Fasting for a week:
- Causes significant changes in protein levels across various organs.
- May have health benefits beyond weight loss, but only after 3 days.
- Switches energy source from glucose to fat after 2-3 days.
- Average weight loss of 5.7 kg (fat and muscle), with most fat loss sustained after 3 days of eating.
Implications:
- Provides insights into the molecular basis of fasting's health effects.
- Paves the way for developing alternative treatments based on fasting benefits.
- Confirms historical use of fasting for specific health conditions.
There's a lot of data that shows that restricting calories causes your metabolism to lower. Fasting basically causes your body to shift to using fat stores, so it still does have adequate fuel # and your metabolism doesn't fall the same way. It also changes your insulin response, and insulin resistance is one of the reasons you put on weight to begin with. If you're interested, Dr. Jason Fung has written a couple good books on.the subject. He's also put out a bunch of YouTube videos on it.
I've beef doing intermittent fasting for a while, and you do drop a good amount of weight very quickly. Most of it does stay off, but the idea is that you continue to fast periodically for weight management, typically limiting food intake to only a few hours daily.