1. What is 16-hour fasting?
As the name implies, "16-hour fasting" is a health practice that creates 16 hours of hunger for your lifestyle.
With the recent Corona Vortex, many of us have decreased our habit of eating and drinking late into the night.
Nevertheless, it is not easy for busy businessmen and women who live in today's society or who balance work with housework and childcare to eat three meals a day at a healthy time every day.
Nevertheless, if there is a scientific endorsement that just by being a little conscious of the time of dinner and breakfast and fasting for 16 hours, you can not only condition your body but also turn on the rejuvenation switch, then I would definitely like to take it up.
1-1. How to do the 16-hour fast?
The 16-hour fast, based on the latest medical evidence, assumes that the truly correct way to eat is to increase the time you do not eat, not what you eat, and to create a fasting period of 16 hours a day during which you do not eat anything, including sleeping hours. In addition, the method employs no food restrictions during the 8 hours that you can eat, and you can eat as much or as little as you like without worrying about the amount of sugar or fat in your diet.
1-2. What to eat during the 16-hour fast
In this age of satiation, where we can eat whatever we want whenever we are hungry, it may seem easy to eat nothing for 16 hours, but some people may find it difficult to eat nothing during any time of the day other than the 8 hours when it is OK to eat.
There may also be some people who, regardless of their intentions, find it physically difficult to fast because of low blood sugar and an uncontrollable appetite.
In that case, it is okay to eat a small snack of so-called low-GI foods, which have a slow rise in blood glucose levels.
-Green vegetables (lettuce, cabbage, spinach, komatsuna, mizuna, cucumber, etc.)
-Nuts (unbaked walnuts, almonds, almond milk, etc.)
-Dairy products (unsweetened yogurt, cheese, etc.)
-Soup (miso soup, clear soup, etc.)
Cautions]
・To avoid overeating nuts and cheese, limit the amount of nuts and cheese to one handful.
If you experience dizziness, shaky hands, or chills due to low blood sugar even after eating the above foods, do not overdo it and break your fast to eat sugar.
2. "Protein intake" important for 16-hour fasting is half the size of the palm of your hand.
According to the original 16-hour fasting rule, "You can eat whatever you like during the 8 hours you are allowed to eat," but there are certain points to keep in mind in order to maximize the effects of the 16-hour fast.
However, there is one key point to keep in mind in order to get the most out of the 16-hour fast: protein intake.
Autophagy, which can be expected to rejuvenate and improve immunity, is strictly speaking triggered by the perceived lack of amino acids (protein).
However, protein is also a nutrient that is needed at every meal every day for a healthy life.
Therefore, while it is important to consume protein foods during the 16-hour fast, it is best to avoid meals that are high in animal protein, such as meat, fish, and eggs, as is the case when restricting carbohydrates.
It is also a good idea to reduce protein intake at the meal immediately prior to fasting, or to consume more plant-based foods if you do consume protein.
Plant-based protein foods should be in amounts that can fit in the palm of one's hand to enhance autophagy activity.
Handfuls of specific plant protein foods
- Natto = 1 piece
- Tofu = 1/2 a tofu
- Boiled soybeans = 1 small bowl
- Unadjusted soy milk = 1 glass
If you are still not sure what to eat, "traditional frugal Japanese food" with a focus on "Magowa Yasashi" ingredients You will be sure to choose the one that you imagine "Magowa Yasashi" to be.
Ma→Beans (bean products including natto, tofu, soy milk)
Go→Sesame = Seeds (walnuts, almonds, chia seeds)
Wa→Wakame = Seaweed (mozuku seaweed, kelp, akamoku seaweed, etc.)
Ya→Vegetables (all vegetables including root vegetables such as carrot and pumpkin)
Sa→Fish (grilled or boiled fish such as salmon, mackerel, horse mackerel and shishamo)
Shi-Mushroom ＝Mushrooms (enoki mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, and eringi mushrooms)
Imo (sweet potatoes, potatoes, and satoimo potatoes)
3. The time of day is also a key factor in how to do the 16-hour fast.
The 16-hour fast is considered acceptable if the fasting time is adjusted by skipping breakfast the next day, no matter how late in the evening the meal is.
Indeed, a 16-hour fast will certainly create a state of hunger by the evening of the next day, even if a heavy meal is consumed late at night.
However, if you want to maximize the benefits of growth hormone and the sirtuin gene, you must also be careful about the time you implement the program.
