Intermittent fasting update

When you eat matters, just as much as what you eat

Big Food has normalized the idea of eating around the clock. A pastry for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, carb-laden meal for dinner and snacks throughout the day. But the human body isn’t designed to process nutrients all day every day. Your digestive system works best when it gets regular breaks.

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a pattern of consuming food during a shortened window of time each day, in order to give the gut a chance to rest overnight. For example, many people aim to complete all food intake during an 8-hour eating window followed by a 16-hour fast (16:8). Others eat only during a 2- to 4-hour window and then fast for 18-20 hours. These predetermined patterns are known as time-restricted eating (TRE).

Current research shows that people who follow this type of eating pattern consistently are able to lower inflammation, improve metabolic health, and make steady progress toward their goals. Through recent surveys, we’ve learned that about half of the Senza community reports feeling “all-in” about fasting and doing IF on a daily basis. They frequently share results with our coaches, including better sleep, increased concentration, resolving leaky gut issues, breaking through fast loss stalls, and lowering blood pressure, to name just a few.

An easy way to add IF to your health protocol is to shift the first meal of the day a little later and to have the last calories of the day earlier, at least two hours before sleep. But as with tracking carbs, we tend to miss the mark when relying on guesswork. Using a digital tool that tracks your fasts will help to ensure success.

Seeing how keto and fasting could work together, Senza’s founding team decided to create the first keto app based on a time-based journal. This design is key to tracking daily fasting windows as well as net carbs, electrolytes, and overall nutrition intake all in one place. In our experience, people who transition to the keto way of eating first will find it easier to fast, since being in ketosis naturally reduces hunger levels. (Note, your macros won’t change when adding IF to your health regimen. It’s especially important to continue hitting your protein target to maintain existing muscle mass.) 

IF & Autophagy: Autophagy is a natural process through which the body gets rid of unwanted, non-functioning cells. Typically, this benefit is associated with longer fasting windows of 24 hours or more, but some experts suggest the process can kick in sooner for those who follow an OMAD (one meal a day) pattern of eating. Exercise, metabolic flexibility, and other factors likely influence the minimum amount of time needed for autophagy to begin. This is an area where more research is needed to understand the nuances at an individual level.

IF for Women: As with other areas of research, most fasting studies focus on the experience of men. Women, of course, have different biology and IF can have some different side effects, related to hormone balance, monthly cycles, and fertility. Functional Medicine Naturopathic Physician, Jolene Brighten, goes deep into these special considerations in a recent article titled, Intermittent Fasting For Women.

IF for Athletes: Athletes may wonder if intermittent fasting makes sense for training. High performance coach Siim Land looked into this question and found that it is possible to build muscle when eating just one meal a day. As with keto, the key for supporting high-intensity workout routines is to refuel adequately.

There are many ways to go about eating and fasting, and IF isn’t the only tool available. A passage from one of Peter Attia’s 2020 emails comes to mind. The title is My nutritional framework:

“One thing is for certain: if you want to be sick, don’t do any of these things. Eat as much as you want (no calorie restriction), of anything you want (no diet restriction), whenever you want (no time restriction). This is called the ‘standard American diet.’ The further you can get away from this pattern of eating, the better.”

Learn more about intermittent fasting:

• The Basics of Fasting: Learn more about Senza’s built-in fasting timer in on The Planet Keto Blog.

• The Benefits of Fasting for Metabolic Health: CGM device-maker, Levels, published a detailed fasting guide, reviewed by keto researcher Dominic D’Agostino.

• Therapeutic use of intermittent fasting for people with type 2 diabetes as an alternative to insulin: Dr. Jason Fung is a leading expert in intermittent fasting, co-author of this BMJ Case Report, and author of the best-selling book, The Fasting Lane.

• Therapeutic use of intermittent fasting and ketogenic diet as an alternative treatment for type 2 diabetes in a normal weight woman: a 14-month case study: A 57-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes treated with metformin and strict adherence to a standard diabetic diet presented with a haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of 9.3%. Within 4 months of transitioning to KD, combined with IF, she achieved glycaemic control off pharmacotherapy, with HbA1c of 6.4.

• All Things Fasting: An episode of Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Peter Attia.

Ready to get started? Watch the Fasting Feature Tutorial for tracking your fasts with the Senza app.