Intermittent fasting should not only make you fit, but also slim, healthier and more powerful. Proponents argue that the energy that would otherwise be “lost” in digestion would be available to the body for other activities. What’s up with the trend?

In contrast to therapeutic fasting, intermittent fasting does not generally refrain from eating for a longer period of time, but only for certain periods of time. Several intervals are possible with the form of nutrition, also known as “intermittent fasting”. The variants “2:5” and “16:8” are popular. One involves fasting moderately for two days and eating normally for five days. In the second, there is no food intake for 16 hours, and eating is allowed for the following eight hours.

The variants and permitted calorie intake seem endless here, because everyone should be able to adapt their form of intermittent fasting individually. The idea behind this is the notion that centuries ago the human body didn’t have regular access to food either. That is why intermittent fasting is the original form of nutrition.

With intermittent fasting against insulin fattening

Nowadays we have constant access to food. Most of these are far from healthy because they contain too many unhealthy fats or sugars or are made from white flour. The oversupply of food means that the proportion of overweight people is increasing and it is becoming increasingly expensive for us.

Constant supply of calories through snacks, between meals and high-calorie drinks lead to so-called “insulin fattening”. Due to the almost non-stop consumption, insulin is released from the pancreas almost continuously in order to metabolize the food. However, if insulin is constantly available to the body, it builds up fat mass. Many small meals or high-calorie drinks throughout the day therefore lead to excessive body fat being formed.

In addition, a constant release of insulin leads to fatigue of the pancreas. In addition, the body cells are becoming less and less sensitive to insulin, so that over time diabetes type II can also develop from insulin fattening. A constant calorie intake of any kind is really fundamentally harmful.

Intermittent fasting as a way out of the insulin trap?

Proponents of intermittent fasting cite, among other things, insulin fattening as evidence that intermittent fasting is the most original and healthiest form of nutrition. Animal experiments with mice should also show that intermittent fasting could prevent the onset of type II diabetes. However, the extent to which this result can be transferred to humans has not yet been scientifically researched. This also applies to claims that high blood pressure, Parkinson’s disease or dementia can also be prevented with intermittent fasting.

Only: Even nutritional recommendations such as “in the morning like a king, at noon like a king or in the evening like a pauper” have the same positive effect on the pancreas and insulin levels as intermittent fasting. And if you don’t eat from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. with the 16:8 variant of intermittent fasting, for example, you are doing nothing other than the once popular “dinner cancelling”. So the idea of ​​intermittent fasting as a way out of the insulin trap isn’t all that new.

Criticism of intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting therefore has positive effects on the metabolism, but there are also risks behind intermittent fasting. It is suggested that during the permitted “meal times” all foods are generally permitted. Despite the fasting period, the calorie intake can still be higher than is actually healthy. Nor is there any recommendation as to what a healthy meal should look like. Anyone who fasts intermittently does not learn anything about healthy eating apart from not eating.

On the contrary: You run the risk of taking in too many unhealthy calories in the allowed period of time in order to get through the fasting period better. Especially with the 2:5 variant, unhealthy eating habits that can lead to insulin fattening are neither changed nor sensible diets learned.

The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) is therefore very clear about intermittent fasting: “The DGE does not consider this method to be useful for regulating weight in the long term. This does not result in a switch to a health-promoting diet.”

For whom is intermittent fasting nevertheless suitable?

First and foremost, intermittent fasting should not be about losing weight, but about normalizing and optimizing your metabolism. Weight loss is usually a pleasant side effect, but should not be the focus – also to prevent malnutrition or malnutrition.

If you want to do something to prevent insulin fattening and the secondary diseases, you can achieve the first results with the 16:8 variant and “Dinner Cancelling”. However, it is important that the remaining two meals (i.e. breakfast and lunch) are balanced so as not to provoke malnutrition.

At best, however, a healthy diet should consist of three balanced, healthy, wholesome meals with no caloric intake in between: no in-between meals, no snacks, no fruit in between, and no high-calorie beverages. A kind of “mini-intermittent fasting” in the daily rhythm with three wholesome meals.