The Many Benefits of Fasting

Ever heard of a “fad diet?” Have you also wondered why every diet seems to be considered a “fad diet” these days? Keto…Atkins…Whole30….the list goes on and on.

I’m not here to throw shade on any and every type of diet, especially if it works for you. But…what I’ve heard from patients, friends, and family members over the years is that these diets typically work, but only initially for short-time periods or short-term gains. Sometimes, this will come at the expense of something else “breaking,” such as, and this is just an example - Atkins diet leading to gout.

If you are in the boat of looking to lose weight and haven’t had any success, or are even just starting up - can I have you consider fasting? Fasting can come in all varieties, which is great for individual lifestyles, goals, schedules, and so forth. This could include intermittent fasting (usually 16 hours of no food, 8 hour eating window, or 18:6, etc.), one-meal-a-day (OMAD), or even long-range fasting of just water over a 24-72 hour time period (or longer - but maybe let’s not start with that).

As a nice, gentle introduction, feel free to check out this link, which I feel is written pretty well from an introductory standpoint:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fasting-benefits

And of course, I’d be happy to delve much deeper into this, and talk about intestinal regeneration and how important that is, cellular autophagy, growth/sex hormone boosts, serotonin regulation, and other nerdy things that we can use to our benefit that we don’t usually achieve with “fad diets.” What do you guys think? Let me know!