Fasting = You X Two

Corey Boutwell

Mar 24, 202011 min read

I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency - Plato

Corey Boutwell

March 2020

Article Quick Glimpse

There are three types of fasts intermittent fasting fast for 16 hours eat only in an 8 hour period, one 24 hours fast a week, and the 2 and 5 eat normally for 5 days and very small calories for two days and the OMAD (one meal a day)
Intermediate level of fasting occurs from 32 hours on wards up to 3 days.
Fasts that prolong 3 days need to have facilitation and an expert advising you
Fasting days will be your most productive days, clearest highest energy days
We are supposed to be fasting
Fasting increases human growth hormone levels drastically
Fasting cleanses your stomach
Fasting causes autophagy - Autophagy is the process where your body eliminates all the bad cells or old cells in your body that need to go and creates new ones. This is amazing for antiaging
Fasting is anti-aging
Fasting is perfect for your health, strength and muscle mass, it is good and you should consider it. Just be mindful that it is best to know what you’re doing then fasting.
Glyn Money is experienced with over 48-hour fasts and offers programs if you would like to learn and grow yourself spiritually. Click here to get into contact with him.

What is Fasting

Below is a definition of fasting:

"Fasting is the willing abstinence or reduction of some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time."

Firstly fasting is a critical tool to improve your relationship with food and optimises your mind and body.

Fasting is one of the most natural things humans can do, supposed to do and meant to do. Our bodies have not changed that much for thousands of years.

Hundreds to thousands of years ago we would hunt animals and food was nowhere near as abundant as it is today so as a result, our ancestors would go for sustained periods without food until the next hunt. This means we are adapted to fasting.

Question: How would we be able to hunt effectively, track and catch an animal if we are tired and exhausted due to an empty stomach?

That simply is not the case, our brains put our body and minds into a superhuman mode where we can think as clearly, focus more intently and perform at our best. This is to help us succeed in hunting, tracking and catching an animal.

Our bodies are adapted to fasting, we are supposed to be fasting and there are so many benefits that come with fasting.

Questions:

When was the last time you have intentionally gone through a period of time without eating food? If you do not practice fasting you may never have as food is literally everywhere.
You may have heard about it or even tried it a couple of times but have you made it a habit to use fasts on a regular basis for a long period of time?
Do you know about the benefits?
Do you know what happens inside your body when you fast?
Do you know what type of fasting you should try?
If you don’t we will get into it.

The Body When Fasting

Fasting essentially cleanses the body of toxins, resets stomach lining, and forces cells into processes that can only occur when there is no steady influx of food.

Fasting prevents the body from having a store of glucose (carbs and sugars), this makes the cells of your body use fats and other means to produce energy. This causes the body to start a process called: gluconeogenesis. This is when the body naturally makes its own glucose (carbs and sugars) to use as fuel. The liver supports gluconeogenesis by making glucose energy out of lactate (lactic acid), amino acids, proteins and fats.

Our bodies also like to conserve energy during a fast as the amount of energy our bodies burn while we rest is lower (due to not having to digest food either) is lower and more efficient our heart rates and blood pressure lower (so don't stand up too quickly on a fast day unless you got someone to catch you).

Facts:

8 hours of fasting the liver will use the last of its glucose reserves and we enter gluconeogenesis.
Gluconeogenesis causes the body to burn more calories making glucose using mainly fat
The bodies true starvation mode occurs after a few days with no food
Fasting causes mild stress on the body, this forces our cells to adapt and they become stronger. The same way our muscle cells become stronger with lifting weights.

The Fasting Body Clock

When fasting starts:

4 - 8 hours in the blood sugars fall all food leaves the stomach and no insulin produced
12 hours - food consumed has been burned by the digestive system and then it goes to rest, the body begins healing HGH increases and glucagon is released to balance blood sugars
16 hours - the body is ramping up fat burning
18 hours - Human Growth Hormone (HGH) skyrockets
24 hours autophagy begins and ketones enter the bloodstream
36 hours autophagy increases by 300%
48 hours autophagy increases 30% more, Immune system resets and regeneration increased reduction in inflammatory response Drains glycogen stores (between 48-72)
72 hours autophagy maxes out and plateaus

What else gets cleaned up?

Ketosis happens as part of fasting or your body running off fats as fuel.

Ketosis is not the goal but it will occur during a fast.

It is important to keep in mind when this happens the body releases uric acid into the bloodstream which asks as like dish washing liquid to detoxify your body.

