Science Of Fasting
Why Time Restricted Eating? Plus How It Works.
The Science Of Intermittent Fasting, And How Yoga Mindfulness Helps.
A new occasional class I’m teaching is about yoga mindfulness and time restricted eating (otherwise known as intermittent fasting). I’m looking at how yoga mindfulness, Darwin or online, can be used to improve your health, as well as the science behind fasting. You’ll see why fasting improves your health, longevity and weight control. It also provides background on why Flametree’s Weight Loss Program is among the best of the weight loss programs Australia has. The science is based on the research of top experts like Dr David Sinclair. You can access the yoga that underlies Flametree’s program at Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, and online.
I also show how yoga or breath meditation, via improving mindfulness, will help you with fasting. In a companion post, I’ve also given you much more background on why yoga supports achieving your health or weight loss goals.
In the Flametree Weight Loss Program, I’ve also outlined how Flametree makes no judgement about whatever size or weight you choose. Our discussion of weight loss is directed to those interested in the topic, for whatever mix of reasons they have. In particular, as you’ll see below, it’s clear that time restricted eating also is a key component of health and longevity.
For example, in my own personal story of my journey with time restricted eating, I’ve told how my original goal was healthy and longevity, and weight loss was just a useful bonus.
Below, my summary is simply a thumbnail sketch of key things that are useful to know about the science behind time restricted eating. It may help you decide on your pathway, or motivate you along whatever path you choose. I’ll also refer you to key resources where you can get more information.
If you just want to get on with it, check out Flametree’s low cost yoga deals at Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, and online.
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Basic yoga is all you need to get all the yoga mindfulness you need for health & weight control. Check out Flametree’s low cost yoga deals at Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, and online. Or read on for an overview of the science of intermittent fasting, and much more.
Dr David Sinclair on the science of intermittent fasting
Why would you want to be involved in fasting, or time restricted eating?
One group of researchers, including Harvard scientist Dr David Sinclair, see it as way to put the body in a state of “stress”. It is done to fight disease better, as well as give better health and longevity.
They consider that when you’re not eating, you’re boosting defences. Dr David Sinclair, in his most recent set of podcasts and videos, says that his main interest is not about weight reduction, let alone fat shaming.
However, he does note that time restricted eating has rid him of his “love handles”.
Dr David Sinclair, an Australian, has spent his entire professional life researching ageing, and longevity. He is now over 50, but looks like someone in their early 30’s.
Three mechanisms involved in time restricted eating
He says that when in a low energy state from time restricted eating , your body is turning on three defensive longevity mechanisms. The first is the sirtuins. They are involved in DNA repair, and stabilisation of your epigenome.
(In terms of a quick definition, Sirtuins are a family of signaling proteins with are involved in metabolic regulation. They exist in human cells, and perform a range of functions).
The second mechanism activated by time restricted eating is so-called MTOR. It is reduced when you fast. It activates autophagy. It’s a process of clearing out senescent (or old) cells.
The role of stress from time restricted eating and exercise
The third mechanism is AMPK. It responds to low energy when you are hungry. When you are in a state of fasting, your AMPK increases.
AMPK triggers the destruction of defective mitochondria. It has to do with cell repair. It’s necessary because when you age, your body gets confused about the process of cell repair.
So, time restricted eating activates AMPK. It’s a signaling pathway that inhibits MTOR.
When your body is under stress (via suitable fasting or exercise), there are pathways that will help, by turning on autophagy.
Autophagy is the cleaning out of old cells. They’re also called senescent (old) cells, or zombie cells. MTOR declines, and activates autophagy.
Time restricted fasting, or intermittent fasting, mimics adversity. Doing this helps autophagy, thereby cleansing the body, and fighting disease.
Yoga generates mindfulness and presence
With yoga you learn to be in the present, and meet reality. So you can determine what is the impact of things, including your eating habits.
Hence it includes looking at your habits, your attachments, and your addictions.
If you know anything about yoga or and breath meditation (aka pranayama), you can already start to see how yoga and breath meditation can help with you getting healthier via intermittent fasting.
