What is Intermittent Fasting ?

Science of fasting

The science of fasting in general, when you eat a normal meal, glucose from carbohydrates and fatty acids from fat are the main energy source for your cells after you have eaten glucose is used as a direct source of energy, and fatty acid is stored your fat tissue in the form of triglycerides. When fast means you are eating nothing or very little your body runs out of glucose and needs an alternative source of energy to keep going.

It now gets down your triglyceride into their individual component which is fatty acid and glycerol and then your liver will convert the fatty acids into ketone bodies.

Ketone bodies or ketone for short can be used as an alternative source of energy for many tissues including the brain when you are eating enough food from all three macronutrient groups meaning carbohydrates, protein, and fats.

The number of ketones in your blood is low when you fast these level Rises within the first 8 to12 hours reaching a level between 0.2 to 0.5 millimolar which are maintained for about 24 hours with a frequent increase of 1 to 2 millimolar by around 48 hours.

However, fuels are not ketones only function they also had a major effect on cells and organs for example intermittently having a higher level of ketones does 4 things:

It improves mitochondria function
Mitochondria are often referred to as the powerhouse of our cells. energy in our body is mainly from the process of Mitochondria releasing energy from ATP molecules .when we suffer from metabolic disturbance and obesity power function is reduced but fasting may help to improve this function.

More resistant to stress
Ketones help you become more resistant to stress during this time for food restriction the cells adopt a stress resistance mode. essentially you are making your cells tougher so they can withstand more.

Ketone enhances Autophagy
Auto means self and Phagy means eating so, autophagy means self-eating process.

this referred to when cells purposely eat other cells in your body which sounds like a horrible thing but it's not autophagy give yourself the ability to clean up cellular garbage.

The cellular garbage that normally accumulates in our cells or when you are hurt or when you are sick basically is your cell version of taking out the trash.

When autophagy doesn’t work properly your immune system attacks the cellular carbage and this causes low-grade chronic inflammation. Which is the basis of most chronic diseases?

Ketone help to recover
Ketones do help recovery, when you eat or break your fast the body is forced to switch from fasting to using ketones to glucose.

Now, this is known as metabolic switching depending on what you eat there will be an increase in glucose and your ketone level will decrease in the recovery period there is an increase in the formation of proteins, and in this phase, we will see cell growth including mitochondrial growth as well as cell plasticity which is the ability of your cell to adapt to change in their environment.

The metabolic switching between fuel sources links fasting to many long-term health benefits.

The key though is not to stay in ketosis indefinitely like you do with the keto diet but to swap between ketones and glucose addition health benefits come to play because fasting goes hand in hand with our circadian rhythm.

Circadian rhythm
Your circadian rhythm is your body’s natural clock that links biological processes to day and night.

You could think of almost every cell in your body as having a tiny biological clock that syncs up with the master clock located in your hypothalamus in the center of your brain.

Your master clock sends signals to the body clock throughout the day to regulate your daily activities.

This is why keeping your body aligned with its natural circadian rhythm is ideal and fasting play a part in this because when done correctly it encourages eating during the daytime hours and fasting during the nighttime hours helps to

Lower post-meal blood sugar and insulin level
Lower fat production
Better blood pressure control.
The type of fasting you use and how well it sinks into your circadian rhythm may contribute to your success.