What Happens To Your Body If You Fast For a Day?

If you are looking to lose weight or to remain healthy, you may have at some time or the other contemplated the benefits of fasting? Is it good or bad to fast? What would happen if you don’t eat for one day? There have been many studies that have researched both the risks and benefits of not eating for a day and how it could impact weight loss. To this effect, the concept of fasting has also brought about the fasting diet called intermittent fasting as a popular way of losing weight but the main question is what really happens to the body when fasting and how can it be made a safe option as a good tool for weight loss.

1How the body gets energy

Regardless of whether you fast or not, energy is always required for the body. The body’s main energy source is from carbohydrates that provide glucose. We also get glucose from grains, dairy, some vegetables, beans, fruits and also sweets.

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2How glucose is used in the body

Glucose is stored in the liver and the muscles. It releases glucose into the bloodstream when it is required by the body. But this is during the normal process of the body but when in fasting mode, an entirely different situation occurs in the body.

3This is what happens during fasting for 8 hours

If you have been fasting for 8 hours, the last reserves of glucose will be used up by the liver. This signals the body to enter into the state of gluconeogenesis. This is a kind of transition point where the body goes into fasting mode.

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4The body burns more calories

Research studies have shown that during gluconeogenesis, the body burns more calories. In the absence of no carbohydrate from food, the body starts using up fat for energy. But this where one should learn to recognize when fasting turns from food to bad because once energy sources are depleted, fasting mode changes to starvation mode.

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5What happens in starvation mode?

Once the body starts going into starvation mode, the body’s metabolism slows down. It is then when starvation can be detrimental for the body because it starts acquiring energy from the muscle tissues. However, true starvation mode takes place after several days or weeks of being without food. This means that if you fast for 24 hours, and eat after that, it is a perfectly safe thing to d. It may also be beneficial for you where weight loss is concerned unless one suffers from a health condition like gastric problems in which case fasting is never a good idea.

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