Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
You’ve been working overtime at the office lately, or perhaps you’ve recently moved. Countless stressful events occur in your day-to-day life, be it the above or any others. If you’re looking to combat stress, one idea you might have had is to try intermittent fasting. Is it true that a fast can reduce your stress or will it contribute to it more?
Intermittent fasting cannot necessarily lower cortisol, the hormone that causes stress, but it can reduce anxiety as well as insomnia and depression in some fasters. Thus, depending on your source of stress, fasting can be an effective way to relax and feel better about your life.
In today’s post, we’ll discuss the causes of stress and anxiety as well as how fasting can help. We’ll also suggest how long you should stick with intermittent fasting to see results, whether you should exercise while fasting for further benefits, and if those people with adrenal fatigue should fast.
Let’s get started.
What Causes Stress and Anxiety?
Anxiety and stress are not interchangeable terms. The former is a mood disorder that may impact the lives of 40 million United States adults according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America or ADAA. Let’s explore the causes of both stress and anxiety so we can then discuss how intermittent fasting may be able to improve your health.
The Causes of Stress
Stress occurs due to life changes and can affect you on an emotional, mental, and/or physical level. Most people deal with stress as part of their everyday lives as we said before, albeit to varying degrees. Here are some common sources of stress:
- School, including having conflict with classmates, working with a difficult teacher, or not performing well
- Work, such as starting a new job, having a time-consuming project to work on, experiencing conflict with a boss or coworker, or working with a boss you don’t get along with
- Moving into a new house, apartment, or condo
- Having a chronic illness or pain
- Getting married
- Losing one’s job
- Having a major financial setback
- The death of a friend or loved one
- Getting divorced
When you experience stress in your life, you may have a slew of side effects that accompany it. These can include stomach issues like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or constipation. You may experience weight gain or find it too easy to lose weight. You could be tired no matter how much you sleep, have tense and sore muscles as well as headaches, find it hard to eat, and experience acid reflux and/or indigestion when you do eat.
Failing to manage your stress can negatively impact your health. You might toss and turn all night and have an increased rate of depression and anxiety. If you already have other health conditions, these can worsen. For example, high stress has been linked to an elevated rate of death from suicide, liver cirrhosis, lung issues, cancer, and heart disease, notes Cleveland Clinic.
The Causes of Anxiety
Stress can cause anxiety, and anxiety can cause stress, but it has other causes as well. Here are the types of anxiety disorders to be aware of and what triggers them in some people:
- Substance-induced anxiety disorder: Those who use and abuse medications and drugs could experience substance-induced anxiety disorder. Both the usage of drugs and withdrawing from these substances can worsen this type of anxiety.
- Phobias: Phobias will induce anxiety in people if they have to be around the source of that phobia. Some common phobias are spiders, heights, and flying.
- Social anxiety disorder: Those with social anxiety disorder worry about how social interactions with other people will go. These people may avoid social situations as a result.
- Separation anxiety disorder: Most common in children, separation anxiety is one’s inability to withstand being separated from a dear loved one such as a parent.
- Panic disorder: A panic disorder can cause panic attacks, in which the sufferer could have heart palpitations, chest pain, and an inability to breathe. These panic attacks are often accompanied by fearful or doomed feelings and can come out of nowhere.
- Generalized anxiety disorder: A generalized anxiety disorder can affect every facet of a person’s life, even the everyday stuff that most people don’t think too much about. These worries are often far more conflated than what the issue calls for, although not to the anxiety sufferer.
- Unspecified anxiety disorder: An unspecified anxiety disorder doesn’t fit into any of the above categories
Any form of anxiety disorder can lead to a bevy of side effects and symptoms. These include worrying excessively, gastrointestinal issues, sleeplessness, exhaustion, sweating, and hyperventilation. You could also have a faster heart rate and restlessness.
Can Fasting Help with Anxiety?
Now that you understand more about anxiety, you may wonder if intermittent fasting can help. Indeed, it can.
First, a bit on intermittent fasting. When you fast, you actually induce stress on the body. Now, this may sound bad, but it isn’t. If in controlled quantities, some stress can be good for you. Exercise is also considered a form of stress, and you know by now how physical activity benefits you.
