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Is 20 hours fasting enough for autophagy?

Relatively long fasting times are required to promote autophagy and ketosis (8, 9). For this reason, 20/4 intermittent fasting is more potent to stimulate these two processes than other forms of intermittent fasting with shorter fasts (such as 16/8 or 14/10 intermittent fasting).

wefast.care - 20/4 Intermittent Fasting: All You Need to Know - WeFast

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Intermittent fasting has become more and more popular because it provides many health benefits and makes it easier to lose weight. There are many different forms of intermittent fasting, including 16/8, 14/10, OMAD, and ADF. 20/4 fasting, also known as the warrior diet, is another intermittent fasting method. If you’re new to intermittent fasting, you may not have heard of it because it is quite an advanced version.

What’s special about 20/4 fasting? What are the pros and cons compared to other intermittent fasting methods?

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What is 20/4 intermittent fasting?

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20/4 intermittent fasting is a quite extreme, advanced version of intermittent fasting. As the name suggests, you fast daily for 20 hours and eat within four hours.

There are two different variations of 20/4 intermittent fasting:

1. Warrior diet

The warrior diet tries to mimic the diet and lifestyle of ancient warriors, who were battling throughout the day and enjoyed a massive feast in the evening. During the 20 hour fasting time, you can eat small snacks like raw fruits and vegetables, small amounts of dairy products, and hard-boiled eggs. In the four-hour eating time, you can eat whatever you want. The fitness writer Ori Hofmekler created the modern version of the warrior diet in 2001. He claims that this way of eating helped him to stay fit in the Israeli Special Forces.

2. “Clean” 20/4 intermittent fasting

People who follow intermittent fasting tend to adopt a more strict version: They don’t eat anything during the 20-hour fasting time and only consume calorie-free fluids, such as black coffee, tea, or water. The eating time window is flexible, although most people choose evening times for practical purposes. 20/4 intermittent fasting is also very similar to One Meal a Day (OMAD). As the name suggests, you only eat one meal per day on this diet. This meal is usually consumed within 1-2 hours but can also include multiple courses and be extended to four hours. In this case, OMAD would be the same as 20/4 intermittent fasting.

Benefits of intermittent fasting 20/4

Intermittent fasting provides many health benefits:

Facilitates fat loss (1)

Can improve brain health (2)

Improves cardiovascular health (3)

Decreases inflammation (4)

Improves blood sugar control (5)

Improves gut health (6)

Has anti-aging effects (7)

Many of these benefits can be explained by the ability of intermittent fasting to reduce insulin resistance–the underlying cause of diabetes type 2 and a risk factor for many chronic conditions. Furthermore, intermittent fasting promotes ketosis and autophagy–two processes that provide many health benefits. Although we won’t go into detail here, you can learn more about this in our articles about autophagy and ketosis. Relatively long fasting times are required to promote autophagy and ketosis (8, 9). For this reason, 20/4 intermittent fasting is more potent to stimulate these two processes than other forms of intermittent fasting with shorter fasts (such as 16/8 or 14/10 intermittent fasting).

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What is the dark side of weight loss?

Chronic dieting has been linked to mood dysregulation. This could be due to an increased focus on size and weight, affecting body image and self esteem. This is often characterised by negative self talk, body or mirror checking for flaws, causing drops in mood.

kateiveyfitness.com - The Dark Side of Dieting - Kate Ivey Fitness

Putting too much emphasis on body image, weight, and size can lead to irregular eating behaviors over time. This may fly under the radar for a long period of time. Maybe you feel like you just eat ‘clean’ and you are just really health conscious. However, this is a problem if you feel restricted, start to get anxious around food choice or start to become extremely food or body focused. This might look like worrying about your food choice, being very food focused or negatively self talking about your body or your food choices. If you feel overly controlled or sporadically out of control around food you may be experiencing disordered eating.

What to do if this affects you?

Get help from a Nutritionist or Dietician to work on your relationship with food.

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