Cure Diabetes With Intermittent Fasting
Why Does Fasting Turn the Body Into a Miraculous Healing Machine?
The body is a miraculous healing machine only if we allow it to be. We do so by fasting. Simply put, eating is a stressor. When you are eating every three hours, as the doctors and nutritionists recommend it, the body finds itself permanently in dealing with digestion and managing the incoming metabolites. But that is not all our body is designed for. When we fast, the body tries to save energy. One way to do so is by flushing out anything that is not needed. It eliminates or recycles dysfunctional elements to generate energy and create raw materials for new proteins. In the fasting state, our body also switches from burning sugar to using the stored fat for energy. Meaning it is in its evolutionary mode. This fact triggers multiple powerful metabolic pathways, leading to the following health benefits.
Increasing insulin sensitivity resulting in the treatment of type 2 diabetes [1] [2]
Prevention and cure of (pre) type 2 diabetes [3] [4]
Decreasing fat and sugar accumulation [5]
Reducing the resting heart rate [6]
Improving cardiovascular stress adaptation [6]
Decreasing blood pressure [7]
Reduced inflammations. Reduced oxidative stress [8] [9]
Improvement of cognitive skills [10]
Increasing the resistance to stress [11]
Reduced cell proliferation (minimizing the risk of cancer) [12] [13]
As mentioned above, the key mechanism for these beneficial effects is the metabolic switch, which means the body shifts from using glucose to fat for generating energy. This is also why intermittent fasting has great potential in the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. It’s incredible. You can achieve all these by DOING SIMPLY NOTHING.
Fast To Cure Insulin Resistance
As we have already explained, the driving force behind insulin resistance is too much insulin. The lower the insulin level, the higher the insulin sensitivity that you need to eliminate (pre-) type 2 diabetes. The most natural and effective way to achieve this is fasting. In the fasted state, insulin is not secreted, which makes the cells more sensitive and responsive to insulin. The less insulin there is, the more insulin sensitive we become. Also, if you eat 6 times, you need insulin 6 times. If you eat 2 times, you need insulin 2 times. So when you fast, you decrease the need for insulin. You don't have to be a scientist or a doctor to understand this simple fact.
Sadly, it appears that we are spending more time in the fed state and less time in the fasted condition. Insulin levels become chronically elevated and there is an almost total reliance on glucose. As a result, our cells continuously use the glucose for fuel than body fat. Chronically producing too much insulin over time causes insulin resistance [14] in which case the body produces even more insulin. Persistent insulin resistance can cause the "metabolic syndrome," which includes obesity, abdominal fat accumulation, high triglycerides, low HDL, elevated blood glucose levels, and (pre-)type 2 diabetes.
When these people run out of glucose from their last meal, they become hungry for additional glucose rather than readily transitioning to burn fat. This pattern can set off a cycle of eating every few hours, causing glucose and insulin to rise, and then eating even more when blood sugar drops. Why would an obese person feel hungry frequently? They have enough fat reserves to survive for a very long time. The world record for fasting went to a 206 kg man who fasted for 382 days, eating only water and vitamins, and lost 125 pounds without any ill effects on his health (although I don't recommend it!).
Fat For Fuel
Humans can to become "fat adapted" and improve their ability to fuel themselves with stored body fat rather than glucose. However, this takes time and practice, and the body must take a number of steps to slowly up-regulate (or increase) fat burning. These include improving insulin sensitivity and using fat for energy supply. There are several ways to improve "fat adaptation," or the ability to successfully burn stored body fat for energy, including the following:
Fasting keeps insulin levels low so the liver can burn fat. Insulin inhibits fat breakdown (lipolysis). Without insulin, the liver will break down the fat for fuel.
Low Carbohydrate Diets. A low-carb diet improves the body's ability to use fat for energy by having more fat and less glucose available for energy supply at all times.
Exercise. Intense exercise uses up glucose and glycogen (sugar storage in the liver and muscles) quickly, forcing the body to use more fat for fuel. Exercise also improves insulin sensitivity significantly.
Fat is clean energy in line with human evolution. Sugar as an energy source has only been around for the last ten thousand years. Our body, on the other hand, has been burning fat for 2.5 million years. The exclusive burning of sugar accelerates the aging process considerably.
