Intermittent fasting (also known as sequential or 16: 8 fasting) is a weight gain for shedding pounds and gaining energy. Explanation on this mode of food, where we stop eating for 16 hours, every day.

Intermittent fasting is a fast where you stop eating for 16 hours every day. Concretely, this means that all meals must be taken during a time slot of 8 hours. In general, this is equivalent to removing a meal, but you can add a snack to have three food intakes. The fasted 16 hours allow the body to regenerate completely. “It is really important to give the body breaks so that it can breathe and have time to repair itself,” explains Dr. Frédéric Saldmann, nutritionist doctor, author of One is never better treated than by oneself. (ed. Plon). It’s a natural process. If you eat all day, you disrupt the functioning of the body. ” Simple and efficient.

But what can we expect from it?

1 We lose weight without constraints

Weight loss is not necessarily the first issue in intermittent fasting. However, if it is well conducted, fasting makes you lose weight. To the calorie reduction (if we go from three meals to two, without increasing the portions on the two remaining meals, we in fact reduce the total food intake of the day) is added a change in metabolism (which sets in at the 16th hour of fasting), which leads to a loss of fat mass: lipolysis. When the stores of sugar (glycogen) are depleted, the body will convert the fat stored in adipocytes (in other words, the fat stores) into free fatty acids which will then be converted by the liver into energy to fuel the muscles.

Another advantage of intermittent fasting: it is not a diet. It therefore does not cause any frustration, does not force you to count calories, allows you to maintain an identical social life and can (should) be considered a new way of eating. Result? We avoid the perverse yo-yo effects of diets and simply lose the excess pounds, until we reach our healthy weight. “We lose weight less quickly than following a diet, says Dr. Chauchard, biologist and sports doctor, author of Lose weight at sight (ed. Guy Trédaniel) but the results are more durable.”

2 We find the sensations of hunger and satiety

American researchers have observed, in mice which were subjected to an 18-hour fast, a drop in the secretion of ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates the appetite. “At the end of the 8 hours (time slot devoted to meals), we naturally feel full, notes Dr. Chauchard, and we are generally hungry after 16 hours of fasting.” A better balance between the secretion of ghrelin and that of leptin (hormone of satiety) could explain this phenomenon. However, for this to work, it is best to eat at set times. “Our body likes regularity,” notes JB Rives, caoch and author of Le fasting, the ultra-efficient intermittent fasting method (ed. Thierry Souccar). We all have different days, but I noticed that it helps to eat at the same times from day to day. For the appetite and, above all, to avoid snacking. “

3 We age less quickly

“Every second, we produce 20 million cells to replace our worn out or dead cells,” says Dr. Saldmann. The risk of ‘copy errors’ increases with age, which is why the risk of developing cancer is increased. bigger when we get older. We realized that by practicing sequential fasting, we give the body time to repair itself and fight against its programmed obsolescence, so we allow it to age less quickly. For me, fasting is a real makeover. ” Our ancestors, moreover, ate only once or twice a day, our current meal rhythm is finally quite recent. In addition, intermittent fasting produces a detox effect by activating autophagy, a natural process of cleansing the body by white blood cells.

Finally, by fighting against the general inflammation of the body (caused by digestion), we boost its immune defenses, and we stay in better health for longer. “I used to say that 30% less calories is 20% more life!” concludes the nutritionist doctor.

4 We gain energy

We are often afraid of lacking energy if we eat less, of feeling tired. It is quite the reverse. “I just finished a study on vigilance at the wheel, says Dr. Saldmann. We discovered that when you hit the road with a meal of 1000 kcal (not a pantagruelic menu, however, a starter, a steak with fries and a chocolate cake), drowsiness is much stronger after 30 minutes than with a much lighter meal, and the risk of an accident increases. Note that the peak of sleepiness on the motorway is between 1 pm and 3 pm and corresponds well to fatigue triggered by digestion. ” Intermittent fasting does not cause fatigue (quite the contrary), provided of course that you have a balanced diet and an ad hoc lifestyle.

5 type 2 diabetes is prevented

A study conducted by the University of Chicago in the United States showed that intermittent fasting was more effective in preventing type 2 diabetes than reducing calories. “When we practice it, we put less strain on the pancreas, this small gland weighing less than 100 g which secretes insulin, which reduces the risk factors for type 2 fatty diabetes,” insists Dr. Saldmann. A Canadian study published in 2017 also shows that intermittent fasting could decrease insulin intake by patients with type 2 diabetes.