I’ve been an intermittent fasting enthusiast for years and have reaped numerous benefits. My body has adapted well to the practice, and I can comfortably fast for up to 24 hours.
While intermittent fasting has transformed my health in many positive ways, it’s essential to acknowledge potential drawbacks. Let’s delve into both the pros and cons based on my personal experience.
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Weight Loss:
- Caloric Restriction: Limiting eating windows can naturally help reduce calorie intake. It has been shown that intermittent fasting without caloric restriction is as effective in weight loss as caloric restriction.
- Fat Burning: The fasting periods can ramp up fat burning and improve how your body uses fat for energy.
Improved Metabolic Health:
- Insulin Sensitivity: Intermittent fasting can boost insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver, and dementia; all of these diseases stem from insulin resistance.
- Blood Sugar Levels: Helps keep blood sugar levels stable. With stable blood sugar, mood issues, and energy fluctuations stabilize.
Cellular Repair:
- Autophagy: Fasting promotes autophagy, where your cells clean out damaged parts, which might lower disease risks.
Heart Health:
- Cholesterol Levels: It can improve cholesterol levels and lower blood pressure.
Mental Clarity:
- Focus and Cognitive Function: Many people, including myself, find increased mental clarity and focus during fasting periods.
Convenience:
- Simplified Eating Schedule: It can simplify meal planning and reduce time spent cooking and eating.
Downside to Intermittent Fasting
Hunger and Cravings:
- Initial Adjustment: The hunger can be pretty intense, especially when you’re just starting.
- Overeating Risk: There’s a temptation to overeat during the eating windows.
Nutrient Deficiency:
- Balanced Diet: You have to plan your meals carefully to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need. It is essential to focus on consuming 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight; for instance, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need to eat 150 grams of protein in a day. With intermittent fasting, some may find it difficult to get that much protein within a short eating window.
Social Constraints:
- Meal Timing: Sticking to a fasting schedule can be tricky during social events or with an irregular routine.
Energy Levels:
- Fatigue: You might feel fatigued or have low energy, particularly at the beginning as your body is still searching for glucose to burn and hasn’t learned to burn body fat for fuel.
Not Suitable for Everyone:
- Medical Conditions: It’s not recommended for people with certain medical conditions, such as those with eating disorders or for pregnant women.
- Athletes: This might not be ideal for athletes or those with high energy needs.
Potential for Muscle Loss:
- Muscle Mass: Without enough protein and strength training, you might risk losing muscle mass. If you lack the energy to work out effectively and you are unable to consume sufficient protein while intermittent fasting, you could lose muscle mass, especially as you age.
Supplements to Optimize Intermittent Fasting Results
Fortunately, the potential downsides of intermittent fasting can often be mitigated by pairing your fasting schedule with the right supplements.
Acceleradine® Iodine
Acceleradine® Iodine is my go-to supplement for addressing iodine deficiency, which can impact mitochondrial function and reduce ATP production, leading to a sluggish metabolism and fat gain. This supplement helps boost ATP production, supports cellular detoxification, and removes harmful substances from cells. The result? Increased fat oxidation, better detoxification from toxins that cause fat gain, and improved muscle protein synthesis.
Stop the loss of energy levels experienced from intermittent fasting.
Accelerated Fast™
Accelerated Fast is your go-to for effortless intermittent fasting and lasting weight loss. By putting your body into fat-burning mode within just 30 minutes, it quickly curbs appetite and jumpstarts weight loss without the usual stress on the body. Here’s what the ingredients in Accelerated Fast bring to the table:
- Sharpens mental focus and boosts performance
- Helps with intermittent fasting by suppressing appetite
- Increases ketones and provides sustained energy from fat
- Reduces sugar and carb cravings
- Supports a high protein lifestyle
- Speeds up metabolism and aids in long-term weight management
- Delivers energy to muscles and brain for 8-12 hours
- Improves metabolic flexibility
- Produces more energy than glucose
- Promotes cognitive health by powering the brain with ketones
The secret to Accelerated Fast’s effectiveness lies in its unique blend of ingredients that go beyond what any other fasting supplement offers:
L-Threonine: Known for its anti-aging properties, L-Threonine de-fats the liver by breaking down stored fats, making them easier to burn. A cleaner liver improves overall function, including better ketone production and enhanced thyroid activity, which in turn boosts metabolism.
