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Why Fasting Succeeds Where Caloric Restriction Fails
Fasting reliably reduces insulin, the main driver of weight gain
In order to understand how the body gains and loses weight, you must understand how it uses energy. The body really only exists in one of two states — the fed and the fasted state. When we eat, the hormone insulin goes up and insulin is released. Now, all foods stimulate different amounts of insulin release, but few foods, except for pure fat, cause no insulin release at all. Insulin is really a type of nutrient sensor. It senses the ingestion of both carbohydrate and protein-containing foods. Refined foods, particularly carbohydrates, cause the highest release of insulin.
Our bodies need a continual source of energy for basic metabolic housekeeping — keeping the heart pumping blood, the liver and kidney detoxifying, the lungs sucking air, brain function, etc. Obviously, we need a source of energy for all that work and it must be continuously available. Since we do not eat food all the time, we have a system of storing food energy (in the liver and as body fat) for times when we are not eating.