For instance, in yoga, you are using breath to become present in this moment. I’ll say more about this in a later section of this Post.
In my special classes on yoga for mindfulness, I’ll also teach yoga poses to assist you with living in the present, and in the way that helps you achieve what Dr David Sinclair recommends.
Dr David Sinclair is all about testing and confirming the science.
Yoga for thousands of years, has also been about observing, refining and testing how the mind works.
Check out Flametree’s low cost yoga deals at Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, and online.
Here’s Senior Yoga Teacher, Chris Lalor, in an advanced forward bend. But the easy, introductory poses you’ll learn at beginner level will still give you all the calming & flexibility benefits that forward bends deliver.
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Dr David Sinclair on what we shouldn’t eat
Dr David Sinclair is especially concerned about the consumption of too much sugar.
A key reason is that glucose reduces longevity. It does so by switching off defences against ageing.
Sinclair says we should also avoid the doses of high protein, that happens with eating a lot of red meat. He says it switches off autophagy.
Before I continue, it’s worth noting that all of Sinclair’s research is mainly tested on mice. Some of his earlier research is now also in human trials. Once Sinclair has proven something with mice, he often then tests his findings on himself.
In this regard, Sinclair has recently become a vegetarian. In addition, he considers that we should eat plants that have been stressed. By this he means they should be grown with less water, similar to what often happens with organic food.
Mimic adversity
To sum up this section on why to fast. Sinclair says it is to mimic adversity. In this regard, Sinclair says a little bit of adversity is good for you, at least with respect to your eating habits.
Dr Sinclair also uses exercise as a process of stressing the body. Exercise slows ageing by turning on the production of NAD.
(NAD is a critical coenzyme found in every cell in your body, and it’s involved in hundreds of metabolic processes.)
In the process, it stops cells losing their identity. For example, a liver cell may go off and try to become something else. The information process in the cell gets confused, and that’s not good for us.
We also need a method to get rid of zombie cells. If we don’t get rid of them, they cause inflammation, and that also drives disease.
The fewer zombie cells you have, the healthier you are.
Stress via exercise, & the science of intermittent fasting
So, Dr David Sinclair says to put your body under some stress. It’s done by both the right type of exercise, as well as by eating a diet that allows such stressing.
Dr Sinclair says plant based protein is fine, but not super high protein like red meat. He concedes that you could eat it once a week.
Essentially, for Dr Sinclair, time restricted eating turns on the pathways that help with ageing. Together with regular exercise, you can turn on the adversity pathways he says are beneficial.
For him, longevity is about eating less often, and not snacking. He includes eating less meat (and ideally much less meat), and especially processed meat.
In addition, he’s a fan of eating more vegetables, especially stressed vegetables (that are not grown with masses of water.)
I (Chris), love the outdoors, But walking, gym, running or cycling (or instance), will not sufficiently support your nervous system, or give you the type of yoga mindfulness that supports weight loss. Try yoga for health, fitness, or weight loss, or all of these.
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Inflammation: another aspect of the science of intermittent fasting
I’ll quickly mention another aspect of time restricted eating.
Dr Merad is a scientist who has specialised on fasting and inflammation. On the Flametree blog, I’ve summarised a recent podcast she did about her findings.
Her approach emphasises that when you eat, you keep using your immune system in order to check out potential foreign invaders of your body. In turn, this checking process causes inflammation.
In other words, less eating means less inflammation.
Again, as you’ll see in my summary of her work, Dr Merad was sufficiently convinced by her own findings that she took up intermittent fasting.
Dr Merad’s research also shows the connection between inflammation and serious disease, including COVID19.
All mechanisms work together
Dr David Sinclair goes on to say that his three key mechanism, or “pathways”, all work together.
They protect your body, burn fat, repair DNA, clear zombie (old) cell, and lower inflammation.
With MTOR, when you’re hungry, it has a major role in autophagy. It mobilises proteins to be recycled.
Sinclair therefore says it’s important to not be well fed all the time.
