Normal for 1 g. The contents of the colon contain about 250 billion microorganisms.

As is known, feces are also formed in starving people, and it follows that they contain not only unused food remains, but also other elements, namely:

1. excess digestive juices,
2. from 3-4% mineral salts: calcium, magnesium and phosphoric acid,
3. and about 1/3 of the dry residue consists of partly dead and partly living bacteria.

Those. In any case, your microflora will receive food - yes, this is not food in the usual sense, but it will not die from “hunger”, as promised.

In general, only long-term use of certain medications, treatment with antibiotics, as well as a decrease in immunity, in particular due to past infectious and inflammatory diseases, exacerbation of chronic ailments, can significantly thin out these bacteria, but not a one-day fast.

Regarding rest of the digestive system, there will be no rest . On average, the total digestion time - from the moment a portion of food is consumed until the stool is passed - is 53 hours.

In this case, the passage of food mass through the large intestine takes 34 hours for men, and 47 hours for women.

As for children, the process of digesting food is much faster for them - its total time is reduced to 33 hours.

In addition, some people fast in order to reduce the volume of their stomach. This won't work either.

For an adult, in the absence of surgical intervention, the size of the stomach is usually a constant value.

Stretched by food: how to shrink your stomach

A smaller amount of food consumed will work much better, which will help eliminate the acute feeling of hunger, so that you can easily adhere to the overall planned amount of food.

And in general, there is no connection between excess weight and stomach size! It has been scientifically proven that the size of the stomach does not depend on body composition.

Even naturally thin people have the same, and often larger, stomachs as those who are forced to constantly monitor their weight. That is, a person’s weight has nothing to do with the size of his stomach.

In fact, even those who have had their stomachs greatly reduced by surgery must constantly be wary of gaining excess weight.

Once again we want to emphasize: fasting, as an idea, goes against the basic instincts of a person, and therefore your body will do everything possible to satisfy the main need - the search for food.

There is a high probability that a breakdown will occur and you will eat more than usual. In addition, this is a strong stress for the body, the result of which will be even greater deposition of fat reserves than was the case before this idea.

If you really want to improve your health, then you need to first reduce the amount of the most dangerous visceral fat , which is located in the abdomen.

To monitor whether the chosen method of losing weight helps you solve this particular problem, you can buy smart electronic scales, such as these , which will help you track the % and amount of body fat.

Look

And if the scales show that there is less visceral fat and more muscle, then you are on the right path!

To simply starve or adhere to another unproven food system and say that everything is fine is very arrogant.

Outwardly, you cannot determine in any way how well the weight loss is happening and due to getting rid of what resources the weight has decreased.

We would like to note an important positive point: one-day fasting can be prescribed by a doctor for people with insulin resistance (impaired insulin sensitivity).

The fact is that it is at the end of 24 hours of fasting that insulin reaches its lowest levels, but then it begins to rise, because... There was no point in fasting longer - no.

Short-term fasting for 1 day can sometimes be beneficial - it leads to improved insulin sensitivity. This means that blood glucose control and utilization are improved.

We especially want to note that fasting does not cure anything - we have discussed all the myths about the therapeutic effect of fasting due to the misunderstood process of autophagy in this article !

Yes, even for a lot of money in a special clinic. A course of fasting will not bring benefit and it is not a panacea - in some cases, fasting can only alleviate some symptoms without solving the underlying problem.

• A glass of kefir at night - and all your efforts to lose weight are in vain?
• Myth of the year: “muscle burns much more calories than fat”
• Fasting will not cleanse or heal your body.

[Total votes: 21 Average: 2.7/5]

Bone Wide

This article was reviewed by a certified nutritionist who has a bachelor's degree in nutrition and dietetics, D. G. Veremeev.

Articles are for informational and educational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician with any questions you may have about a medical condition.

HDCHD and autophagy

One of the most common effects of fasting on the body is the stimulation of autophagy.

Autophagy is the process by which old cell parts are broken down and recycled. It plays a key role in the prevention of diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, heart disease and infections.

Animal studies consistently show that both long-term and short-term fasting increase autophagy, which is associated with delayed aging and reduced tumor risk.

Additionally, fasting increases lifespan in rodents, flies, yeast and worms.

Moreover, cellular studies have also shown that fasting stimulates autophagy, which may help keep the body healthy and extend lifespan.

This has been confirmed by research in humans. Research has shown that HDG diets reduce oxidative damage and promote changes that may be associated with longevity.

The results obtained look very promising, but the effect of HDG on autophagy and lifespan needs to be further studied.

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Does HDF activate “starvation mode” in the body?

Almost all weight loss methods cause a slight decrease in resting metabolic rate as an adaptation by the body.

This effect is often called “starvation mode,” but the technical term is adaptive thermogenesis.

When you severely restrict your calories, your body begins to conserve energy by reducing the number of calories it burns, which can ultimately cause your weight loss to stall and you to feel upset about it.

However, HDG does not appear to cause this "regime" of decreased metabolism.

One study compared the effects of standard calorie restriction and HDF for eight weeks.

The results showed that chronic calorie restriction significantly reduced resting metabolic rate by 6%, while HDG caused only a minor reduction of 1%.

Moreover, after 24 weeks, the calorie restriction group had a resting metabolic rate that was 4.5% lower than at the start of the study. Meanwhile, HDGD participants maintained their original metabolic rate at the same level.

Several effects of HDG may be responsible for counteracting this decrease in metabolic rate, including the preservation of muscle mass.

Is this type of fasting beneficial for people of normal weight?

HDCH is useful not only for obese people, but also for people with normal weight.

The three-week study analyzed normal weight people following a strict HDF diet with zero calories on fasting days.

The researchers found that this resulted in increased burning of unhealthy fat, decreased fasting insulin levels and a 4% reduction in fat mass.

Another controlled study in both normal-weight and overweight people found that following an HDF diet for 12 weeks, there was a decrease in fat mass and favorable changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors.

However, HDF usually gives you far fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight, which is why people end up losing weight.

If you don't want to lose weight or fat mass, then other diet methods will probably be better for you.

What to eat and drink on days like these

There is no general rule about what you should eat or drink on fasting days, except that your total caloric intake should not exceed 500 calories.

On such days, it is best to drink low-calorie or no-calorie drinks such as water, coffee and tea.

Most people find it best to eat one "big" meal late in the day, while others prefer to eat early or spread the amount over 2-3 meals.

Since calorie intake will be severely limited, it is best to focus on nutritious foods that are high in protein, as well as low-calorie vegetables. This will make you feel full.

Soups can also be a good option as they tend to fill us up better than if we ate the ingredients separately.

Here are some examples of dishes that are suitable for such fasting:

• Eggs and vegetables.
• Yogurt with berries.
• Fried fish or lean meat with vegetables
• Soups, fruits
• Salads with lean meat

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How and where did fasting originate?

Delving into history, it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question posed. Fasting is an innate instinct given to us by nature itself. In ancient Rus', therapeutic fasting was the main way to restore health to a person. The healers believed that nature will always help and there is no need to worry about this.

If you look at this issue from the point of view of modern science, scientists identify two ways to abstain from food:

• absolute
• relative

The first involves a complete rejection of all nutrients. In simple terms, you can’t eat anything, only drink. In this case, the body feeds exclusively on internal reserves (proteins, fats, carbohydrates).

The second option is characterized more like a disease. Relative malnutrition is the chronic consumption of insufficient amounts of foods with high energy value. Today, modern youth like to eat various chips and fast food, have you noticed this? So, this approach can be called relative fasting.