In this stage cholesterol lowers, blood pressure drops and there is a chance of experiencing headaches, dizziness, fatigue, skin rashes and muscle pain. However, this is usually only experienced the first few times until the body adapts to the process.

The digestive system gets a good rest and clean out.

Fasting is an ancient tradition used for curing illness of all kinds, rejuvenation, clarity and decision making, cleansing and strengthening.

You may have noticed you lose your appetite when you're sick. The digestive system can drain the energy needed for healing as it takes up so much energy digesting. Hence, why it is so important to give your stomach a rest.

Emotional Detox

Fasting resets your relationship with food by giving you a huge reminder of how much your life revolves around food.

A huge component of fasting is the emotional side where not enough credit is given to your fast, you will notice yourself feeling hungry to the point that it may start to feel overwhelming.

At some stages during your fasts all you will be able to think about is how much time you have left till eating time and what food you are going to eat next.

You will also notice that your body will send you mental or physical signals at times during the day you usually eat food. This is a grounding experience reminding you how much your day revolves around eating.

You may also notice emotional triggers when you are hungry, see food, hear about food or smell food that bring up feelings of anger, frustration, feeling down or sadness. It is crucial to deal with those emotions as they come and to remind yourself that there is a perfectly logical reason for your fasting.

“Try not to take out your emotions on people in your life and take some time to meditate or concentrate on something else rather than being hungry. Focus on an activity that doesn’t require a lot of bodily effort.”

Also, know that after your fast, when you break your fast will bring extreme satisfaction and endorphins (happy hormones).

Fasting resets your ghrelin (the hunger hormone) levels and helps to “discipline your hunger”. Hence, improving your relationship with food overall.

Fasting led to increased irritability, and also to positive effective experiences of an increased sense of achievement, reward, pride, and control.

Fasting has shown to increase antidepressant effects as it signals areas of the brain to activate that have antidepressant effects.

It is also important to note that during the emotional detox due to ketosis your brain will be working more efficiently. You may be more irritable but you can also feel on top of the world with giant mood spikes and clear thinking.

Human Growth Hormone

Fasting increases growth hormone secretion, which is vital for growth, metabolism, weight loss and muscle strength

Human growth hormone (HGH) is a type of protein hormone that is central to many aspects of your health.

In fact, research shows that this key hormone is involved in growth, metabolism, weight loss, muscle strength and muscle size.

Fasting is the natural way to increase HGH.

Human growth hormone secretion doubles for a 24 hour fast and increases 5 fold for a 2 day fast.

Glucose and fatty acids suppress growth hormone from being releases while certain amino acids stimulate secretion. Hence, while around training I recommend using some amino acids like glutamine, glycine or EAAS as this may be able to enhance HGH while fasting.

You can see on the diagram below where meals are eaten marked M (on CONTROL day) suppress HGH from increasing. HGH hormone is suppressed during eating and like cortisol, HGH increases glucose and thus is suppressed during feeding time.

Fasting is a great stimulus to HGH secretion. During fasting, there is the spike in the early morning, but there is regular secretion throughout the day as well.

Important quote from a study: “HGH likely helps in the maintenance of lean mass – both muscle and bone. One of the major concerns about fasting is the loss of lean mass.

Some people claim that fasting a single day causes loss of ¼ pound of muscle. Studies prove that this does not occur. In fact, the opposite can happen. In comparing caloric reduction diets to fasting, the short term fasting was 4 times better at preserving lean mass!”

In other words, for health, strength and muscle mass fasting is good and you should consider it.

Note* that if you do not know what you're doing when it comes to fasting the opposite may also occur meaning lose muscle ahhhhh!

So just be sue you know what your doing feel free to reach out.

Autophagy

Autohopgy is the body's anti aging mechanism and is extremely needed, important and rare to occur.

Basically, it's a clean up system that removes dead cells and fights against:

Cell death
Aging
Cancer
Neurodegenerative diseases
Infections
Diabetes
Embryogenesis and cell differentiation

- Auotphagy is Extremely Important" but hardly occurs unless your practice fasting.

Deep Dive:

Autophagy is the intracellular turnover of proteins and cells that has a role in regulating what happens to cells in response to stress and occurs in all species.

Not allowing autophagy to happen allows old toxic proteins to build up and cause neurodegeneration (death of neurons in the brain).

Autophagy clears neurotoxic proteins which prevents this from neurodegeneration from happening.

Therefore, activating autophagy clears the and cleans the body and brain preventing it from happening causes enhanced cellular stress and neurodegeneration.

Autophagy declines as we age, so this means cells that no longer work or may do harm are allowed to multiply, which is the MO of cancer cells.