While we know that fasting, including 16-hour fasts, or certain ingredients such as NMN, and moderate exercise are important for health and anti-aging, recent research has shown that "What do you eat? What kind of exercise?" and "When" is more important than "What do we eat?"
The recent studies have shown that the time perspective is more important than the content of "what to eat?
3-1. Recommended time for 16-hour fasting
If you want to specify the most appropriate time to do a 16-hour fast, we recommend that you keep your meals within 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM, at a time when each of you can work on it, and fast the rest of the day in the style of a fast.
Try to coordinate dinner as early in the day as possible and avoid eating after 10:00 p.m.
In order to activate the sirtuin gene and enhance the secretion of various hormones for rejuvenation, a lifestyle with an awareness of the body clock is essential.
The more regularly this biological clock ticks in a 24-hour cycle, the more effective rejuvenation is and the longer life span is expected.
The way to get this 24-hour cycle of the body clock ticking correctly is very simple. It is a combination of going to bed early, getting up early, and eating a well-digested diet.
Some people may have to eat late at night because of their work schedule. For those people, it is important to divide dinner into two portions, one for the evening and one for late at night, and try to eat in such a way that the volume of the meal decreases as the night goes on.
The closer the last meal of the day is to the time before bed, the better it is to take a small portion of something easily digestible to bedtime.
Examples of recommended menus for late night meals
- Porridge
- Vegetable soup or miso soup
- Rice balls
- Around 3 oden dishes
- 1~2 bananas
- Yogurt
- Cold tofu
- Hot vegetable salad
4. Be careful! Do you have a body that has no problem fasting for 16 hours?
Now that you understand the scientific evidence that 16-hour fasting is effective for rejuvenation, some of you may be thinking of adopting it as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, however, there are some people who should avoid 16-hour fasting.
The suitability of 16-hour fasting depends on your constitution and the diseases you have.
What are some characteristics of people who are suited to 16-hour fasting?
4-1. 16-hour fasting is suitable and recommended for
one's lifestyle
・ He often eats out at Western or Chinese restaurants and consumes a lot of animal products
・He habitually overeats and drinks too much and often has gastrointestinal upset the next morning
・He snacks a lot outside of meals and snacks are a daily habit
・High blood sugar, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome
Body Size
・He has sufficient muscle mass and is physically fit
・Fits the normal to obese body type with a BMI of 20 or more
Those who tend to consume excessive calories by eating out on a regular basis place such a heavy burden on the gastrointestinal tract that it is difficult for intracellular recycling to occur. Such people may first try 16-hour fasting for the purpose of preventing or improving lifestyle-related diseases and resetting the gastrointestinal tract, which is in a tired mode.
In terms of physical constitution and physique, those who were members of an athletic club during their school days or have a regular exercise habit even as adults and have sufficient muscle mass and physical strength are suitable for this program.
Even if you have a normal body type with a BMI of 20 or more, you should not do the 16-hour fast if you meet the characteristics of those who should avoid the 16-hour fast as explained in the next section.
4-2. People who should avoid 16-hour fasting
Conversely, what are the characteristics of a person who should avoid a 16-hour fast?
one's lifestyle
・I usually eat instant food or food alone
・Hard physical work on a daily basis
・Body and brain get tired easily and can't give up sweet snacks as a preference
physique
-Category of "thin" with BMI 20 or less
-Lack of confidence in physical fitness and little exercise experience since school
-Athletes seeking recovery and muscle hypertrophy immediately after hard training
-Pregnant women and lactating mothers
If you fall into any of these categories, the 16-hour fast will not provide you with the nutrition your body needs and may interfere with your work and daily life.
It is recommended to avoid fasting for 16 hours while these conditions are met, in order to avoid the adverse effects on one's physical condition that are supposed to be an attempt to improve one's health.
5. If you want to further enhance the rejuvenating effect...
As you can see from the explanation so far, the 16-hour fast is a reasonable and quick method of rejuvenation.
However, relying solely on the effects of the 16-hour fast to rejuvenate is actually quite difficult from an efficiency standpoint.
In such cases, it is recommended to effectively activate the sirtuin gene and obtain youthfulness through anti-aging practices that can be undertaken as much as possible and in combination with NMN supplements.
6. Summary
We hope you have learned that 16-hour fasting can be expected to have a rejuvenating effect as well as a weight-loss effect.
The methods introduced here are a condensed version of the key points to maximize the rejuvenating effect.
It may be difficult to adopt all of them, but if you can put even one of them into practice, you will certainly be one step closer to a life of beauty and health than you are now.
We encourage you to take up the challenge to the extent that you are able.