Brain health and the science of intermittent fasting
Dr David Sinclair also says that as you age, you get sludge, and physical tangles, in the brain. That causes confusion about the normal cell renewal process.
So his three mechanisms, or pathways, also help brain health.
By generating some degree of adversity (via time restricted eating), the tangles in your brain can break up.
Otherwise, for example, in the normal ageing process, a small number of tangles in the brain occurs, and hence you get the befuddlement of ageing.
Dr Sinclair likes to use the analogy of your cellular design being like an old CD that gets scratched. It therefore does not work like it did.
So, he says, you have to protect the brain with diet, and the sort stressing I’ve been outlining. The time restricted diet allows you to tell the brain it needs to activate adversity pathways.
Dr Sinclair also advocates some supplements that can also help in this regard. He devotes at least a whole video and podcast to such supplements, as well as various parts of his book (called Longevity.) Some of those supplements include NMN, resveratrol, metformin, magnesium, and omega 3.
Essentially, he says that intermittent fasting helps your brain to repair itself.
Dr Fung views on time restricted eating
Another area of time restricted eating research has come around people who have Type 2 diabetes and more weight than ideal.
In this section, I’ll summarise the approach of Dr Jason Fung. He is a Canadian medical doctor who uses time restricted eating to help people with severe obesity, and diabetic, or pre-diabetic conditions.
Dr Fung has written several books, and done many videos about his views and work. His most recent is called Life In The Fasting Lane.
Fung says weight loss is about what’s happening on a hormonal level.
Time restricted eating allows you to use energy and not store it. In other words, he starts with pointing out that whatever we eat is used for energy or stored as fat.
So he, (and Sinclair), say we should eat food that will keep you feeling full for longer. For example, Dr Fung means that highly processed food, and simple carbs, are quickly used. On the other hands, more nutritious foods, with a suitable amount of protein, will keep you feeling fuller.
Dr Fung says you can’t decide to be less hungry. Instead, what happens is due to a hormone called ghrelin, in your body. It’s the main hormone that makes you feel hungry.
Chris demonstrates Legs Up Wall pose. Highly effective, simple pose for lowering stress, thereby helping to manage your appetite. Do yoga as part of one of the best weight loss programs Australia has, or just do yoga for the many additional benefits it has.
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Hunger is a habit
Dr Fung goes on to say that when you eat highly refined food, it does not activate the satiety hormones.
So, Dr Fung says that hunger is a habit (in terms of what you choose), and not a lack of willpower. In other words, it is a conditioned response. It’s as least heavily influenced by the type of food you are eating.
As well as that, when insulin is high, the body is told to store food, and not use it.
Insulin is another hormone which is created by your pancreas, that controls the amount of glucose in your bloodstream.
Time restricted eating works to regulate your hormones. With such intermittent fasting, the body switches fuel sources, and enters or heads towards ketosis.
The Cleveland Clinic says Ketosis is a metabolic state that occurs when your body burns fat for energy instead of glucose. (The Clinic also adds that the so-called keto diet has many possible benefits including potential weight loss, increased energy and treating chronic illness.)
If you change when you eat (such as be eating in fasting “windows”), you can also change your ghrelin response. In turn, it leads to a reset of internal body controls.
How yoga fits into this
Dr Fung does not of course discuss the potential role of yoga. So I (Chris Lalor), take this opportunity to add in where and how yoga is useful to what Dr Fung is advocating.
Yoga, and breath meditation, lets you see your habits. As a result, you can be less delusional about them. It lets you mind your mind.
Therefore, you see your stories, your attachments, and more.
For example, a story might be that my mum (or your mum) said I can’t do something like fasting.
Yoga also lets you see what foods keep you energised, plus what foods you like, and what to avoid.
So, yoga and breath meditation, help you with managing (or changing) your eating habits, breath, posture, sleep, blood flow, anxiety, and more.
In addition, yoga will help you will help you during this fasting journey.
There’s more about yoga for mindfulness towards the end of this Post. If you’re ready to try yoga out right now, then check out Flametree’s low cost yoga deals at Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, and online.
