Health

Intermittent Fasting: What’s the point of eating by the clock?

A snack here, a soft drink there: Many people feed their bodies with calories almost constantly. This does not have to be the case with intermittent fasting. But how do regular meal breaks affect your health?

16:8, 14:10 or 5:2? The formulas for intermittent fasting are complicated to read, but the principle of all methods is simple: you eat little or no food over a certain period of time. This is not a problem for most people, but not for everyone. Children and pregnant women, for example, should not do this.

According to the internist and nutritionist Prof. Andreas Michalsen, the most common forms of intermittent fasting are variants of time-restricted eating. These include the 16:8 and 14:10 diets as well as the 5:2 fasting or two-day diet. But what do the numbers mean?

16:8 or 14:10: What the numbers mean

16:8 or 14:10 diet: You eat nothing but water, unsweetened tea or black coffee for a period of 16 or 14 hours. In the remaining eight or ten hours you can eat normally, explains Antje Gahl from the German Society for Nutrition (DGE).

“There aren’t that many guidelines when it comes to food choices. The diet should be as balanced as possible and you should eat early in the evening and have breakfast late,” says Gahl.

5:2 fast or two-day diet

With these forms, you eat normally five days a week and fast two days a week. With the two-day diet, the fasting days should follow one another – on each of these days you should consume a maximum of 650 calories, explains Gahl. With the 5:2 principle, the fasting days do not have to be consecutive, but they should have a fixed rhythm – for example always on Tuesdays and Fridays. A quarter of the usual energy intake is then allowed, which corresponds to around 500 to 650 calories.

Two to four weeks of adjustment

If you want to start intermittent fasting, you should give your body two to four weeks to get used to it, advises Andreas Michalsen. “At first you’re hungry, that’s completely normal. After you get used to it, you can judge whether it’s good for you,” says the chief physician in the naturopathy department at the Immanuel Hospital in Berlin, who looks after around 1,500 fasting people there every year.

And then, as most fasting people hope, the pounds will drop. According to the doctor, this calculation works out in most cases. However, according to nutritionist Gahl, intermittent fasting is not a magic bullet when it comes to losing weight. There are rather small effects on the body mass index, which describes the ratio of weight to height and is considered a rough indicator of overweight and underweight.

However, according to Gahl, fasting has the advantage that unhealthy belly fat is reduced. And: “With strict diets, the body starts to break down fat-free mass, i.e. muscles. This is reduced with intermittent fasting.”

Studies show positive effects

There are now some clinical studies on healthy adults on the effectiveness of this type of fasting, but most of the results came from animal studies, summarizes Gahl.

This shows many positive effects: In addition to weight loss, the metabolic situation improved, for example in type 2 diabetes, says Gahl. The risk of cardiovascular diseases and neurological diseases decreased, brain function improved, blood pressure, blood lipid levels and fasting blood sugar as well.

criticism of the concepts

But there is criticism that goes beyond the study situation: “Most concepts contain no or only vague recommendations for food selection,” says Antje Gahl. “If people don’t know exactly how they can now eat better quality or feast uncontrollably, the health-promoting effects fizzle out and unfavorable eating habits are not changed either.”

Andreas Michalsen, on the other hand, thinks that people are eating better because the cravings are going away. But he also emphasizes: “No matter what you eat, you only eat according to the clock – of course it shouldn’t be like that. It’s best to combine a healthy diet with fasting.”

Risks of Fasting

Intermittent fasting also comes with risks: Blood pressure and blood sugar can drop, and you can get headaches, Gahl explains. It is particularly important to drink at least 1.5 liters a day, preferably water. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, children and young people should not fast. This also applies to people with eating disorders. If you have previous illnesses, you should consult your doctor.

But: “Basically, the body can handle eating breaks well,” says Gahl. In principle, intermittent fasting is suitable for every healthy person and can be easily integrated into everyday life.

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