Why You Should Seriously Consider Fasting and Who Should Not

The Science Of Fasting, Risks & How To Maximize The Benefits

Originally, fasting used to be a cultural practice more than a scientific one. However, over the last few years, this age-old practice has started to attract significant attention from the scientific community as well.

In fact, many investigations have found that the conscious act of taking little or no food/drink could help your health in many ways.

Hopefully, the science-backed benefits of fasting, might also be the same reason why it could end up not being just another diet fad.

Learn the science to avoid the risks, and maximize the effects fasting.

3 Common Ways Of Practicing Fasting Include:

1 - Intermittent Fasting (IF):

It is most probably the hottest diet trend these days. IF is an eating pattern and involves fasting on consecutive or alternate days. For example, in alternate day IF, you fast for a 24-hour period and take a normal diet the following 24 hours. Likewise, in whole-day IF (5:2), you can take a normal diet for 5 days but only very few calories are allowed on the 2 remaining days of the week. Evidently, IF is not a fixed practice rather a set of practices. Moreover, it does not talk about the foods to take on the normal days.

2 - Water Fasting (WF):

This is a stricter practice and allows you to take only water but no food or other drinks for a certain duration. Because water contains no calories, the calorie intake during this period is virtually zero. This is also the reason why a long-term WF is not recommended. Short-term WF has helped some people lose weight.

3 - Fasting-Mimicking Diet (FMD):

In its truest sense, this is not a fasting practice but a dietary intervention that includes low intake of protein and unhealthy fats but a high intake of healthy fats. Studies suggest that FMD could have effects similar to that of fasting. One mice study published in the journal Cell Metabolism found that FMD could make the experimental mice live longer than normal.

Important Tip

Basically, not everyone is fit for starving themselves for hours. If you already have some health issues or are taking some medications, it can cause more harm than good. People with compromised immunity or those with liver or kidney disorder should exercise an extra caution during the fast.

It is critically important that you talk to your doctor before you decide to fast especially if you have any long-term condition.