Fasting for 24 hours once a week means skipping two meals a week. For instance, you can start your fast at 7.00 pm after dinner on Monday evening and then eat your next meal on Tuesday at 7.00 pm. As you can see, you’ll only skip breakfast and lunch.
While some may say you’re starving yourself, nothing can be further from the truth.
Humans have been fasting for thousands of years for health and spiritual reasons. And you can enjoy many benefits by fasting for 24 hours once a week.
In this article, we share some benefits of fasting you may not know of.
Benefits of A 24-Hour Fast Once A Week
1. 24-Hour Fasts May Combat Inflammation
Inflammation is one of your body’s defense mechanism against diseases and infections. However, chronic inflammation can wreak havoc on the immune system and the body.
Chronic inflammation increases the risk of serious health conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Crohn’s syndrome among others.
Research shows that fasting can help reduce the levels of inflammatory markers. Animal studies show fasting can help treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
2. 24-Hour Fasts May Aid Weight Loss
Fasting is an effective way to lower your caloric intake, as long as you don’t overindulge after the fast.
I recommend you do your 24-hour fasts on weekends since weekend overeating is one of the reasons most people don’t lose weight.
If you can’t shake off the stubborn fat clinging to your backside or waist despite diets and strenuous exercises, try developing a 24-hour fasting habit.
You are cutting down calorie consumption every time you skip meals, increasing your body’s ability to use up its fat stores.
Additionally, fasting enhances hormone function by decreasing insulin levels and elevating growth hormone levels, which boosts the metabolism of body fat for energy.
Whether you are trying to lose belly fat or get back in shape after some time off a diet or workout, fasting for 24 hours can help you lose weight and keep it off.
3. 24-Hour Fasts Enhance Body Function
Fasting activates chain reactions that enable the body to repair and rehabilitate cells, tissues, organs, and systems.
During periods of long fasting, the body changes gene expression for improved immunity and longevity.
Also, the body repairs and detoxifies cells. The growth hormone increases while blood levels of insulin drop, prompting more efficient fat incineration. All of these changes translate into a newer and healthier body and mind.
4. Improves Brain Function and Protects Against Neurodegenerative Disorders
Studies on animals show that fasting can provide significant benefits for brain health. Researchers found that fasting increases the synthesis of the protein called Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
BDNF activates brain stem cells to generate new neurons and is essential to the function of other neurochemicals that improve brain health.
Fasting helps combat inflammation, reducing the risk of neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
5. 24-Hour Fasts Enhance Longevity
Do you want to live long enough to see your 90th birthday? Then fast.
Multiple animal studies show that fasting can delay aging and promote longevity. One reason for this is that fasting helps renew cells through a process called autophagy.
Also, there’s a lot of research showing that animals that eat less tend to live longer than those that overindulge.
6. 24-Hour Fasts Enhance Healthy Eating Habits
Do you struggle with binge eating or late night snacking? Well, fasting can help you beat these poor eating habits.
Fasting helps you stay disciplined to a regular eating pattern. Thus, it becomes easier to drop your binge eating habits and other unhealthy behaviors which have negative effects on your waistline and health.
With fasting, you still get your daily calorie requirements while reducing unfavorable behavior.
7. 24-Hour Fasts Help Control Appetite
When you eat every three to four hours with snacks in-between, you don’t feel real hunger; you only eat when it’s time for the next meal. Fasting for 24 hours enables your body to experience what it’s like to go hungry.
When you fast, your body’s balance of the satiety and appetite hormones improve, increasing your ability to determine when you have had enough.
In short, fasting enables your body to signal hunger correctly and enhances the function of hormones for better eating habits.
8. 24-Hour Fasts Boost Your Immune Function
Fasting gets rid of unwanted substances in your body; it’s like a deep reset of your system.
Fasting reduces inflammation and oxidative effect of free radicals and decreases cancer cell growth by starving them of nutrition and other essentials they need to multiply in the body.
9. 24-Hour Fasts May Combat Cancer
Results of several animal and test-tube studies suggest that fasting may be an effective cancer prevention and treatment strategy.
Researchers found that several cycles of fasting delivered the same results as chemotherapy in delaying tumor growth and enhanced the effectiveness of chemotherapy medication.
Research is ongoing to replicate the findings of these studies in human subjects, but the available evidence strongly supports the effectiveness of fasting as a viable cancer treatment.
10. 24-Hour Fasts May Reduce Stress
Chronic stress contributes to health problems such as premature aging, heart disease, accumulation of abdominal fat, poor skin health and more.
Luckily, research shows fasting can help ease stress and as a result, lower the risk of these conditions.
Fasting promotes immune function, reduces oxidative stress and boosts brain function, all of which can help you cope better with stress.
Bonus: Clears Skin and Removes Acne
Fasting renews damaged and dysfunctional cells in your body. This helps enhance skin health and eliminate acne, leaving you with healthier and youthful skin.
Fasting for 24 hours per day offers several benefits for your physical and mental health.
And fasting does not constitute starvation as many people believe. If you want to optimize your body for maximum efficiency, fasting is a safe, cost-effective and effective way to achieve your health goals.
If your goal is to lose weight, combine 24-hour fasts with the Fat Blaster Sequence. This sequence will allow you to burn fat faster and increase muscle mass.
[related_posts_by_tax posts_per_page="4"]
