Long-term fasting: What happens to your body?
Posted: 01 Jan 2020 09:03 PM PST


DAILYKENN.com -- What happens to your body when you fast?

We seen to have an evolutionary history that has programmed us to adopt and even benefit from extended fasting.

Here's what I've learned.



At 12 hours

At about 12 hours, we experience an increase in a peptide called human growth hormone (hGH or HGH). HGH is considered an anti-aging and fat burning hormone. It is also associated with joint healing and protein synthesis (the creation of new proteins). While some may take hormone injections, it seem more advisable to create your own HGH by fasting. (Exercise also increases HGH.) 

At 18 hours

At about 18 hours, autophagy begins. Autophagy is a process in which old, damaged proteins and microbes are recycled. Healthline.org reports that, "Autophagy is the body's way of cleaning out damaged cells, in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells, according to Priya Khorana, PhD, in nutrition education from Columbia University."

Autophagy and anti-aging

When glucose (sugar) and proteins adhere, they become "sticky" and "clog things up," according to Dr. Eric Berg. This is called, "glycation." Glycation, also called non-enzymatic glycosylation, "is the covalent attachment of a sugar to a protein or lipid."

Glycation is implicated in the aging. See sciencedirect.com.
 
Autophagy and amyloidosis

Typical sugars that participate in glycation are glucose, fructose, or their derivatives. During fasting, your body utilized autophagy to recycle these damaged proteins into useful amino acids. Among the abnormal proteins recycled by autophagy are amyloids. These are produced in your bone marrow but can be deposited in other body tissue. Amyloidosis can affect your kidneys, heart, liver, spleen, digestive tract, and digestive system, according to mayoclinic.org. 

At 24 hours

At about 24 hours your liver's glycogen reserve begins to deplete. This causes your body to defer to ketones for fuel rather than glycogen. Those affected with a fatty liver may experience the depletion of this fat as it is converted to ketones. In effect, fasting allows your body to tap into energy that has been stored as fat.

There are benefits of fueling your body with ketones, rather than glycogen. These benefits include appetite suppression, build up of an antioxidant reserve, increased oxygen resulting in your body running on oxygen rather than CO2, and fuel efficiency that results in less stress on your thyroid gland.

Your thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland that sits low on the front of your neck, according to webmd.com. "The thyroid secretes several hormones, collectively called thyroid hormones. The main hormone is thyroxine, also called T4. Thyroid hormones act throughout the body, influencing metabolism, growth and development, and body temperature."

Inflammation drops significantly after 24 hours of fasting. Adding vitamin D is said to further decrease inflammation. This includes inflammatory states such as arthritis and bursitis.

Autoimmune conditions begin to improve at this stage.

Your gut begins to heal due to decreased workload. A condition known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) corrects itself as certain microbes relocate to the large intestine where they belong. SIBO is defined "as the presence of excessive bacteria in the small intestine," according to a report published at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

"Patients with SIBO may also suffer from unintentional weight loss, nutritional deficiencies, and osteoporosis," the report says.

Fasting also results in an increase in stem cell production in the gut.

Your heart functions more efficiently on ketones rather than glucose.

Your brain also functions more efficiently on ketones. A protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) becomes more efficient leading to an effective repair of your brain cells. Specifically, BDNF affects areas of the brain that are vital to memory, learning, and higher thinking.

Beyond 24 hours, your muscles do not lose protein because your body is utilizing energy more efficiently as autophagy utilizes old damaged proteins. What's more, certain genes preserve or spare muscle proteins, rather than expend them. (About 40 percent of a typical 150 lb person is comrpised of muscle. About 20 percent of muscle is protein, according to britannica.com.) 

Autophagy also cleans out microbes, fungai, yeasts, and molds. Your body makes oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide that is utilized to destroy harmful microbes. Antioxidants are also made to protect your body from harmful oxidation and oxidative stress, the result of an imbalance caused by over oxidation.

At 48 hours

At 48 hours, the stimulation of undifferentiated stem cells becomes significant. These are stem cells without a predisposed purpose. They can effectively become whatever cells your body requires. The increase in healing and repair can be expressed as anti-aging.

