Will fasting during an HCG Diet program help?

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Fung on the physiology of fasting full blog here,

Glucose and fat are the body’s main sources of energy. If glucose is not available, then the body will adjust by using fat, without any detrimental health effects. This is simply a natural part of life. Periods of low food availability have always been a part of human history. Mechanisms have evolved to adapt to this fact of Paleolithic life.

The human body has well-developed mechanisms for dealing with periods of low food availability. What we are describing here is the process of switching from burning glucose (short-term) to burning fat (long-term). Fat is simply the body’s stored food energy. In times of low food availability, stored food is naturally released to fill the void. So, no, the body does not ‘burn muscle’ to feed itself until all the fat stores are used.

Fasting is the most efficient and consistent strategy to decrease insulin levels. This was first noted decades ago and widely accepted as true. It is quite simple and obvious. All foods raise insulin, so the most effective method of reducing insulin is to avoid all foods. Blood glucose levels remain normal, as the body begins to switch over to burning fat for energy. This effect is seen with fasting periods as short as 24-36 hours. Longer duration fasts reduce insulin even more dramatically. More recently, alternate day fasting has been studied as an acceptable technique of reducing insulin.

Regular fasting, in addition to lowering insulin levels, has also been shown to improve insulin sensitivity significantly. This is the missing link in the weight loss puzzle. Most diets reduce highly insulin-secreting foods but do not address the insulin resistance issue. Weight is initially lost, but insulin resistance keeps insulin levels and Body Set Weight high. Fasting is an efficient method of reducing insulin resistance.

Fasting transitions the body from burning sugar to burning fat. Resting metabolism is NOT decreased but instead increased. We are, effectively, feeding our bodies through our own fat. We are ‘eating’ our own fat. This makes total sense. Fat is stored food. In fact, studies show that the epinephrine (adrenaline) induced fat burning does not depend upon lowering blood sugar.

Recall our previous discussion of How Insulin Works. Fat is food stored away in the long term, like money in the bank. Short-term food is stored as glycogen, like money in the wallet. The problem we have is how to access the money in the bank. As our wallet depletes, we become nervous and go out to fill it again. This prevents us from getting access to money in the bank.

Fat is stored away in the ‘bank’. As our glycogen ‘wallet’ depletes, we get hungry and want to eat. That makes us hungry, even though there is more than enough ‘food’ stored as fat in the ‘bank’. How do we get that fat to burn it? Fasting provides an easy way in.

One of the best ways to achieve effortless and long-lasting fat loss? Train yourself to eat two meals a day (and eliminate snacking). When you’re in the fasted state your body can burn fat that has been inaccessible during the fed state. Because we don’t enter the fasted state until 12 hours after our last meal, it’s rare that our bodies are in this fat burning state. This is one of the reasons why many people who start intermittent fasting will lose fat without changing what they eat, how much they eat, or how often they exercise. Fasting puts your body in a fat burning state that you rarely get to enter during a normal eating schedule.

There are several ways to perform intermittent fasting, but the easiest and most popular varieties involve taking advantage of your natural overnight fast by skipping breakfast and pushing the first meal of the day forward several hours. Once you have passed the 12-hour mark from dinner the night before, you are truly in a fasted state and you begin to rely on stored body fat for fuel.

The longer you stay in the fasted state, the more metabolic practice you will get at burning stored body fat and the deeper your fat adaptation will get. In fact, if you can maintain this intermittent fast for 20 to 24 hours you will achieve a very high rate of lipolysis (breakdown of stored body fat into free fatty acids, available for burning in the cells) and fat oxidation (burning of fat in the mitochondria). The lipotropic injections are great for rapid lipolysis and fat oxidation!!

(Dr. Jason Fung, excerpt from here: https://idmprogram.com/fasting-physiology-part-ii/)

To do a “true fast” you would have no calories during your fast. When you incorporate IF with HCG for weight loss purposes, you may have 1 tbsp of MCT oil in your coffee or bone broth. If you need more calories to make it through a fast, it is better to fast and eat little calories, than not fast at all. You can do 16:8 or 18:6 or any variation thereof. That’s where you fast for 16 or 18 hours and you eat all your calories in an 8 or 6-hour window. I personally do 23:1. On P2, I ate all my calories in one meal. On P4, I still do 23:1 at least 5 days a week. I find it is easy to maintain my weight this way. Most days, I don’t eat all my BMR calories and never have to worry about weight gain.

I hope you made it through the science…I can tell you through losing weight with HCG and practicing IF, I not only lost 40lbs but took my HbA1C to a 5.3 in less than six months.

If you haven’t made the switch to HCG, now is a great time to try it out and

Click here to pick up your HCG diet products and lose your 20-30 lbs.

Javier Alejandro

HCG Diet Enthusiast