For decades, science believed that “not eating” would slow the metabolism down, but now we have learned that assumption has been proven false. We now know that your body can only do one process at a time; it can either focus on digestion, or focus on repairing itself. It cannot do both simultaneously. If you are eating from the moment you wake up to the time you go to sleep, the only window the body has to rejuvenate itself is during sleep – only about 8 hours – which is not enough time to do all of the work your body needs to do to keep it running at peak performance – and for a longer timeline.
Example: Rat studies have shown that when you feed one rat all day (100%), and another rat 40% less food (only 60% all day) – the rat with less food stays leaner, but both rats have the same life span. However, add a time restriction window for the 40% less food rat, and that rat lives 40% longer than the previous rats. This experiment proved that calorie restriction plus time restriction (fasting) had increased a rats health and longevity. Eating less and during a specific eating window is the key.
When we choose not to eat, it causes a biological stress to the body to make it think it is in peril. This process is called hormesis. When hormesis is triggered, the body triggers other biological mechanisms to maintain homeostasis (keeping the body in balance and maintaining normal bodily function).
A good example of hormesis would be “stress” caused from exposure to hot or cold. When your body gets too hot, mechanisms trigger your body to sweat – which cools it down to maintain normal body temperature.
Conversely, when your body gets too cold, mechanisms trigger your body to shiver – which warms your body up to maintain normal body temperature. The trigger is the stress, and the body’s desire to remain normal (homeostasis) is the process that makes everything work. The same thing happens with fasting.
Fasting (caloric restriction over a period of time) creates perceived threat of starvation – which is a form of hormesis. The body reacts to the lack of calories and triggers the liver to convert stored fat (stored energy) into ketone bodies (alternative energy source) as a self-defense mechanism. This process is known as ketosis. The fasting process also triggers many other physiological responses when the threat of “no food – no energy” kicks in – which we will cover in the following chapters.
The bottom line is this… if you are constantly eating, the digestion process will always take priority, and the body never gets the proper amount of time to rejuvenate – thus storing excess calories from eating too much and too often as reserve energy (fat). When we fast, we limit our feeding window which gives our bodies more time to initiate fat burning (ketosis) and rejuvenation (autophagy) as a self defense mechanisms to prevent us from getting too fat, too sick, too old – too fast.
Knowing how fasting works requires the basic understanding of the various biological mechanisms fasting will trigger regarding weight loss, fat metabolism, mood, muscle mass, organ, cognition, aging, inflammation, rejuvenation and life span. Your body is more complicated than the traditional truth of “calories in vs calories burned” because there are multiple factors contributing to fat-loss during fasting. You will learn why fasting is a natural process and why fasting is important to our long-term health and longevity. The first key concept is learning the quality, quantity and strategic timing of eating.
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