Mukul Cammiphora: A rare Ayurvedic herb, it helps break down fats, detoxifies the liver, acts as a diuretic, and provides an energy boost to burn those fats.
Trikatu: This ingredient cranks up digestive “fire,” boosting the absorption of ketones and other nutrients while speeding up metabolism and eliminating water weight.
PurCaf caffeine: Derived from organic green coffee beans, this natural caffeine source provides a gentle energy lift without the jitters or crashes.
TheaCrine: Working hand in hand with PurCaf, TheaCrine enhances energy, mental clarity, mood, and motivation, making intermittent fasting easier by reducing appetite.
B-hydroxy b-methylbutyrate (BHB): While on a weight loss or ketogenic program, muscle loss can be a concern. BHB helps maintain lean muscle mass by supporting the body’s own ketone production, which in turn prevents muscle breakdown.
Accelerated Fast is more than just a supplement—it’s your partner in achieving sustainable, healthy weight loss while keeping your energy levels high and your mind sharp.
Helps stop the hunger pangs and cravings experienced when intermittent fasting.
MAP Master Amino Acid Pattern®
MAP Master Amino Acid Pattern® stands out as the gold standard for essential amino acid supplementation.
Its unique formulation mirrors the exact amino acid profile required by the human body, ensuring optimal absorption and utilization.
Unlike other protein sources or amino acid blends, MAP provides a complete, non-caloric package of essential amino acids in their free, crystalline form. This superior bioavailability means your body can efficiently build and repair tissues without unnecessary metabolic burden.
Backed by extensive research and clinical trials, MAP has demonstrated unparalleled effectiveness in supporting muscle growth, recovery, and overall protein synthesis. Many other amino acids companies have copied the MAP formula, but I recommend the original and the best.
Helps the body retain and build muscle when intermittent fasting.
Thorne Creatine
Creatine is a staple in my muscle growth regimen and helps maintain muscle mass while fasting. It boosts ATP availability, enhancing strength and endurance during high-intensity workouts. This means more intense and prolonged training sessions, leading to greater muscle mass over time. Plus, creatine helps draw water into muscle cells, improving muscle size and fullness. It’s a well-researched supplement that offers a safe and effective way to boost muscle growth and athletic performance.
Excellent for muscle growth at anytime. Essential when intermittent fasting to help prevent muscle loss.
Accelerated Thyroid®
Accelerated Thyroid® supports thyroid function, detoxification, and overall hormonal balance. As your thyroid and metabolism are optimized, fat oxidation increases, and energy levels improve for better workouts. It contains grass-fed thyroid glandular, essential peptides, amino acids, and nutrients for thyroid health, and it’s enhanced with scalar frequencies to help restore optimal thyroid function.
Ingredients help to boost energy levels and maintain optima thyroid health.
Thyroid Fixxr
Thyroid Fixxr is a T2-based supplement that helps increase fat burn without the jitters or affecting your T3 and T4 levels. It’s the perfect complement to Acceleradine® iodine and Accelerated Thyroid® for thyroid health and helps with energy during fasting.
Perfect to help maintain energy levels during intermittent fasting.
Healthy Gut HCL Guard™
As we age, our stomachs can struggle to digest proteins essential for muscle health, hair, skin, and overall cell maintenance. HCL Guard™ tackles various stomach issues like constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, and bloating. It maximizes protein assimilation into the muscles and supports hair, skin, and nail health, mood swings, and energy levels. By providing enough stomach acid to break down food and activate enzymes, it improves protein synthesis and optimizes muscle gains.