Yoga builds core strength. But the use of balance also builds yoga mindfulness. Picture is Chris Lalor at Jim Jim Fall NT Australia
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Fasting breaks your habits
Meanwhile, I’ll say more about Dr Fung’s view of how fasting also helps you break your hunger habits.
As I explain further below, Dr Fung says weight reduction is not about controlling calories. Instead, it’s about how to activate the stomach stretch receptors.
We all want foods that fill us up. In addition, we live in a culture of addictive food everywhere. For instance, sugar has been shown to be addictive, and it is one of the major food additives.
As reported in the New York Times, a university survey found that over sixty percent of processed food and drink in American grocery stores have added sugar.
Dr Fung goes on to say that during a fast longer than 24 hours, the body produces higher levels of natural Human Growth Hormone (HGH), noradrenalin, and cortisol. It also helps rebuild muscle after exercise. It allows you recover well.
Noradrenaline (also called “norepinephrine”) is a chemical created in your nerve endings that helps you stay focused and alert.
Human Growth hormone (HGH) is a small protein that is made by the pituitary gland and secreted into the bloodstream.
Dr Fung thinks that exercise alone is insufficient for your maximum health. He says that you need time restricted eating as well.
The role of ketones, and yoga
Dr Fung considers that the ketosis process only happens after 24 hours of fasting. This is where the body starts using your fat to generate energy.
But what has happened through mindfulness, is that you can cut things that spike or increase blood sugar, and you will generally be eating less.
In turn, I have certainly found that this leads to significant weight loss. It happened from almost as soon as I (Chris Lalor) started eating in as little as 12 hour windows.
Dr Fung, at least in the more extreme obesity situation he is managing as a medical doctor, say that his approach sets you up to be able to do some 24 hour fast, such as every week or two.
Here again yoga is potentially important. When I first heard of some fasting lasting longer than 24 hours, I also thought I could never to that.
However, I now use yoga and pranayama to help me with a daily fast of 20 hours. In the process, I can see that when I choose, I could in fact do 24 hour or longer fasts.
By the way, Dr David Sinclair, who I discussed above, now also fasts for around 20 hours a day. He eats the evening meal with his family, and that is it.
For more on the science of yoga and weight loss, check out the views of Dr McCall, about how yoga causes weight loss.
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Where calories fit into this approach
Dr Fung says your body exists in only two states, fed and unfed. When its fed, insulin levels are high, and the body stores energy as fat or sugar.
When you’re in the fasted state, you’re burning calories.
In contrast, when you’re in the fed state, the body slows down, and you’re storing energy.
When insulin is high, such as when you reduce calories, it prevents burning fat, because you are still in fat storage mode.
When you are in the fasting mode, the body switches fuel sources, and turns to stored fat for energy.
It’s not about calories in and out
Dr Fung therefore says that calories in and calories out is not a key to weight loss.
The key is not the number of calories we eat, but controlling hunger, and maintaining basal metabolic rate (BMR).
So, your focus should be on eating foods to increase satiety, or the feeling of fullness, and keeping insulin low (to allow you to get out of fat storage mode).
The good news is that insulin decreases with fasting. In addition, counter-regulatory hormones increase, such as Human Growth Hormone (HGH), and cortisol.
Fasting also changes metabolism
When you fast, your metabolic rate (BMR) increases.
When you are in fasting mode, you reduce hunger, because of hormonal changes, such as Human Growth Hormone (HGH), and cortisol.
It is this “switch over” to such counter regulatory hormones, that reduces hunger, as well as increasing your metabolism.
One benefit is that, as fasters know, you also get more energy (and clarity of thought).
In contrast, when you cut calories, your BMR slows down. Your organs start to take less energy across the board. Therefore it has little effect on weight.
Noradrenalin, produced during fasting, boosts metabolic rates, and helps you achieve weight loss.
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Dr McCall on cortisol and weight
In other Posts, on both Facebook and the Flametree site, I’ve outline the views of Dr McCall, on yoga and weight loss. He is a medical doctor and yoga expert.
