Intermittent fasting not only good for significant weight loss, may have additional health benefits

Intermittent fasting is something that’s become more popular in recent times with people looking to shed a few kilograms and now new research shows that it could actually have ‘profound health benefits’.

In addition to helping people lose weight, intermittent fasting, according to the research by a team at the University Of Florida College Of Medicine, can also slow down aging and disease.

The human body runs on glucose, which it gets from the food we eat. However, periods of fasting force the body to find an alternative energy source. Our bodies begin to convert body fat into fatty acids which are easily absorbed by our blood. Molecules called ketones are then produced from the fatty acids, which our bodies use as a new source of energy.

Stephen Anton, a researcher from the University Of Florida College Of Medicine in Gainesville, refers to this process as "flipping the metabolic switch".

He says "this switch can happen after a certain period of time fasting. It's a gradation in which your metabolism overtime shifts to use higher and higher amounts of ketones for energy”.

Having reviewed numerous studies that focused on the mechanisms and benefits of intermittent fasting, Anton and his team discovered that not only did intermittent fasters experience significant weight loss, they did not lose lean tissue, such as organ tissue, muscular tissue, and bone tissue, which allow our bodies to continue functioning well and could help prolong our lifespans.