The Pros and Cons of Intermittent Fasting

What is intermittent fasting?

All diets achieve weight loss through the same equation — you take in less food energy each day than your body burns for normal activity. Intermittent fasting achieves this goal by severely limiting calories during certain days of the week or during specified hours during the day. The theory is that intermittent fasting will help decrease appetite by slowing the body’s metabolism.

“One pattern that has become a bit popular is the so-called 5:2 diet,” says Dr. Frank Hu, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With this system, you eat normally for five days of the week, but restrict food intake to just 500 to 600 calories on the two fasting days. Another variation of intermittent fasting calls for alternating “fast” days, in which you consume a quarter or less of your basic calorie requirement, with “feast” days, during which you eat whatever you choose.

Fasting for weight loss?

So far, the research studies evaluating intermittent fasting have been relatively short and have enrolled only a limited number of participants. In one, published July 1, 2017, in JAMA Internal Medicine, 100 overweight people were assigned to one of three eating plans: restricting daily calorie intake by the same amount every day (similar to a traditional diet plan), fasting on alternate days, and continuing with normal eating habits. At the end of the 12-month study, both diet groups had lost weight compared with the normal eaters. However, the fasters didn’t fare any better than the conventional calorie cutters.

Potential Benefits of Intermittent Fasting and Caloric Restriction CR

Overeating results in obesity and many other disorders like insulin resistance and diabetes. When a person eats more than the body requirement, it impairs the ability of brain insulin to control the release of glucose from the liver and lipolysis in fat tissue. This can be controlled through intermittent fasting. Alternate-day fasting can enhance insulin sensitivity more than daily calorie restriction.

• Improves cardiovascular health: Intermittent energy restriction helps lower blood pressure, hypertension, and obesity. However, the mechanisms behind this observation have not been clarified. But some research studies have shown that reduced caloric intake decreases the sympathetic nervous activity accompanied by the reduced release of cardiac norepinephrine, thus causing reduced sympathetic support of blood pressure.

• Delays Aging: Aging is associated with the cellular deterioration that results in an overall loss of function of the organism. Cellular components like mitochondria are involved in cellular metabolism and require continuous recycling and regeneration throughout the lifespan. Intermittent energy restriction induces mitochondrial biogenesis and helps increase mitochondrial oxidative capacity. This can help prevent age-related decline in the skeletal muscle. Thus, Calorie Restriction (CR) without malnutrition helps increase the average lifespan of cells and slows down the aging process.

• Neuroprotective effects: Intermittent calorie restriction is proved to have beneficial effects in treating neurodegenerative disorders. It can help protect neurons against oxidative damage. Animal studies have also revealed that alternate-day fasting can stimulate the production of several different neuroprotective proteins, like antioxidant enzymes, proteins involved in mitochondrial function, and chaperones protein. Studies have also shown intermittent fasting to improve cognitive function in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease by reducing metabolic and proteotoxic stress. It also increases the production of various trophic factors that prevent neuronal degeneration, promotes neurogenesis, and strengthens the formation of synapses in the brain.

• Anti-inflammatory properties: Inflammatory diseases include a broad range of conditions, including cardiovascular disease, arthritis, neurodegenerative disorders, diabetes, and cancers, all of which are characterized by chronic inflammation in the affected tissues. Intermittent fasting on alternate days can reduce the circulating levels of inflammatory mediators in the body and help overcome the pain and inflammation in the various inflammatory disorders.

• Regulates circadian rhythm: Circadian rhythm regulates our day and night cycle and affects activity/rest as well as feeding/fasting cycle. The modern lifestyle includes consuming three meals a day which, when taken at irregular periods, can lead to erratic eating patterns. This, in turn, may have perturbations on the body’s metabolism and physiology.

• Reduce oxidative stress and damage to the cells: Intermittent energy restriction can prevent oxidative stress by correcting the imbalance between antioxidants and free radicals in your body. Intermittent energy restriction helps increase levels of antioxidant enzymes like catalase, superoxide dismutase, NADH-cytochrome reductase, and many others. Thus, it helps protects the cells against injury and disease.

Potential pitfalls of intermittent fasting

A notable aspect of this trial was a very high dropout rate (38%) among the people assigned to the fasting regimen. This may reflect a real-life pitfall of fasting as a weight-loss approach.

Part of the fascination with intermittent fasting arises from research with animals showing that fasting may reduce cancer risk and slow aging.

IMHO In my humble opinion, for those experiencing bloating, GI distress of any type, overweight, fatigue and chronic aches and pains, I suggest the following:

1. Consult with a health care professional that can help you identify those foods and liquids that are inflammatory when consumed causing an inflammatory reaction and damaging the gut.
2. Begin a modified food elimination diet and keep a weekly food and symptom diary, note when symptoms begin to reduce in intensity and frequency. Google: Low-FODMAP.
3. Do not eat any solid food 3-hours before you sleep and do not consume any solid foods or caffeine (Tea or Coffee) for the first hour you are awake, until you have had 12 ounces of water and had a few minutes to stretch your body, back and neck along with deep breathing. 
4. Your first meal should be small but rich in nutrients and low in calories, unless you are training heavy for a sporting event or a body-builder. This requires a different eating regimen.