11 Proven Benefits of Fasting (Weight Loss, Concentration, and More)

With good cause, intermittent fasting is quickly rising to the top of the fitness industry's trends. Fasting has several health advantages, thus there are many reasons why it can be beneficial for you.

The sole issue?


"Not eating" carries a lot of negative connotations. People continue to believe that eating six meals a day will magically ignite a "metabolic fire" that will increase calorie expenditure. It doesn’t (1).

It truly depends on the individual, their body and hormones, their degree of physical activity, etc., to be honest.

Consider it this way: Why would you shove a meal down your throat first thing in the morning in order to "get your six meals in" if you're one of those persons who doesn't feel hungry for many hours after waking up?

Listen to your body.

We do know, however, that skipping a meal or two can have a number of significant positive health effects. Can truly mean that depending on the individual and how well their body reacts to it.

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Fasting Does Not Mean Starvation

Simply put, fasting is the practice of going for extended periods of time without eating. missing one or two meals.

Of course, there are those who opt for 5-day or even 30-day fasts, but that's a whole other story. You could probably categorize that as famine.


Specifically, we are discussing two of the most popular forms of fasting in this article:

• intermittent fasting (up to 16 hours; i.e. skipping one meal in the morning or evening)
• 24-hour method (not eating for 24 hours at a time; i.e. eating dinner one night and not eating until dinner the following night).

1. Helps You Lose Weight

IIn particular, intermittent fasting is quite well-liked for weight loss. In fact, it's a cornerstone of our quick weight loss regimen, the 40-Day Fat Loss Challenge.

It works for weight loss a variety of ways:

• Eat fewer calories (by skipping one meal)
• More conscious of the food that you do eat
• Positive impact on key weight loss hormones
• Helps the body preserve lean muscle tissue

Let’s talk about hormones and weight loss again for a second. Intermittent fasting is quite effective at optimizing hormonal responses.

It can help enhance insulin sensitivity, increase growth hormone (HGH), normalize leptin levels, and aid in cellular discharge.

Furthermore, it has an effect on cortisol, a stress hormone that can influence both weight gain and loss. We'll move on to our next advantage of fasting now.

2. More Resistant to Stress

We all know stress is bad. We just tend to ignore the facts. But the fact is — chronic stress has been associated:

• Heart Disease
• Premature Aging
• Poor Skin Quality
• And just about every major disease known to man.

Multiple studies have shown that using intermittent fasting helps to enhance the body’s resistance to harmful stress (1, 2).  It helps to fight free radicals by improving the body’s protective chemicals.

Do your best to handle your stress on your own, but consider fasting to assist your body become more resistant to it.

I enjoy intermittent fasting because it simplifies my mornings and the decisions I need to make about food, as well as the feelings I get after eating. Unloading everything on your plate and becoming more aware of how you spend your day will only help to reduce stress.

3. Can Help Prevent Cancer

Is this a bold claim? Nowadays, it appears that anything can help prevent or cause cancer.

However, in the area of health and wellness, I do not believe that any single substance can cure cancer. It is more likely that good dietary and lifestyle adjustments would be beneficial.


In terms of whether fasting is beneficial or not, the best study to far supports this claim: fasting has a positive effect on patients undergoing chemotherapy.

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People who underwent four cycles of chemotherapy utilized 48-hour fasting regimes to reduce side effects. Surprisingly, the only negative side effects noted were lightheadedness and appetite. (1).

In addition, various animal studies have also shown positive effects including:

• Better survival rates (2).
• Blunting tumor growth (3).

Please do not believe that fasting alone may cure or prevent cancer, but it is a healthy lifestyle adjustment that can help you make significant progress toward choosing the proper dietary choices, which can have a greater impact.

4. Improves Brain Function

Our brain's nerves and synapses require careful attention. I mean, obviously. It is your brain. The more efficiently these nerves and synapses function, the better. How much have you drunk?

Fasting has actually been shown to increase the growth of new nerve cells in the brain (1). Fasting has long been used in the health industry to help improve focus and concentration. 

Furthermore, it stimulates the creation of brain protein (BDNF). This protein protects against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. (2).

As I previously indicated, I enjoy fasting since it simplifies my day by removing food-related decisions, sentiments, and emotions.

