Is Fasting Good or Bad?

humbert

Came upon this rather obliquely while reading 'The Black Swan' and did a little reading on the web but as is often the case on the subject of diet and health, it's hard to find a trustworthy source....so I came here!

There seems to be some strong evidence to support fasting. There is empirical evidence and a strong evolutionary argument and of course the fact that it is a component of many major religions. The advertised benefits are detoxification, benefits to the immune system, greater efficiency(I think it was in protein production) and lower risk of cancer. Even the subsequent binge eating was advocated by one study done on mice.

I've seen ketosis mentioned here before and I have to say it didn't really appeal to me but it also seems to be a component of fasting.

I'm not looking for facts or advice. I'm just curious about people's opinion on the subject.

rocky

IMO fasting up to 24 hours can be beneficial, once you go over that and start losing muscle, not so much.

I regularly fast for 16-20 hours, this helps me keep my caloric deficit in check.

At the extremes, there are a few videos on youtube about a woman fasting 3x 40 days (I think), she's a skeleton by the end of it.

humbert

Oh, of course! I believe when you start metabolising protein it's classified as starving (although I vaguely recall reading somewhere else that you burn a proportion of protein with any exercise, so I'm not sure).

SanoVitae

These sites are great

http://www.leangains.com/

http://www.eatstopeat.com/index2.shtml

http://www.eatstopeat.com/index2.shtml

radekisner34

Fasting quite be good and quite be harmful .It depend in which prospects and in which condition you are doing it.Fasting make us strong to believe how much we could perform and what an actual strength we have.But if your body doesn't have much calcium it may effect in oppose of you.

humbert

Yes, it's the negative effects I'd be worried about and I've been able to find little information on them.

Thanks to SanoVitae for the links. A fair bit of information but openly biased in favour of fasting.

Honestly I expected far more critics. Maybe it's the same sceptic in me that reads the 2 star reviews on Amazon before the 5 star reviews but I'm always a bit suspicious of anything with many advocates and an absence of critics...

columok

Intermittent fasting is generally recommended if you have all the other variables ticked as in nutrition, sleep, training schedule etc.

humbert

I may be largely talking to myself at this stage but I found an interesting article that does seem to be objective and considers all of the scientific studies I've encountered on other pro-fasting sites .

The tl;dr version is that there is very little research on the subject. The research that has been done on humans was done poorly (small sample group and short duration, sometimes poor testing) and does not directly correlate to the more thorough testing on rats. Human testing has found positive and negative effects.

I should say that all the research mentioned was on alternate day fasting which is on the slightly more extreme end of the spectrum.


My focus is on alertness and general energy levels. I don't care about losing fat or gaining muscle. To that end I'm back to where I started. Regularity, exercise, a good diet, sleep and three meals a day is simple and effective.



Thanks for all the responses!

dartstothesea

So did you decide if it's good or bad?

humbert

Haha, not really. Alternate day fasting is a bit to severe for me and I get the impression that without a low carbohydrate high protein diet the hunger would be a bit nasty.

It's a bit tempting to try fasting once a week and see what happens. I've found nothing scientific on it though so there's a part of me that thinks it's a bit daft.

In the beginning I was hoping to find that skipping the odd meal and sleeping irregularly might actually be healthy (what was actually suggested by the author of the book I was reading) and that definitely doesn't seem to be the case.

As I mentioned, healthy eating, regular sleeping and exercise seem to be the tried and tested ways to good health and I haven't found anything to contradict that. One interesting thing I learned is that there are benefits to periods of intense exercise that go beyond gaining strength or muscle.

eilo1

humbert wrote: »

One interesting thing I learned is that there are benefits to periods of intense exercise that go beyond gaining strength or muscle.

In what way?

I believe in mood elevation, insulin sensitivity, better sleep etc but is there any more?!?!?!