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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jason Fung
I am a 58-year-old woman. I intermittent fast almost daily for 16–18 hours. I find that I have more energy to get through a workout in a fasted state. I also have better mental clarity.
dramatic drop in inflammation, improvements in insulin signaling, and a near total “reset” of immune function with fasts of 3–5 days.
fasting cleanses the body of unhealthy or unnecessary cellular debris.
prevent cancer’s development. Indeed, some leading scientists, such as Dr. Thomas Seyfried, a professor of biology at Boston College, have proposed a yearly seven-day water-only fast for this very reason.
Symptoms of hypoglycemia include shaking, sweating, irritability or nervousness, feeling faint, hunger, and nausea. More severe symptoms include confusion, delirium, and seizures. Untreated, hypoglycemia may even lead to death.
Symptoms may appear very rapidly, and if they do, you must quickly ingest some sugary beverage or food to reverse this life-threatening situation.
homemade bone broth,
water-only fast for 2 to 3 days a week.
Diluted apple-cider vinegar in water may help lower your blood sugar.
Green tea is an especially good choice during a fast: the catechins in green tea are believed to help suppress appetite.
go back to a classic water-only fast if they hit a stubborn weight plateau.
We also permit a small amount of cream or coconut oil to be added to coffee or tea.
By “small amount,” we mean 1 to 2 teaspoons of cream or coconut oil—nowhere near the copious amounts of fat used in bulletproof coffee.
Homemade bone broth, made from beef, pork, chicken, or fish bones, is a good choice for fasting days. Animal bones are simmered with other vegetables and seasonings for long periods of time, anywhere from eight to thirty-six hours—see here for a recipe.
sea salt to their homemade bone broth.
Sea salt also contains other trace minerals, such as potassium and magnesium, which may be particularly beneficial during fasting.
I’ve found that a surprising number of patients prefer to fast longer and less frequently.
fasting becomes easier the more you do it.
This regimen incorporates a sixteen-hour period of fasting into your daily meal schedule. For example, you might fast from 7 p.m. to 11 a.m. daily. You could also say that you have an eight-hour eating window every day.
The 8-Hour Diet espoused the same eight-hour eating window.
For most people, it only means skipping breakfast and eating lunch and dinner within eight hours of each other. Many people do not feel hungry in the morning despite skipping breakfast and find this method extremely easy to implement.
Ghrelin, the hunger hormone, rises and falls in a natural circadian rhythm, with a low at 8:00 a.m. and a high at 8:00 p.m. Correspondingly, hunger typically falls to its lowest level at 7:50 a.m. and peaks at 7:50 p.m.
many people on longer fasts report that hunger typically disappears after day 2.
So the optimal strategy seems to be eating the largest meal in the midday, sometime between noon and 3:00 p.m., and only a small amount in the evening hours. Interestingly, this is the traditional Mediterranean eating pattern.
They eat a large lunch, followed by a siesta in the afternoon, and then have a small, almost snack-sized dinner.
While we often think of the Mediterranean diet as healthy due to the type of foods in it, the timing of meals in the M...
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Since all foods increase insulin to some degree, the most efficient method of lowering insulin is eating nothing at all. Even shorter fasts of less than twenty-four hours can prevent the development of insulin resistance and reverse relatively minor levels of resistance, and they certainly help with weight loss.
A twenty-four-hour fast involves fasting from dinner to dinner, or breakfast to breakfast, whatever you prefer. For
Despite the name, you do not actually go a full day without eating, since you are still taking one meal on the fasting day. In essence, you are eating a single meal for that day.
The 5:2 diet consists of five normal eating days. On the other two “fast” days, women may eat up to 500 calories per day
These two fast days can be done on consecutive days or spaced apart, depending upon your preference. The 500 to 600 calories can be consumed in a single meal or spread out into multiple meals over the course of a day
36-Hour Fasts In a thirty-six-hour fast, you do not eat for one entire day. For example, if you finish dinner at 7 p.m. on day 1, your fast would begin immediately after— you skip all meals on day 2 and not eat again until breakfast at 7 a.m. on day 3. That totals thirty-six hours of fasting.
The more severe someone’s symptoms are, the more likely I am to recommend a longer fast, but the longer fasts contain some type of liquid nutrition, such as broth
Alternate-day fasting results in steady weight loss. The valleys represent fed days, when weight goes back up slightly.
42-Hour Fasts Many clients in the IDM Program routinely skip the morning meal and have their first meal of the day around noon. This makes it easy to follow a sixteen-hour fasting regimen (see here) on regular days. There is nothing magical about eating as soon as you get up. Starting the day with just a large cup of coffee is quite acceptable.
all three diabetic patients were completely off insulin by the end of the two weeks.
patients in the IDM Program quickly realize that fasting is actually quite easy. That’s not to say that there’s not
we tell patients to expect an average fat loss of half a pound per day of fasting.
It is believed that the brain is able to more efficiently use these ketones, possibly leading to improved mental abilities. Ketones have sometimes been referred to as a “superfuel” for the brain.
Ketones generally require thirty-six to forty-eight hours of fasting to ramp up.
From a practical standpoint, it seems rather harsh to end a fast as soon as you have passed its most difficult day. Instead, we encourage patients to continue their fast for seven to fourteen days. A fourteen-day fast delivers seven times the benefit of a two-day fast but is only marginally more difficult.
To help prevent problems in the post-fast refeeding period, there are two steps we recommend: 1. Do not make an extended fast a water-only fast. Drinking homemade bone broth provides phosphorus and other proteins and electrolytes, which reduces the chances of developing refeeding syndrome. And to prevent vitamin deficiency, take a daily multivitamin.
2. Do all your usual activities, especially your exercise program, during your fast. This helps to maintain your muscles and bones.
Drink coffee: Coffee is a mild appetite suppressant. There’s also some evidence that green tea may suppress appetite. Black tea and homemade bone broth may also help control appetite.
Do not change your life to fit your fasting schedule—change your fasting schedule to fit your life. Don’t limit yourself socially because you’re fasting. There will be times during which it’s impossible to fast, such as vacations, holidays, and weddings. Do not try to force fasting into these celebrations. These occasions are times to relax and enjoy. Afterwards, you can simply increase your fasting to compensate. Or just resume your regular fasting schedule. Adjust your fasting schedule to what makes sense for your lifestyle.
Here are some suggestions for that first snack: ¼ to ⅓ cup macadamia nuts, almonds, walnuts, or pine nuts 1 tablespoon peanut butter or almond butter A small salad (instead of salad dressing, try cottage cheese or crème fraîche) A small bowl of raw vegetables with some olive oil and vinegar drizzled on them A bowl of vegetable soup A small amount of meat (for instance, three slices of prosciutto or a slice or two of pork belly)
Many people find that they have more energy during a fast—probably due to increased adrenaline.
fasting improves mental clarity and acuity.
Over the long term, fasting may actually help improve memory. One theory is that fasting activates a form of cellular cleansing called autophagy that may help prevent age-associated memory loss
exercising in the fasted state trains your muscles to burn fat.
