Intermittent fasting is one of these new and sexy sounding fad diets, but does it work?  We asked our functional nutritionist Ashley Schmidt of Wisconsin Fatigue & Weight Clinic to answer some questions on the topic.

Check out the YouTube and Facebook video with Dr. Zach Shiels and Ashley Schmidt below.

What is intermittent fasting?

 Your body is either storing energy or burning energy. Recent studies show the typical person spends 14 3/4 hours eating a day. That would look like breakfast at 7am and your last meal/snack at 9:45pm. In this model, our bodies would spend more time each day storing energy, and less time burning energy which equals weight gain. A few days like this won’t lead to weight gain, rather long term eating patterns will impact weight.  Intermittent fasting changes when you eat and intentionally creates fasting periods longer than the period you eat in a day thus leading to your body burning more energy than you are storing.

How long should you fast for?

There really is a lot of variance to how you structure your intermittent fasting schedule. If you are using it to manage diabetes, the more severe the diabetes, the longer the fast-could be as much as 30-36 hours under medical supervision. If you are trying to lose a little weight, you might only do it one day a week for 24 hours, or maybe 3 days a week for 16 hours.

How frequently should you fast?

Depending on your personal goals, preferences, and schedule life demands you could do it 1-6 days a week.

What are the intermittent fasting rules?

 For a set amount of time, you do not eat or drink anything with calories. You can drink water, black coffee or plain tea.

Are there any potential health risks?

  Certain types of people who should not be doing it include Type 1 diabetics as they may struggle with low blood sugar. Folks with hypoglycemia may also struggle with blood sugar drops.

Are there any health benefits?

It can be used to reverse type 2 diabetes.  Studies show that weight loss will reverse type 2 diabetes and intermittent fasting can improve blood sugar levels after a few short weeks, even if the person has a long way to go on their overall weight loss journey to manage/reverse type 2 diabetes.

Anything else to consider with intermittent fasting?   

Think about how our culture has changed, we’ve essentially imprinted ourselves to feel that being hungry should not be endured. Think back to the 70’s, if a kid came home from school and asked for a snack, Mom or Dad said no, it will ruin your appetite for dinner. Now we have snacks available to us all the time, wherever we go. It’s OK to feel hunger!

More Information

Check out some of our other posts and videos on popular nutrition topics:

• Bulletproof Coffee
• Holiday Healthy Eating Tips
• Keto Diet
• Intermittent Fasting

Check out more information on our providers and the services our clinic offers! To schedule an appointment with one of our chiropractors click here or call 262-373-9168. To schedule with Ashley for a nutrition consult call (262) 373-8277.