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Great Day today. Slept a little longer than I have been recently. Then I went out to clear the brush and winter deadfall from the last couple of acres in the back half of the property. The dogs and cat came along with me as spectators. I got it all hauled and burned in a couple of hours. So all I have left to clear is the front pasture and I walked it last week and there isn't a massive amount of deadfall out there from this winter, so maybe a couple more Sundays off and I'll be ready to start building fences for the new horses.
My daughter, son-in-law & granddaughter came over for the afternoon and evening. My son-in-law is a professional chef (graduate of Le Cordon Bleu) and cooked his own version of fried chicken for us. We had a wonderfully relaxing afternoon sitting outside in the sun.
This evening I did a little research on something that has piqued my interest over the last couple of months. I have read a lot about the ideas of the 16/8 diet on the Lean Gains website, but wondered if there was any serious scientific research supporting the theory that restricting eating periods daily would improve one's health or help to burn fat. I found two great studies that do, in fact, support the Intermittent Fasting (16/8 IF) plan.
First is "Time restricted feeding without reducing caloric intake prevents metabolic diseases in mice fed a high fat diet". This is a 2012 study by Hatori, et al. Available at the National Institutes of Health website. The link is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3491655/. These researchers are at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
In this study, the researchers had four groups of mice. Two groups ate normal food (13% fat) and the other two groups ate a high fat diet (61% fat). They were all fed the exact same amount of food, however, one of the normal chow groups and one of the high fat chow groups were allowed to eat at will (ad lib) all day long. The other two groups were restricted to eating during an 8 hour feeding window (exactly the idea behind 16/8 IF). Their results showed that the mice on the 16/8 IF diet had increased metabolism, more energy, burned more fat and were healthier. The results for the high fat groups showed an even greater health outcome for the time restricted diet over the ad lib feeding. This study tends to support the idea that restricting eating to an 8 hour window results in more fat burning and a better hormone balance.
The second study I found supporting this is "Effect of intermittent fasting and refeeding on insulin action in healthy men" by Halberg, et al, published in 2005. The link to this study is - http://jap.physiology.org/content/99/6/2128.full.pdf+html
In this study, healthy men were on a combination Alternate Day IF diet coupled with a 20/4 IF diet. They were fed the proper amount of food to keep their weight stable throughout the study, and ate at normal times on off days stopping all food intake at 10 pm and not eating again until 6 pm the next day. The results of this study showed a marked increase in insulin sensitivity after even a short period of time (two weeks).
This is great news, in my opinion. Insulin controls sugar by aiding in the extraction of glucose from the blood and storing it in your liver and muscles in a stable form called glycogen. Glycogen is what our bodies burn first when our bodies need fuel, like when we exercise. However, insulin is also a fat controller. It inhibits lipolysis, which is the breakdown of stored body fat. Simultaneously, it forces cells to take fat from the blood and store as much as possible. So high levels of insulin lead to increased fat storage and low levels lead to fat depletion.
Eating throughout the day, especially if you eat lots of high-glycemic carbohydrates (sugar, sweet foods, refined grains, bread, pasta, etc) our pancreas releases an ever greater amount of insulin to deal with the glucose. Over time, however, the cells stop reacting to the insulin and we become insulin resistant, meaning that it takes an ever increasing amount of insulin to be released. Eventually, the insulin levels stay permanently high. This leads to Type 2 Diabetes. Regular exercise and avoiding high-glycemic foods will help to prevent this. According to this study, so will IF.
The studies cited here, show that intermittent fasting will help to reverse insulin resistance. Importantly, IF will also aid in restoring a healthy hormone balance, help to raise your metabolism, and achieve & maintain a healthy body fat percentage. In my opinion, this is clearly a good reason to try intermittent fasting in one form or another. I believe that the 16/8 IF may be the easiest to stick with. The 5/2 IF is probably easier if you work odd schedules. You can clearly modify these somewhat to meet your weight, metabolic and hormonal needs. Many people use Alternate Day (AD) fasting instead of 5/2, while others use a 6/1 fasting schedule. 16/8 could be 18/6 or 20/4 just as easily. Likewise, you may want to use a combination of these where you eat the full amount of your RDI 5 days per week and 600 - 700 calories 2 days per week, but restrict your eating on all days to an 8 hour window. With all of the possible permutations, I believe that there has to be an IF that will work for everyone's lifestyle and personal choice.
Have a great week everyone!
View Diet Calendar, 23 February 2014:
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2035 kcal
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Fat: 81.13g | Prot: 122.42g | Carbs: 204.66g.
Breakfast: Coffee, Starbucks Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup, GNC Total Lean CLA Soft Chew, GNC Fish Oil 1000, GNC Chewable C 100, GNC DHA 600, GNC Vitamin B-12 2500 MCG Soft Chew. Lunch: The Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps - Garlic Parmesan, Tostitos Scoops! 100% White Corn Tortilla Chips. Dinner: Baked or Fried Coated Chicken Drumstick Skinless (Coating Eaten), Baked or Fried Coated Chicken Breast Skinless. Snacks/Other: Blue Bell Fudge Bars, Blue Bell Sugar Free Bullets. more...
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3094 kcal
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Exercise:
Clearing Brush & Hauling Oak Deadfall - 2 hours, Resting - 15 hours, Sleeping - 7 hours. more...
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