What Intermittent Fasting Does to Your Brain

Learn what intermittent fasting does to your brain. I explain the benefits for brain power performance & function as well as improving memory and overall health . Experience fast weight loss and become smarter with an intermittent fasting diet

A lot of you know that intermittent fasting can provide some amazing physical benefits for your body. It can help you burn fat and keep it off while enjoying the foods you love in a sustainable nonrestrictive way. but the effects that it has on your brain, your mental clarity, your cognitive ability and in turn your productivity are absolutely incredible. And that's exactly what I want to go over today, the benefits of fasting on your brain and you mind. We've been taught that eating at least three square meals a day is necessary to have a healthy body and mind. Instead of relying on our natural hunger signals many of us have become accustomed to eating out of routine and for entertainment and enjoyment rather than out of true hunger. This has caused many people in the developed world to gain weight, body fat, and develop insulin resistance. Ironically thanks to this, fasting has emerged as a practical, and sustainable solution for weight loss, but fasting has been practiced for centuries before weight gain and obesity became a problem due to the fact that it has so many other benefits especially within the realm of cleansing and healing. One of these benefits is known as autophaghy which is when your body destroys old or damaged cells. When you constantly eat you're body stays in a building mode and it has no reason to enter this natural, regulated process of autophaghy where unnecessary and dysfunctional components of your cells are destroyed and cleared out. It's activated when you stop eating for a period of time and that doesn't mean that you have to fast for a long extended time frame. Fasting for more than 6 hours begins this cleansing phase, so you can experience the benefits with a simple intermittent fasting approach, where you fast for only 16 hours a day. Autophaghy is essentially a way for the body to repair and cleanse itself and we definitely want to allow our bodies to undergo this process because If old or damaged cells stay in your body, they create inflammation and other problems. This natural process of destroying the old allows our bodies to bring in the new. Which leads to many benefits for your brain. Dr Mark Mattson has been studying the brain for well over 20 years. He's a professor of Neurology at John Hopkins University, and he claims that fasting has been shown to increase rates of neurogenesis in the brain. Neurogenesis is the growth and development of new brain cells and nerve tissues. Higher rates of neurogenesis have been linked to increased brain performance, and improved memory, mood, and focus. This has been tested in studies that have confirmed that intermittent fasting stimulates the production of new brain cells. According to Mattson fasting only twice a week could significantly lower the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's and it can help you develop protective measures against damage from a stroke. The shock of fasting stresses the brain in a good way, much like stressing your muscles when you workout. This stress leads your brain to create new cells. The benefits of exercise and fasting on the brain are linked closer than most people think. Both increase the production of protein in the brain, which in turn promotes the growth of neurons, it promotes the connection between neurons, and the strength of synapses which are the junctions that connect your nerves to other nerves and allow them to send signals and communicate with each other. One of these proteins that get boosted from fasting is an important protein called BDNF. BDNF has been called “Miracle Grow For Your Brain.” It makes your brain more resilient to stress and more adaptable to change helping with the production of new brain cells, and...

Research:
Study showing intermittent fasting increase Nuerogenesis:

Study showing the benefits of boosting BDNF:

Study showing that IF can boost BDNF by 50 - 400%:

Fasting helps improve Synaptic Enhancement study:

Fasting for 24 hours boosted HGH 2000% in men and 1500% in women:

Fasting can be like exercise for the brain:

[shmeagol]

When I Fast for more than 20 hours or so, I can hear a pin drop.

[dashowstoppa]

I am absolutely loving fasting right now! I started fasting at the beginning of May and I fast for 24 hours and eat once a day. I started out at 230 lbs (I'm 6'0" tall) and now I'm 205 lbs. I wanna continue this forever, no plans on stopping.

[stephaniephouotrides]

Fasting 18-24 hours per day is one of the best things I've ever done.

[queeneenaa]

i bet many industries will not agree or support the campaign of fasting for healthier body, it will put so many out of business.

[jasontiver]

I usually go 14 hours per day without eating. I have lost 102 pounds in 7 months so it seems to be working for me. I also walk 4 miles per day. I'm not interested in dieting I just do want works for me. I don't eat bread because it gives me heartburn. I gave up sugar because I was pre diabetic. I have spinal stenosis so working out hard is not an option for me. Recently I had a physical and at the age of 57 I'm healthier than I was at 27. So do your research and do what works for you.

