I’m going to reveal the two most important, most effective ways of promoting healthy aging and longevity, as well as improving body composition.
If you’re like 90% of people, you’re eating for more than 12 hours a day. Although it goes against what you’ve probably been taught, this habit of grazing throughout the day and evening has serious ramifications for health, as it:
- Raises your risk for inflammation, hypertension and cardiovascular disease
- Prevents effective digestion and elimination of waste
- Prevents your body’s natural housekeeping and rejuvenation processes since you are in “digest” mode all the time
- Prevents the emptying of your glycogen stores (the sugar stored in your liver)
- Increases fat storage, as you’re loading your body with energy even when it doesn’t need it
- Harms your cells’ DNA, mitochondria, membranes and proteins (this damage is caused by the excess free radicals created by unused, inefficiently-burning fuel)
- Lowers your cells’ resistance to stress and disease
One of the simplest things you can do prevent these detrimental outcomes and prepare for an extended fast like the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) is to do Time Restricted Feeding (or TRF, often confused with Intermittent Fasting).
In other words, compress your daily eating window to six to eleven hours, meaning you eat all of your calories for the day during those six to eleven hours, and for the remaining 13 to 18 hours, you’re fasting. Water, black coffee and unsweetened tea during the fasting period is fine.
This is your base and should be done for at least four weeks leading up to an extended fast.
Most people will become metabolically flexible after this protocol, but you can test your ketones and confirm that you are, especially if you are heavy to start with, or diabetic, as it might take you longer to shift.
Even if you eat high-quality food, if you’re grazing for 16 hours a day, you’re sabotaging your health. TRF may even allow you to get away with a diet that isn’t entirely ideal, as it blocks many of the harmful effects of a poor diet, likely because you’re regularly activating autophagy (the cleanup of aging & damaged cells). That’s right, merely changing the meal timing and restricting the number of hours you eat, and also by moving to an earlier eating schedule produce huge benefits even in the same person eating the same meals.
According to a recent study, TRF may also help with motivation to engage in voluntary exercise. And if you can exercise BEFORE you break your fast, you may burn more fat, even if it’s just light exercise like a 20 minute morning walk (double bonus!).
Once you’ve followed this TRF schedule for a month — or when you have restored your metabolic flexibility and your body can efficiently use fat for fuel — you can move into the second phase by experimenting with a 24-hour, water-only fast once a week.
The thought of intentionally skipping a meal, or worse yet, an entire day of eating, is akin to something straight out of a horror film for some folks.
But the truth is, humans have fasted for millennia, whether for religious or cultural purposes or out of necessity during times of scarcity.
The benefits of fasting are similar to those of calorie restriction, which has been shown to have positive effects on weight loss and potentially even longevity. It supports the body’s natural functions and may have positive benefits on body composition, metabolic health, energy levels, and human health span.
Once you have a 24-hour fast under your belt, experiment with extended fasts (3-7 days) throughout the year. This is the true definition of “Intermittent Fasting”.
I’ve personally been doing 5-day fasts every six months since 2015 as a reboot. And it’s amazing how good you feel after you complete an extended fast.
Sticking to TRF on an ongoing basis and Intermittent Fasting is one of the most important, most effective ways of promoting healthy aging and longevity, as well as improving body composition.
If you’re interested in learning more about fasting, sign up to my monthly Group Fasting Week here: https://antifragile.fit/fastingweek/
Check out my Step-byStep Guide to Start a Fasting Lifestyle. It’s a comprehensive guide to the most potent tool for optimized health, longevity and performance.