You’ve probably seen pictures of people starving and being malnourished. The immediate response would be to put fasting and avoiding food into the same category. However, there’s a huge difference between fasting and starvation. With that being said, it doesn’t mean you can’t starve while fasting. In fact, if you mess up your fast you may. This article walks you through how to not mess up your fast and put your body into starvation.

The Caloric Restriction Theory

When you live in a society where there’s an abundance of food and other nutrition, then the first idea that comes to your mind isn’t caloric restriction or fasting. Who’d want to eat less if there are these delicious meals everywhere around you?

Well, lowering your caloric intake and doing intermittent fasting has a ton of health benefits on both your body and your mind. Herman Hesse said in his novel, Siddhartha:

“Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.” (Click to Tweet That)

Numerous studies have shown that caloric restriction increases the lifespan and youthfulness of almost all species, starting with fruit flies and ending with rhesus monkeys[i]. In humans, there is no definite anti-aging proof but fasting’s been shown to improve biomarkers, reduce inflammation, promote stem cell growth, boost the immune system and make you burn a ton of fat.

However, the key to successfully gaining these health benefits comes from avoiding malnutrition and starvation.

Caloric Restriction VS Fasting VS Starvation

There’s a huge difference between fasting, starvation and caloric restriction.

Starvation is a severe deficiency in energy intake. The body doesn’t have access to essential nutrients and is slowly wasting away by cannibalizing its vital organs. It’s a gradual process of degradation that’s often characterized by the skinny-fat look or the bloated stomach called kwashiorkor which is caused by insufficient protein even in the presence of sufficient caloric intake.

The body doesn’t have access to essential nutrients and is slowly wasting away by cannibalizing its vital organs. It’s a gradual process of degradation that’s often characterized by the skinny-fat look or the bloated stomach called kwashiorkor which is caused by insufficient protein even in the presence of sufficient caloric intake. Caloric Restriction reduces calorie intake without causing malnutrition or starvation[ii]. You’re simply consuming fewer calories needed to maintain your body’s current energy demands. This will make you burn your stored fat and also lowers the body’s overall metabolic rate, down-regulated reproductive hormones, thyroid functioning and promotes gluconeogenesis. The difference between caloric restriction and starvation is that when calorically restricted, your body still gets access to the energy it needs to maintain its daily energy demands. It’s just that those energy demands have adapted to be lower and more efficient in terms of energy gained per calorie.

You’re simply consuming fewer calories needed to maintain your body’s current energy demands. This will make you burn your stored fat and also lowers the body’s overall metabolic rate, down-regulated reproductive hormones, thyroid functioning and promotes gluconeogenesis. The difference between caloric restriction and starvation is that when calorically restricted, your body still gets access to the energy it needs to maintain its daily energy demands. It’s just that those energy demands have adapted to be lower and more efficient in terms of energy gained per calorie. Fasting is a state of metabolic suspension in which you’re not consuming any calories. Despite that, your body is still nourished and gets the energy it needs. This happens by shifting into ketosis, in which you’ll be burning your body fat almost exclusively. The first days of fasting ketosis are characterized by slightly higher rates of gluconeogenesis but this decreases drastically after 2-3 days because ketones are very protein sparing. You won’t become deficient in micronutrients either because the essential ones are already stored in your body to a certain amount.

Fasting doesn’t equal starvation because your body is in a distinct metabolic state. Being fasted and fed is quite binary – even small amounts of food will shift you into a metabolically fed condition.

Fasting VS Caloric Restriction

Fasting isn’t entirely the same as caloric restriction either because you can be consuming fewer calories but still not enter into a fasted state.

If you eat less but still do it very frequently, then you can get into ketosis but you won’t be able to gain much of the other health benefits of fasting. One of the most significant ones is autophagy.

Autophagy is your cells’ self-digestive mechanism that recycles old worn out cell components and converts them back into energy[iii]. It’s a catabolic state that kills off cancerous cells and it’s needed for longevity of the brain and muscle tissue[iv].

In fact, the life-extension benefits of caloric restriction are linked to autophagy.

In one study on mice and flies, they found out that if you inhibited autophagy but still fed the animals fewer calories, they didn’t live longer, but the ones who were proficient at causing autophagy did[v].

This is the most important point – It means that you can still eat fewer calories, practically stay in a semi-starvation state, and not gain the longevity benefits just because you didn’t shift into a fasted state and allowed autophagy to do its work.

Caloric Restriction Autophagy

To raise autophagy, you need to suppress mTOR and insulin. Current research suggests that even as little as 50 calories or 2-3 grams of leucine will inhibit autophagy[vi] but it’s not conclusive by any means.

Autophagy happens in different tissues in different degrees and it’s not as binary as it might think. There are even some compounds that promote autophagy like green tea[vii], ginger[viii], ginseng[ix], turmeric[x], and coffee[xi].

Generally speaking, if your insulin and protein synthesis are low you’ll begin to show more signs of autophagy by shifting from an anabolic state into a more catabolic one.

To prevent malnutrition and starvation while restricting calories, you want to establish ketosis and autophagy as soon as possible.

During World War II, they conducted a study called the Minnesota Starvation Experiment[xii] on a group of lean men who reduced their calories by 45% for 6 months[xiii]. Their diet consisted of primarily carbohydrates which comprised 77% of total calories and had very few protein to mimic starvation conditions. They ate potatoes, cabbage, macaroni, whole wheat bread while still maintaining their active lifestyle.

After the experiment, the men showed a 21% reduction in strength, decline in energy and vitality. One of them started having dreams about cannibalism.

