Intermittent Fasting

What happens to your body when you fast?

When you don’t consume food or calories, the body looks for other ways to generate energy, such as drawing on glucose, ie. sugar stores. Once the glucose is significantly used up, the body’s metabolism changes and the body begins to burn fatty acids from stored fat for energy. When this transition to burning fat for energy is made, the body begins producing ketones and is said to be in a state of “ketosis”.

Once you reach a state of ketosis, many of the benefits of fasting start to kick in. Now, the specific benefits can vary depending on how many hours you have been fasting. For example, growth hormones kick in at 13 hours, whereas autophagy is thought to kick in at 16-18 hours. MIT research shows that at 24 hours intestinal stem cells will begin repair and 24 hours is also when you start to see weight loss.