This is MedMind. The newsletter for science backed tips to optimise your diet, sleep and exercise.

In this edition we cover:

🍔 What is intermittent fasting?

✅ What are the benefits of intermittent fasting?

🫵 Should you start intermittent fasting?

You have probably already heard of intermittent fasting. It has quickly become a hot topic in the dieting and wellness world, discussed in many podcasts and articles. It focuses more on when you eat rather than what you eat. Some people swear by it while others are sceptical.

So, is it just another fad? Or does it actually benefit you? And how should you go about starting?

See below for the answers ⬇️

What is it?

If you are “intermittent fasting”, you only eat during a specific time frame. The diet started as a weight loss method and is based on the idea that our ancestors evolved to frequently go several hours or even days without food.

When you eat food, your body utilises the sugar in that food for energy. Periods of fasting exhaust the sugar stores in your body and encourage the burning of fat instead. This is referred to as “ketosis” and has been shown to aid in weight loss.

Many other diets put your body in a state of ketosis (like the ketogenic diet). However, a key difference is that intermittent fasting does not, theoretically, restrict what food you eat. Many people prefer this approach as it allows you to keep enjoying the food you usually would while losing weight.

That said, don’t go overboard. Just because you are intermittent fasting does not mean you should eat McDonald's for eight hours.

Try sticking to a healthy, gut-friendly diet and eating with intent. Or try the Mediterranea diet, shown to be one of the healthiest diets you could follow.

Eat when you want within the 8-hour window, but stop when you feel yourself getting full.

How you can start

There are a many ways of intermittent fasting and some will work better for you than others. Here are two of the most effective ones.

1. 16:8 method. During this diet, males fast for 16 hours of the day and females for 14 hours. This would leave an 8-hour and 10-hour window for eating, respectively. A typical routine would involve not eating after 8pm and delaying the first meal of the next day until noon. However, you could choose to stop eating at 10pm and wait until 2pm the next day to restart. Different timings work for different people.

   Studies on mice found that restricting eating to an 8 hour window protected them from obesity, diabetes and inflammation when compared to mice eating the same amount of calories throughout the day.

2. 5:2 method. In this diet, you would eat normally for 5 days and restrict your eating on 2 days to 600 calories for males and 500 calories for females. There have been fewer studies on this diet, with some finding no different in weight loss when compared to normal calorie restriction. However, this type of diet does seem to improve insulin sensitivity in participants, perhaps making it more suitable for people with diabetes looking to lose weight.

During your “fasting” period, you are allowed to consumer water and zero- calorie beverages such as black coffee and tea (no milk or sugar).

When you first start fasting, you may be very hungry in the mornings before your first meal. This is normal, and over a few weeks, your body should get used to this and regulate your hunger hormone production. If you are really struggling, try drinking coffee to suppress your appetite, or ease into the diet by gradually increasing your fasting window.

What are the benefits?

In addition to weight loss, intermittent fasting has several other benefits (some with more scientific backing than others).

• Thinking and memory. Studies discovered that intermittent fasting boosts verbal memory in adult humans.

• Heart health. Intermittent fasting improved blood pressure and resting heart rates

• Physical performance. Young men who fasted for 16 hours showed fat loss while maintaining muscle mass.

• Obesity and type 2 diabetes. Most available research shows intermittent fasting helps people lose weight and lower circulating glucose levels. Some studies found that patients were able to reverse their need for insulin during intermittent fasting supervised by their doctor, essentially putting their diabetes into remission.

Is it safe (and should you do it)?

Like with other diets, you should check with your doctor if it is safe for you to commence with it. This is especially true if you have existing medical conditions. There are also groups of people that should not be intermittent fasting:

• people under 18

• pregnant women 

• people with type 1 diabetes (there have been no studies on intermittent fasting in type 1 diabetics. What’s more, restricting your diet if you have type 1 diabetes can lead to life-threatening blood sugar levels.

• people with a history of eating disorders.

Like with most things in life, there will be pros and cons to this diet. Give it a go and see what works- you may find yourself feeling sharper and healthier after just a few weeks.

MedMind Weekly Wellness Challenge 

Start your intermittent fasting journey today (if you can safely do so) at a level that you are comfortable with. Keep a journal to track your hunger levels, energy, mood, and any physical changes over two weeks. See how it compares to before you started fasting.

As always, leave any questions you have in the comments and make sure to check your inbox for the next issue!

All the best,

Jan