Accelerated Ancient Salt®
Accelerated Ancient Salt® is essential for replenishing lost salt during workouts—one hour of exercise can deplete 1/2 tsp of salt. Salt is crucial, especially during fasting, for producing energy, expelling toxins, bringing in nutrients, and supporting the sodium-potassium pump. As toxins are released from fat cells, they shrink and “let go” of the toxins inhibiting fat loss. Sodium and iodine (in singlet atom form) are vital for the Sodium-Iodide Symporter used in thyroid hormone production. Without enough sodium and iodine, thyroid hormone production suffers, affecting energy, muscle protein synthesis, and fat metabolism. Accelerated Ancient Salt® helps restore normal body fluids, eases detox symptoms, contains over 62 minerals, and is free from microplastics, chemicals, and contaminants. Enhanced with scalar frequencies, it aids in detoxing from radiation and heavy metals and helps increase blood volume to flush toxins out of your body.
Sara Banta’s Accelerated Liver Flush Cleanse
One of the benefits of intermittent fasting is to help the liver cleanse and take a “break” from dealing with incoming toxins. The Liver Flush Cleanse enhances the results of fasting.
The liver is where fat and protein are broken down and metabolized; if the liver is clogged, more fat is stored, and less protein is used for muscle growth. A clogged liver also inhibits thyroid hormone conversion, slowing metabolism. To optimize liver function, I recommend doing a Liver Cleanse 4-6 times a year due to the level of toxins in our modern world.
The Liver Cleanse supplements provide a comprehensive detox for your liver and gallbladder. Here’s how they can transform your health:
- Optimize Fat and Protein Metabolism: Improves the breakdown and usage of fat for energy and protein for muscle growth.
- Flush Out Gallstones: Naturally removes gallstones, reducing pain, cramps, and inflammation.
- Reduce Fatty Liver: Significantly decreases fatty liver, which is linked to insulin resistance, heart disease, and dementia.
- Lower Liver Enzymes: Decreases AST and ALT liver enzyme counts, indicating improved liver health.
- Repair Liver Cells: Replaces damaged liver cells with healthy ones, reversing fatty liver disease and restoring liver function.
- Detoxify: Eliminates thousands of toxins and pollutants, reversing damage from drugs and alcohol.
- Reduce Cholesterol: Flushes out unhealthy cholesterol deposits, enhancing cardiovascular health.
- Clear Obstructions: Opens up blockages in the liver and gallbladder, ensuring smooth bile flow.
- Boost Immunity: Strengthens your immune system, helping your body fight off illnesses more effectively.
- Regenerate Liver and Gallbladder: Supports the regeneration of these vital organs, promoting long-term health and vitality.
Diet For Optimal Results When Intermittent Fasting
Prioritizing Protein During Intermittent Fasting
When intermittent fasting, it’s crucial to prioritize protein intake to maintain a healthy metabolism and support overall health; one of the pitfalls of intermittent fasting is people don’t eat enough protein during their shortened eating window.
Protein provides the building blocks for muscles, tissues, organs, hair, nails—everything in the body. It also boosts fat burning through the “Thermic Effect,” where different types of calories consumed create heat in the body, burning more or fewer calories depending on the heat generated.
Protein has a higher thermic effect than any other macronutrient, with the body using about 25% of protein calories just through digestion and heat. This means that for every 100 calories of protein consumed, 25 calories are burned off through this process. Protein also provides the amino acids needed for growing and maintaining lean, strong muscle, which contains dense amounts of mitochondria and ATP, boosting fat burning just through its existence. However, not all proteins are created equal when it comes to energy, fat-burning, and overall health.
