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Intermittent Fasting and Huel

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting (IF) is an eating pattern of cycling between periods of eating and voluntary abstinence from food[1]. It’s much more about when you eat rather than what you eat. During eating periods, there are no restrictions on what can be eaten, contrary to other popular diets. Depending on who you talk to, what is allowed to be consumed during fasting periods varies. Generally, water and non-caloric beverages such as coffee and sugar-free soft drinks are allowed. There are also diets that allow food consumption during “fasting” days albeit at a much lower calorie intake than non-fasting days.

Intermittent fasting is different from prolonged fasting, which is loosely defined as the abstinence of food for over 48 hours[2] and which comes with its own risks and possible benefits. There may be no pattern to prolonged fasting, unlike intermittent fasting. With all of these approaches to fasting, it is important to remain hydrated throughout the day.

Types of Intermittent Fasting

Time-Restricted Feeding

As with all intermittent fasting, time-restricted feeding focuses on not what you eat, but when you eat, during a pre-defined, restricted window of time. There are several variants on time-restricted feeding but typically they involve people eating their normal diet, within a specified period each day.

What Is 16:8 Intermittent Fasting?

Also referred to as the 16:8 plan, this is when you abstain from food for 16 hours and eat during the 8-hour window. There are no restrictions on the type, or amount of food you can eat during the 8 hours. It’s also easy because a large amount of the fasting period can be during the night, when you are asleep. Common eating windows in the 16:8 plan include 9am to 5pm, or midday to 8pm.

While there are no specifications on the type of food to eat, the same rules apply to this plan as to all diets, whether intermittent or not: a balanced diet with healthy food including vegetables, fruits, grains, lean protein and healthy fats from sources like nuts and seeds. You must also take care not to binge during the 8-hour eating window.

What Is 18:6 Intermittent Fasting?

18:6 is exactly the same concept as 16:8, except the eating window is reduced from 8 to 6 hours.

What Is Circadian Rhythm Fasting?

Our circadian rhythms are evolutionary-developed processes in the body that align with the 24-hour cycle of day and night, including hormone release, eating habits, digestion and body temperature. Modern living can disrupt our natural circadian rhythms. In circadian rhythm fasting the aim is to reduce the eating window to daytime hours and fast during the night. This is often split into 2 periods of 12 hours but the fasting period can sometimes be extended to 16 hours.

Alternate Day Fasting

This is quite simply, a day of eating, followed by a day of fasting.

Modified Fasting Regimes

On modified “fasting” days some food can be eaten, typically 20-25% of daily calorie needs. For example, the 5:2 IF regime (see below).

What Is 5:2 Intermittent Fasting?

The most popular of modified fasting regimes is the 5:2 diet, which requires, for two days a week, a calorie intake of 500kcal for women and 600kcal for men.

Religious fasting

The most well-known example is Ramadan, which requires Muslims to not eat or drink anything during daylight hours for 29/30 days. This is often very different from fasting undertaken through dietary choice where eating during daylight hours, in line with circadian rhythms, is more common.

What Is The Ideal Eating Window When Fasting?

Most people end their eating window at least 3 hours before bed. This reduces the potential for a feeling of bloat in bed, and helps promote more restful sleep[42]. From a practical point of view, it also means that you complete several hours of your fast in the evening before you’re likely to get hungry, and then the main portion of the fast is undertaken during sleep, so it’s an easier way to get through a period of fasting.

Considerations

Non-fasting days can be valued a bit too much like a treat. During periods of eating, a balanced, nutritious diet should still be consumed and will make the fasting days a little easier. A diet high in fibre, fruits, vegetables, and protein will help with satiety. IF is not a free pass to eat whatever you want without gaining weight. Calories in vs calories out still applies, which you can find out more about here.

During fasting days, particularly when starting out, some symptoms may arise such as headaches, dizziness and a lack of energy and concentration. These symptoms can be reduced by staying properly hydrated.

IF is not suitable for type 1 and 2 diabetics due to an impaired insulin response[3] and hypoglycaemia[4]. IF can also be a risk factor for relapse in those with a history of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia[5]. Additionally, pregnant and breastfeeding women and people with a diagnosed chronic disease should not attempt IF.

What IF does well is simplicity. The rules are easy to follow, which can help some stick to this eating pattern.

