Intermittent Fasting and Diabetes

“It’s been a few months since worldwide lockdown has started and like many others I have also gained a few kilos. Now, I am not able to fit into my best jeans. What to do? How to do it? Should I start dieting? Which diet will give me results quickly ? Will it improve my blood sugar levels as well? Mr. Sharma was talking about Intermittent Fasting, let’s check that out….”

We all know that Intermittent Fasting is very popular in today’s world. People who are overweight, obese, has diabetes and many other people also want to follow this. The same thought crossed Mr Kapoor’s mind, especially after talking with Mr Sharma about his weight and high blood sugar levels. Well, if you are also having the same thoughts, it is better for you to know what Intermittent Fasting is, how it affects our weight and especially high blood sugar levels.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent Fasting is a cycle of fasting and eating. In simple language, it includes eating followed by a gap and again eating.

This eating pattern tells you when you have to eat and when you have to fast.

Intermittent Fasting is a basically an eating pattern.

So it can be done in following ways:

1. 16:8 Diet
2. 5:2 Fasting
3. Eat-Stop-Eat OR 24 Hours Fasting
4. Alternate Day Fasting
5. The Warrior Diet
6. Meal Skipping

Now, we will discuss what all you need to know about different types of Intermittent Fasting.

1. 16:8 Diet

• This is the most common type of Intermittent Fasting.
• In this, you can eat food for 8 hours and then you need to maintain fasting time for 16 hours. For example if you are taking your first meal at around 12 pm then you need to take the last meal by 8 pm and then fasting will be from 9 pm till 12 pm the next day.
• Now you must be thinking how many meals one can take and what type of fasting food to be taken in those 8 hours of eating. Well you can have many meals as per your need and choice in those 8 hours like two, three or more. But during your 16 hour fasting period you cannot eat or drink anything except water, lemon water, green tea. Basically you can have only zero calorie drinks.
• The most important thing in the eating period is that you can consume only healthy foods and no junk foods or fried foods are allowed.

2. 5:2 Fasting

• This is the second common type of Intermittent Fasting.
• Here you have to choose 2 days in a week for fasting and for rest 5 days you can eat normally.
• Also the fasting days should not be together and there must be 1 or more normal eating days in between them. For example, one can do fasting on Tuesday and Friday but not on Tuesday and Wednesday or you can choose any 2 days or your choice.
• Now you can take a sigh of relief because in this fasting, you don’t have to fast for the full day. The calorie intake is restricted. So, men can eat upto 600 kcal and women can eat upto 500 kcal on each day of fasting.

During Intermittent Fasting, one must avoid fried and junk food.

3. Eat-Stop-Eat OR 24 Hours Fasting

• In this type of Intermittent Fasting, you need to fast for 1 or 2 days in a week but there must be a gap of at least one day in between. And again the days of fasting can be of your choice.
• The difference between this fasting and 5:2 Diet is that, in this fasting you cannot eat solid foods (not even a single meal) during that 24 hours.
• So here, it is not important to keep fasting for 24 hours in a single day. Fasting can start from breakfast of 1 day till the breakfast of next day. Or from lunch to lunch or can be dinner to dinner. And on the rest of the days you can eat normally.

4. Alternate Day Fasting

• This is the most difficult type of Intermittent Fasting.
• This requires you to keep fasting on every alternate day or in simple words one day you can eat normally and next day you have to do fasting followed by a normal eating day and so on.
• Now as I said it is the most difficult type because you need to keep fasting for a total of 3–4 days in a week and on the day of fasting either all solid foods have to be avoided or only 500 kcal can be taken.

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5. The Warrior Diet

• In a warrior diet, you are required to fast for 20 hours and can eat for 4 hours daily.
• The good news is that in 20 hours you do not have to fast completely and you can take small amounts of fruits, salads, lemon water and any low calorie foods and then in 4 hours you can eat as much you want.
• In simple words, you can take 2 small meals in fasting time and 1 big meal in the eating period.

In fasting phase of Warrior Diet, you can have fruits and salads.

6. Meal Skipping

• This is one of the other methods of doing Intermittent Fasting and is comparatively easier also.
• Easier because in this method you can skip any of the main meals (breakfast/ lunch/ dinner) with your choice as per your hunger and time.
• For example, if you are not feeling hungry at breakfast or you do not have much time to cook or eat then you can skip that.
• So this way your calorie intake reduces for a week.

I hope that Intermittent Fasting meaning is clear to you now. Well, whatever we do, it always has some benefits and some side effects. So let me tell you both, the benefits and side effects of what Intermittent Fasting results in:

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Intermittent Fasting Benefits:

1. Helps in reducing body weight
2. Manage sugar levels for short term
3. Improves energy levels in beginning
4. Reduces stress
5. Improves heart and brain function

Intermittent Fasting Side Effects:

1. Fluctuations in Blood Sugar Levels: The requirement of Intermittent Fasting to maintain long gaps between meals causes fluctuations in blood sugar levels and the risk of getting low blood sugar is more. Low blood sugar episodes are known to be more harmful than high blood sugar levels.
2. Decreased hunger: When a person starts with Intermittent Fasting then “feeling of hunger” is more. Over the time while following Intermittent Fasting, the body becomes habitual of not eating on frequent intervals and as a result our hunger reduces.
3. Constipation: For proper bulk of food, fiber is needed for proper bowel movement but as in Intermittent Fasting the food intake reduces and the fiber requirement is not fulfilled so it leads to constipation and poor gastric health.
4. Heartburn/ acidity: The long meal gaps in Intermittent Fasting results in acidity and heartburn issues and it is a very common side effect.