Try intermittent fasting with coffee in the morning and see how you feel during the day!

5. Improves Your Immune System

Fasting is a type of detoxification that can help lower inflammation in the body, particularly when combined with real food detoxification. The body becomes more resilient to common ailments by decreasing inflammation. (1, 2).

Reducing inflammation and accelerating weight loss to get rid of extra fat from your body can be achieved by frequently fasting (either a 24-hour fast once a week or intermittent fasting every day or most days). You can also consider doing a sugar or carbohydrate detox.

This will give your body a much-needed break from inflammation-causing foods and a chance to reset a bit.

P.S. That’s another major principle of our 40-Day Fat Loss Challenge that helps our clients lose 7-10 pounds in just the first WEEK of the program.

6. Increases Lifespan

Can you live a longer life by fasting? Mice basic research confirms this. Rats that fast intermittently live longer than average. Rats that fasted occasionally lived up to 83% longer than those who didn't. (1, 2).

If achieving longevity is your objective, intermittent fasting is a fantastic place to start, even though it hasn't been demonstrated in humans (we live long enough to research).

Let's have a look at the list of previously mentioned advantages of fasting, almost all of which can lengthen your life:

• Weight Loss
• Stress
• Cancer
• Brain Function
• Immune System

So, when you look at it that way… It certainly can improve your health enough to increase your lifespan.

7. Improve Skin Health (Including Acne)

Fasting aids in the body's waste removal, especially for cells that are damaged or malfunctioning. Enhancing the elimination of waste (also known as autophagy) will lead to better skin health. (1, 2).

From the detox standpoint that we already discussed, this also makes sense. The biggest organ in the body, the skin, usually shows improvements after any type of detoxification..

8. Significantly Raises Growth Hormone Levels

Once more, hormones...

A common issue in "sports science" culture is growth hormone. Growth hormone is typically included in the list of substances used by professional athletes who are found to have used performance-enhancing drugs.


This is due to its plethora of advantages:

• Reduces recovery time from injuries
• Better lean muscle growth
• Greater fat burning
• And a smattering of other benefits

The crazy thing is: Intermittent fasting has been shown to raise growth hormone by up to 2000% (1).

9. Helps the body maintain lean muscle tissue when dieting

Lean muscle tissue = More burned calories at rest.

The difficulty is that muscle tissue is frequently harmed in the process of losing weight. Less muscle mass is lost during intermittent fasting than with a regular calorie-restricted diet. (1).

More fat burning and less muscle burning!

10. Lowers the Risk of Deadly Diseases

Well, we've already spoken about cancer, but what about obesity and heart disease, the two leading causes of death in contemporary society?

Moreover, intermittent fasting aids in these:

• Lowers blood pressure (1).
• Decreases cardiovascular disease risk (2).
• Improves cholesterol levels (3).

Remember that this goes hand-in-hand with what we have already discussed so far: conscious eating and diet improvements, reduced stress, detoxification, reduced inflammation, and more. 

11. Improves Insulin Sensitivity

Finally, another huge problem in today’s culture is that we have become very insulin resistant.

Fasting also has the potential to increase insulin sensitivity in the body, which increases the body's ability to absorb nutrients from food.

especially when it comes to carbohydrates.


Unaware of it, the majority of people in today's culture have developed severe insulin resistance. It's also a major factor in the popularity of carbohydrate detoxification as a weight-loss strategy.

During a fast, insulin is reduced by 20-31% (1). This is very beneficial to those who are looking to lose weight or who have pre-diabetes or diabetes.  This also helps to facilitate better fat burning.

The carbohydrate detox paired with fasting is yet another core principle from our 40-Day Fat Loss Challenge.

Our clients lose an average of 10-21 pounds in just 40 days — but even better than the weight loss is the feedback we get from people about how the program has taught them how to change their eating habits and find a diet that truly works for them in the long-term.

We have over 4,000 women in our private support group doing the Challenge together, and every day they are sharing experiences, results, motivation, and lots of recipes!

If you are ready to make some changes in your life, this is the ONLY place you should start.  We will teach you exactly how to make the necessary changes in your diet and your lifestyle and how to keep them “beyond the diet.”

Click here to get your interminntent fasting formula today.

Leave a comment below if you enjoyed this article on the proven benefits of fasting or have any questions!