How Does Intermittent Fasting Work? The Theory

There are many ideas around why IF might be beneficial. One of the most prominent focuses is on circadian biology. The human body has an internal clock that operates on an approximate 24-hour cycle (circadian rhythm) and influences a number of processes, such as sleep[6]. Circadian rhythms are affected by the environment, notably light and darkness[7]. When there are environmental disturbances, such as working a night shift, this has a negative effect on the body’s internal clock and metabolism, consequently impacting health[8].

Feeding and fasting can affect the body’s circadian clock[9]. The thought is IF is more aligned with this clock than modern eating patterns and so leads to metabolic benefits[10]. Eating the majority of calories earlier in the day rather than late at night may also exert health benefits in much the same way[10].

From an evolutionary perspective, this is quite logical. Our ancestors did not have constant access to food and likely went through periods with no food, i.e. fasting[11]. On top of this, food was either gathered or hunted during the day and eaten relatively soon after its procurement suggesting an eating pattern during daylight and fasting at night[12].

Fasting may be an opportunity for the body to “reset” and repair[13]. Evolutionary proponents suggest this allowed our ancestors to prepare and be ready again to search for food.

Moreover, fasting periods can result in the body using up all its glycogen stores. This leads to the body switching from glucose as an energy source to ketones. Ketones are provided by the oxidation of fat, which could help to preserve muscle mass, amongst other roles, hence the theory behind IF providing benefits beyond a reduction in calorie intake[14].

How Does Intermittent Fasting Work? The Evidence

There are many benefits touted for IF and some have more evidence behind them than others. As IF is still a relatively new research area, many of the effects have only been seen in cells or in animals and are yet to be replicated in humans, which is important to remember.

Potential benefits with relatively strong evidence include a reduction in fasting insulin[15]. Insulin is one of the main hormones involved in controlling blood glucose levels, and high fasting insulin levels are particularly important in relation to type 2 diabetes[16]. However, this reduction doesn’t appear to translate to an improvement in insulin sensitivity and therefore the body’s response to insulin in humans compared to continuous calorie restriction despite successes in animals[17].

A reduction in C-reactive protein (a blood marker of inflammation), total cholesterol and triglycerides have been reported across several studies[18, 19]. The issue is that these positive results are hard to separate from the effects of weight loss, which causes similar changes and occurs in a large proportion of the studies on IF.

Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss

One of the main reasons people undertake IF is for the purpose of weight loss. A smaller eating period can naturally result in fewer calories consumed over the week. IF could reduce the body’s compensatory mechanisms that cause a decrease in energy expenditure with weight loss through the inclusion of non-fasting days, i.e. days where calories are not restricted[20]. However, this is currently still a theory without sufficient practical data to support it.

Increased fat oxidation is often put forward as a strong benefit of IF[21]. Contrary evidence has shown that participants who skipped breakfast had the same oxidation of carbohydrates and fats over 24 hours as those who didn’t[22].

A similar lack of difference has been shown in overall weight loss between IF and controls, which is usually a continuous calorie restriction diet. This has been replicated in several randomised control trials with different IF regimes up to 2 years in duration[23-25]. What’s more is adherence to an IF diet is comparable to other diets[26, 27].

An interesting benefit of IF could be the maintenance of free-fat mass (FFM), in other words muscle, during weight loss resulting in favourable changes in body composition[26, 28].

Intermittent Fasting and Cancer

IF has been touted as a diet for the prevention and treatment of cancer, but should this be the case? This belief centres around the concept of autophagy. Autophagy is the breakdown of the components within cells during metabolic distress to provide a nutrient source to those cells[29]. Examples where autophagy can be increased include certain diseases, exercise and a lack of available nutrients, e.g. during starvation[29].

In relation to cancer, the general theory is that fasting induces autophagy, which results in fewer nutrients for cancer cells to utilise. This is also linked to apoptosis (cell death), which can be triggered under the same conditions as autophagy[30], essentially leading to the destruction of cancer cells. However, it is not that simple.

There are around 200 types of cancer with many different characteristics and, therefore, treatments[31]. To suggest fasting can result in significant positive effects in all cancers is misleading. Furthermore, autophagy can promote or suppress a cancer’s growth or survival depending on a variety of factors such as the stage of progression[32].

