When I tell people I fast for 22 hours a day (OMAD - One Meal A Day), the usual reaction is concern. "Aren't you starving yourself?"
I have to correct the terminology. Starvation is a state of extreme, prolonged, and severe deficiency in caloric energy intake. Fasting is the strategic absence of food to force the body to switch fuel sources.
But the benefits go far beyond burning fat. The real magic - and the reason I don't have quite as much loose skin as a man who lost a significant amount of weight should - is a biological process called Autophagy.
Literally translated from Greek, it means "Self-Eating."
The "Busy Kitchen" Metaphor
Imagine a busy restaurant kitchen. If the restaurant is open 24 hours a day (grazing/snacking), the staff is constantly cooking and serving. They never have time to deep clean the grease traps, repair the broken stove, or take out the trash. The kitchen eventually becomes filthy and inefficient.
When you stop eating for 16+ hours, you effectively "Close the Kitchen." Since the staff (your cells) aren't cooking, they switch to Janitorial Duties. They look around the kitchen for broken equipment and waste.
Hunting the "Zombies" (Senescent Cells)
As we age, some of our cells stop dividing but refuse to die. These are called Senescent Cells (or "Zombie Cells"). They sit in your tissues, taking up space and emitting inflammatory chemicals (cytokines) that damage the healthy neighbors. During Autophagy, your body acts like a scrap-metal scavenger. It hunts down these Zombie Cells, breaks them down, and recycles their protein structures to build new healthy cells.
The Loose Skin Connection
This is critical for anyone on a major weight loss journey. Skin is made of protein (collagen and elastin). When you have excess skin, that is essentially "unused protein." In a fasted state, the body, looking for raw materials, will scavenge the amino acids from unneeded skin tissue to repair vital organs. It is the ultimate internal recycling program.
The Protocol: How to Trigger It
You cannot buy Autophagy in a pill. It is strictly controlled by a nutrient sensor called mTOR (mechanistic Target Of Rapamycin).
Eating (Protein/Carbs): mTOR is ON. (Growth Mode). Autophagy is OFF.
Fasting: mTOR is OFF. (Repair Mode). Autophagy is ON.
This process generally kicks in around hour 16-18 of a fast and peaks around hour 24-48. This is why I prefer the 22-hour fasting window; it guarantees I get a few hours of "Deep Cleaning" every single day.
The Cancer Question
A common question in the data is: "Does this combat cancer?" The theory, known as the Warburg Effect, notes that most cancer cells are metabolically inflexible - they thrive on Glucose (Sugar) and Insulin (Growth Hormone). By Fasting and entering Ketosis, we drastically lower both Glucose and Insulin. We essentially cut the supply lines to the enemy while our healthy cells switch to backup power (Ketones). The Disclaimer: While the research is promising, fasting is not a standalone "cure." However, as a preventative maintenance strategy, running a "System Cleanup" (Autophagy) to repair damaged DNA before it becomes a problem is simply good risk management.
Personal Risk Assessment
For me, this is not academic. I lost my brother to colon cancer in December 2013; he was only 49. My uncle and other biological family members have also succumbed to this disease. I am acutely aware that I may be running on "Legacy Hardware" with a genetic bug. I cannot change my source code (DNA), but I can change my operating environment. If Fasting and Autophagy offer even a 1% chance of offsetting that genetic predisposition by scrubbing out damaged cells, that is a Return on Investment I am going to chase every single day.
The Takeaway
We are conditioned to think we need to "fuel" constantly. But a system that never powers down for maintenance will eventually crash. Fasting is not punishment; it is the scheduled downtime required to keep the machine running for the long haul - and perhaps, the only way to fix the bugs we inherited.
Comments
Post a Comment