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Intermittent Fasting for more energy?

Fasting is an ancient ritual that we see all over the world in many different cultures. It is inseparable from humanity. Fasting is practiced to purify the body, both physically and mentally.

Hunger is an anticipated response. It is caused by the hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin release has to do with the last meal and when you wake up. The later you eat, the later the body releases ghrelin, and the less hungry you feel.

To lose fat, you don't necessarily have to stick to a certain diet. Intermittent Fasting has gained quite a bit of attention in recent years, but in-depth studies with hard data and proper results are still lacking. It is still very early stages in this regard. In this blog, we tell you more about Intermittent Fasting. What exactly does this method entail and is it actually that healthy?

Intermittent Fasting is not a diet that determines what you can and cannot eat. This ensures that you do not get the cravings for something tasty, something that people often suffer from on the many crash diets. The trick to this method lies in the alternation of 'strict' periods in which you do not eat with periods in which you just eat what you feel like. Having said that, keep in mind: feed your body, don’t just fill it. Intermittent Fasting has three variants, increasing in difficulty.

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In Western society, the body mainly runs on the basis of carbohydrate combustion. The western world mainly eats carbohydrates and is geared to the fact that we need this for more energy and general functionality of the body. During fasting, the carbohydrate reserves in the body are depleted. The body can only store a limited amount of carbohydrates in the body. Fat, on the other hand, can be stored indefinitely by the body! So when the carbohydrate reserves are exhausted, something else in the body has to take over this function, your body needs fuel. At that point, the stored fat takes over. After roughly 12 hours, the stored fat is used to such an extent that they take over this role completely.

With a “normal” diet or eating pattern, you usually eat your last meal around 7/8 pm. When you take your breakfast 12 hours later, you interrupt the exact moment that the body starts using the stored fat as fuel.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day – is it though?

It is often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but is it really so? And if so, how do you combine this with Intermittent Fasting? The biggest difference is in the words skip and delay. At Intermittent Fasting you don't skip your breakfast, you shift your "eating window". Your eating window is the period in which you are “allowed” to eat. The problem with people skipping breakfast often starts at the basics. It is not a conscious choice, but it is forced. They still have to do the last few things quickly before they have to show up at the office or have their first digital meeting in the home office. As a result, they decide to skip breakfast and eat something quickly or to get something from a vending machine at the office at a later time. The rhythm and regularity have been disrupted from the start. This gives them an energy deficit and they start to compensate for this in the worst way possible, with empty calories. These types of people often have irregular lifestyles, so for those people skipping breakfast is not a good idea.

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Intermittent Fasting is different. You shift your eating window so that you don't skip breakfast but delay it. In this case, you extend the fat-burning period and the body finally gets the chance to use the stored fats as fuel for the body.

Some people wake up feeling hungry, so they find it difficult to sustain IF. If this is you, and you find it difficult you can use the so-called “build-up protocol”. This means that you slowly let your body get used to not eating for a longer period of time. This build-up protocol usually lasts 1-2 weeks where you delay your first meal more and more and let your body and mind get used to it.

Three Variants of Fasting

8/16

You can eat for 8 hours a day and fast for the remaining 16 hours. In these 16 hours, you eat absolutely nothing. You only drink water or coffee/tea without milk and/or sugar. At what time to start your 8-hour eating period is up to you. Based on your lifestyle you know what’s best for you. It really has an effect if you keep this up for a longer period of time, we recommend a period of 6-8 weeks. The fat percentage will decrease but your functional muscle mass will be preserved.

5/2

Here you eat 'normal' for 5 days a week, and the remaining 2 days you fast according to the above 8/16 variant.

5/2 Advanced

You eat normally for 5 days BUT...the other two days you eat nothing. Zero. Drinking water and tea and coffee without milk and/or sugar is allowed. Drinking plenty of water is especially important to prevent dehydration.

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Positive effects on your health

Intermittent Fasting has many proven positive effects on your health. We list some of these effects here.

  • Periodic fasting has a positive influence on your cholesterol level. This is mainly because the amount of unhealthy cholesterol (LDL) decreases. Furthermore, fasting also improves the balance between healthy cholesterol (HDL) and unhealthy cholesterol (LDL). This reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
  • Improving your insulin sensitivity. This reduces the risk of getting diabetes (type 2 diabetes).
  • Intermittent Fasting ensures the loss of body fat through higher combustion. Research also shows that people eat less (an average of 20% ) when they fast periodically than when they eat 'normal'.
  • Using Intermittent Fasting is a relatively easy way to regulate your weight within a certain bandwidth. This is the problem with many crash diets, it is unsustainable and you quickly gain weight again.
  • Cognitive benefits: It keeps the mind sharp!

More effective fat mass loss

Various studies have shown that you lose fat mass more effectively with Intermittent Fasting than with a calorie-restricted diet. This is due to the influence of fasting on the production of three hormones: the human growth hormone, insulin, and noradrenaline (it sounds more complicated than it is).