In addition, he points out how increased mindfulness will allow you to control eating.
In this regard, yoga offers both active exercise, as well as practices such as restorative yoga, including using your breath, so to come into the present moment.
Otherwise, much of the time, we all live in the future, or the past. Do enough yoga or breath meditation, or both, and they will get you more present.
In addition, Dr McCall suggests yoga to reduce anxiety, and thereby reduce anxiety eating.
Dr McCall’s approach is very important. But it’s only one part of Flametree’s approach to time restricted eating. That’s because we are also focussed on maximising your health and wellness, including your longevity.
Yoga for mindfulness & to help time restricted eating
Here’s more about what you will get in my yoga for mindfulness classes, such as in the upcoming Women Only Class, with me, Chris Lalor.
It will be a broad practice, about how to mind your mind. It will include how to transform for the better in the way you think and act.
In this regard, all thoughts and actions have ramifications. In particular, they can be positive, or the they can be negative, and thereby pull you down. Yoga can help you see that negativity.
In the class, and at other times, I’ll also be teaching yoga to cultivate awareness, and to build a sense of attention to yourself and the world around.
You will get to a place where you act without your judgement running you. In other words, by looking at yourself, you will have the presence to avoid criticising yourself.
In addition, it’s about how to develop compassion towards others, without getting involved in their stories.
The approach I’ll be teaching also helps with emotional balance. Plus it improves your mental clarity.
Check out Flametree’s low cost yoga deals at Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, and online.
Time-restricted feeding will make significant differences
Remember, Dr Fung says its not so much about calorie intake. Your body weight is a function of the type of food intake.
In addition, Dr David Sinclair has tested with control group processes. His work supports Dr Fung.
Together, they have looked at many issues around around body fat, insulin sensitivity, physical activity, energy expenditure, the best eating window, caloric intake, calorie restriction, insulin resistance, fat mass, a high-fat diet, and much more.
The health benefits of the Flametree Weight Loss Program, is supported by the form of intermittent fasting that Dr Sinclair and Dr Fung recommend.
A time restriction diet to reduce trunk fat (as well as help health and longevity) will also lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, and help your cardiometabolic health.
At the same time, Chris Lalor has always found that with regular yoga, her diastolic blood pressure stay in the correct range, along with her blood glucose and body mass index.
Chris now enjoys zero weight gain at any time. Other beneficial effects include only rare mood disturbances, or no metabolic diseases. Although Chris is at a mature age, there is no hint of issues like the wrong blood sugar levels, or metabolic syndrome.
So Chris is extremely grateful for what animal studies in the United States have shown about oxidative stress, effective treatment of ageing issues, the optimal heart rate. body composition, glucose levels, fatty acids, the gut microbiome, and much more.
As a result, Flametree will continue to incorporate the proven findings of any large or small trial into its Weight Loss Program.
Chris Lalor, at Edith Falls, NT, Australia, demonstrating a yoga forward bend. Such yoga poses, whether advanced or introductory, are excellent for building yoga mindfulness. Try Flametree for the best weight loss programs Australia has.
Yoga for your health online or at three Northern Territory locations
For those in Casuarina Darwin (and beyond), this science of fasting supports a more mindful approach when you go shopping at Big W in Casuarina Square Shopping Centre, or any other of the largest shopping centre complexes that you frequent.
The same yoga mindfulness approach will help you hold out on the delights of restaurants like Groove Train at Casuarina Darwin, or wherever. If you do go to Coyle Cinema, or any other cinema, then a yoga mindfulness practice will be of even more help with resisting cinema snacks, or any other snack habits you have..
Your new health will be evident in your skin, whether or not you use services like Silk Laser Clinics in the northern suburbs of Darwin,
If you have friends you want to have the benefit of Flametree’s Weight Loss Program, the please consider a Flametree gift card. Long term health is one of the greatest gifts you can give.
In Casuarina, Flametree Yoga Casuarina teaches yoga at the Lyons Centre each week. Its a great location for yoga, and car parks are no problem. All you need to do is show up for the class. No booking is needed. Just go to the end of Trower Road, and turn into Rocklands Road.