A decrease in certain types of cancer becomes apparent and certain types of tumors shrink.

Mitochondria production increases.

At 72 hours 

At 72 hours, stem cell production increases at a higher rate.



While long-term fasting has significant benefits, intermittent fasting may be preferred; particularly for those unaccustomed or adapted to fasting. Some recommend fasting for 18 hours per day and limiting food consumption to a six-hour window.

Long term fasting with mineral supplements, vitamin B, and salt is suggested by some.

Some people experience an increase in glucose and subsequent blood sugar. This results from a spike in cortisol that typically occurs at about 8 a.m. The glucose spike is not the result of fasting, but is due to the liver making glucose in response to high cortisol.

What is fasting?

Fasting is usually understood as time period during which nothing is consumed except water. Most would agree that prescription medications should not be excluded during a water fast. Those on prescription medications should consult their physician before embarking on a fast.

Some broaden the definition of a fast to include any substance that has no caloric value, such as diet drinks, or have minimal calories, such as coffee. Some consider fasting to include consumption of anything that does not result in insulin response. Daily doses of MCT oil, olive oil, collagen, etc. are allowed.

Food restriction diets, such as eliminating glucose, fructose, and lactose, are not generally considered fasting, though such diets may be beneficial.

Diets and fasting affect people in different ways according to their types, it is not 100% the same in all people, not even close. I am the type that had to lift weights and eat like a horse to put mass on myself. I had a friend that ran like 5 miles per day on Monday-Thursday, then ran 24 miles on Saturday. He ate lunch with me practically every day (we worked together) and ate like lettuce and water, really strict. I ran nothing. Yet he was chubby and I was buff.

I came back to the Church, got married and never lifted weights again. I still ate without any controls. I started fasting during Lent, I found that any weight that I lost was replaced by fat around the midsection when I began eating again. The fasting seemed to have changed my metabolism, and now I had to be more careful what I ate.  I'm never going to be fat, it is not in my nature, but the fat does now get around the waist, even though I eat less, whereas before I ever fasted not a trace of fat stuck to me.

I am now on the Keto diet and I see that it is eliminating the fat around the waste and not all over. I went from a size 34 to a 31. It also has made my life long heartburn disappear, and also my life long propensity to cramp up. My joints are very limber now too.

My fasting during Lent was not a total fast or anywhere close, it is what the Church suggested in the 1940's, as taught to me by my priest ordained in 1952. Only one meal with meat per day, and the two other meals can't equal the one meal. One can easily cheat on the instruction by pigging out on the one meal and then they can eat two smaller meals that are  one ounce less. What I di is have two eggs in the morning. Then hold out till like 5pm and eat dinner. Then at like 10pm I'll have a piece of cheese and an apple. Or a piece of sprouted bread with a piece of cheese. 

My fasting during Lent was not a total fast or anywhere close, it is what the Church suggested in the 1940's, as taught to me by my priest ordained in 1952. Only one meal with meat per day, and the two other meals can't equal the one meal. One can easily cheat on the instruction by pigging out on the one meal and then they can eat two smaller meals that are  one ounce less. What I di is have two eggs in the morning. Then hold out till like 5pm and eat dinner. Then at like 10pm I'll have a piece of cheese and an apple. Or a piece of sprouted bread with a piece of cheese.

This sort of religious fast affects the body differently than a total (water only) fast.  In terms of physiology, the traditional Lenten fast is calorie restriction rather than a fast.  Calorie restriction slows the metabolism so it is common for people to put on fat around the middle when the resume eating at the former calorie level.  The total fast does not slow the metabolism the same way due to hGH and other factors.   

I have actually been thinking about how to combine the traditional fast with a health fast this Lent.  I think it might work to eat one very low carbohydrate/ relatively high calorie meal a day.

I'm looking at the one-meal-a-day option as well, but from what I read restricting carbs excessively isn't necessary to reap the benefit.  That was in fact the original Lenten fast, one meal per day, and the smaller meals were added later.  My brother and I both joke that we always GAIN weight during Lent, despite eating less overall.

