Alternate Day Fasting is an Effective Technique for Reducing Excessive Fat Stores

Alternate Day Fasting is an Effective Technique for Reducing Excessive Fat Stores

Where are the upper and lower limits of calorie restriction for effective weight loss?

The upper limit is the calorie reduction level at which weight loss stops and metabolic rate diminishes to match the metabolic needs for DIET supplied energy and building blocks.

The lower limit is the calorie reduction level at which weight loss is not solely stored fat but lean body mass loss or STARVATION when DIET supplied energy and building blocks are not adequate to maintain lean body mass and energy exceeds fat mobilization.

The upper limit is 70% of normal calories.
The lower limit is 50% of normal calories.

ALTERNATE DAY FASTING

Method:  Alternate 100% of normal calories on day 1 and 25% of calories on day 2.  The moving average becomes 62.5% of normal calories.  This results in the following:

1.  Intermittent depletion of liver glycogen and triglyceride.
2.  Increased insulin sensitivity.
3.  Preservation of lean body mass.
4.  Mobilization of visceral body fat stores.
5.  Call up of peripheral body fat to replace visceral body fat losses.
6.  Reduction of waist line circumference.

Alternate day fasting is Phase 2 of IMPROVING METABOLIC HEALTH.
Phase 1 is optimizing LEAN BODY MASS, AEROBIC FITNESS, INSULIN SENSITIVITY and CELLULAR HEALTH.

7.  Cellular health is improved by weekly intermittent fasting.  Alternate day fasting is not inferior to weekly intermittent fasting.
8.  Intermittent fasting is associated with low insulin and low insulin growth factor 1 which signals the cell nucleus to turn on longevity and repair genes which optimizes cell health and function.

A story about intermittent fasting restoring heart health follows.
Rodents with heart failure or pump failure with 40% ejection fraction are fasted once a week for 8 weeks.  At the end of 8 weeks, the rodent no longer have heart failure with the normal 60% ejection fraction and restored exercise capacity.  Further examination confirmed that every heart myocardial cell was restored to "good as new" status.
The good news is that every cell nucleus contains the blueprint to make an entirely new copy of the person in the DNA code.
It follows that every cell nucleus contains the genes to transform the cell into "good as new" status.
The signal to activate the relevant genes is the threat of NUTRIENT DEPRIVATION.
Early starvation leads to gene activation that results in 1. biogenesis of needed proteins, 2. refolding of abnormally folded and  poorly functioning cellular proteins by cellular chaperone proteins and 3. recycling of abnormal proteins that cannot be restored to normal function.

The IMPROVING METABOLIC HEALTH plan modestly loses fat and increases lean muscle mass.  For EXCESSIVE FAT STORES, alternate day fasting is one way to achieve the safe weight loss.

The other safe weight loss diet is CHRONIC CALORIE RESTRICTION of 30-50 % or normal daily intake or 50-70% of normal daily calorie intake.