Fasting- A Perspective From John and Kim
Is fasting worth your time?
By: John Blaser
I am writing to you today to give you a little insight about intermittent fasting. It’s a very trendy topic right now. I believe it has a place, but in my opinion, it’s over-hyped. Intermittent fasting is simply abstaining from eating for a certain time-frame. Basically, the longer you go without food the more benefits compound. Some examples of eating windows are: 12 hours off, 12 hours on, 14 off, 10 on, and 16 off 8 on, etc.
Many people fast with the goal of losing weight, which will naturally happen if you eat less, but I think the important perks are on the cellular level that most people will be unconscious of. Your body and mind are doing a bunch of complex processes unconsciously all the time and thank God for that, because if you were consciously responsible for your heart beating, breathing, etc. you’d get distracted and die in less than a minute. So, assuming your human mechanism is functioning properly, it creates byproducts and senescent cells to stay up and running.
Generally speaking, senescent cells are cells that have done their job and are just hanging out aimlessly in your body. Think of it like collecting garbage, it will gradually pile up. What would happen if you didn’t take out your garbage for 20, 40, or 60 years in your home? It would become a pile of garbage inside but look fully functional on the outside. In the body, disease would manifest on some level. So, when you fast it’s like garbage day in your body. This process is called autophagy and it is more or less peaked at 24 hours of fasting.
In conclusion, there are a bunch of benefits to fasting intermittently, however, autophagy is the key component that will extend the lifespan because you are giving your body a break so it can repair and relax. The body deserves a break. If your goal is weight loss and you’re achieving that by fasting... it's not the fasting, it’s the caloric restriction. In my opinion, fasting for 24 hours biweekly (twice a month) is better for the human system long term than restricting your eating window.
For further inquiry: Intermittent fasting: What are the benefits? - Mayo Clinic
A Fasting Journey
By: Kimberly Gadwood
Hello. My name is Kim. I am Glen’s wife and the office manager and VP of Function Thru Fitness. I, like most of you, probably were exposed to the idea of fasting through social media. I can’t remember how many times in the last year I’ve been scrolling through my Facebook or Instagram feed and was bombarded with advertisements for intermittent fasting. It wasn’t until I watched a series called Limitless on Disney+ that I became interested in what intermittent fasting could do from a longevity standpoint. Hence began my journey with fasting. I came across an app (there are many to choose from out there) that I thought looked simple, easy, and FREE to use in tracking my fasting. The app I chose was called BodyFast. This is what it looks like.
My goals in trying intermittent fasting were simple. I wanted to lose some weight and clean up my digestive track. In other words, give my body a break from constantly working to digest foods, and as John puts it, let my body “take out the garbage” at a cellular level. The first intermittent fasting week I tried was labeled as easy or beginner level. I fasted each day from 8pm – noon the next day (only drinking water and black coffee during the fasting period). So basically, skipping breakfast each day. It looked like the illustration below. It is called 16-8; 16 hours fasting and an 8 hour window of eating.
My results from that first week were as follows. I found this to be quite easy and realized how little my body was hungry until maybe an hour or 2 before noon. I lost 2 lbs, but that really wasn’t the best part. My body felt better. My intestines felt better. It was an overall feeling of more energy with less bloat and fatigue. A couple weeks later I tried a more challenging fasting schedule.
It was called Power Week and the fasting times varied by day. This was a lot more challenging on several levels. I had to check the schedule often to remind myself when I needed to eat and when to fast. And then the hunger pains varied each day. There were 2 very challenging days. The first being
the day I had to skip lunch and dinner (Monday on the example illustration). Although I was hungry by nighttime it wasn’t too terrible because I knew I could eat breakfast the next day. The most challenging day was the one where you fast from midnight all the way to the following day at 6am (on the diagram, it’s the Thursday schedule). It’s a 30 hour fast but for me it was closer to 34 because I stopped eating way before midnight. Throughout the 30+ hours I tried to keep busy but felt very anxious, like my body was detoxing and I was wired. I wanted to sleep but couldn’t during the day. It was an odd feeling. However, when I woke up on the morning that I could eat again (Friday on the example schedule), I wasn’t really hungry. I was calm yet still looking forward to making my breakfast. The first bites of that breakfast were amazing. It was like I was having the best breakfast ever made. In reality it was just an egg, piece of ham, and piece of cheese on a toasted piece of sourdough bread with avocado spread on it. Surprisingly, that was all I ate. I expected my body to want to eat a lot more, but I didn’t.
I had lost 2-3 lbs on that schedule but again felt better with no bloat or fatigue as I reintroduced foods throughout the next few days. For me, intermittent fasting did what I was hoping it would do and I rather enjoyed it. I will definitely be doing intermittent fasting once a month. There is also a mind/body element to fasting that I found valuable. After doing these 2 schedules, my mind recognizes that when I’m hungry I don’t have to grab the first piece of food available so I don’t starve. I can take my time and make something healthy. I won’t starve. It also shows you the control you have in making decisions on what to eat or what not to eat, as well as, when you eat or don’t eat. Everyone has a stronger will power than they think! Give it a try and see how you feel.
Book your personalized assessment today.
Located in Green Bay, WI | By Appointment Only
🌐 Visit our website
📞 Call us at (920) 610-0004
📧 Email: funcfitpt@me.com
📍 Find us on Google Maps
Know someone who needs expert guidance? Share this with them.
We’re here when they’re ready.
Follow us:
🔗 Instagram – Instagram
🔗 Facebook – Facebook
🔗 LinkedIn – FUNCTION THRU FITNESS PERSONAL TRAINING, INC: Overview | LinkedIn