[Eudaimonia]

at the beginning I did keto at the end of january and was losing like 8—10 pounds per month. Then started doing IF along with keto little by little and let me tell you. I never felt better, healthier, and more energized, along with losing like 30 pounds in just one month. 30 freaking pounds!!!!. I already lost 100 pounds as of now, so its a life transformation for me, thank god I didnt just accepted the current nutrition dogma and started researching for myself. ppl like gary taubes, thomas delauer, dr berg, and dr fung changed my life and my view on nutrition.

[melaninbarbie]

I did my first day of fasting today. For almost two years I've been unfocused and had severe brain fog. I saw a doctor for depression and later on prescribed Adderall. The Adderral did work but I didn't like how I felt after it wore off. Today I woke up at 3 and couldn't go back to sleep so I am very tired but the crazy thing if I wasn't tired I'd be super focused and productive. I haven't had such clear thinking and motivation in legit three years. I'm so excited to get up tomorrow with the proper sleep and feel like this. Who would have thought I've been cured with a natural remedy that didn't cost me a cent.

[SiimLand]

Plato fasted routinely for up to 10-40 days and he's one of the founders of western philosophy

[MarEkkertsen]

You are doing a great job. Thanks for the regular, high quality, content.

[ZackZavage]

Been doing OMAD on a daily basis for a year now, along with 48 hours of prolonged fasting about two to three times a month. I also changed my nutrition (don't like the term 'diet') to whole foods like veggies, fruits, meat, dairy, eggs etc., completely renouncing any kind of refined sugar and processed foods. Went from 112 kg to 82 and I think did a decent job of retaining the muscle tissue I gained about 7 years ago before I quit lifting. The first outlinings of my abs are starting to show and I think I'm about 7 kg away from my sixpack. I also tried stuff like donuts, cake or mcdonalds since then, but I noticed all it really does is bloating me, making me drowsy or even giving me headaches. My desire for that kind of food has completely vanished. Believe me when I say that weight loss is only a a fraction of the benefits intermittent fasting provides. So much more life enhancing things come with it, especially to lifestyle. It saves a lot of time and money, which is super handy in the busy lifes we have. It makes a healthy lifestyle effortless. Though you will have a much easier time with fasting by eating clean.

[caro]

4 months ago, I was at a whopping 215 pounds. I’m a 17 year old 5’2 girl so I was huge. I started doing a 16:8 fast and it was so hard at first but you honestly get used to it and doing that with just little 10 minute workouts 4-5 times a week has dropped me down to 170!!! I never thought I’d be able to lose over 40 pounds so quickly, I never even thought I’d ever lose any weight at all. I feel so great now it truly changes your whole life when you lose weight

[vikramjeetsharma]

This is so true. Been doing IF and ketosis since a week now, my focus and cognitive abilities are at an all time high.

[kudusodeko]

It's so nice to live in a time where there is internet, so much information to filter and use (both useful and useless), I am also glad that people can know more about diet, intermittent fasting is a way of life.

[isaacmclean]

I’m a 17 year old in my senior year of highschool. Since I’ve started fasting I’ve gotten straight As no problem. From someone who used to slack off, this is pretty amazing. I didn’t even care if I had a D or an F but now schools just so easy it’s crazy.

[samjack]

I have to tell you Max, I (like many) watch a lot of health and nutrition videos on YouTube. And they vary in quality. But your topics, relevant research to back it up as well as your style in delivering the information is truly high quality. It is NOT about you it is about the information and the research and the benefit to us, the viewers that seems to be important to you. These qualities clearly differentiate your content. I'm all the better for your work and I thank you for that.

[wsjacksonjr]

I can now only work fasted, it keeps me on track. My physique is 90% from fasting, my diet is not perfect I always stay in my eating window

[toology]

I think big corporations sold us on a high sugar breakfast (most important meal of the day!) so you do shitty in school, stay dumb and continue buy their unhealthy processed products through adulthood. I am so glad I am able to break this cycle for my kids that my parents weren't able to break for me. Intermittent fasting / low carb has changed my life more then anything, and I wasn't even doing it to loose weight.

[renferal]

I've been doing this fasting for years and I can say that it really does work well for me

[latricebyrd]

I am so grateful that you give the benefits of what this process does. Thank you, I am grateful for your channel, and this content. 😁👍🏽👏🏽🤗

[yvonnesaysso]

This must be true, my skin is so much better doing this