Legend has it that fasting or skipping meals will suppress your metabolism and cause you to store fat and burn muscle. This is a myth; in fact, science shows that short-term fasting (up to 48 hours) increases fat metabolism while protecting lean muscle.
Humans evolved as hunters during the ice ages. They ate only when the hunt succeeded and fasted otherwise. In the nineteenth century, native hunter-gatherers typically ate meals only once or twice daily. Although they often fasted more than 18 hours between meals, they had lean, muscular bodies and superior fitness.
At any point in time your body is either fed or fasting. When fed, it burns fuels derived from food; only when fasting does it burn body fat.
To burn fat, you must have normal blood sugar and low blood insulin. Meals can raise blood sugar well above 120 mg/dL (the diabetic level) and insulin will rise to control it; this stops your cells from burning fat. Fasting lowers both sugar and insulin to healthy levels that allow rapid fat metabolism.
Fasting dramatically increases growth hormone levels, which increases fat burning, stimulates muscle growth, and rejuvenates tissues. At the end of a 24-hour fast, you will have a slightly elevated metabolic rate due to increased adrenaline levels. In prehistoric times, this adrenaline helped your ancestors have energy to go hunting on an empty stomach.
If the human metabolism went awry upon missing a meal or fasting a day, we would never have survived the ice ages. Evolution built you to thrive on brief high intensity activity, infrequent feeding, and intermittent fasting. You can have a lean, fit future by incorporating ancestral practices like intermittent fasting into your lifestyle.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Slaying the fasting myth - Phoenix Low-Carb Lifestyle | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/low-carb-lifestyle-in-phoenix/slaying-the-fasting-myth#ixzz1DDByJmwf
I don't see anything here I disagree with, and I'll guarantee you this formula will net you an infinite improvement over the current fads in fitness and diet which include high carb low fat diets, low intensity long duration training with "cardio" and "toning" exercises, and caloric restriction to manage body composition. And frankly, even if this later bit lets you live longer by some miracle, I'd rather live in the aforementioned style and live well - intensity in life trumps duration!
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