While fasting has been praised as the cure-all to every ailment; the fact of the matter is, fasting is a biological stress. Not only is fasting contra-productive to long-term weight loss, it can be detrimental to the overall health and longevity of the body.
Your Metabolism on Fasting
During the first stages of fasting, the metabolic system is high at first, but overtime as the body enters lipolysis, the metabolic system slows down dramatically. As free fatty and amino acids rise in the blood, they stimulate the production of estrogen and cortisol, which turns down thyroid function, reproductive function, brain function, digestive and immune function.
This is because; in time, fasting shifts the metabolism from glucose oxidation to fat oxidation (glycolysis to lipolysis), which impairs the liver’s ability to detoxify. Additionally, lipolysis results in the increased production of estrogen and cortisol, which directly inhibit cellular glucose utilization. This is the opposite to what most people think (that fasting is helpful for detoxification). However, next to the inhibitor effects of cortisol and estrogen on the metabolism, there is another way that gluconeogenesis inhibits detoxification, which is by depriving the liver of the amino acids and glycogen it needs to detoxify. 1
The truth is, while you will inevitably lose weight or “burn fat” while fasting, this short-term fat loss comes at the expense of suppressing the resting metabolism long term. This ultimately down regulates thyroid function, weakens the immune and digestive system, while putting the body in a catabolic state (destroying the body’s tissues), depleting liver glycogen and burdening the liver, while stressing every cell in the body.
The Cost of Fasting
A low carb diet or fasting seem to be a good way to increase fat loss in the short-term. However, this is only true in the absence of a complete biological picture.
Something to be understood is that to initiate ketosis or lipolysis, adrenaline and cortisol must be chronically elevated. Gluconeogenesis works in conjunction with lipolysis, and is an inefficient energy production process, where adrenal stress hormone, cortisol, attempts to raise blood sugar and flight inflammation. This is done by converting the body’s own tissues (namely the thymus, liver, muscle, and skin) to make glucose to feed the cells – a conversion that occurs in the liver. In other words, gluconeogensis is a survival energy production system that breaksdown protein, muscle tissues, organs or fat to convert into glucose to be utilized for energy.
There are many problems that arise from this other than the basic catabolic stress. For example, consider the effects that long-term gluconeogensis can have on the health of the hair follicle. Hair follicles are one of the most hormone-sensitive tissues in the body and are specifically thyroid hormone-sensitive. While hair follicles have the ability to store glycogen to utilize for energy, they are nevertheless glucose dependent, meaning they cannot utilize free fatty acids for energy. So, a diet that mimics ketosis or greatly restricts carbohydrates and glucose not only deprives the liver of energy for cellular function, it also starves the hair follicles.
Furthermore, gluconeogenesis. is preceded by the chronically elevated production stress hormone cortisol, which antagonizes thyroid hormone. This chronic deficiency of thyroid hormone (hypothyroid), has not just metabolic consequences (weak metabolism), but also explains the high rate of pattern baldness in both men and women with hypothyroid. It might also explain why many people who are diabetic, cancerous or on a chronically low carb diet also lose their hair.
Additionally, under lipolysis, or “burning fat for energy”, for fats to be turned into glucose (energy), they must broken down into two substrates; glycerols and fatty acids. However, only glycerols can be converted back into pyruvate and eventually into glucose and then glycogen. This means that the “burning of fat” results in the liberation of free fatty acids into the blood, which are usually polyunsaturated. These polyunsaturated fast (PUFA) stimulate a stress response, increasing the production of estrogen and cortisol, which suppress the thyroid and ultimately slows down the metabolism. Not to mention, the increase of stress hormone and free circulating PUFA brings water into cells causing edema (water retention), which gives a person a puffy appearance.
In other words, as fat is liberated from the tissues, you will have the seemingly good sign of weight loss. However, as you rapidly lose weight, your body is undergoing suffering and stress leading to hypothyroid (cortisol and lipolysis in general suppress thyroid hormone), hypo-metabolism, possible hair loss, muscle wasting, cellular energy deficiency and accelerated aging. This might explains why bodybuilders, yoyo dieters, and die-hard “fasters” often look older and more “inflamed” than normal.
A Better Weight Loss Strategy: What to Do Instead
In general, I think most problems in life could be avoided with patience and a long-term strategy. Not to get too far off topic, but I know for myself, in the past I often rushed into relationships, and many problems occurred that didn’t have to as a result of not taking my time, gathering enough information and going slow. However, it wasn’t until recently that I’ve approached a relationship with patience and a long-term intention. And as a result, I’ve been able to develop a stable foundation of trust, friendship, and love.
I think this concept can be applied to all areas of our lives, so rather than taking an extreme approach to weight loss, such as crash dieting or fasting, I suggest the rational long-term approach. What does that look like exactly in terms of weight loss?
Here are a few suggestions:
- Stop Dieting: Rather than “dieting” focus on eliminating the obvious junk; this includes fast-foods, heavily processed foods, excessive alcohol consumption, and particularly foods rich in PUFA, chemicals, preservatives other unnatural additives. These foods are in the most basic terms, difficult to digest and metabolize, and contain gut irritating substances. PUFA specifically are highly anti-metabolic, so be sure to read up on those and keep an optimal ratio of saturated fats to unsaturated to ensure a high metabolism. Instead of dogmatic dieting that requires endless will-power and restriction, focus on foods that truly make you feel good and energized. To learn more about what to eat exactly to support long-term metabolic health, be sure to check out my new online course Healthy Weight Loss.
- Improve Digestion: Since the digestive function precedes metabolic function, digestive dysfunction can obviously lead to metabolic problems. Digestion is the process of breaking down food into smaller substrates (carbs into glucose, fats into fatty acids and glycerols, proteins into amino acids). Without these substrates, the metabolism won’t fire. Also, digestive diseases like leaky gut, and SIBO can increase the likelihood of endotoxins, inflammation and stress hormone, all which negatively effect healthy metabolism and detoxification. A simple place to start is with eating a simpler diet, you know, fruits, veggies, meats, eggs, cheeses and herbs. You can also supplement with digestive enzymes if you have a sluggish digestive system. I would highly recommend enrolling in my best-selling online course Perfect Digestion to learn exactly how to fix your digestive issues.
- Care for your Thyroid: Your thyroid is the gland that rules your metabolism, determines pulse rate, body temperature and keeps stress hormone in check. When the thyroid is sluggish, metabolism down regulates and this makes maintaining a healthy weight very difficult. Keep in mind that your liver converts 60% of thyroid hormone into its active form, so you want to also care for that liver. LivaMend is a simple herbal formula that can help with your liver. Great foods for both the liver and thyroid include actual liver (you can make a pate), oysters, and citrus fruits like fresh orange juice.
If you’ve enjoyed this information and would like to learn more be sure to enroll in my online Healthy Weight Loss course while spots are available!