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There’s a ton of research and YouTube videos about this topic. Count me as a subscriber. As someone who lost an apparently otherwise healthy (by traditional measures) father to early Alzheimer’s, intermittent fasting is now on the list of supported prevention protocols. Not starvation per se, but rather giving your body, brain, and liver a periodic break to clean house. It’s the feeding/metabolic equivalent of sleep. The research suggests it actually helps with reducing insulin resistance, improves healthy hormone levels, and stimulates autophagy to “take out the trash” your body accumulates while in the feeding state. I’ve yet to do more than 24 hours at once — honestly, it’s hard given how many activities involve eating — but supposedly there’s an incredible mental focus that also develops if you push it more than a day. Unless you’ve already gone on a low carb diet (which I also recommend based on research and personal experience), I expect one to find IF to be pretty difficult/painful. But if you’re already low-carb/keto adapted, then it’s really not too hard as you don’t suffer hangriness from missing a meal. In my experiments with skipping breakfast (8/16 IF protocol), a cup of coffee with a tablespoon of butter in the morning will easily get you through to lunch — and yes, this counts as fasting as there’s no insulin response from the butter coffee. I’m a skinny guy (6’2” and now sub-170lbs), and have been somewhat surprised by how much weight (~15-20lbs, not muscle loss) I’ve lost on low-carb over the past 2 years. The inclusion of IF into the regime seems to have continued the weight loss, somewhat to my dismay. As such, I’m forcing myself to eat more calories during my 8 hour feeding window. I think that’s a high class problem for a 45 year old, hence partly why I’m not super interested in trying a multi day fast. I will say, however, I feel amazing — feels like a 30% boost in brain function, my running performance is like rolling back the clock 2 decades, and all my biomarkers (blood pressure, cholesterol, etc are improved). So yeah, I’m a believer in IF for many reasons, but consider implementing a low carb diet first (give it a month) if you’re looking for maximum benefit and sustainability.
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