Humans once lived in a world where hunting was a necessary part of survival. Today that world no longer exist. The lack of it has been much to our benefit. With the rise of agricultural came, constant food supply, larger settlement, and consequently larger waistlines.
As man Domesticated the animals, plants domesticated the man.
Surprisingly, the average hunter would have been much healthier than the average pre-historic farmer. Aside from the obvious increase in activity associated with hunting, hunters would have had a much different eating schedule, most likely only once a day, that is, assuming they were good enough hunters to pull off a catch a day. This old eating schedule has partially resurfaced today as intermittent fasting.
Insulin
We have a social stigma about not eating in America but, if done properly it is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to lose weight there is. Every time you eat your body releases insulin, an anabolic hormone, which means it is used to make the body bigger. In this case by the means converting blood sugar to fat. This on a consistent basis is the mechanism behind insulin resistance and if left unchecked type II diabetes. In many ways intermittent fasting is the check. When you’ve gone roughly six hours without carb-rich food the body releases another hormone called glucagon. This is the antagonist to insulin; it removes the bodies stored sugar, allowing you to burn fat.
(Please read the next sentence very closely) You cannot lose weight in the presence of insulin! To do so would defy biology. Misunderstanding this has led many to try “diets” where they’re told to eat six or more times a day. The participates of diets like this are usually the ones who struggle to lose and now we know why. Many of us were taught that if we stop eating to for a few hours our bodies will go into “Starvation mode” and consume our muscle for energy. I know because I was also taught this. We were completely wrong not eating takes the body into a state of fat burning and autophage. this is your body consuming it’s older, wornout, and defective cells.
Weight Loss
While eating in a normal sunrise to sunset fashion the body is always storing more glycogen (The sugar stored in the liver and muscles) than it’s using, causing the excess to be store as body fat. This is the opposite of what why want. More impressive than this lifestyle change, is the fact that we over looked it, when it seemed like such an obvious fix. IF (intermittent fasting) opens up a time frame where the body has time to deplete its glycogen stores making the body run on its stored fat. Fasting is most commonly done on a 16:8 window. Which means you eat for 8 hours of day and go 16 hours with no calorie intake. Considering half of the 16 is spent asleep you’re most likely beginning to see why this approach is becoming so popular. another common way is 18:6 and 20:4. I personally have used all 3 and I highly recommend using 20:4. Though all have shown significant increases in fat loss. Studies have shown the most significant change happens after the 18 hour mark, . No matter which you do you will notice a change, but this time point is optimal.
Autophage
Autophage is the lesser known benefit to intermittent fasting however, its health benefits don’t fall short in the least. A breakdown of the word gives us “to consume self” I know what you’re probably thinking “It’ll eat my muscle mass” It’s just the opposite. In fact, this is a process completely necessary for building more efficient muscle. A more biologically accurate meaning for the word would be “To self recycle” cells that are no longer helping your body, get digested and used as raw materials. This means old muscle cells are broken down and regenerate (Think hypertrophy) before you’ve even hit the gym! This effect happens all across the body skin cells, eye cells, bones and even nerve cells all get this same recycling treatment. Your body does this to muscle cells naturally post workout. This has been shown to slow down and, in some case reverse, early onset dementia. There are very few things in this world we know of that can slow neurodegenerative diseases. This lifestyle is currently being studied as a treatment for Alzheimer’s.
P.s. I’m incredibly passionate about science & cannot wait to share the results.
But Muscle Loss?
Many of us were conditioned to think going even short periods of time without food could cause your body to “eat its muscle” luckily the body is more intelligent than we know. When insulin is not present the body burns fat, not muscle. In addition to this fasting increases Human Growth hormone also known as HGH exponentially 5x to according to studies from the Journal of endocrinology. but, what does this mean? HGH is responsible for an increase in:
- Fat utilization
- Cell division
- Muscle growth
The increase in fat utilization means that HGH improves the volatility of body fat making it easier for the body to run on this fuel instead of glycogen or muscle. Secondly, the increase in cell division occurs primarily in cells making up collagen, where are these? The muscles, bones, joints, and Skin. This, along with autophage, is why IF has been shown to have such a strong anti-aging effect, and how HGH got the nickname “The Anti-Aging Hormone” all of this and you didn’t even need to spend thousands of dollars on HGH injections.
It’s important to note that the healthy human body will never produce enough HGH to cause the issues seen in Synthetic use.
What should I eat?
Though this is not a diet, what you eat does matter. Because you will be eating on a restricted schedule the food you put in, in a way means more. The highly nutritious breakfast you made of eggs, cheese, bananas, bacon, and avocados. Will mean much more to your body. As with any thing you’re doing to improve your body you want to avoid refined carbohydrates like they’re the plague. This will not only halt fat loss but, be a set back to your health in almost every way. There is an incredible amount of combinations you could eat. A higher fat intake is generally recommended, so you can meet your caloric and nutritional needs. This is one of the reasons I recommend to everyone is Grass Fed Beef as it contains Vitamin D, A, k2, iron omega 3’s and a plethora of other minerals, needed for a healthy body, in one place.
You can learn more about Vitamin k2 by clicking the link. You can also get 100% Grass Fed Ground Beef Bricks 85% Lean, 15% Fat (4 pack)
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The Nutrition Position 