When you fast, your body undergoes several changes to adapt to the lack of food. Over time, your body has developed mechanisms to survive in periods of starvation, and these come into play when you fast. Several metabolic and hormonal changes occur, which help your body to burn stored fat and to preserve muscle mass. Your body also becomes more efficient at using the nutrients it does receive, and your cells undergo a process of autophagy, in which they clean out damaged or unnecessary components.
What Happens to Your Body After 12 Hours of Fasting?
After 12 hours of fasting our bodies start releasing growth hormone. Growth hormone is the anti–aging hormone. It‘s the main fat burning hormone. It‘s involved with healing joints and protein synthesis.
What Happens to Your Body After 18 Hours of Fasting?
At around 18 hours, your body begins a process called autophagy. Autophagy is when your body starts to recycle old, damaged proteins and microbes. This process is interesting because it helps your body to function more efficiently.
After about 18 hours of fasting, your body will start to clean itself out through a process called autophagy. This process renews your tissues and starts to get rid of any glycogen reserves you have. The longer you fast, the more effective autophagy becomes.
As the liver becomes depleted of glycogen, the body will start to run on ketones as an alternative fuel source. If the liver is fatty, the body will start to use that fat and turn it into ketones. This allows the body to start tapping into stored energy and running more efficiently on ketones, which is a superior energy source.
What are Ketones?
Ketones are a type of molecule that the body produces when it breaks down fat for energy. The body produces ketones when it doesn‘t have enough insulin to use glucose for energy. They are a source of energy for the body and brain and have been shown to have numerous health benefits. Some of the benefits of ketones include improved mental clarity and focus, increased energy levels, reduced inflammation, and improved blood sugar control.
Ketones are a more efficient fuel than glucose and may result in a lower T3 level, but the thyroid stimulating hormone is normal. This means that the thyroid is adapting to this new type of fuel.
What Happens to Your Body After 24 Hours of Fasting?
Right around 24 hours is when your inflammation begins to significantly drop. If you want to speed up the process even more, you can add some vitamin D to your regimen. This will really help with conditions that involve inflammatory states, like arthritis, bursitis, and autoimmune type conditions. You should start to see improvements within a day or two.
After 24 hours, you will start to see gut healing because the gallbladder and pancreas are no longer stimulating the gut. This gives the gut a chance to rest and heal.
The heart loves ketones better than glucose, so you start seeing cardiovascular improvements.
As the brain function increases, BDNF levels also increase. This helps to create new brain cells and improve brain function overall. However, this does not mean that muscle protein is being lost. The body becomes more efficient in using fuel, meaning that less muscle protein is needed.
What is Autophagy?
Autophagy is the process of the body breaking down and recycling old, damaged proteins. This process provides the body with new proteins and requires less nutrients to run properly. This is a positive thing, as it means the body needs less nutrition overall.
Autophagy is the process by which your body cleans out microbes, fungus, mold, and yeast. To kill off these microbes, your body produces certain oxidants. At the same time, your body also produces antioxidants to protect itself against the oxidation that these oxidants can cause.
What Happens to Your Body After 48 Hours of Fasting?
After 48 hours have passed, you will begin to stimulate the stem cells. These are cells that have not yet been differentiated, meaning that they have not been assigned a specific purpose. They can adapt to become any type of tissue, depending on what the body needs. By stimulating the stem cells, you promote healing and repair, as well as anti–aging effects.
The risks of certain types of cancer are decreased from fasting this long. Tumors may start to shrink in size, and more mitochondria are produced.
What Happens to Your Body After 72 Hours of Fasting?
Now if you push it and go up to 72 hours, you get even more stimulation of stem cells and better immune function. But when you get into 72 hours or greater, you may not get the same benefits.
Conclusion
I recommend following an intermittent fasting pattern on a regular basis. A good average pattern to follow would be 18 hours of fasting with a 6-hour window in which to eat. This can be made stricter over time, depending on how you feel and what your health goals are. Prolonged fasting can be done periodically to achieve additional health benefits.
Whether you want to improve your immune system, look younger, or have a better heart or gut function, fasting can help. Fasting can increase your resistance to stress, and even help your body resist chemicals and poisons if you are undergoing chemotherapy.
Make sure you take your minerals during fasting. A lot of people recommend just doing either a water fast or a dry fast, but I recommend doing a water fast with nutrients. If you are deficient, you can have problems. You want your minerals, your B vitamins, and your salt around 8 o‘clock in the morning. If cortisol spikes, it can cause your body to make more glucose and you can have higher blood sugars.