Why fasting is stressful isn’t too hard to figure out. Your body is used to you eating two to three meals a day every day. When you suddenly cut down on that quantity and eat food maybe once a day if at all, of course internal changes will occur within your body. For instance, your system will go from burning the glucose from food as its main energy source to fat instead.
Intermittent fasting has many known health benefits, including weight loss, controlling blood sugar, healing the digestive system, strengthening your immune system, and encouraging cell recycling through autophagy. Fasting can also soothe those feelings of anxiety and even depression. Here’s how.
Increased Endorphins
The Hamad Medical Corporation studied the effects of intermittent fasting on those who participate in Ramadan. This annual Muslim religious observance calls for fasters to follow a strict regimen. From sunup to sundown, those fasting for Ramadan cannot eat. Only once the sun sets does the eating window begin.
According to the Hamad Medical Corporation, when you’re fasting, your body may produce more endorphins. These hormones are associated with feelings of happiness and wellbeing.
The Jakarta Post, in a 2014 article, confirmed the link between intermittent fasting and increased levels of endorphins. That article mentions that the most endorphins are released during the first two days of your fast.
Reduction in Behavior of Central Caspase-1
A 2018 publication in the journal Metabolism notes that acute fasting can control central caspase-1. What the heck is that, you’re probably asking, right?
Central caspase-1 or caspase 1 is an interleukin-1 converting enzyme or ICE that might act as an inflammatory cytokine precursor. Inflammatory cytokines can increase your rate of anxiety, the journal says, especially the cytokine IL-1B. By controlling the activity of central caspase-1, the researchers found this curtails IL-1B as well for less anxiety.
To come to this conclusion, the researchers had mice go on a fast for 24 hours. Then the researchers compared how much central caspase-1 the mice had before and after they fasted. In the hypothalamus, central caspase-1 in the fasting mice dwindled by 40 percent. In the hippocampus, it was also 40 percent, in the amygdala, it was 40 percent, in the prefrontal cortex, it was 25 percent, and in the whole brain, it was 35 percent.
Less Depression
ADAA, in a separate link, states that “many people who develop depression have a history of anxiety disorder earlier in life.” While those with anxiety may not always have depression, if you do, then treating depression could be able to help with your anxiety.
Intermittent fasting has long since been a proven way to reduce depression. Just take this article from Current Neuropharmacology as published in 2015. The study cites one report where participants went on a fast, slashing calories only by 25 percent. The participants were still eating each day while fasting. When these participants fasted over six months, they had lower rates of depression, but no other mood changes.
In another study as cited in Current Neuropharmacology, when fasters consumed 250 kcalories daily over a span of two weeks, most of the participants, 80 percent, were less depressed. That’s even though these participants were intermittent fasting for less chronic pain and not depression. Their reduced depression was just a nice side effect.
How Many Days Do You Have to Intermittent Fast to See Results?
The health benefits of intermittent fasting are now a lot clearer to you, especially as they relate to anxiety and depression. You’re thinking of going on a fast, but how long will it take for you to see results?
That depends on which kinds of results you’re after. If you want to combat stress and anxiety, then the length of your fast will vary. The research we cited earlier mentions that you’ll get the most anxiety-busting relief in the first 48 hours of your fast when endorphins are released in the greatest quantities.
If you’re trying to quell your depression to better control your anxiety and stress levels, those benefits become apparent even if you eat daily on your fast. Since you’d need to reduce your calories consumed by 25 percent, the perfect type of intermittent fast to try would be the 5:2 diet.
For two days of the week, while fasting, you’d significantly reduce calories, eating 500 to 600 calories a day. That’s 25 percent of the number of calories you should eat in a day. The other five days of the week allow for more normal eating habits, so you can consume food as you usually do. This generous eating window is great for those who are new to fasting and want a diet they can easily stick to.
If you’re chasing after weight loss as well as bidding stress adieu, how long would you have to consider fasting? You can lose weight by fasting off and on over at least 10 weeks depending on the type of fast you do. Some fasts, such as the 5:2 diet, are more relaxed than others.
