Fasting Your Way to a Better Body

Do you feel like you are eating well and exercising enough but there are still stubborn pounds that refuse to budge?   Our bodies just don't seem to respond like they once did in our youth.  Yes, it is true that our metabolism slows down with aging – we burn fewer calories in our normal daily activities making it easier to put on extra weight and all that much more difficult to lose those extra pounds.  Hormonal changes, especially for women that begin with the onset of menopause, impact the ability to take off excess fat and are a key contributor.¹  Still, all is not lost.  You don’t have to sit back and blame age or hormonal fluctuations for putting on excess weight.   The focus of a health-promoting diet must be on optimizing micronutrient intake and not overdoing the macronutrients (calories).  Once you have that down and are ready to go further, there are ways to maximize the weight loss results.

Would you like to be let in on a secret that improves your ability to reduce body fat and feel more energized even as you get older, and may even help you live longer?  It’s not a pill, or a special drink, or a gym membership. Best of all, it doesn’t cost anything.

As important as it is to understand what foods you should or should not be eating to maximize your nutrient intake and optimize your health, you also need to understand how your body processes those foods in order to understand how to optimize your body’s ability to burn fat, eliminate toxins and repair cell damage – and ultimately extend your lifespan.   

When we eat a meal our metabolic process begins by breaking down the food so that the energy can be absorbed and fuel our cells.  This is known as the anabolic phase in which we are capturing, using, and storing energy.  We typically consume more food energy than we can use at one time and store the surplus.  The excess glucose is stored as an energy reserve (glycogen) in the liver and muscle tissues.  However, there is limited storage space and once the threshold is met the rest of that glucose is converted and stored as fat on the body.  And unfortunately, there is no limit to the body’s ability to store fat!

The second phase of metabolism is the catabolic phase in which stored energy is broken down and released to fuel cells.  This begins  when digestion is completed and we start using our glycogen reserves for energy. In the early part of the catabolic phase we are burning any fat still lingering in the bloodstream from the meal, as well as glycogen, then as more and more glycogen gets used from storage sites for energy, and these energy reserves diminish, then proportionally more and more fat is utilized from body stores for energy. The most fat is burned from storage at the tail end of the catabolic phase, when glycogen stores are lowest.  The catabolic phase activities, occurring after digestion of the meal is finished, is also when cellular repair and elimination of toxins is heightened. Frequent eating prevents us from heavily burning our fat stores, and from entering this beneficial cellular repair phase.

So here is the secret, get to the second half of the catabolic phase, and stay there as long as possible to burn extra fat.

You don’t have to be concerned about limiting the total calories that you are consuming, but just the time period in which you are eating. When you finish dinner earlier and allow longer periods in the night for catabolism, (without eating), you end up reducing calories without trying and burning more fat.  Here are some guidelines for time-restricted eating to prolong the catabolic phase. 

• Stop snacking, do not eat in between meals
• Only eat when you are truly hungry
• Do not eat after dinner (and try to finish eating for the day by 7 pm)
• If possible, limit your meals to twice a day and within a 6-8 hour window
• Do not eat animal products at dinner, to allow for a quick and light anabolic phase.

Of course, the starting point is eating a healthful diet.  Only with proper choice of nutrient-rich plants, can the second phase of the catabolic phase be comfortable enough to maintain.  Low-nutrient foods cause a greater buildup of toxins and increase inflammation and damage of cells.  As a result there is a heightened detoxification response at the onset of the catabolic phase.   During this state of high detoxification activity with the need to mobilize more waste products, the individual experiences uncomfortable symptoms and often feels fatigued and even ill.  In order to feel better, people will often start eating again to revert back to the anabolic phase.  As you would imagine, this is what leads to overeating and the storage of even more fat.  This vicious cycle is propelled by these withdrawal symptoms, which I call toxic hunger.²  With poor choice of foods, you feel too weak and ill to wait that long to eat again, so people never lose weight, because they are forced to eat too frequently.  However, when your diet is based on nutrient-dense, plant-rich foods, you will not feel these uncomfortable hunger pains from extending the time period between meals or even skipping a meal.   

Not only does this approach leave you feeling better and looking better, but scientific studies suggest it could  extend your life.  Studies show that this type of high micronutrient eating, in conjunction with moderate caloric restriction, can increase lifespan by improving health indicators and counteracting disease processes³.

1. Lovejoy JC, Champagne CM, de Jonge L, et al. Increased visceral fat and decreased energy expenditure during the menopausal transition. Int J Obes (Lond) 2008, 32:949-958.
2. Fuhrman J, Sarter B, Glaser D, Acocella S. Changing perceptions of hunger on a high nutrient density diet. Nutr J 2010, 9:51.
3. Mattson MP, Allison DB, Fontana L, et al. Meal frequency and timing in health and disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014, 111:16647-16653.