Fasting: a path to weight loss

Hello friends,

Today I would be speaking about this topic which has a much wider impact in our society. As we know that due to today's lifestyle, more and more people are falling into the prey of obesity and diabetes. Also the many food chains, delivery apps are much more inviting than the old times. 

This topic was discussed in our hospital recently when one NRI doctor came for some discussions about it. It was more of an awareness program and supported by presentations of many statistically significant outcomes. The talk mostly deals with correlation of insulin with obesity and how we can change our lifestyle to remain slim and also acquire our dream figure.

First of all, I would like to talk about insulin. It is a hormone that is secreted from pancreas and helps in reducing sugar level in blood. The problem is the way it reduces the sugar in blood as it promotes absorption of carbohydrates like glucose from blood into liver, fat and skeletal muscle. 

Normally it's a good mechanism as it helps store the carbohydrate at the times of need when we don't get food or suffer from hunger. But that's not the case in human as we get food almost anytime we want and the more insulin acts, more we become fat.

So, from what I understood from his lecture was that we need to give the opportunity to our body to act naturally. That's why fasting comes into place. Fasting as we know, has been present through ancient times as many of us fast because of social or religious reasons. There were also stories of people fasting for many days like in Navratri festival. Also there are fasting in special days like Monday, Tuesday, Saturday etc. 

From ancient times people knew the value of fasting and we were told that fasting helps the body to rest. The same technique is now being tested scientifically and many successes have been achieved.

The obese persons lose weight, diabetes was reversed and even some cancers too showed significant improvements.

So, how fasting works? 

Fasting helps in utilization of excess fat in the body and also prevents deposition of extra fats. One can still drink fluid so fasting as itself won't harm even if one fasts for 2-3 days. ( exceptions were diabetic patients on medications and persons with less body fats)

As there is a gap between intake of food and also decrease in volume of food intake, less insulin is secreted by the body and thus less deposition of fats. Slowly, when one increases the frequency of fasting for example, skipping breakfast or lunch, proceeding to having only one meal a day. 

It has been seen that people have even reduced almost 25-30 kg in few months by following this regimen (obese persons, person >120 kg). But even a 80 kg person lost 5 kg in 3 months as per him. It varies person to person.

As much I have researched after his lecture, I could tell that he was telling the truth. I have a sedentary lifestyle as I work in a laboratory, and analyzing data in a computer. That's why I normally avoid heavy meals and walk at least one km a day. It helped me maintain my weight but there is no loss of weight. 

I have decided to try fasting method and really hope that you could try it too. :)