What's the deal with intermittent fasting?

You might be familiar with a recent diet that's very popular today, intermittent fasting. Whether you've talked to a dietitian or listened to a Joe Rogan podcast you've probably heard something about it. Most people refer to the diet as intermittent fasting but others choose to call it time restricted feeding. Both mean the same thing. If it's something you've considered, do you think it's another fad diet that won't work, or will it help you achieve your dietary goals?

The first thing people immediately think of is weight loss. Is this diet going to help me cut that extra holiday weight? (I know it's not holiday season but we're preparing!). Well the truth is, the best benefits of this diet aren't in the weight loss. Sure you might be able to lose some weight here. A lot of that has to do with a restriction in calories because you're not able to eat as frequently as you'd like. It will also allow your body to use it's energy stores (fat) when you're not eating. This results in your body getting adapted to using fat as an energy source instead of the sandwich you just had for lunch. I will say, it doesn't matter how much you intermittent fast if you're demolishing 3 dozen donuts as soon as you can eat again... you're probably not going to lose weight. It also doesn't mean that you have to only eat kale salads during your feeding window. It just means eating a normal healthy diet during your window will be the best for optimizing the diet.

The best benefit you'll get from intermittent fasting is a fancy word called autophagy. When broken down, this is a two part word: auto = self, phagy = eating. This is the act of your body eating itself. Our ancestors had long periods of being hungry. This helped us to evolve in a spectacular way. Your body will seek out damaged cells and use them as fuel!... Autophagy... super cool right?! If you have some liver or skeletal muscle cells that are damaged, your body will destroy the cell and take the nutrients to convert to fuel. This mechanism can give your body a chance to clean things up. Which in turn allows your body to function at it's optimum level. There is a theory that this could have some sort of cancer protection. The theory is, if your body is destroying non-functioning cells everyday there's a possibility that it destroys a cell that might be precancerous. This would be a fantastic theory to be proven true but I want to reiterate it's just a theory as of now and has not been proven true in research.

Now that you've been inspired to give intermittent fasting a try, know that the first couple days are uncomfortable. If you're someone who typically gets hangry, then forewarn your loved ones of the grumpy hungry that's to come the next 2-3 days. Once your body adapts to the change you'll be able to keep a lid on that monster. Some people elect to have a 6 hour window in which they eat and all other times are for fasting. Personally, I don't eat until 2 or 3 in the afternoon and will eat until about 9 at night depending on when I get home from work. It works great for me and I have found my endurance has gotten better with the diet. This is most likely the increased efficiency in converting fat to fuel. Give it a try and let us know how it goes!