The benefits of fasting are amazing – especially if you can do a 72-hour fast. Most people will need to build up to a fast this long by starting with a 48-hour fast. It’s a good idea to do a 48 or 72-hour fast periodically – maybe once every month or two.
The benefits of fasting on the immune system have to do with growing a new immune system.
Benefits:
1. Boosts white blood cell count, including phagocytes (macrophages and the neutrophils), T-cells, and B-cells. Phagocytes eat pathogens, clean up debris, they kill off viruses and bacteria using different chemicals.
What Will Trigger Autophagy (anti-aging) More Exercise Or Fasting?
What is Autophagy is a condition. Autophagy is all about anti-aging. It is the recycling of old worn out cell parts (proteins). When we age we have a deficiency of autophagy. Autophagy is very deficient in chronic disease states. It is very important to know how to trigger this condition.
What is a Ketone? A Ketone is not a fat. It is not a carbohydrate. It is not a protein. It has characteristics of both a fat and a carbohydrate but it is not either. It comes from fat. A Ketone is an alternative fuel source. You get Ketones is by lowering your carbohydrates in your diet or you reduce the frequency of eating. This is why we recommend a low carb diet with intermittent fasting. That way you can maximize your ability to make Ketones.
Ketones have many advantages versus regular glucose fuel:
It will increase your oxygen in your body.
It increases your energy.
It supports the brain. In fact your brain prefers Ketones over glucose, same thing with the heart.
If your heart or brain is damaged, Ketones are the answer and they can bypass the mechanical damage pathways and feed the tissues directly.
Most of the body tissues can run on ketones, but some parts need glucose. However, you still don’t need to consume glucose. Your body can make glucose when it needs to through something called gluconeogenesis, glucose, neo meaning new, genesis meaning the creation of.
Your body can make glucose if it needs it from fat, Ketones and proteins. You do not need to consume carbohydrates to get glucose. It does take time to turn the fat into Ketones. It will take between 3 to 5 days. It all depends on how damaged insulin is in your body, how damaged your pancreas is, if you are a pre-diabetic, if you are a diabetic, or if you have insulin resistance, it is going to take longer and longer to adapt but by lowering the carbs and going intermittent fasting you will get there a lot faster.
For those of us who seriously want the healing from fasting, read on.
Autophagy converts cellular debris into energy that gets used for survival. It is a metabolic process by which your cells disassemble and recycle themselves.
Autophagy gets activated primarily while fasting or exercising. If you’ve depleted the major sources of energy your body uses, then it’s going to have to find that energy through other means. Namely, self-eating and recycling.
Here are some benefits of doing the Ketogenic Diet:
you lose weight
your blood sugars now are regulated
you have better mood
you have improved cognitive function, focus, memory concentration
you have less inflammation
you have decreased cravings
The common thread between doing the diet and doing intermittent fasting (IF) is that you have a lowered glucose and you also have lowered insulin.
But there are some very unique additional benefits that occur with fasting. When you do fasting you create an epigenetic effect. Epigenetics means above genes. So if you were born with bad genes or you had a gene that triggered a disease, those genes could be controlled epigenetically.
Effect on your genes. Fasting creates an effect on your genes that turn off the bad genes and turn on the good genes.
2. Autophagy. Autophagy is like getting the junk out of the trunk. All the dead cells all the damaged proteins in your body get recycled and turn into brand new cells. This is why you look younger when you start doing IF because you induce autophagy, which does a lot more than anti-aging but it’s just a cleaning process you’re recycling garbage through the body. That way that garbage doesn’t sit there and create inflammation and a lot of a lot of bad things.
This is an overview of Keto and Intermittent Fasting. We will take a look at how it works and what you may overcome to be Keto adapted.
An average person is having breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks, grazing the whole day.
You may experience some of these symptoms belly fat, fatigue, memory problems, lack of focus, cravings, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and diabetes.
The common cause of these symptoms is insulin resistance, which is causing high levels of insulin.
To fix this is through Keto because Keto is going to lower the carb and it is going to reduce the insulin. Intermittent fasting works because you are going to eat less frequent not the amount but less frequent because every time you eat you trigger insulin. So the combination works really good to lower insulin.
STARTING KETO: Between day 1 and day 3 you go through the transition period. You may feel some temporary symptoms of the low blood sugar and that would be lightheadedness, hunger and cravings maybe a headache.
If you experience this, increase potassium and B vitamins to make the transition smoother. Dr. Berg recommends electrolyte powder and nutritional yeast tablets for this.
In this first stage you eat three meals, no snacks because we are transitioning from sugar to fat. When you make the transition you are going to make new cellular machines that run on fat and not sugar anymore. That is Keto adaptation.
SATISFY HUNGER: The way to get from one meal to the next is to have to some fat in each meal to satisfy you so you are not hungry. The fat is the thing that you need to adjust so you have just the right amount so it is not too much where you feeling bloated and right shoulder pain and a headache and you have just enough to go the next meal when you are satisfied.