Long meal gaps during Intermittent Fasting causes acidity.

5. Sudden increase in weight: People do reduce weight in Intermittent Fasting but as it is not easy to follow Intermittent Fasting for a long term, people get back to their normal routine. From a controlled eating pattern to back to old eating habits, they start gaining weight suddenly and this weight gain in quick.

6. Binge eating: Due to a psychology that people have to keep fasting for long hours, they tend to eat more and consume more calories during their “eating phase” and slowly become habitual of binge eating.

7. Fatigue: As the body doesn’t get proper amounts of carbohydrates, protein and fats, the energy levels start going down resulting in fatigue, weakness and lethargy.

8. Muscle loss: Since the “eating phase” is reduced than before, overall intake of protein also decreases which further results in muscle loss.

9. Hair loss: As the body doesn’t get enough food and thus adequate nutrition, so the deficiencies of nutrients results in hair loss.

Hair loss in males and females if one of the side effects of Intermittent Fasting.

10. Dull skin: Sometimes skin also starts becoming dull due to nutritional deficiencies and lack of energy.

People who are diabetic are also getting attracted to follow this to manage sugar levels better. But is it really a good idea to follow Intermittent Fasting in diabetes? Before knowing more about this, let us discuss:

What exactly is Diabetes Mellitus?

So it is a metabolic disorder that happens due to less or no production of insulin in pancreas or some cells do not respond to insulin (insulin resistance) to manage high blood sugar levels. This results in an increase in sugar levels in diabetes and with time, it starts fluctuating. It requires to be managed with a proper diet, lifestyle or medicines.

So it is very much important to keep our metabolism active by eating small & frequent meals to manage our blood sugar levels & prevent fluctuations.

Intermittent Fasting and Diabetes Mellitus

Now if we talk about Intermittent Fasting, the intermittent diet requires maintaining a long gap between meals as we discussed above. This long meal gap fluctuates our blood sugar levels and further increases chances of the main side effect of long gaps between meals which is hypoglycemia (when sugar levels fall below 90). It is more harmful as it can lead to coma.

Long meal gaps in intermittent fasting can lead to hypoglycemia which has very harmful side effects. Therefore, it is advisable for diabetics to avoid Intermittent Fasting.

Importance of Small and Frequent Meals and Balanced Diet in Diabetes.

• A balanced diet is one which contains a variety of foods in proper quantity so that our body can get all the nutrients which is required for its proper functioning.
• Not only for a healthy person but in diabetes also, it plays a very important role because as we all know that in diabetes various other health issues can occur. Our kidneys, heart, eyes and other body organs also remain at high risk to get affected with high sugars. Diabetes symptoms also start occurring like tingling and burning sensation, pricking pain in hands or legs. For our health, all the nutrients are required to be taken in proper amounts.
• We also know that in diabetes some people experience weight loss, weakness, lethargy and other symptoms. So to manage this also we need proper and balanced meals with their right proportion.
• Most of the people have a myth that carbohydrates intake should be less in diabetes because it increases blood sugar levels and that is the reason they get attracted to follow Intermittent Fasting and other types of diet. But adequate carbohydrate intake is very much important as it is the primary source of energy for our body.
• If we do not take it in required amounts then the other sources like protein and fats are used to provide energy in the body which is not right because if they are used to perform function of carbohydrates then who will perform their function?
• As a result of using protein and fats for energy sources, the body starts losing muscle mass because protein is not utilised by the body to perform its muscle building function and similarly ketone bodies can also start developing in our body when fat is used for energy which is very harmful and can make our blood acidic.

How a simple balanced diet will help you conquer your health?

Small and frequent meals are equally important as it helps in keeping our metabolism active, prevents fluctuations in blood sugars levels and keeps us energetic, healthy and happy throughout the day.

Having a balanced diet fulfills all nutritional requirements of the body.

Now let’s sum up the benefits of small & frequent eating. So that helps in:

1. Improving blood sugar levels.
2. Maintaining good energy levels throughout the day.
3. Preventing nutritional deficiencies in our body.
4. Keeping our organs and body parts healthy which will maintain their proper functioning.
5. Keeping our mind healthy and stress free.
6. Preventing complications of diabetes.
7. Preventing the risk of an increase in medicines.
8. Maintaining ideal body weight.

Be wise and choose what’s right!

For proper guidance, you can download Zyla app where healthcare is personalized according to your health and lifestyle.

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References

Intermittent Fasting 101 - The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

6 Popular Ways to Do Intermittent Fasting

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