Posted on 05/23/2025 6:41:35 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Intermittent fasting is not only a useful tool for weight loss, it's also shown to have many benefits for metabolic health.
But my latest study shows that you don't need to severely restrict your calories to get the metabolic benefits of intermittent fasting. Even just restricting the number of carbs you eat twice a week may be enough to improve your metabolic health.
My colleagues and I previously ran a study to demonstrate the effects of a fast on the body. We observed that following a day of both total fasting or severe calorie restriction (eating around only 25% of each person's daily calorie requirements), the body was better at clearing and burning the fat of a full English breakfast the next day. Fasting shifted the body from using carbs to using fat. This effect carried on both during the fast and the next day.
Our research has also compared the effects of intermittent fasting to a calorie-matched or calorie-restricted diet. Both groups followed the diet until they lost 5% of their body weight.
Despite both groups losing the same 5% of body weight, and at the same rate, the intermittent fasting group had greater improvements in their metabolic handling.
We recruited 12 overweight and obese participants. Participants were first given a very low-carb diet one day. Another day, they were given a severely calorie-restricted diet (around 75% fewer calories than they'd normally eat). After each fasting day, we gave them a high-fat, high-sugar meal to see how easily their bodies burned fat.
What we found was that the shift to fat burning and improved fat handling of the high-calorie meal were near identical following both the traditional calorie-restricted "fast" day and the low-carb day. In other words, restricting carbs can elicit the same favorable metabolic effects as fasting.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Aside from weight and cholesterol management, how else has your fasting affected you?
You do know that total cholesterol means nothing...and you can have too low cholesterol? It is ApoB, Certain LDL measures, and ratios...IMHO
What is your record? Just curious.
We tried a 7 day and my wife got to 5 1/2 and I told her to stop as she works and was getting to tired. I got to about 6 1/2 and stopped because my mood was becoming depressed.
I see these people who do 20, 30 even more. I always heard the “3” death rule is —
3 min no O2
3 days no H2O
30 days no food
So I think 7 days fast is my max I want.
I find your spread sheet idea fascinating and helpful.
I love spreadsheets, but I use Cronometer to track macros and nutrients (free version).
Yes, I have had genetically high cholesterol all my adult life.
However, my LDL has always been proportionly high too
Up until I started fasting the total number increased and my LDL went up too with my weight gain.
My point is that fasting brought it down with no side effects like I experienced with the five different stations that I tried and eventually stopped taking.
There only seems to be good benefits of losing weight. Like fitting into pants that I had not worn in years.
It is neither ... It is about how the fasting period affects insulin resistance.
Not sure which category you refer to... my highest ketone score was 3.9, but a handful of times I've been over 3.5.
As for IF, I don't religiously track that like other numbers.
Yellow I enter daily, the 2-col blues %protein and %fat, last 3 are total calorie, %protein, %fat. 
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