The complete guide to fasting was actually the true first wellness book I read as a physician. It was instrumental for my initial change from mindset standpoint and was responsible for the majority of my weight loss which I have Kept off. Dr. Fung explains in this book several different types of fasting but I will explain in this review the times I used Fasting as an approach to better health. I purposefully have held off on doing this book review until I was better versed in other areas of wellness and nutrition to help better substantiate my experience with fasting.

Intermittent fasting as discussed in the book as a method to withhold eating anything during the majority of a 24-hour cycle. The intermittent fasting that I practice involves eating during an 8-hour period from noon to 8 or 11-7 if I happen to eat early. My personal experience is that intermittent fasting does not result in reliable weight loss but is useful for maintenance as a long-term practice. The primary method I used to shed 24 pounds was true fasting. True fasting involves skipping the day of intermittent fast. For me, this would mean eating at the latest 8 PM on Monday and then next eating at noon on Wednesday for example. I determined that such approach would result in a 4 pound weight loss per fast but only 2 pounds of this loss was retained. It is assumed the other 2 pounds was "water weight".

Dr. Fong spoke addresses well and chapter 5 pounds traditional weight loss plans eat less and move more do not work. He mentions that over the past 20 years conventional weight loss advice is called for eating less and moving more but obesity rates have exploded during the same time. He quotes a 1959 study showing that it was has a failure rate of 98% at 2 years out. He mentions a study in the UK of 175,000 obese men and women and the probability of reaching normal weight through eat less caloric restriction plan alone was under 1% for women and under 0.5% for men he mentions a another study on caloric reduction call women's health initiative which was randomized control trial of 50,000 women over 7-1/2 years. They found that by reducing their calories and increasing her exercise by 14% they did not even see a 2 pound weight loss difference between the control group but did not think and the calorie reduction exercise increase group.

Besides substantial evidence in favor of a fasting approach which resonated to me as of an approach that always works, the author has a couple good analogies that are especially useful for diabetics. The first analogy is related to the way our body accesses energy source. The author states that we should imagine a kitchen refrigerator being our short-term sugar storage or glycogen. He states we should imagine her body fat being the basement freezer. When her body is hungry for energy, it is much easier to open the refrigerator door and grab something quick. It is not until the fridge is empty that we take the time to go down to the basement and get something out of the freezer. The freezer represents her body fat especially visceral body fat. He states that with low insulin levels the refrigerator does not have to be completely empty before we go down to get something from the basement freezer but when insulin levels are high is like having a locked door to the basement. This is insulin resistance. He very persuasively points out that the answer for insulin resistance is not increasing insulin but is instead drastically reducing insulin level. This is the path to reducing insulin resistance which is the core problem with type 2 diabetes. He mentions that with a high resting insulin and insulin resistance reduce calories results and slower metabolism. This explains why eating less does not work well. When we fast there is no stimulation of insulin. Although many people believe that refined carbs and sugar are the stimulators of insulin, this is not completely true. Refined carbs and sugar are the most potent stimulators of insulin but all foods will raise insulin levels. The answer to insulin resistance is fasting.

The author also mentions the difference between caloric reduction and fasting in terms of metabolism. We you are eating regularly you do not have a hormonal change of fasting even if you are eating fewer calories. During fasting however adrenaline and growth hormone increase to maintain your energy and muscle mass during that fast. Metabolism stabilizes or even goes up when fasting. I made this logical by thinking of a caveman that has some food in his environment would ration the food and be an active so as to burn less. However, if that same caveman had no food he would get scared and go out hunting to find food. This was my analogy for how metabolism would be different from a caveman with no food versus a caveman with less food.

The final analogy that I found helpful and Dr. Fung's book is the Japanese Subway pusher. If the cells are already too full of glucose and they are resistant to insulin that would add more glucose into the cell, insulin or insulin stimulating medications act like a Japanese Subway pusher that pushes the patrons into the subway train. It is essentially squeezing glucose into an already over packed cell. It is clear the answer is to actually get the sugar out of the cell or in other words to get the people off the some weight training so that a Subway pusher is not needed.

There is some useful diagrams in the book about better concentration increased insulin sensitivity lower blood pressure and heart rate less fatty liver and reduced inflammation. I would say from personal experience that during a fast you can almost feel something different when you are in ketosis. I would describe it as a feeling of cleanness and to some degree mental clarity although some may be so distracted by the new feeling that they are cognitively not as sharp. My experience mainly comes from 1 day fast and I have had countless numbers of those more recently just to account for an indiscretion at social gathering that resulted in a 1 to 2 pound weight gain. I have tried a 3-day fast to know what that feels like but I would only recommend that to someone that is not seeing results with a 1 day fast method. Speaking of that, would not seem weight loss over a 1 day fast, I found 1, nominate her and myself. If the week leading up to it 1 day fast was heavily laden with carbohydrate such as a couple pieces of birthday cake eating out several times etc., my 1 day fast would not be sufficient to obtain the 2 pound weight loss I normally experienced. This speaks to the ability of the body to store glycogen or in other words stuff in the refrigerator. Knowing what I know now, eating healthy and avoiding processed foods especially processed carbohydrate is critical to be used in conjunction with fasting to maintain healthy body weight. Knowing what I know now, ketosis is a weight loss tool that can be obtained by a high-protein low carbohydrate diet but there is an issue. High-protein can be converted through gluconeogenesis to sugar. High-protein such as meats also stimulates M tor which is anabolic. We want to be in a controlled catabolic state during weight loss and cycle anabolic muscle mass retention during weight maintenance phase. I would not recommend high-protein Atkins like diet as a method for weight loss based on my more broader knowledge now. I would continue to recommend intermittent fasting combined with occasional 1 day fasting as part of a healthy method of controlling weight. Further, we know that during times of fasting old senescent cells are auto phaged and even tumor cells may be better recognized.