That is what I understand too.  There are benefits even without restricting carbs.  But I have been successfully treating prediabetes and Fatty Liver disease with a keto diet for a while so I want to stay low carb over Lent.

(Last Tradhican said I started fasting during Lent, I found that any weight that I lost was replaced by fat around the midsection when I began eating again. The fasting seemed to have changed my metabolism, and now I had to be more careful what I ate.  )

In terms of physiology, the traditional Lenten fast is calorie restriction rather than a fast.  Calorie restriction slows the metabolism so it is common for people to put on fat around the middle when the resume eating at the former calorie level.  

That was my experience.
"It is good to know that I know what I'm doing". Thanks for the education.

Good post. Fasting is excellent for the body,mind and the soul. there are so many benefits from fasting, I wouldn't know where to begin. Let's just start with losing visceral fat around the midsection and other parts of the body. Not too mention an increase in mobility and flexibility so you can get up and move around. And that's the other most important part of overall health. You have to eat less and move more. It is literally diet and exercise, nothing new here.

We have so many ridiculous diet plans out there it's insane. You want to lose weight? Stop eating! It's that simple. And cheap.No special "meal plans" or books or strategies  or even an exercise program you have to spend money on.

Just do the most natural thing and stop shoveling so much food into your mouth.Stop thinking about food or watching foodie programs or going into the kitchen every five minutes. Just stop. Take the time to read up on educational or spiritual things.


Fasting is a discipline. It's is a rigorous regime of self-control and self-denial practiced by the mystics and religious for thousands of years. I believe that's what separates Catholicism ( and to some extent Orthodoxy) from those outside of the Church. Well, it did at one time. Today, outside of trad-dom, there are very few Catholics who even attempt the rigors of disciplines like fasting and prayer like it was pre-Vatican II. Now, we're not much different from the instant-gratification and "feel-good" churches that the protty's and evanjelly's propagate all the time. No work, no suffering, no discipline.


There's nothing real or spiritual in that.



  

Diets and fasting affect people in different ways according to their types, it is not 100% the same in all people, not even close. I am the type that had to lift weights and eat like a horse to put mass on myself. I had a friend that ran like 5 miles per day on Monday-Thursday, then ran 24 miles on Saturday. He ate lunch with me practically every day (we worked together) and ate like lettuce and water, really strict. I ran nothing. Yet he was chubby and I was buff.

I came back to the Church, got married and never lifted weights again. I still ate without any controls. I started fasting during Lent, I found that any weight that I lost was replaced by fat around the midsection when I began eating again. The fasting seemed to have changed my metabolism, and now I had to be more careful what I ate.  I'm never going to be fat, it is not in my nature, but the fat does now get around the waist, even though I eat less, whereas before I ever fasted not a trace of fat stuck to me.

I am now on the Keto diet and I see that it is eliminating the fat around the waste and not all over. I went from a size 34 to a 31. It also has made my life long heartburn disappear, and also my life long propensity to cramp up. My joints are very limber now too.

My fasting during Lent was not a total fast or anywhere close, it is what the Church suggested in the 1940's, as taught to me by my priest ordained in 1952. Only one meal with meat per day, and the two other meals can't equal the one meal. One can easily cheat on the instruction by pigging out on the one meal and then they can eat two smaller meals that are  one ounce less. What I di is have two eggs in the morning. Then hold out till like 5pm and eat dinner. Then at like 10pm I'll have a piece of cheese and an apple. Or a piece of sprouted bread with a piece of cheese.

I wonder, when you say that you put on fat at the midsection now - do you mean that you more fat easier after fasting, or merely that the fat distribution has changed?
The former would be metabolic, the latter caused by hormonal changes. 

I personally have seen the best response from my body (as far as weight loss and joint/back pain reduced) when I am on a 75% vegan and 25% vegetarian diet(organic/ non gmo)...with the exception of taking supplements that come from animals such as collagen, cod liver oil, etc