Intermittent fasting is a strategy to lose weight where food intake is reduced to few times a day
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Knowing the effects of IF (Intermittent Fasting) on weight loss:
Let’s attempt to explain intermittent fasting (IF) and its effects on weight reduction in simple terms. Intermittent fasting involves varying your eating and fasting intervals to stimulate your body’s metabolism. Here are the four primary stages:
The Fed State is the first to arrive; it begins immediately after eating and lasts for a few hours. Your insulin and blood sugar levels rise during this period, and any extra sugar is stored as glycogen. In addition, hormones like leptin and ghrelin are under control.
The Early Fasting State follows, which can last up to 18 hours and begin three to four hours after your last meal. Your body begins using the glycogen stores it has stored as fuel. It breaks down lipids and amino acids to keep you running if they are depleted.
The Fasting State follows, lasting longer than eighteen hours and sometimes up to two days. Your glycogen stores are being used up, which causes the body to produce ketones and puts you into a condition of ketosis. Your body starts to burn fat for energy and you may experience changes like altered breath and decreased hunger.
Last but not least is the Starvation State, which usually appears 48 hours following a protracted fast. Your body begins using gluconeogenesis to preserve muscle tissue as insulin levels decrease and ketone levels increase. It’s important to remember, though, that not everyone should be in this severe condition.
We can now see how various intermittent fasting regimens might have distinct effects, with longer fasting intervals perhaps inducing ketosis and accelerating weight reduction.
According to a study released by the American Heart Association, intermittent fasting is now known to pose a serious danger to one’s health.
The American Heart Association has recently highlighted intermittent fasting as a significant concern, despite its past praise as a health trend. That being said, common questions such as “Is intermittent fasting healthy?” and “How do I practice intermittent fasting?” as well as “Which intermittent fasting method is best for weight loss?” and “What is the 16/8 intermittent fasting protocol?” as well as “What is the optimal intermittent fasting window to target belly fat?” are becoming more and more common. Nevertheless, the simple answer to these questions is to just stop focusing on them.
The American Heart Association has recently demonstrated that this intermittent fasting/eating behavior is extremely dangerous. According to their larger study, the risk can reach 91%. The study’s conclusions were released yesterday.
A recent revelation from the American Heart Association revealed that intermittent fasting, which was formerly thought to be a contemporary way to lose weight and reduce inflammation, really poses a significant risk to one’s health. Results from a study presented at the association’s conference in Chicago this week show that adults who follow an eight-hour time-restricted eating schedule have a 91% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases than those who follow a traditional 12-to 16-hour eating window each day.
Senior researcher Victor Wenze Zhong, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China, stressed the importance of emphasizing that these results are preliminary. “While our study established a correlation between an eight-hour eating window and cardiovascular fatalities, it’s important to clarify that this doesn’t imply causation,” Zhong said. Is there a real health benefit to intermittent fasting? It may be, but it’s not a miracle treatment.
Details on the Methodology of the Study and Additional Results
Heart disease will be the leading cause of mortality in the US as of 2024. According to research conducted by the American Heart Association, there is an increased risk of cardiovascular death associated with intermittent fasting.
Between 2003 and 2018, the American Heart Association conducted examinations on around 20,000 adult Americans using information gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The group stated that these people, who were 49 years old on average, kept a food journal for at least two days per year. This data was then cross-referenced with mortality statistics from the CDC for the same period of time. About half of the participants identified as female. In addition, more than 73% of non-Hispanic white individuals identified as such, compared to 11% of Hispanic adults and 8% of non-Hispanic Black adults. 6.9% more people identified as belonging to a different racial group.
The following are some of the major conclusions covered in the American Heart Association report:
People who followed a diet that involved less than eight hours of food per day had a 91% increased chance of dying from cardiovascular disease.
Those with cancer or heart disease also had higher mortality rates from cardiovascular causes.
For those with pre-existing cardiovascular diseases, eating within eight to ten hours of each other was associated with a 66% increased chance of dying from heart disease or stroke.
Fasting intermittently had no effect on reducing the total risk of death from any cause.
Eating for more than sixteen hours a day lowered the chance of cancer-related death in those fighting the disease.
Experts Declare: More Research is Needed
The factors impacting general health were not fully included in this study. The American Heart Association states that future studies should “explore the biological mechanisms underpinning the associations between a time-restricted eating regimen and adverse cardiovascular outcomes.” It also aims to determine whether these results are consistent across various geographic locations.
Intermittent fasting has been shown to improve “cardiometabolic health parameters such as blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol levels,” according to research published by the American Heart Association.
“We were surprised,” Zhong said. “Our study unequivocally demonstrates that, compared to the typical eating window of 12-16 hours daily, a shorter eating duration does not correlate with extended lifespan.” But the most important finding of this research is that those who currently suffer from cardiac conditions or cancer.
Christopher Gardner, head of nutrition research at Stanford University, stated, “Our study’s results advocate for a more cautious, individualized approach to dietary recommendations, ensuring they align with an individual’s health status and the latest scientific evidence.”
Gardner stressed that it is essential to assess the “nutrient quality of diets.” “Without this crucial information, it’s impossible to ascertain whether nutrient density could serve as an alternative explanation to the current findings centered on eating timeframes.”