Summary of Fasting and Metabolic Health: What’s the Connection?:
Less than 10% of adults are metabolically healthy, but fasting can help increase metabolic health. Metabolic health refers to the ability of cells to meet their energetic needs with precision and efficiency, while metabolic syndrome can lead to weight gain and an elevated risk of chronic disease. Fasting promotes metabolic flexibility, healthy body weight maintenance, and slower aging and cell rejuvenation. To leverage fasting for better metabolic health, make fasting foundational to your lifestyle, complement fasting with high-quality nutrition, and align your fasting practice with healthy circadian rhythm. Fasting is an evidenced-based strategy that informs the “clock” genes in your body to regulate energy levels and hormones.
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How Fasting Can Boost Your Metabolic Health and Longevity
Metabolic health has been declining across the world, with fewer than 10% of adults now considered metabolically healthy. Metabolic health is fundamental to overall health and protection from chronic disease. Fortunately, there is an easy and straightforward way to increase your metabolic health – fasting. In this article, we explore what metabolic health is, why it’s important, and how fasting can transform your health and longevity.
What is Metabolic Health and Why Is It Important?
Metabolic health refers to the body’s ability to meet its energetic needs efficiently and precisely. It’s a state of metabolic function where you don’t check off any of the diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a state of metabolic dysfunction that can lead to weight gain and an elevated risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
Maintaining metabolic health is crucial because it means your cells can meet their energetic needs and perform their necessary life-sustaining functions. Energy production needs to be balanced all day, every day, with energy demand, or your cells may store excess energy as fat, leading to weight gain.
How Does Fasting Impact Metabolic Health?
Fasting trains your body to build metabolic flexibility and helps it better respond to being in a fasted or fed state. Fasting is a mild stressor to your body, making it more efficient at switching from carbs to fat for fuel. This metabolic flexibility makes fasting easier and provides you with more stable energy levels throughout the day. Metabolically flexible people are less likely to get sick with infectious and chronic disease and are more resilient to physical, mental, and energetic stressors beyond fasting.
Fasting also promotes healthy body weight maintenance. It’s recommended as one of the best ways to simultaneously build metabolic health while progressing towards weight-loss or weight-management goals. Fasting is a sustainable approach to weight management, meaning you can focus on eating high-quality, nutrient-dense whole foods during your eating window.
Finally, fasting promotes slower aging and cell rejuvenation. It shifts your body’s metabolism towards fat burning, resulting in ketone production. Ketones have many hormone-like effects throughout your body, reducing inflammation, normalizing nerve function, and activating gene expression.
3 Ways to Leverage Fasting for Better Metabolic Health
To make fasting a habit, you don’t need to fast every day. Shorter-duration fasts of 12-24 hours can help your body make the metabolic switch from glucose to enhanced fat-burning. Pair fasting with a high-quality diet that’s low in added sugar and has sufficient protein, fiber, and fat for a balanced, metabolically healthy approach to nutrition. Adopting a fasting practice that’s aligned with your natural circadian rhythm helps boost metabolic health and lowers the risk of chronic disease. Start your fast 2-4 hours before bedtime, and consume your calories during daylight hours.
Conclusion
Fasting is an evidence-based strategy that connects your metabolic health and longevity goals. If you want to be among the minority of metabolically healthy adults, then you should consider leveraging the power of fasting. It’s an easy and straightforward way to increase your metabolic health and transform your health and longevity for years to come.