More research is required for the application of IF in chronic diseases, and there is a lack of evidence for cancer prevention and treatment in humans[33]. Research also needs to be balanced with the side-effects of cancer, such as cachexia, where eating can become a struggle[34], and weight loss an indicator of worse outcomes for patients[35]. Findings should be weighed up with quality of life and general well-being. Such discussions should be carried out further with a qualified medical doctor.

Ageing and Life Extension

Autophagy is linked to life extension and ageing in a similar manner through clearing up damaged components in the body, thereby keeping cells healthy. IF, and calorie restriction in general, increases the rate of autophagy and reduces oxidative stress[36].

Animal models provide evidence that calorie restriction and IF could delay the ageing process. The mechanisms for calorie restriction and IF in ageing appear to share several similarities[33, 37].

Calorie restriction studies conducted in rhesus monkeys offer some insight. They illustrated a lower incidence of ageing-related deaths and a stalled onset of age-related diseases and so may suggest delays in the onset of ageing[38]. Improvements in metabolic profile and a possible reduction in oxidative stress have also been highlighted[39]. Nonetheless, there was no increase in life pointing towards the fact calorie restriction effects in long-lived animals are complex and likely dependent on a variety of environmental, nutritional and genetic factors[39].

Moving the conversation on to humans, the outcomes are unclear, and due to the restrictions required to study over whole lifetimes, we may never fully know.

Intermittent Fasting and Huel

As IF focuses on when to eat rather than what to eat, it’s relatively easy to fit Huel into an IF eating pattern. As previously mentioned, the key is to maintain a healthy, balanced diet during eating periods as a reduced calorie intake over certain time periods alone will not equate to a healthy lifestyle. Huel contains all 26 essential vitamins and minerals as well as an optimum balance of carbohydrate, fat and protein. Additionally, Huel uses oats as a primary carbohydrate source and is high in protein and fibre, which aids satiety.

Similar to when Huel is introduced into the diet, it may be best to ease into IF and gradually build up the fasting window to the desired time period. Exercise should be a part of any lifestyle, and IF is no exception. There is conflicting information on whether it’s advisable to exercise during fasting[40, 41]. Currently, the best advice depends on how comfortable exercising throughout the fasting window is for the individual or whether exercise should be done nearer the beginning or during eating periods.

The following graphic is an example of how to incorporate Huel into an IF eating pattern. It is a 16:8 regime with an eating window of 12pm to 8pm and 3 meals a day.

A 24 hour timeline showing what intermittent fasting with Huel could look like

Summary

Overall, it’s important to determine what works for the individual. IF has straightforward guidelines; however, this doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to follow than other diet regimes[26, 27]. IF is not a way to be healthy while eating a poor-quality diet, but it can be a method that leads to greater control over dietary choices.

There are many different IF regimes, allowing flexibility in which regime to follow. On the other hand, this complicates research comparisons and real-life application. IF research is still in its infancy so it’s advisable to remain open-minded in respect of health claims made regarding IF at this stage.

Intermittent Fasting FAQ

What should you eat during intermittent fasting?

There are no restrictions when it comes to what you should eat during intermittent fasting. That said, fasting for 12 hours doesn’t mean it’s suddenly fine to binge on junk food for the other 12 hours. The same advice applies as with any diet: a well-balanced, nutrient-rich intake is key to a healthy lifestyle. Vegetables, fruit, beans, legumes, grains, nuts and berries are all recommended.

Can you drink water while intermittent fasting?

Staying hydrated is key and makes IF a lot easier. Water is an essential component to your body and organs so, yes, it is fine, and indeed recommended, to drink water while you’re fasting. You can make your water more interesting with some mint, cucumber or lemon added.

Can you drink coffee while intermittent fasting?

During a true fasting period coffee and tea shouldn’t be consumed because the idea is the compounds in these drinks will cause the body to exit the fasted state. However, if you are trying intermittent fasting to help with weight loss, consuming these drinks will not hinder your progress and may even help by reducing hunger cravings.

Does intermittent fasting burn muscle?

When you lose weight, often you will lose both fat and muscle, but there are ways to minimise the muscle loss. For example, strength training will burn more calories while building and maintaining muscle. Also, trying an intermittent regime with a slightly longer window for eating will give you the ability to consume more muscle-building protein and reduce muscle loss. Ensuring that you have a regular intake of protein to keep your muscles fuelled and doing regular strength training can help reduce muscle loss during your fasting.

Read more: Does Intermittent Fasting Work the Same for Men and Women? / Is Intermittent Fasting Dangerous?

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