The Wrong Proteins
- Protein Powders: Most protein powders undergo an 80% conversion into sugars, potentially leading to fat and muscle gain. While 1 gram of protein is generally considered to equal 4 calories, this varies depending on the protein source. Unlike animal protein, which has a thermic effect where 25% of protein calories are used for digestion, protein powders lack this effect due to their easy digestibility.
- BCAAs (Branched-Chain Amino Acids): Since BCAAs include only three of the essential amino acids, and the body requires all 20 to produce protein, they are primarily converted into sugar. This makes them ineffective for building muscle and potentially encourages fat storage.
- Whey, Pea, and Soy Protein: These proteins only utilize about 18% of their essential amino acids for making new protein, with the remaining 82% converted to sugar. They may also cause inflammation, increased estrogen levels, leaky gut, high histamine reactions, or allergies. Soy protein, in particular, has estrogenic properties and GMO content, leading to estrogen dominance and toxicity. Whey protein, derived from dairy, may trigger inflammation and leaky gut, while pea protein is prone to mold and may cause allergies and inflammation.
- Chicken, Conventional Beef, Turkey, and Pork: These meats contain high levels of omega-6 inflammatory fats, including dangerous linoleic acid, and amyloid proteins, which are linked to various diseases and autoimmunity. Linoleic acid is unstable in the body and produces oxidative stress, resulting in more fat storage, lower overall ATP, and a cascade of detrimental effects. Amyloids, misfolded protein structures, don’t get broken down into usable amino acids and can accumulate in tissues or organs, leading to gut issues, pathogen proliferation, fat gain, inflammation, and autoimmunity.
- Farm-Raised Fish: Most farmed fish are fed genetically modified corn and soy, which are unnatural and full of inflammatory omega-6 fats and linoleic acid, increasing fat storage and derailing mitochondrial health.
The Best Protein Options
- PerfectAminos: If you have a difficult time consuming enough protein during the day when intermittent fasting, PerfectAminos helps supplement your protein needs without calories. PerfectAminos consists of pure essential amino acids in the precise ratio required for building new proteins, achieving a remarkable 99% utilization rate by the body. Each serving of PerfectAminos is equivalent to 30 grams of whey protein but contains only 2 calories compared to the 120 calories in a serving of whey protein. PerfectAminos helps increase muscle mass without gaining water or fat weight, allowing for “lean bulking.”
- Wild Animal Proteins: Wild animal proteins provide essential B vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium, and other nutrients crucial for protein synthesis and overall health. The digestion of wild animal proteins triggers a “thermic” effect, burning 25% of the calories consumed. Additionally, the balanced ratios of amino acids and Omega-3 fatty acids in wild animal proteins stimulate the release of a hormone called CCK, which helps curb sugar cravings and suppress appetite. These meats include bison, elk, venison, lamb, Cornish game hen, and wild cold-water fish.
Rethinking Fats While Intermittent Fasting
While high-fat ketogenic diets have gained popularity for their ability to help burn fat by limiting carb intake, especially when paired with intermittent fasting, they may not be the best long-term strategy. Over time, this approach can slow your metabolism and suppress thyroid hormones. Additionally, the modern bombardment of toxins, radiation, and spike proteins can overburden the liver, making it less efficient at metabolizing fat. It’s essential to distinguish between fats that support your health and those that can lead to fat gain.
The Wrong Fats
Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are found everywhere—processed foods, low-carb “Keto” snacks, salad dressings, fried foods, poultry, pork, nuts, seeds, seed oils, and fatty fish. The most problematic PUFA is linoleic acid (LA), which can mess with your metabolism, harm your mitochondria, and contribute to fat gain, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.
PUFAs have multiple double bonds in their carbon chains, making them fragile and prone to becoming inflammatory compounds. This damages mitochondria and impairs ATP and energy production. They also inhibit fatty acid beta-oxidation, making your body less efficient at using fat for fuel and leading to larger fat cells. These fats can stay in your body for up to six years, continuously disrupting your metabolism.
