Benefits of Intermittent Fasting: What Science Really Says
Verified By
KIMS-SUNSHINE
Specialist,
22 October, 2025
The human body has evolved to go without food for many hours since the ages but, maintaining health in today’s world has become extremely difficult due to sedentary lifestyle habits, individuals having no physical workouts, irregular meals and excessive consumption of junk food, leading to various health risks. This lifestyle of having extra calories and less activity leads to higher risk of obesity, diabetes, heart diseases etc. Intermittent fasting has been backed soundly by research and can help in reversing these symptoms when followed regularly. This is one such type of eating where you alternate between eating and voluntary fasting. This plan of eating and fasting should be done on a regular schedule and doing this will not only improve health but also help manage your weight. This type of fasting also helps in reversing certain forms of diseases if done regularly.
Scientific Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
When a body is constantly under exerted and dumped with calories that need processing of complex food to simple forms, it can lead to metabolic malfunction, weight gain, heart risks etc. Intermittent fasting helps the body to rest from this internal chaotic working environment and concentrates on crucial processes like cellular repair, reducing inflammation, utilization of stored fats, reducing cholesterol levels and improving brain and heart functions. Let us look at some advantages in greater detail below-
- For Better Metabolic Health- Intermittent fasting has shown great results in individuals with type 2 diabetes. It helps in lowering blood sugar levels, under supervised and consistent periods of fasting. It also aids in some cases to get off insulin.
- Intermittent fasting and weight loss: This fasting method concentrates on calorie intake within a specific period of time, followed by fasting for a specific time – reducing overall calorie consumption and promoting fat burn. Scientifically, this fasting method helps individuals lose almost 13% of their body weight.
- Improving lipid profile: Adopting intermittent fasting regularly helps the body to work on bad cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol by utilising them for various other activities, which directly helps in improving cardiac health and maintaining blood pressure. Intermittent fasting processes the bad cholesterol (LDL) naturally, while improving good cholesterol levels (HDL).
- Cellular repair: Intermittent fasting helps in a process called autophagy or self breakdown of cells and starts to recycle dysfunctional proteins and waste that build up over time. This process is very crucial in offering protection to the body from various diseases. Cell repair helps in increasing the resistance of oxidative stress, improving metabolism and immunity that in turn slows down the ageing process and contributes in reducing chronic diseases and inflammation.
- Brain and intermittent fasting: Various studies have shown that improved cellular activity in all organs resulted in positive functional changes. It helps in boosting verbal and working memory in the brain; it also is associated with increased brain derived neuro-tropic factor (BDNF) that is linked with improved brain function. Some animal studies have shown significant improvement in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
- Physical performance and longevity: Intermittent fasting helps in reducing body fat and increases muscle mass which improves physical performance. It also has been studied that constant cell repairs and excretion of toxins via intermittent fasting can improve longevity of an individual.
Common Intermittent Fasting Methods
- 16:8🡪 This system of intermittent fasting involves fasting for 16 hrs, with an 8 hour eating window.
- 5:2🡪 This type of fasting involves normal eating for 5 days and complete fasting for 2 days in a week.
Conclusion
Intermittent fasting is great for individuals suffering from metabolic disorders and obesity. It has beneficial effects for individuals trying to maintain body weight through caloric restriction. Intermittent fasting tends to improve dietary adherence. Moreover, this type of fasting helps in optimization of cellular activities- prioritising ketone bodies and fatty acid breakdown over glucose, which helps in maintaining sugar levels in conditions like diabetes. Intermittent fasting is all about when to eat. Time is a crucial role player in intermittent fasting; it hinges on you eating during a specific time of the day and fasting for a certain number of hours or surviving only on one meal and though it is a great way to stay healthy, it may not be good for everyone. So, talk to your doctor to understand why it may or may not work for you, before you decide to join the bandwagon!
