Intermittent Fasting Tips: Fasting the Healthy Way
Finally, global intermittent fasting science is catching up with our decades of discoveries! L-Nutra has spent 25 years researching the vast effects of fasting on health and the right ways to fast.
What we know is that water fasting is a strong and impactful intervention, but it needs to be done properly to enhance its benefits, otherwise it can lead to some negative side effects.
When considering intermittent fasting and time restricted eating (TRE), the most optimal time frame is to fast between 12 to 14 hours as part of a natural circadian lifestyle. Most centenarians practice a 12:12 TRE method, but it's important to note that they always eat breakfast and finish eating food early, around 7-8pm. They do not snack late at night and deprive their body of food during the day as many 16:8 practitioners end up doing given their busy lifestyles.
After 14 hours of water fasting, the body will switch to a fat burning mode, otherwise known as ketosis. However, those extra hours of water fasting come at a cost to the body such as depriving essential organs of the nutrients they need to function during the day. When we do this, your body will start experiencing adverse symptoms. For instance, the brain might prompt a headache, or your muscles will feel tired. While moderate ketosis (known as nutritional ketosis) has been associated with favorable health outcomes, a deeper level of ketosis is not always favorable to the cardiovascular system.
Many people choose to extend their fast beyond 14 hours (sometimes hitting 16 or even 18 hours without food) because they want - or need - to lose extra weight or improve certain metabolic health factors such as blood sugar and blood pressure.
Like medicine and the positive and negative effects of certain drugs (depending on dose, duration, and prescription), intermittent fasting is as impactful to the body. To reduce the negative side effects that can accompany fasting, the National Institute of Health (NIH) funded our company, L-Nutra, and the Longevity Institute of the University of Southern California to develop a plant-based nutrition technology program that can nourish the body while keeping its metabolism and cells in a fasting mode.
This nutrition technology is now called the Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) which is the first-ever fasting with food method that provides the benefits of fasting while reducing most of the side effects. The FMD has now been tested in 18 university research centers, awarded over 50 patents, and successfully shows that it enhances the benefits of fasting, protects muscles, and induces cellular rejuvenation, all without starving the body on water only!
Hundreds of thousands of 16:8 fasters have now switched to eating the Fasting Bar or Fasting Shake in the morning to get the benefits of extended fasting while nourishing essential organs and muscle in the morning. Many have also began to periodically incorporate the Prolon 5-day Program each year to rejuvenate their cells, burn fat, and support health levels of multiple metabolic markers.
When you eat matters just as much as what you eat.
The average person who follows intermittent fasting is doing it backwards by eating large meals later in the day, often close (or right up) to bedtime. Late night eating interferes with our fat-burning pathways, can impact our ability to sleep properly, and can also lead to high cortisol activity due to extreme fluctuations of insulin activity while we digest our food overnight. It’s no surprise that you don’t wake up hungry after a huge meal right before bed. And yet, your organs still critically need nutrients during daylight hours. When we avoid eating food during the day, cortisol increases, and the rollercoaster continues.
Not to mention, those who eat breakfast consistently rank better health outcomes than those who don’t. This further supports daylight eating and front-loading your food consumption rather than waiting until later in the day.
Consider the most innovative option: fasting with food
Our two decades of scientific research have been so impactful that we’ve dedicated our entire company to formulating products that mimic the effects of fasting while still providing critical nutrients to the body for proper functioning, muscle protection, and healthy aging. In essence, you can fast without the negative side effects! In fact, we have two specific products – the Fasting Bar and Fasting Shake – that can be consumed during your fasting window and will keep your ketone levels elevated while still giving your body and organs the nutrients they need. You can either use these products to elongate your morning fast or consume either as an after-dinner snack to begin your fast overnight.
Choosing the right TRE method for you
There are many forms of intermittent fasting and time restricted feeding patterns. The most optimal for health is a 12:12 TRE eating pattern. With this pattern, you may eat between 8a – 8p and fast overnight from 8p – 8a. The 12:12 has consistently been linked to healthy aging and longevity because it most closely aligns with our body’s natural circadian rhythms, and it also gives us a wide enough range of time to consume all the necessary nutrients we need for optimal health.
Depending on your health goals, a slightly stricter TRE pattern of 14:10 (14 hours of fasting, 10 hours of feeding) may help provide short-term weight loss support. But even this pattern should be elongated once your weight and metabolic goals are reached. At which time, you’d return to as 12:12 pattern.
Prolon Intermittent Fasting Recommendations:
- Front load your food intake to be consumed during daylight hours. Don’t eat late at night. Even intermittent fasting can’t compensate for the health issues this causes.
- Eat breakfast early, and dinner early too.
- If you do want to intermittent fast, do so with our tested and patented nutrition products: the Fasting Bar and Fasting Shake.
- Don’t forget that what you eat matters too. Countless studies point to the importance of food quality and density in benefiting overall health.
- For more comprehensive cellular repair and healthy aging benefits, used our clinically backed and patented Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD),Prolon, 3x a year.