Linoleic acid is found in foods often considered healthy, like chicken, pork, seeds, and nuts. But ruminant animals—like bison, cows, lamb, deer, and elk—have multiple stomachs that convert high-LA fat into healthier saturated and monounsaturated fat. In contrast, animals with single stomachs, like chicken and pork, don’t process LA efficiently, leading to high levels of LA in their meat. So, even lean cuts of these meats are packed with linoleic acid, which could be causing inflammation and fat gain.
Healthy Fats
If you’re intermittent fasting and want to ensure your body burns fat efficiently, focus on healthier fats rather than a high-fat diet. The fats that support fat-burning include butter, ghee, and organic cold-pressed olive oil. Avocado oil can also be beneficial, but be cautious, as over 60 percent of olive oil and avocado oil on the market are cut with cheap seed oils, which can derail your fat-burning efforts.
By prioritizing these healthier fats and avoiding those that lead to fat gain, you can enhance your intermittent fasting results without resorting to a high-fat diet.
Carbohydrates and Intermittent Fasting
Yes, you can have carbs.
Carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap over the last two decades with the rise of keto and carnivore diets. While it’s true that too many of the wrong carbs can lead to inflammation, leaky gut, endotoxins, fat accumulation, and lowered mitochondrial health, the right carbs can increase fat burning, lower stress hormones, and support optimal energy.
The Wrong Carbs
Processed Foods: The carbs in processed foods are far from natural. They’ve been adulterated, refined, and are often loaded with GMOs, glyphosate, and paired with seed oils. This harmful combination can wreak havoc on your gut, leading to leaky gut syndrome and malabsorption issues, drastically altering the gut microbiome.
The problem starts with metabolic toxins. These toxins disrupt cellular energy production within the mitochondria, leading to decreased carbon dioxide production in the intestines. A lower concentration of carbon dioxide creates an environment that encourages the growth of harmful bacteria known as facultative anaerobes.
These bacteria have high levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in their cell membranes. When they consume complex carbohydrates, they multiply rapidly but eventually die off, releasing LPS—also known as endotoxin—into your system. Endotoxin is a powerful metabolic poison that further disrupts mitochondrial function, creating a vicious cycle that can lead to fat gain and other health issues.
This creates a paradox: even complex carbs, which are typically considered healthy, can exacerbate health problems by increasing endotoxin levels in the body. However, when gut health and mitochondrial function are optimized, these same complex carbs can be beneficial. The reality is that most people don’t have an optimized gut, leading to weight gain and other health problems from these foods.
So, the takeaway is clear: focus on improving your gut health and mitochondrial function. When these systems are running smoothly, your body can handle complex carbs better, turning what can be problematic into something beneficial. This means paying attention to the quality of your food and avoiding processed carbs loaded with harmful additives. Your gut and overall health will thank you.
The Healthy Carbs
Carbohydrates from cooked organic vegetables not containing sulfur, oxalates, histamines, or mold can help provide sufficient fiber to support a healthy gut microbiome without disrupting the detoxification pathways associated with the aforementioned substances. The Accelerated Food Guide lays out which foods to focus on and which ones contain these unhealthy elements.
Furthermore, organic fruits can provide simple carbs that don’t encourage endotoxin growth while still providing sufficient carbohydrates for energy.
Initially, eating a lower-carb diet may be beneficial to allow the gut to heal through supplements and some intermittent fasting. As your metabolism improves, you can slowly increase your carb intake. Carbs can be part of a healthy intermittent fasting plan—it’s all about choosing the right ones and supporting your gut and mitochondrial health along the way.
Intermittent fasting is a powerful tool to utilize strategically with the right supplements and diet.
Sara Banta
Sara Banta is a Stanford University Graduate with a Degree in Economics and Psychology, and a certified Natural Supplement Expert & Graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Sara is the Founder of Accelerated Health Products and host of the health & wellness podcast, Accelerated Health Radio.
