As we enter 2026, many of us turn our attention to improved health and wellness. One approach worth considering is intermittent fasting, which involves having all your meals for the day within a specific period.
Physician assistant Luis Wilmot Jr. offers several weight loss solutions through his practice at Bio-X Weight Loss Center in Austin and Round Rock, Texas. Here, he discusses intermittent fasting and how it could improve your health in the new year.
With intermittent fasting, you restrict your daily meals to a six- or eight-hour period, leaving long stretches when you don’t consume or digest food. Or, you can avoid eating for up to 24-36 hours at a time.
The easiest way to try intermittent fasting is by gradually increasing the time between meals. That helps you ease into fasting without feeling overly hungry between meals. It also gives your body time to adjust, helping you avoid issues such as headaches, fatigue, or mood swings.
Here are some benefits of intermittent fasting.
Many people have no problem eating healthy, balanced meals, but struggle to avoid snack foods laden with added sugars or fats. Snacking at night is also a common issue, as is mindless snacking while watching TV or scrolling through your phone.
Intermittent fasting helps you avoid consuming extra calories later in the day. If you restrict your meals to a timeframe that ends after dinner, you don’t need to worry whether your evening snacks are healthy.
Over time, junk food cravings diminish. Because you aren’t consuming them later in the day, your brain forgets the immediate rewards they bring. Over time, you can retrain your body and brain to crave healthier options.
Every time you eat, your body produces insulin, a hormone that allows glucose in your blood to enter your cells. When you go for long periods without eating, your body won’t release as much insulin, and your cells are less likely to become resistant to insulin.
For people who are diabetic or prediabetic, controlling blood sugar is critical. In addition to intermittent fasting, shifting to a low-carb diet can help replace carbohydrates (which trigger substantial insulin production) with more protein and healthy fats (which produce far less).
If you’re diagnosed with prediabetes, making these and other healthy changes can help you avoid Type 2 diabetes. People who already have diabetes can sometimes reduce their reliance on medication when they alter their nutrition with a low-carb diet and intermittent fasting.
Your metabolism is how your body converts food into energy. This process occurs in several ways. During meals and for a period of time afterward, your body uses glucose for fuel and stores dietary fat as triglycerides within your adipose tissue.
When you fast, your body draws fuel from the triglycerides in your adipose tissue and converts them into fatty acids and glycerol. Your liver converts the fatty acids into ketone bodies for energy.
This “metabolic switching” taps into fat stores to fuel your body’s processes as opposed to relying on glucose for energy throughout the day.
Changing the source of energy helps boost your metabolic function and delivers more energy throughout the day. You won’t feel sluggish and dragged down by blood sugar ups and downs.
Making any significant change to your daily habits can be intimidating, and if you’ve never tried intermittent fasting before, it may be hard to get started. If you’re ready to try, you can rely on the team at Bio-X Weight Loss Center for guidance and support.
Call the office nearest you or request an appointment online today.
