Sam The Challenger

IF is not starvation. IF is about control while starvation is the involuntary absence of food for a long time, leading to severe suffering or even death. Starvation is neither purposeful nor controlled. [2]

IF is the voluntary withholding of food for spiritual, health, or other reasons. IF is done by someone who is not underweight. People who go on IF should have enough stored body fat to live off. IF done right should not cause suffering, and certainly never death. [3]

Anytime that you are not eating, you are intermittently fasting. For example, you may fast between dinner and breakfast the next day, a period of approximately 12-14 hours. The term “break fast” refers to the meal that breaks your fast – which is done daily. [4]

IF is a method that allows the body to use its stored energy and burn off excess body fat. It is important to realize that this is normal, and humans have evolved to fast for shorter time periods – hours or days – without detrimental health consequences. [5]

Two complementary food energy storage systems exist in our bodies. One is easily accessible but with limited storage space (glycogen), and the other is more difficult to access but has almost unlimited storage space (body fat). [6]

When we are not eating (fasting) insulin levels fall, ‘telling’ the body to start burning stored energy as no more is coming through food. Blood glucose falls, so the body must now pull glucose out of storage to burn for energy. [7]

Glycogen is the most easily accessible energy source. It is broken down into glucose molecules to provide energy for the body’s other cells. This can provide enough energy to power much of the body’s needs for 24-36 hours. [8]

After that, the body will primarily be breaking down fat for energy. Our bodies only really exist in two states – the fed (insulin high) state and the fasted (insulin low) state. [9]