Play around with that and adjust. You could have some Brie cheese, nuts, pecans, walnuts, eggs, avocado. Any of those fats are really healthy and if you were to do a hamburger, for example which has twice as much fat as protein versus a steak, which is twice as much protein versus fat you would be better off with the hamburger because the fat helps you go from one meal to the next.
HUNGER GOES AWAY: Also make sure you have enough greens whether it is salad or vegetables because we want to start increasing potassium. You need 4700 milligrams of potassium. That is between seven and ten cups of salad. That is a nutrient-dense food to allow the hunger to go away because your body is finally going to be satisfied with nutrients. You are going to get a lot of potassium to really help reverse insulin resistance.
PREVENT CONSTIPATION: You may experience constipation in which case you might need to even add more potassium or it could be the vegetables that you are consuming you are not used to. Kale for example, if you are having too much kale that can bind you up. If that is the case switch the vegetable.
KETO FATIGUE: You are tired. That usually means low salt. Add some more sea salt. When you are doing a ketogenic diet you need about one teaspoon of sea salt, not table salt, every single day compared over the Standard American Diet you need about 1/4 of a teaspoon. Sea salt will prevent fatigue and help your body with the electrolyte sodium and chloride.
TWO MEALS A DAY: Continue with 3 meals a day until you get used to it. Then you slowly graduate to two meals per day. How? Slowly delay your breakfast. When you wake up in the morning ask yourself am I hungry. If no, go longer keep going longer and longer and longer. If you do this right you wake up at night you have been fasting all night and now you are not hungry the morning push it further and further and further until you are at the lunch. Then we have no more breakfast and you are at 2 meals per day. Do not eat if you are not hungry.
WEIGHT LOSS: At this point some say I was losing weight and I stopped. Do not go by your weight. A lot of people, when you measure their body, it has a lot of fat and not much muscle anymore. On Keto you are going to start growing more muscle because the protein is being retained in the body. Muscle is a little heavier and that is why you are not losing weight.
BEST INDICATOR OF SUCCESS: Measure your waist and that should be shrinking if you are doing this correctly.
PREVENT GOUT, KIDNEY STONES: Some people may have an increase in levels of uric acid. This is normal in this transition. It is temporary.
If you are susceptible to getting a kidney stone you might notice a little pain in your lower back that is because the higher levels of uric acid. Make sure that you are consuming enough lemons, lemon juice or lemon in your water. Lemons help flush that out and counter the effects of stones, gout and this acid.
Apple cider vinegar will also help. Take a tablespoon in some water drink it with your meals with a lemon. (This Blogger prefers Apple Cider Vinegar Capsules.)
NO NEED TO STUFF YOURSELF: You might consume too much food when you are eating two meals a day. You might be afraid that you are going to be hungry. Learn to adjust the food because you do not need the stuff yourself.
CHEATING: If you cheat, your blood sugar will be off then the next day you are going to be really hungry. You are craving carbs because you just bumped yourself out of ketosis. Just get back on the Keto program and continue.
CALORIES: Do not do low calories. Keep your calories high. Make sure your meals are nutrient dense. Eat a little bit more food so you are actually satisfied. Eat about three to six ounces of protein, unlimited vegetables and the rest as fat.
THYROID: Your thyroid does not have to work as hard when you are doing intermittent fasting in Keto. Fat as fuel is more efficient. If your thyroid levels go down a little bit this is completely normal, especially if it is within the normal range.
CHOLESTEROL: Fat is composed of triglycerides and cholesterol so when you release the body fat, your cholesterol has to come out. It has to go through the blood. It may increase temporarily. Most of the cholesterol in your body is made by your own body, only ten percent comes from the diet. If you eat more it makes less, if you eat less it makes more. Our body basically makes about 3,000 milligrams of cholesterol every single day. It needs it for hormones, it needs it for the vision, for the brain, for the nervous system and to act as a Band-Aid to help heal any type of lesions on the arteries.
The real problem is this high insulin that creates the inflammation and the destruction of your arteries so if your cholesterol is a little high, it is temporary.
FAT BURNING: Serious fat burning happens when you are doing between 18 to 23 hours of intermittent fasting. Autophagy starts.
AUTOPHAGY: It is when your cells are recycling old and damaged parts. It is a self-cleaning action. It is cleaning of bacteria, fungus, candida and mold. Your skin is going to start looking better. You are going to have better memory, better a mood, and better cardiovascular function.
SAVE MONEY: You are no longer consuming three or six meals a day, you are only eating two or even one meal a day. You will save between 300 to 600 dollars a month.
There are huge benefits. You have got to keep pushing through it until you get to the serious fat burning.
Dr. Berg is a chiropractor, who specializes in Healthy Keto & Intermittent Fasting. He is the author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan, and is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals.He has taught students nutrition as an adjunct professor at Howard University.
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