  • The human growth hormone ensures the burning of body fat and it has a positive effect on the maintenance of functional muscle mass. It also plays an important role in the repair of cells and tissues. Depending on how long you fast, you can temporarily produce more than five times as much growth hormone.
  • Carbohydrate intake regulates the production of the hormone insulin. This hormone in turn ensures the absorption of glucose from our blood. And it tells the body when to store fat and when to stop burning fat. So far so good. But when you eat too many carbohydrates, your insulin sensitivity becomes unbalanced. As a result, your body makes more and more insulin. In the long run, this can even lead to diabetes. Intermittent fasting improves your insulin sensitivity and allows your body to process carbohydrates better.
  • When you fast, your body produces norepinephrine. This stress hormone makes you more alert and gives your body a signal to release the fatty acids from the fat cells for combustion. Noradrenaline increases the metabolism by 10% after 24 hours of fasting.
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BE AWARE!

Intermittent Fasting and fasting in general puts stress on the body. Short-term stress on the body is not bad, in some cases even good as the body starts to adapt - long-term stress however is not good at all. Prolonged stress on the body can lead to stress response, i.e. the feeling that you’re losing control, a disturbed metabolism, grumpiness, fatigue, headaches, and even hair loss.

It is recommended to do Intermittent Fasting in blocks of 6-8 weeks. After this, you should take a break of 2-3 months and then repeat the 6-8 weeks fasting block again.

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How Can Energy Gum Contribute to Intermittent Fasting?

At the beginning of the fasting period, the body has to adapt. This can make you feel tired and lifeless. Less energy, less concentration, and with too little water even suffer awful headaches. Trust the process. This will disappear after 1 to 2 weeks. How energy gum can help is quite simple. GRIZZ Energy Gum is sugar-free, so it does not break the fasting period. This allows you to enjoy all the benefits of both energy gum and fasting. Lose fat, feel fitter, more energetic, and do not suffer from concentration problems. It will be easier to sustain.

You can order your energy gum here!

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References

Patterson, R. E., & Sears, D. D. (2017). Metabolic Effects of Intermittent Fasting. Annual review of nutrition37, 371–393. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-071816-064634

Lessan, N., & Ali, T. (2019). Energy Metabolism and Intermittent Fasting: The Ramadan Perspective. Nutrients11(5), 1192. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11051192

Zubrzycki, A., Cierpka-Kmiec, K., Kmiec, Z., & Wronska, A. (2018). The role of low-calorie diets and intermittent fasting in the treatment of obesity and type-2 diabetes. Journal of physiology and pharmacology : an official journal of the Polish Physiological Society69(5), 10.26402/jpp.2018.5.02. https://doi.org/10.26402/jpp.2018.5.02

de Cabo, R., & Mattson, M. P. (2019). Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease. The New England journal of medicine381(26), 2541–2551. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1905136

Dong, T. A., Sandesara, P. B., Dhindsa, D. S., Mehta, A., Arneson, L. C., Dollar, A. L., Taub, P. R., & Sperling, L. S. (2020). Intermittent Fasting: A Heart Healthy Dietary Pattern?. The American journal of medicine133(8), 901–907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.03.030

Liu, K., Liu, B., & Heilbronn, L. K. (2020). Intermittent fasting: What questions should we be asking?. Physiology & behavior218, 112827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.112827

Malinowski, B., Zalewska, K., Węsierska, A., Sokołowska, M. M., Socha, M., Liczner, G., Pawlak-Osińska, K., & Wiciński, M. (2019). Intermittent Fasting in Cardiovascular Disorders-An Overview. Nutrients11(3), 673. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11030673

Patterson, R. E., Laughlin, G. A., LaCroix, A. Z., Hartman, S. J., Natarajan, L., Senger, C. M., Martínez, M. E., Villaseñor, A., Sears, D. D., Marinac, C. R., & Gallo, L. C. (2015). Intermittent Fasting and Human Metabolic Health. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics115(8), 1203–1212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2015.02.018

Freire R. (2020). Scientific evidence of diets for weight loss: Different macronutrient composition, intermittent fasting, and popular diets. Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.)69, 110549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2019.07.001

Stockman, M. C., Thomas, D., Burke, J., & Apovian, C. M. (2018). Intermittent Fasting: Is the Wait Worth the Weight?. Current obesity reports7(2), 172–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-018-0308-9

Levy, E., & Chu, T. (2019). Intermittent Fasting and Its Effects on Athletic Performance: A Review. Current sports medicine reports18(7), 266–269. https://doi.org/10.1249/JSR.0000000000000614

Cherif, A., Roelands, B., Meeusen, R., & Chamari, K. (2016). Effects of Intermittent Fasting, Caloric Restriction, and Ramadan Intermittent Fasting on Cognitive Performance at Rest and During Exercise in Adults. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)46(1), 35–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0408-6

Tinsley, G. M., & La Bounty, P. M. (2015). Effects of intermittent fasting on body composition and clinical health markers in humans. Nutrition reviews73(10), 661–674. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuv041