The Benefits of Fasting for Metabolic Health

Metabolic Health refers to a healthy metabolism with ideal blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, waist size, triglycerides levels, and lipoprotein levels naturally, therefore, without medication.

Healthy metabolism prevents health-related issues like stroke, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, etc. Metabolic health is more than just having a healthy body weight. It is essential to understand how your metabolism works and interacts with other functions in the body. Your metabolism regulates various functions in the body and interacts with all the biochemical processes in your body. 

The primary function of your metabolism is to convert the food and drink into energy so that your body can use it for proper functioning. An unhealthy metabolism can lead to various metabolic syndromes, high glucose levels, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, etc. The common cause of all metabolic syndromes is excess fat or body weight.

One of the best ways to maintain healthy body weight for your metabolic health is fasting. Fasting benefits metabolic health, but it also helps improve your overall health. In addition, fasting helps cut down the hours you spend eating, which helps stabilise your blood sugar levels or glucose.

Fasting and Metabolic Health

Fasting and metabolic health are related. Also, fasting helps in weight management and helps eliminate or stop you from eating foods that can spike your glucose levels for a certain period. All the factors, including weight and glucose levels, can affect your metabolic health; therefore, fasting can help prevent various metabolic dysfunction. However, it is essential to keep some things in mind before indulging in any diet or fasting routine. 

Fasting can affect various underlying health issues like type 2 diabetes, eating disorders, hormone imbalance, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to consult your dietician before starting any fasting routine to get proper guidance and a personalised fasting routine. 

Different Types of Fasting Routine

Fasting does not always have to be strict or hard to follow. After consulting your dietician, you can customise your fasting routine to suit your unique body needs. Some common types of fasting routines are:

Periodic Fasting:

Periodic fasting means eating normally every day and then selecting one or two days each week when you have to fast for that entire day. Therefore, you have to fast for a whole 24-hour period window.

Intermittent Fasting:

Intermittent fasting is a routine or eating practice where you do not consume any calories for 12 hours or more. In simple words, you switch between eating and fasting on a particular schedule. 

24 Hours Fasting:

24 Hours fasting routine means eating at the same time you eat on the previous day without consuming anything in between. For example, if you eat at 5 pm on Monday, you will consume your next meal on Tuesday at 5 pm. 

Effects of Fasting on Your Glucose Levels

Fasting can have various positive effects on your glucose levels. People who have diabetes can also have multiple metabolic dysfunctions like hyperglycemia, hypertension, etc. Therefore, fasting can reduce all these health issues. Positive effects of fasting on your glucose levels are: 

• Having a normal fasting blood sugar levels
• Managing healthy body weight
• Improve insulin sensitivity
• Reducing A1c haemoglobin levels

Fasting can be even more effective when you have continuous glucose monitoring. Therefore, HealthifyPro brings CGM (a continuous glucose monitoring device called BIOS) to help you determine real-time glucose levels. Knowing real-time glucose levels will help you control the spike in your blood sugar levels. As a result, you can eliminate that spike-causing food from your fasting routine or avoid having that food just after breaking your fast, which will protect you from hypoglycemia. 

HealthifyPro BIOS is a modern solution to prevent continuous glucose fluctuations. It gives real-time health nudges to make sure you are losing weight without cutting on every food item, which can trigger your glucose or blood sugar levels.

Besides providing real-time glucose levels, HealthifyPro offers real-time solutions to control your blood sugar spike. For example, suppose you see a glucose spike in your BIOS device after having a food item. In that case, HealthifyPro will ask you to go for a walk when you can or add certain food items to your diet to balance out the sudden glucose spike. 

Unlock Proactive Living with HealthifyPro

Get personalised nutrition, fitness strategies and smart nudges.

Effects of Fasting on your Metabolic Health 

Some of the benefits of fasting for your metabolic health are:

Helps in Insulin Resistance

Fasting helps insulin resistance by maintaining a proper balance of food you consume. When you follow a fasting routine, you do not eat continuously, giving your body some rest and not feeling too full. Therefore, fasting helps your body reduce insulin sensitivity, and your body can take up insulin in a more effective way. Moreover, shrinking or narrowing your eating window helps your body process glucose better. 

Weight Loss

One of the common reasons for metabolic dysfunction is weight gain or obesity. Fasting helps you maintain your body weight, enabling you to stay healthy and active. In addition, fasting helps you reduce the risk of other diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular health issues, hypertension, etc. To lose weight properly while fasting, you need to know the exact calories and glucose levels in food. 

With the help of the HealthifyPro smart scale and BIOS solution, you can do that very effectively. It is essential to losing weight healthily while you fast. HealthifyPro will help you know how much calorie and glucose spike a food is giving when you break your fast, which will make it easy to manage weight.

In addition, keeping a constant check on your weight with the help of the HealthifyPro smart weighing scale will give you a clear idea of your BMI and how many calories you are eating and burning. 

Metabolic Flexibility

A study suggests that metabolic flexibility can help reduce the risk of diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. Metabolic flexibility refers to the ability of your metabolic system to adapt to various conditional changes. With metabolic flexibility, your body can perform the metabolic function quickly by converting fats and carbohydrates into energy for your body to use as energy under any circumstances.

In addition, metabolic flexibility helps your body use the energy quickly after any meal to reduce the amount of fat in your body. Moreover, quickly making these switches or responses help your body feel less burned out. It also reduces your body’s harmful physical response by running low on glucose. 

Fasting can help you combat the symptoms of metabolic dysfunction to a great extent. But before following any fasting or diet routine, consulting your dietitian is essential as it can also have various counterproductive effects. Apart from fasting, it is necessary to break your fast on time and eat the right quantities of proteins and minerals in your meals for your body to work correctly.

Conclusion

Apart from the benefits, it is necessary to remember that fasting does not help everyone keep metabolic health in check. Fasting can have a counterproductive effect on people with any underlying health condition.

Therefore, it is crucial not to follow any fasting routine or a standard weight loss diet plan. Everyone is unique, and the same foods and diet plans will not help everyone combat metabolic dysfunctions.