Eat Twice A Day
One of the best ways to effortlessly and permanently burn fat is to train yourself to eat two meals a day and avoid snacks in between. Usually, it takes 12 hours after the last meal to fully transition to the fasting state. Meaning it takes 12 hours until the liver start burning fat. This is one of the reasons why many people who start intermittent fasting lose fat without changing what they eat, how much they eat, or how often they exercise. Fasting puts your body in a state of fat burning that you can rarely achieve with a normal meal timing. This way you also reverse fatty liver. The pancreas also gets rid of fat. The beta cells in the pancreas reawaken and become able to produce insulin again. Therefore, people with type 2 diabetes no longer need to administer exogenous insulin.
After 12 hours, the liver breaks down the fat to provide energy. However, if you eat something or have a sugary drink in the morning, your insulin levels will spike, inhibiting the liver from burning fat. All you should do is to eat dinner between 5 and 6 pm and skip breakfast the next day. Suppose you finish dinner at 6pm. The next day, you break your fast at noon. You have therefore fasted for 18 hours, 6 of which were spent burning fat.
Exercise
Exercise can also help with fat adaptation. Your glycogen (the storage form of glucose in your muscles and liver) is depleted during sleep and fasting, and will be depleted even further during training. This can further increase insulin sensitivity. I always go to the gym at the end of the fast. But if you don't have time or don't like the gym, then take a long walk before breaking your fast.
Myths About Fasting
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" Why is this advice wrong? When you wake up in the morning, your insulin levels are quite low, and most people are just beginning to transition to a fasting state, 12 hours after their last meal of the previous day. A meal at this time causes insulin and glucose to spike and immediately shuts down fat burning. This is especially true for a high-carb breakfast. A better choice would be to delay the first meal of the day by a few hours so that you can remain in a fasting state during this time, burn stored body fat, and increase insulin sensitivity.
Interestingly, many people who have adapted to burning fat are not very hungry in the morning and have no problem skipping breakfast. This is appropriate because throughout our evolution, humans have been hunter-gatherers. Instead of eating a large breakfast in the morning, we hunted and gathered throughout the day and had a larger meal later in the day. I strongly recommend mimicking this pattern and skipping breakfast.
Since 2017, I've been fasting 18 hours a day and eating twice in a six-hour window, seven days a week. I also exercise and go to the sauna at the end of my fast before breakfast between 10 and 12. I enjoy a good mood, mental clarity, and enthusiasm. I feel great and can't imagine my life without fasting.
"Eat small meals frequently." As a fact of matter this advice constitute the root cause of (pre) type 2 diabetes. Why? Because frequent eating always drives up insulin levels and leads to insulin resistance. We've been told to eat frequently to "keep the metabolism going" and "keep the body from going into starvation mode." This is probably the opposite of the truth: to burn fat, you should spend as much time as possible in a fasting state.
"Fasting leads to muscle loss instead of fat." Nope, not true! Let’s see. Many people fear that if they start fasting, they will either stop building muscle or perhaps even burn muscle. If you are underweight and fasting for an extended period of time, this may be true. Otherwise, it is simply not true. In fact, growth hormone increases during fasting [15] (both during sleep and after a period of fasting). Bodybuilders who want to build as much muscle as possible while losing as much fat as possible use growth hormone in conjunction with testosterone because it is extremely anabolic (muscle building). Fasting increases growth hormone, which can help build muscle. It makes sense because not eating would have made our hunter-gatherer predecessors weaker and slower, which would have prevented them from finding food and killed them, leading to human extinction.
"Metabolism slows down during fasting". Actually the opposite is true. For shorter periods of fasting, this is completely false. A number of studies have proven that fasting for up to 72 hours does not slow down metabolism [16] [17] at all, but actually speeds it up slightly. Because a sort of fight-or-flight mode kicks in. It makes sense that this fight-or-flight nervous system would be activated during the day when hunter-gatherers are most active and in a fasted state (looking for food), followed by a parasympathetic "rest-and-digest" mode in the evening after a large meal. My own metabolism is through the roof by a combination of protein-rich diet, fasting and weight lifting.
"If I don't eat, I get low blood sugar [hypoglycemia]". Studies have shown that healthy people who have no underlying disease and are not taking diabetes medications can fast for long periods of time without suffering from hypoglycemia. In fact, many people experience hypoglycemia due to eating foods with a very high glycemic index - blood sugar spikes, then insulin release, then rapid blood sugar drop – “blood sugar rollercoaster”. By fasting, you avoid the sugar rollercoaster. You also stop the up-and-down play between insulin and cortisol that leads to insomnia. However, if you are taking diabetes medications, be sure to talk to your doctor before beginning a fasting protocol. Some diabetes medications can cause severe hypoglycemia during fasting (especially insulin).
How to Fast
After practicing different types of fasting and researching thousands of scientific studies since 2016, I will give you Hermes knowledge on how to fast healthily and effectively. It goes like this.