Don’t Starve Yourself With Fasting

THEREFORE, if you ever want to lose fat or do intermittent fasting for the health benefits, then you don’t want to mess up your fast by kicking yourself out of ketosis or inhibiting autophagy.

This will only really begin to happen after your liver glycogen stores have been depleted and you’re switching into ketosis, which takes at least 16-24 hours. Autophagy starts to really ramp up after 48 hours and to get a really good response you’d have to be in this fasted state for up to 3-5 days.

The biggest mistake you could make is to be consuming foods that raise mTOR and insulin just enough to stop autophagy but still keep you in a malnourished state.

In fact, you’d be better off by avoiding all calories all together as to drive yourself deeper into ketosis rather than feeding yourself fewer calories and practically self-inducing starvation. That’s why the people in concentration camps lost all their muscle mass – they were fed a little bit of food but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from starving.

Autophagy is actually needed to maintain lean muscle mass and it makes your body more able to protect itself against excessive catabolism.

How to Avoid Starvation Mode

Instead, whenever you try to lose fat or reduce your calories, then you need to accompany it with periods of zero caloric intake wherein you allow autophagy to kick in.

Here are a few guidelines to remember:

Fast for at least 16-20 hours almost every day as to deplete your liver glycogen and keep yourself in mild ketosis.

as to deplete your liver glycogen and keep yourself in mild ketosis. Don’t consume any calories during your fasting window . Doing juice cleanses, having a piece of fruit, taking BCAAs, exogenous ketones, bulletproof coffee – they’re all most likely going to inhibit autophagy or at least slow it down.

. Doing juice cleanses, having a piece of fruit, taking BCAAs, exogenous ketones, bulletproof coffee – they’re all most likely going to inhibit autophagy or at least slow it down. Compounds like green tea and coffee in small amounts are fine as they elevate both ketones and autophagy. You don’t want to be adding any milk, sugar, oils, or artificial sweeteners because they’ll probably kick you out of a fasted state.

You don’t want to be adding any milk, sugar, oils, or artificial sweeteners because they’ll probably kick you out of a fasted state. The safest bet is to simply drink water with salt. Balancing your electrolytes with sodium and magnesium salts will keep cortisol in check and prevents cramps.

Balancing your electrolytes with sodium and magnesium salts will keep cortisol in check and prevents cramps. Dry fasting can actually boost autophagy even more so than regular fasting . The reason is that your body will enter into a fasted state quicker and starts converting your body fat into hydrogen and calories.

. The reason is that your body will enter into a fasted state quicker and starts converting your body fat into hydrogen and calories. Whenever you do eat try to maintain lower levels of insulin and blood sugar . Carbs and protein alone will raise mTOR and suppress autophagy but if you eat more fats with them then you’ll keep yourself in a semi-fasted state. Also, you should start eating these compounds I mentioned earlier like ginger, turmeric, and ginseng.

. Carbs and protein alone will raise mTOR and suppress autophagy but if you eat more fats with them then you’ll keep yourself in a semi-fasted state. Also, you should start eating these compounds I mentioned earlier like ginger, turmeric, and ginseng. You should also have extended fasts that last for 3-5 days a few times per year. This is needed for gaining any significant benefit from autophagy. I aim for a 3-5 day fast every quarter and a 24-hour fast every week.

Starting a Calorie Restriction Diet

Autophagy isn’t the end-all-be-all for health and longevity as you need to incorporate it into a holistic lifestyle. Of course, all of us need to clean our systems no matter how healthy we are but it’s much more important to treat the root cause of disease, not the symptoms.

You have to focus on eating a diet that doesn’t promote inflammation or make you accumulate a lot of the unnecessary toxins into your system.

Avoid refined grains and processed carbohydrates 97% of the time. You can have your cake once every blue moon but it should be really a massive exception.

Don’t eat processed meats and fish, like sausages, hot dogs, SPAM, canned tuna that’s contaminated with mercury, or hamburgers filled with wheat and sugar.

Avoid additives and other harmful ingredients like High-Fructose Corn Syrup, MSG, and glyphosate that degrade your cell’s ability to induce autophagy.

Overall, you should still aim for eating fewer calories. Caloric restriction and lower metabolic rate are still associated with longevity and anti-aging benefits. The longest living organisms don’t burn a ton of calories but they’re still very efficient with the way they produce energy.

Caloric Restriction and Longevity in Humans

There’s definitely a tradeoff between eating too many calories and living longer.

Exercising, consuming food, converting it into ATP, digesting it, eliminating the waste and storing fuel all require energy and they tax the mitochondria. Even breathing and elevated heart rate cause mild oxidative stress to the body and are slowly killing you.

That’s why you shouldn’t be thinking of how many calories I can burn or how much food can I eat without getting fat because it’s making you less efficient with your energy production.

Instead, you should aim for energy suspension in the form of frequent intermittent fasting during which you allow autophagy to do its work, followed by a short period of nutrient abundance that reignites your metabolism and hormones.

If you want to learn about how to do intermittent fasting, then check out the Full Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE BOOK!

Stay Empowered

Siim

References

[i] http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0192623308329476

[ii] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-90-481-3999-6_12

[iii] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4161/auto.6398

[iv] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/290/5497/1717

[v] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3032517/

[vi] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844186

[vii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24489859

[viii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19799425

[ix] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25137374

[x] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24048094

[xi] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23929677 / https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4111762/

[xii] Keys A, Brozek J, Henschels A & Mickelsen O & Taylor H. The Biology of Human Starvation, 1950. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

[xiii] http://archive.wphna.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2005-Mad-Science-Museum-Ancel-Keys-Starvation.pdf