SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

No, it wasn't a button like this which made the subjects happy. It took some time, yeah, but after a few weeks the participants, students of the Hannover Medical School , where the trial was conducted actually felt better, not - as the scientists who conducted this Ramadan fasting study had expected - worse than without their religious fasting. But let's not go too fast, here. The subjects had volunteered to participate in the study and were non-randomly assigned to a fasting (FG) and a non-fasting (NFG) group (according to their individual plans | Nugraha. 2016). Learn more about fasting at the SuppVersity Breakfast and Circadian Rhythm "Lean Gains" Fast Works Habits Determine Effects of Fasting Fasting Works for Obese, Too!? IF + Resistance Training = WIN ADF Beats Ca-lorie Restriction To be eligible into the FG, participants had to: (1) be healthy, (2) be older than 18 years of age, (3) intend to fast the whole month of Ramadan, (4) ha...

Remember, Ramadan fasting is not about eating healthy or dieting, after sundown most Muslims consume at least as much energy as on a non-fasting day. While scientists usually refer to alternate-day fasting as "intermittent fasting", the average fitness enthusiasts will think of Martin Berkhan's "lean gains" protocol, when he or she hears the words "intermittent fasting" - a protocol that involves fasting for minimally 16h and eating for maximally 8h and is thus somewhat similar to the "eat only after sundown" protocol Muslims follow during Ramadan. Against that background, it makes sense to assume that the two dozen of peer-reviewed Ramadan fasting studies from the Middle East and the Muslim part of Asia provide an (albeit often uncontrolled) model for intermittent fasting. Do you have to worry about fasting when your're dieting!? Breakfast and Circadian Rhythm Does Meal Timing Matter? Habits Determine Effects of Fastin...

Feasting and a wasp waist? Does bring the two together? You are among the couple of thousand people who have been following the Intermittent Thoughts on Intermittent Fasting Series, here at the SuppVersity you will be aware that despite "fasting windows", "feasts" and "breakfast skipping" a religious fast as it is performed by Muslims all around the world may share several key elements with what fitness fanatics think about, when they hear the words intermittent fasting". There are however a couple of key differences of which you should be aware. rising before sunrise and having breakfast will minimize the fasting window - While most people I know personally don't do this, there are families, where everyone gets up before the sun rises to have breakfast. With the huge dinner before bed and a (usually smaller) breakfast right after you stand up in the early AM, the fasting window which would otherwise be up to 18h wide can become pretty na...

It may not be "paleo conform", there but the traditional Ramadan menu is 100% home-made from fresh foods - that alone will make a huge difference. "I hear you..." What's that supposed to mean? Well, in a way I am running the SuppVersity for me, because I like the idea that people like you come here and think "Hey, today I've learned something new", "... read something interesting" or at even"... have been enlightened". On the other hand, this entails that I got to tailor the topics to your interests as well and since the short Facebook item on the effects of Ramadan fasting on body composition I posted on Facebook, a couple of days ago, which spiked so much interest, I will take it up and write a whole article about this soon-to-be-published study from the Mashhad University of Medical Science and the University of Nicosia (Norouzy. 2013). Ramadan is not "intermittent fasting"... ... at least not in the sen...

Image 1: Any roundworms reading this? I hope you know that by not eating enough and feeling miserable you can extend your lifespan ;-) Thanks Caenorhabditis elegans , or "C. elegans", almost everybody who is able to read a newspaper or online magazine will have heard of the miraculous effects of calorie restriction and fasting on longevity (of this worm!). Since I assume that you possess more gray matter than this transparent nematote, you will probably have asked yourself how, or rather if these results from a worm with an average lifespan of 2-3 weeks translate to human beings,... well, all I can tell you is that leading a miserable life of lifelong dieting appears to work in non -human primates, as well ( Kemnitz. 2011 ). Now, the obvious question is: How does all that relate to Intermitent Thoughts on Intermittent Fasting ? Obviously, none of the roundworms or rhesus monkey's followed Martin Berkhan's intermittent fasting approach, did they? No, I have not ...