In addition, if you’re online, from New Zealand, or wherever, you first online class is free. Just reserve your Zoom class, and show up.
Here are the timetables for beginner and non-beginner yoga.
Do yoga as part of one of the best weight loss programs Australia has, or just do yoga for the many additional benefits it has.
Meanwhile, Flametree Yoga will keep watching the fasting study room of the type of experts outlined on this page. We’ll let you know the latest approaches.
Healthy eating, via the right food groups
Flametree Yoga, first and foremost, is about living a healthy lifestyle. If you choose to add weight loss goals to your yoga healthy habits, then the Flametree Weight Loss Program is the best way to create a new diet.
As we’ve discussed in the Weight Loss Program, the best diet is not any one of the fad diets, or very fast weight loss options.. The healthy diet and eating plan we support, together with lifestyle changes like regular yoga, even leaning towards plant-based diets, will do everything that all weight watchers are after.
Less weight, and movement via yoga, will also reduce your risk of heart disease and much other chronic disease.
Chris Lalor, at Flametree, and many other Flametree students, have found they don’t need to get into the intricacies of the CSIRO total wellbeing diet, or a low carb diet, or a ketogenic diet, or the many other weight loss diets.
The sensible approach outlined in the Flametree Weight Loss Program, together with a yoga exercise program, will give you the best results.
It is not necessary to do challenging weekly meal plans or long shopping lists. To achieve healthy weight loss, the easiest way is to simply do the mix of yoga mindfulness Darwin (or online), time restricted eating, and healthy meals that Flametree suggests.
Try the best of weight loss program Australia
Mindful yoga will deliver the benefits of mindfulness, as well as the particular benefits of any particular yoga pose. In addition, at Flametree, if you wish, you can include mindfulness meditation, via Flametree’s highly experienced breath meditation teacher. (The pranayama taught at Flametree is one type of the many breath meditation techniques).
In all yoga and breath meditation, the use of deep breaths is one part of the physical practice of yoga, and the practice of mindfulness.
From a yoga or breath meditation practice, you’ll quickly notice improvements in physical health, and mental health. Just do the right poses on your yoga mat, as a regular part of your everyday life.
Of course, like everything, you’ll make more significant improvement, and get quicker positive results, if you use regular classes, and create a formal mindfulness practice.
If you seek outcomes such as relief from chronic pain or anxiety disorders, or want stress management, or more physical fitness, or the many other potential benefits of yoga, then you’ll also find much assistance from yoga.
So we suggest you use our many introductory offers to start or re-start yoga mindfulness sessions. You’ll like the positive changes from both the physical postures, and the positive impact from the yoga mindfulness exercises.
The positive effects of yoga interventions will include the ability to focus better when your mind wanders. But a mindful yoga practice will achieve much more as well.
Free first class, & top in-studio deals
If the various outcomes I’ve discussed are important to you, I suggest the first thing to do is to put a Flametree yoga class on your to-do list.
You can do your first beginner or non-beginner class for free. Just reserve your first beginner class, OR reserve your first non-beginner class, and show up.
If you’ve in the Darwin region, once you’ve reserved your class just turn up at in-studio classes at Woolner, Palmerston, or Casuarina. (You can just show up, without reservation. But if you want your first class to be FREE, then we do require a reservation is made first. The reservation, via the link, will only take you a minute or two).
Otherwise, a casual in-studio beginner class is $11. If you wish, there is also a periodic two class Beginner Introduction.
But Beginners can also start at any time with a half price ten class pass discount code, or a beginners two weeks free deal.
For non-beginners, there are also extreme low cost 2 week unlimited introductory deals for online yoga, or in-the-studio yoga.
See the best of the weight loss programs Australia has
Popular passes for yoga mindfulness, & more
Timetables for Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, & online
Chris Lalor also teaches pranayama (aka breath meditation). Try it with 10 free pranayama classes. Check out Flametree’s low cost yoga deals at Casuarina, Darwin, Palmerton, and online.