Autophagy is recycling and cleaning at the same time, just like hitting a reset button to your body. Plus, it promotes survival and adaptation as a response to various stressors and toxins accumulated in our cells

Fasting or food restricting is a simple, free, reliable, harmless option that can be used for autophagy instead of using drugs.

Researchers note that autophagy occurs somewhere around 20 to 24 hours, and it probably maxes out somewhere around 32 hours.

5 Practical Benefits

Can have black tea, black coffee, bone broth, water, lemon and salt.
Fasting costs nothing and SAVES money.
Fasting saves you SO MUCH TIME. Not worrying, thinking, planning, organising or preparing food is just a huge weight off the shoulders.
Mental Strength - Increases your relationship with food and your ability to say no. Your internal power increases.
Useful tool - Can be done anywhere anytime. Is great for high productive periods and travel.

Fasting ties in with Sleep, Hydration & Bone Broth

Fasting as you know helps spike human growth hormone, this hormone also spikes the highest during your sleep. So if you fast overnight time you will get certain human growth hormone benefits.

Your sleep quality declines when your body is focused on digesting food overnight. If your stomach is relatively empty, your brain and body will be more inclined to heal and recover you more efficiently during sleep.

Fasting requires you to drink more water as your body is cleansing itself and it is not receiving water through food.

It is CRITICAL to drink more water and be as hydrated as possible. I drink 1.5 times the amount of water I usually do on a fast.

As your guts get a rest from digesting food and your stomach replaces and heals its lining. It is important to note that if you eat some gut healing foods this may increase the process.

Hence, why I believe Bone broth is the true best way to break a fast if you read my article HERE you will learn about the benefits to the gut bone broth has.

I believe that when your stomach is empty and is ready for food, using bone broth which helps heal the gut when it is fresh supercharges healing.

How to Fast

I find the best way to fast is count your hours when you finish eating dinner.

Have an earlier dinner and finish eating at lets say 6.30 pm. You then break your fast by eating again and 6.30 pm the next day. Simple!

You can use the app Zero too; it tracks your hours.

As your body is cleansing itself it needs more water not just to feel more full but as many foods are made up of water so your intake will increase.

There are multiple ways to do this fast as well.

You can do:

Water/salts only which promote the greatest results for autophagy
Fat & amino assisted fasting
Black coffee fasting - highly debatable topic to have coffee or not during a fast
Fat & amino assisted fasting is a great way to reap benefits and nutrients from some foods. Fats are also the brain's primary fuel source so the brain also receives maximum benefits and can supercharge your ability to think clearly.
I find that aminos are important if you are training on a fast as they get absorbed into the bloodstream extremely quickly.

I also have the opinion that if you're on a fast your stomach is not focused on digesting food like it normally is resulting in better digestion for these aminos allowing your body to get the most benefit from them.

LETS DO THIS THING!

This may work best for you if you are not experienced with fasting or if you prefer the benefits of coffee, fat and amino assisted fasting.

Wake up - 1litre water, high quality salt (celtic) lemon wedge
Mid morning 2 - 2.5L water complete - Black coffee or bulletproof coffee
Lunch 3-4L complete - Bone broth (Best of the bone)
Before and after training - EAAS - Glutamine - Glycine - Electrolyte Blend + 1 L of water
Dinner time 4-5L water complete

CRITICAL: break the fast with something healthy - the 26 Ingredient shopping list is the perfect ingredient list to choose from for breaking a 24 hour fast.

Breaking longer fasts (from 48 hours on-wards) may need to be broken with easier foods of the gut (like bone broth).

Fasting Schedule

Screenshot as a reminder*

What to expect and how you will feel fasting

When you are fasting for the first couple of times you will feel hungry towards the end of your fast.

Fasting days should be your most PRODUCTIVE days.

You have the time, energy and focus to GET SHIT DONE.

You are not worried about food or eating. You have all the time of that day to focus on what you need to.

Your brain and body also are not focused on digesting so all the energy goes into your brain. I call fasting days my SUPERHUMAN days. That's why I called the article Fasting = You x Two.

You're at your most clearest thinking and highest energy on a fast day so use it to its full potential.

Once you have also passed the threshold of worrying about eating your fasting days can also be your happiest so enjoy them.

Contact

If you resonate with this article, would like to talk to us, are interested in one of our programs or workshops, we would love to help you or even come do a talk at your workplace.

You can email us at: boutcore@gmail.com

You can use Corey10 to get 10% off Bone Broth here: https://theherbaldoctors.com/products

Big Love

Corey

References

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