A TOUR THROUGH THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FASTING

There are nearly as many different ways to fast as there are ways to eat. Because there are so many different approaches, and so much information is available on the Internet on the best ways to fast, I want to give an overview here so that you will be better equipped to discern the right approach for you and better able to understand why I landed on KetoFasting.

There are three basic categories of fasting:

• Time-restricted eating (TRE), or a type of intermittent fasting that I call Peak Fasting. It is the practice of limiting your food intake to a certain window of time each day, generally somewhere between six and eight hours. If you are new to changing your eating habits for improved health, Peak Fasting is your first step. It will help your body regain the ability to burn fat for fuel and become metabolically flexible.

  I believe that Peak Fasting is one intervention that most everyone would benefit from. It doesn’t really disrupt your normal daily experience (you may even find that you enjoy the extra time in the mornings when you don’t have to worry about eating breakfast before you leave the house). And even if you don’t make any other dietary changes, you can experience important health improvements.

  As with all types of fasting, it’s best to introduce Peak Fasting gradually. You can start by not eating anything for the three hours before you go to bed. Then, gradually, over a period of weeks or perhaps a month or two, you can delay your first meal of the day until you have reduced your window of eating down to six to eight hours—for example, eat your first meal at 11 a.m. and finish your final meal by 7 p.m. My typical eating schedule is 9 or 10 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m.

  When you eat all day long, from shortly after you wake up until just before you go to bed, you rarely, if ever, empty your glycogen stores. It takes about 24 to 36 hours to sufficiently deplete the sugar stored in your body as glycogen, so if you don’t do Peak Fasting, you will rarely, if ever, give your body the conditions it needs to start burning fat for fuel. Once you have made this metabolic switch, it will be even easier for you to go longer periods without eating.

• Partial fasting. In a partial fast, you greatly reduce the number of calories you eat in a day to approximately 300 to 600 (based on your lean body mass) so that you get the physiological benefits of a fast, like activating autophagy (your body’s process of eliminating damaged cells by digesting them) and stem cells to help repair and regenerate your body. KetoFasting is a partial fast, and the foods that make up the few calories you’re taking in help you process any fat-soluble toxins that might be released in your body during your fasting process.
• Water-only fasting. This type of fasting is just as it sounds—you consume only water for the duration of the fast. This is generally done for a specific therapeutic reason, such as a serious disease or other health condition. It can be a very powerful intervention, and many people may want to consider this approach, but it is an advanced technique and I believe it should only be done either with the supervision of a health-care provider who has extensive experience in therapeutic fasting or at a dedicated fasting facility. Visit www.healthscience.org/education/fasting/where-fast for a list of clinicians trained in this process.