Advice/ needed on length between meals on fast days for maximum health benefits

This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by TracyJ 10 years, 12 months ago.

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jonathan

8:37 am
21 Nov 13
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I have read in a lot of the literature about this diet that longer periods between meals help you to gain the maximum health benefits, but very few expand upon this. I have been doing the 5:2 diet for 9 months – my weight loss has plateaued now for a few months(having gone from about 85kg to 77kg) – but my main reason for doing the diet is for the health benefits.

On one other forum I read that you need at least one period of 12-14 hours of fasting within your day to gain the health benefits. This it said is due to the fact that 10-12 hours is the time it takes for the body to clear its store of glucogen fuel from the previous meal, then fat stores can start to be drawn upon in activity and the body has also had a break from producing hormones like insulin to cope with food metabolism and has had a chance to go into ‘repair mode’.

Does anyone know if this is correct? Given the amount of store put on the health benefits (as much as weight loss) for this diet it surprises me that there is not more detail on this generally – and particularly in the main part of this official web site.

Nika

8:50 am
21 Nov 13
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Hey Jonathan! I can only speak of things I’ve heard, read and from my own experience – I’m not an expert. But I’m happy to give you my 2 cents on this.

As I see it, 16-18 hours gives you most health benefits you get from fasting. After this there are no read added benefits besides perhaps some extra fat burning. I take this info from several sites and from my martial arts coach, who also incorporates IF from time to time to shed some pounds after an indulgent holiday or something.

Of course it also depends on how many carbs you eat, if you eat low carbs it will take your body less time to clear glycogen reserves.

I’ve done a lot of 18:6 myself, usually extending into a longer period when the day restricts the time I can ingest food. Now I’m just on one meal a day and I feel fine.

Again this is a personal opinion / view! 🙂

jonathan

8:57 am
21 Nov 13
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Thanks for the reply – it makes me think that some of the eating patterns suggested on this site and in the literature are really about weight-loss with very little emphasis on how to maximise health benefits – though perhaps most people are doing it as a manageable diet to lose weight.

On the Horizon programme Michael Mosley saw improvements shown by tests at the end of 5 weeks for the chemical changes. He says he eats at 7am and 7pm which could suggest 12 hours fasting is enough? I don’t know – I would just like more scientific information more easily available about it.

TracyJ

11:46 am
21 Nov 13
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I think in the documentary Michael was also seen tucking into not particularly carb heavy food on his fastday and I haven’t read the book but it seems that they advise low carbs. If they’re not spelling it out then that’s a failure but if you’re generally eating low carbs then the shorter ‘genuine fasting’ interval could still help with the health benefits in theory I guess.

I’ve kept my diet pretty similar to what it always was, balanced but in no way low carbs, so I’ve always tried to ensure I do at least 15-16 straight hours of fasting before I eat anything no matter what (and on all days – not just fastdays).

I only started doing this for the health benefits, as I was skeptical that I would lose anything beyond the ‘visceral fat’ that Michael mentioned on the documentary (I’d never lost significantly on anything before and had accepted my ‘natural’ size). Despite miraculous and entirely painless (aside from my purse-strain) weightloss, the health benefits are by far the BEST aspect of this diet for me 😉