Eat your last meal between 4:00 p.m. & 5:00 p.m. When you do this, two things happen: First, the longer the time between your last meal and bedtime, the better your sleep quality will be. Because it will stabilize the insulin cortisol sea-saw. Second, unless you're used to fasting, you'll get a bit hungry at night which provides MANY health benefits that are well beyond diabetes prevention and the scope of this paper.
So far so good. The next day, after getting up, skip breakfast. However not entirely. Because I want you to keep your metabolism speedy by eating some protein-rich food between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. You want to break your fast AFTER you’ve gone to the gym or done a long walk. Break your fast after exercise or extensive walking! Because you accelerate the fat-burning mode and improve insulin sensitivity significantly. Break your fast with high-quality animal-based protein! Do not break your fast with carbs and/or sugar! Break your fast with protein and fat such as eggs, butter, and avocado. Thereafter some low fructose fruits like berries.
Enjoy Your Freedom
Intermittent fasting can be easy, fun, enjoyable and liberating. You will also achieve an ideal body composition and significantly minimize the risk of chronic diseases. Every day during the work you have only black coffee, tea or water for breakfast - how easy is that? You no longer have to worry about what to eat for breakfast as you rush around in the morning to get to work on time or get the kids ready for school. Beside that you enjoy a massive mental freshness and clarity as well as good mood at work. You're improving your insulin sensitivity and strengthening your fat adaptation. You'll be able to eat big, filling meals later without feeling deprived, without watching the calories, and without restricting yourself.
8 steps to accelerate the effect of fasting dramatically
Do not eat less than your metabolic rate requires. Fasting doesn’t mean eating less.
Stay flexible. Fast for as long as you can and break the fast whenever you need or want to.
If you want to fast for 16 hours but only manage 14, that's fine. You're still better off than eating all day.
I strongly recommend combining a very low-carb and protein-rich diet with intermittent fasting. Because you go hours without eating effortlessly. Do not break your fast with carbs or sugary foods. But with protein and fat.
In general, you can take any vitamins or supplements you want during the fast, as long as they do not contain calories. However, you do not need supplements because you want to eat plenty of nutrient rich foods every day.
Exercise while fasting, either endurance sports or lifting weights. Lifting weights is better for body composition and speeding up your metabolism to burn fat faster and boost insulin sensitivity.
Drink plenty of water and calorie-free beverages while fasting. BLACK coffee has a satiating effect and also promotes fat burning. You also can add some butter or coconut fat into your coffee, because there is a NON-insulin response to fat. And it’s delicious.
Don't use intermittent fasting as an excuse to eat tons of junk food when you do eat - continue to eat responsibly, stick to natural whole foods with high nutrient density, and avoid highly processed foods!
Send me your questions.
I am here to help.
Scientific References
[1] Effect of Intermittent Fasting Diet on Glucose and Lipid Metabolism and Insulin Resistance in Patients with Impaired Glucose and Lipid Metabolism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Xiaojie Yuan, 1 Jiping Wang, 1 Shuo Yang, 1 Mei Gao, 2 Lingxia Cao, 2 Xumei Li, 1 Dongxu Hong, 1 Suyan Tian, 3 and Chenglin Sun 1 , 2. Int J Endocrinol. 2022; 2022: 6999907. Published online 2022 Mar 24. doi: 10.1155/2022/6999907
[2] Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Insulin Sensitivity, Blood Pressure, and Oxidative Stress Even without Weight Loss in Men with Prediabetes Elizabeth F Sutton 1, Robbie Beyl 1, Kate S Early 2, William T Cefalu 3, Eric Ravussin 1, Courtney M Peterson 4. Affiliations expand PMID: 29754952. PMCID: PMC5990470. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.04.010
[3] Benefits, mechanisms, and risks of intermittent fasting in metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Lisandra Joaquim 1, Ana Faria 1, Helena Loureiro 1, Paulo Matafome 2 3 4 5. Affiliations expand. PMID: 34985730. DOI: 10.1007/s13105-021-00839-4
