The Top 3 Fasting Myths keeping you from its amazing benefits

I’ve been a biohacker for many years and with that I sometimes forget that not everyone else uses the same language. In fact, most people aren’t even familiar with the term ‘biohacking’ so let me start there. Biohacking is a term defined as the art and science of upgrading your individual biology through self experimentation to improve your health, performance, and overall well-being. It includes things like cold and heat therapy, red light therapy, supplementation, breathwork, nutrition, and fasting, among many other modalities. So when I mention the idea of fasting to my clients or friends, believing that everyone knows what I am talking about, what I often find is that most people have a very different idea. When I share my enthusiasm for fasting or espouse the many benefits I personally have gained from fasting, what I often hear in return are concerns with a few common themes. It turns out their concerns are valid based on their set of assumptions. For many, fasting conjures up images of Jesus going without food for 40 days and 40 nights. Or it brings to mind what many Muslims do during Ramadan when fasting from dawn to dusk for 30 days. Neither of these are what I am referring to when I talk about fasting. For a biohacker like me and many others, fasting, also known as intermittent fasting or time restricted eating, is a ‘biohack’ that can be used to improve energy, focus, productivity, and metabolic health.

This brings me to Myth #1 which is that fasting means going for long periods of time without food. The reality is that many of the benefits of fasting can be enjoyed when we go just 12 hours without food. Most of us fast already every night from the time we go to bed until we wake up in the morning (unless you are a night shift worker or waking up in the middle of the night to eat.) So already most people are fasting for a minimum of 7 to 8 hours. If we can extend this window of time to 12 hours we will get huge returns in our health. I have found this is actually a pretty easy plan for most people to adopt. Consider you start dinner at 6:30 pm and are done eating by 7. All you need to do is not eat after dinner until breakfast at 7am. That is 12 hours. This is where I advise most of my clients to start. A big benefit with this 7-7 fasting model is that by keeping at least 3 hours between your last bite of dinner and bedtime, your body has enough time to break down and digest your food, so that when you lay down to sleep, your entire body can go into rest mode, and into deeper phases of sleep for longer periods of time. And this allows you to wake more rested and more energized for the day ahead. Eating within an hour or two of bedtime can wreak havoc on restful sleep. If you don’t believe me get an Oura ring or other device that tracks your deep sleep cycles and test it for yourself.

Myth #2 is that fasting is calorie restrictive. Fasting on its own is not calorie restrictive. With intermittent fasting, you are simply compressing your daily eating window. In the 12 hour fasting scenario you are eating all of your food in a 12 hour period (7 am to 7 pm for instance.) Fasting is not a diet, and it is not about weight loss. It is a way of structuring your day to improve your metabolic health and keep your energy levels stable. If your goal is weight loss, that is a whole other topic of conversation. That said, if you are someone who wants to lose fat or get to a healthier weight, simply compressing your current eating window can help. The primary mechanism for this is that it improves blood sugar stability and insulin sensitivity. It improves your ability to efficiently switch from burning carbohydrates to burning fat as needed throughout the day, aka metabolic flexibility. When you are metabolically flexible, you no longer get low blood sugar ‘crashes’ or slumps in the afternoon and you no longer need quick burning carbs to power through the day. In someone who is insulin resistant, pre-diabetic or diabetic, their body favors the storage of fat because their bodies no longer respond to the insulin signal which says take this extra glucose in the blood and put it into the muscle for later use. In someone who is insulin resistant, the excess glucose is converted and stored as fat.

Myth #3 is that fasting leads to excessive hunger and low energy. With a 12 hour fast it is rarely the case that you will feel hungry outside your eating window. (Side note: Hunger during the middle of the night may be a sign that you need more calories during the day, but more likely it means you are metabolically inflexible (see above) and are not able to shift to burning fat stores while asleep. People who awaken in the middle of the night and cannot fall back asleep are often these people. If your blood sugar drops too low during the night, your body responds to this danger by sending out a burst of cortisol. Cortisol will wake you up and then makes it very hard to sleep. ) With longer fasts, say for 14 or 16 hours or even more, the concern about hunger is certainly more valid. Personally, I intermittent fast for anywhere from 12-16 hours most days and have done so for many years. My typical eating window is about 8 or 9 hours, usually from 10 or 11 am to 7 pm. I have found, like most people who practice this type of intermitting fasting, that I am most energized and most productive during the morning before eating breakfast (from 8am to 10am ). When we extend our fast just a little later into the morning, and go beyond 12 hours, our body uses up glycogen stores in the liver, and then begins to burn fat and ketones for fuel. The burning of ketones is amazing for cognitive energy. Additionally, I often add a ‘biohack’ during this 8am-10am period which allows me to get even more energy boosting benefits. The hack is the ‘Bulletproof coffee’. By blending a little MCT oil and a little butter into my coffee in the morning I am able to get even greater cognitive enhancements and more brain power with absolutely no hunger at all. By consuming 100-200 calories from fat alone (and effectively fasting from protein and carbohydrates) for a couple of hours in the morning, I get most of benefits as I would with a no calorie or ‘water only’ fast. Benefits that include increased fat burning, more energy, improved focus and mood, reduced inflammation, all without hunger.

So there it is, the top 3 fasting myths that may be keeping you from its amazing benefits. I hope I’ve convinced you to try a daily 12 hour intermittent fast. I think you will see big benefits in your quality of sleep, and your ability to wake up refreshed and energized for the day ahead. To learn more about how biohacking can improve your biology and overall wellbeing book your Free Stop Dieting Discovery Call today!