As of: February 25, 2024, 7:00 p.m
By: Laura Knops
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Fasting can not only help you lose weight.
Your health also benefits from regular abstinence.
Intermittent fasting involves consciously limiting the time window in which you eat.
Fasting has become increasingly popular, especially in recent years.
Most people follow a fasting rhythm of 16:8 hours.
The idea behind it: While no food is consumed during fasting, the body begins to tap into its fat stores - in the long term this should lead to weight loss.
Interval diets are also said to have a number of other positive properties.
Intermittent fasting can also promote health and even delay aging.
But only if you follow an important rule, as researchers from
Southern Denmark
University
and the Dutch
University of Wageningen
have now found out.
Intermittent fasting against belly fat: Calories still play a role
Intermittent fasting involves eating according to a specific rhythm.
This should make losing weight easier.
© Zoonar/Imago
As part of a large review, the team led by study authors Philip Ruppert and Sander Kersten summarized the existing knowledge about fasting.
They analyzed data that examined the various aspects of intermittent fasting.
The result: If intermittent fasting is combined with a controlled calorie intake, the method actually helps to lose weight in the long term.
The study was published in the journal “
Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism
.”
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It is not the long breaks between meals that are responsible for weight loss.
Rather, the total amount of calories consumed throughout the day is decisive for whether you lose weight with the help of intermittent fasting.
“The basic rule also applies to intermittent fasting: if you want to lose weight, you should consume fewer calories than you burn,” explains molecular biologist Philip Ruppert from Denmark.
Anyone who still consumes a large amount of calories in a short period of time will not benefit from fasting.
Does intermittent fasting really make you thin?
The body's ability to store fat and therefore store calories for times of limited food availability has evolved over the course of evolution.
This ability ensured our survival long before we developed all of the food storage and preservation techniques available today.
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According to experts, up to five kilos of weight loss per week should be possible - with intermittent fasting
“Today there is a lot of research being done into what goes wrong in our metabolism when we become overweight.
But what happens to metabolism when we fast is much less considered.
I believe that more research in this area can lead to more effective treatment strategies for obesity and its consequences,” says Philip Ruppert.
The four phases of fasting:
The study takes an in-depth look at the effects of intermittent fasting at the molecular level.
This includes the release of fatty acids that the body normally stores for energy.
Intermittent fasting also influences what is known as ketogenesis.
In this process, a high rate of fatty acid breakdown causes the liver to produce ketones.
When fasting, the body goes through different phases:
Phase 1:
The nutrients from food are digested, absorbed and stored in the body.
Phase 2:
Once the intestines have absorbed the nutrients, the liver draws on its glycogen stores to maintain blood sugar.
At the same time, body fat begins to release fatty acids to meet the body's energy needs.
Phase 3:
The liver's glycogen stores are exhausted.
The liver begins producing ketones from body fat to fuel the body.
Phase 4:
The production of ketones in the liver is in full swing and supplies the body and brain with energy.
At this point, the body gets almost all of its energy from body fat.
This phase can last several weeks.
Depending on body fat percentage, a person can endure fasting for a few weeks to several months.
Health Benefits of Fasting
There are different approaches to intermittent fasting: Some people only eat at certain hours of the day, others only eat on certain days of the week.
The current study also confirms the numerous health benefits that fasting has.
According to the authors, fasting not only helps you lose weight, but can also contribute to lower blood pressure, increased insulin sensitivity, better sleep and more energy.
The study also mentions the feeling of euphoria that some people experience after several days of fasting.
The feeling of hunger is replaced by a feeling of elation - perhaps as a reaction to the changed chemical processes in the body and brain.
“There are actually many health benefits of intermittent fasting, but fasting itself does not lead to significant weight loss,” explains Philip Ruppert to the scientific magazine
Science Alert
.
This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication. It in no way replaces a visit to the doctor. Our editorial team is not allowed to answer individual questions about medical conditions.