[4] Time-restricted eating for the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Sofia Cienfuegos 1, Mara McStay 1, Kelsey Gabel 1, Krista A Varady 1. Affiliations expand PMID: 34418079. DOI: 10.1113/JP281101
[5] Effectiveness of Early Time-Restricted Eating for Weight Loss, Fat Loss, and Cardiometabolic Health in Adults With Obesity: A Randomized Clinical Trial Humaira Jamshed 1 2, Felicia L Steger 1 3, David R Bryan 1, Joshua S Richman 4, Amy H Warriner 5, Cody J Hanick 1, Corby K Martin 6, Sarah-Jeanne Salvy 7, Courtney M Peterson 1. Affiliations expand. PMID: 35939311. PMCID: PMC9361187 (available on 2023-08-08). DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.3050
[6] Beneficial effects of intermittent fasting and caloric restriction on the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems. Mark P Mattson 1, Ruiqian Wan Affiliations expand. PMID: 15741046. DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2004.12.007
[7] Restructuring the Gut Microbiota by Intermittent Fasting Lowers Blood Pressure Huanan Shi # 1 2, Bojun Zhang # 1, Taylor Abo-Hamzy 3, James W Nelson 1 4, Chandra Shekar R Ambati 5, Joseph F Petrosino 6, Robert M Bryan Jr 1 2, David J Durgan 1 2. Affiliations expand PMID: 33596669. PMCID: PMC8085162. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.120.318155
[8] Fasting: molecular mechanisms and clinical applications Valter D Longo 1, Mark P Mattson 2. Affiliations expand. PMID: 24440038. PMCID: PMC3946160. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2013.12.008
[9] Role of Intermittent Fasting on Improving Health and Reducing Diseases. Salah Mesalhy Aly, Ph.D. Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2014 Jul; 8(3): V–VI. PMCID: PMC4257368. PMID: 25505868. doi: 10.12816/0023985
[10] The Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Brain and Cognitive Function. Jip Gudden 1, Alejandro Arias Vasquez 1 2, Mirjam Bloemendaal 1 Affiliations expand. PMID: 34579042. PMCID: PMC8470960. DOI: 10.3390/nu13093166
[11] Fasting Interventions for Stress, Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Elisa Berthelot,1,2 Damien Etchecopar-Etchart,1,2 Dimitri Thellier,3 Christophe Lancon,1,2 Laurent Boyer,1,2 and Guillaume Fond1,2,*. PMCID: PMC8624477. PMID: 34836202 Published online 2021 Nov 5. doi: 10.3390/nu13113947. Sci Rep. 2020; 10: 18341. Published online 2020 Oct 27. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73767-w PMCID: PMC7592042. PMID: 33110154
[12] Intermittent fasting from dawn to sunset for four consecutive weeks induces anticancer serum proteome response and improves metabolic syndrome Ayse L. Mindikoglu,1,2 Mustafa M. Abdulsada,1 Antrix Jain,3 Prasun K. Jalal,1,2 Sridevi Devaraj,4 Zoe R. Wilhelm,1 Antone R. Opekun,1,5 and Sung Yun Jung3,6
[13] Intermittent fasting in the prevention and treatment of cancer. Katherine K Clifton 1, Cynthia X Ma 1, Luigi Fontana 2 3 4, Lindsay L Peterson 1 Affiliations expand. PMID: 34383300. DOI: 10.3322/caac.21694
[14] Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia: is hyperinsulinemia the cart or the horse? Michael H Shanik 1, Yuping Xu, Jan Skrha, Rachel Dankner, Yehiel Zick, Jesse Roth. Affiliations expand. PMID: 18227495. DOI: 10.2337/dc08-s264
[15] Fasting enhances growth hormone secretion and amplifies the complex rhythms of growth hormone secretion in man. K Y Ho, J D Veldhuis, M L Johnson, R Furlanetto, W S Evans, K G Alberti, and M O Thorner. J Clin Invest. 1988 Apr; 81(4): 968–975. doi: 10.1172/JCI113450. PMCID: PMC329619. PMID: 3127426.
[16] Metabolic adaptation to caloric restriction and subsequent refeeding: the Minnesota Starvation Experiment revisited. Manfred James Müller 1, Janna Enderle 2, Maryam Pourhassan 2, Wiebke Braun 2, Benjamin Eggeling 2, Merit Lagerpusch 2, Claus-Christian Glüer 3, Joseph J Kehayias 4, Dieter Kiosz 2, Anja Bosy-Westphal 5. Affiliations expand PMID: 26399868. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.115.109173
[17] Effect of calorie restriction on energy expenditure in overweight and obese adult women Teresa Jiménez Jaime 1, Laura Leiva Balich 2, Gladys Barrera Acevedo 2, María Pía de la Maza Cave 2, Sandra Hirsch Birn 2, Sandra Henríquez Parada 2, Juan Rodríguez Silva 2, Daniel Bunout Barnett 2. Affiliations expand. PMID: 26040348. DOI: 10.3305/nh.2015.31.6.8782