Intermittent Fasting and Keto Diet

Intermittent Fasting and Keto Diet “Intermittent Fasting” is a regular eating plan that has been applied by more people recently. Intermittent fasting is a very effective method for losing weight, keeping weight under control and staying fit. Many types of diets focus on what foods to eat, while intermittent fasting focuses on when to eat. During intermittent fasting, food is only eaten at certain times. Not eating for a set number of hours a day or only eating one meal a few days a week can help your body burn fat. Scientific evidence also points to some health benefits of this fasting program. As with all diet programs, it is recommended to consult a doctor before starting intermittent fasting. After that, the application is simple. An approach that limits daily eating to a period of six to eight hours per day may be chosen. For example, fasting for 16 hours and eating in the remaining 8 hours is called a 16/8 fast. Whether these periods are day or night, or the time intervals are a matter of preference. In the intermittent fasting program, it is allowed to consume zero-calorie beverages such as water, unsweetened coffee and black tea. Our bodies have evolved to starve for hours, days, or even weeks. Before humans learned to farm, they were hunters and gatherers who evolved to survive without food for long periods of time. Fasting for a certain number of hours a day or eating only one meal a few days a week can help your body burn fat. The ketogenic diet, while combined with the concept of intermittent fasting, is a high-fat, low-carb diet that has recently become popular for weight loss. During dieting, the body is forced to use fats instead of carbohydrates as a fuel source. When this happens, the body produces compounds called ketones that cells can use for energy. Both intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting can also result in the ketosis that enables this condition. Proper amounts of water should be consumed while fasting to help remove toxins from the body. To understand how fasting works, one must first remember how the body stores energy. When there is not enough food to meet the body’s current energy needs, either glycogen or fat is converted to stored energy. For example, if a person takes 500 carbohydrate-derived calories from a bowl of pasta, the body converts these carbohydrates into glucose. If the body only needs 200 calories of glucose to meet its immediate energy needs, the remaining 300 calories are stored as glycogen for later use. The average adult’s glycogen storage capacity is 1500 calories in the muscles and 500 calories in the liver. When the body’s glycogen stores are depleted, excess glucose in the blood is stored as fat. Overeating causes fat storage. There is no upper limit to how much fat a person can store, and it can be stored almost anywhere in the body. When we compare the two forms of storage, we see that the body preferentially prioritizes burning glycogen over fat. When glycogen is depleted, the body begins to burn fat. Since glucose will be produced from stored glycogen, a state of ketosis cannot be reached if glycogen has been stored. When macronutrients are completely limited, the body must rely on its own reserves for energy. First glycogen, then fat is burned. While following a traditional western diet, most of the calories come from carb-centered meals a day and glycogen stores are rarely depleted. As a result, the body seldom goes into a state of using fat and is therefore incapable of burning fat for fuel. Also, carbohydrate intake causes the presence of insulin, a hormone that transports glucose from the blood into cells. Consumption of carbohydrates increases the presence of insulin, a hormone that transfers glucose from the circulation into cells. Lipolysis, the process by which body fat is transformed into useful energy, is inhibited. Being fully reliant on glucose to sustain appropriate energy levels necessitates regular feedings, which our hunger/satiety hormones assure. The term ketosis refers to a byproduct of the breakdown of fat into energy called ketone bodies, or ketones for short. This fat can be obtained directly from the foods we eat or from adipose tissue (also known as body fat) stored in your body. The body directly uses ketones to fuel itself. This breakdown of fat into useful energy is similar to the process by which dietary carbohydrates produce glucose to provide fuel to the body. In other words, ketones are to fats what glucose is to carbohydrates. In conclusion, intermittent fasting and ketosis diet can be considered as a very effective method for burning fat and slimming.   Sources https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/intermittent-fasting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work https://charliefoundation.org/diet-plans/intermittent-fasting/ https://www.livescience.com/62659-keto-diet-epilepsy-gut-bacteria.html https://www.livescience.com/keto-diet-vs-low-carb https://www.epilepsy.com/treatment/dietary-therapies/ketogenic-diet     Translation and Compilation by: B. Serhat Cengiz