For instance, alternate-day fasting requires you to go 24 hours without food. Then, for the next 24-hour period, your eating window opens up so you can eat more regularly. When fasting like this, you can expect weight loss at a rate of 0.55 pounds to 1.65 pounds per week, says this Healthline article.
Is It Better to Work Out While Fasting?
Can you exercise while in a fasted state or is it better to refrain?
Exercise is often recommended for fasters. As you recall from earlier, we talked about how exercise, much like fasting, is a good type of stress. Here are some health benefits you could reap if you engage in physical fitness when fasting.
More Fat Burning
As we touched on before, when fasting, your goal is to burn through your body’s supply of glucose. You get glucose through the foods you eat; your body can also make glucose. This sugar is usually your body’s main energy source. If your body doesn’t use all the glucose it has at any one time, then it stores the excess in the liver.
By depriving your body of food as you do when fasting, you add no extra glucose to your system. Then it’s just a matter of time, typically 12 to 18 hours, before all your stored glucose is gone. Your body next begins using fat as its energy source, which is how you lose weight.
Exercising can torch through your glucose levels while you’re fasting so you don’t have to wait quite as long to deplete your glucose supply. This gives you even more time in a fasted state to burn fat. You could be quite a deal happier when you step on the scale and see your results.
Accelerated Weight Loss
Besides helping with fat-burning, exercise also burns more calories. Since you’re eating a lot less food in your fasted state, you don’t need to do a lot of high-intensity fitness to enjoy more calories burned. This health perk can ward off weight gain, making exercise especially great when fasting.
Healthier Blood Sugar
Another reason to exercise when fasting is for your blood sugar. When you’re in a fasted state and you go on a light jog or stretch out with some yoga, you have positive side effects to both your metabolism and the biochemistry of your muscles. This can affect your insulin sensitivity, making it easier to manage your blood sugar while you’re fasting.
Maintained Muscle Mass
As your body switches from burning glucose from food to fat instead, your system will sometimes use muscle proteins as energy too. This typically only happens if you’re fasting for a long time, but you could end up with smaller muscles if you’re not careful.
When you add resistance training to your exercise regimen while fasting, you can at least maintain your muscle mass. Your muscles probably won’t get any bigger, but they won’t shrink, either.
As beneficial as exercising can be for some people when fasting, it’s not recommended every time. The sudden changes that fasting can cause might lead you to feel dizzy or weak when you roll out your yoga mat or pick up those weights. If so, it’s best to take a break and perhaps even refrain from exercising again for the day.
For the most part, you also want to avoid high-intensity sweat sessions. Now is not the time to increase your weight-lifting limits, add 10 miles to your jog, or push yourself too hard. Reduce the intensity of your workouts and even the length of time you exercise if need be. You’re doing this for your health.
Is Fasting Bad for Adrenal Fatigue?
Finally, we want to talk about adrenal fatigue and whether fasting can lead to any unwanted side effects.
Adrenal fatigue isn’t a medical condition, per se, but rather, symptoms that might masquerade as such. Most symptoms of adrenal fatigue include issues with digestion, sleeplessness, nervousness, exhaustion, and bodily pain. If you have adrenal fatigue, it’s typically attributed to hormonal dysfunction as related to your adrenal glands.
Chronic stress can play a role in how the adrenal glands function and thus may be responsible for adrenal fatigue, at least in part. Some people with adrenal fatigue also have hypothyroid disorders, obesity, and high insulin from their elevated stress levels.
As a reminder, the hormone cortisol causes stress, and cortisol is produced in the adrenal glands. Cortisol isn’t all bad for your health, as the hormone can also increase your energy for combatting stress, affect your sleep/wakefulness, boost glucose, and control inflammation. Further, cortisol determines the use of proteins, fats, and proteins.
Constant, chronic stress will keep the cortisol hormones coming, which can cause you to gain weight and not sleep well. You could also have memory issues and, more seriously, depression, anxiety, and a higher risk of heart disease.
As beneficial as fasting can be for lowering anxiety and depression, it cannot lower your cortisol levels. Instead, combatting stress through relaxing activities is the best course of action if you have adrenal fatigue. You should also see your doctor for a treatment plan.
Conclusion
If you’re an anxiety or depression sufferer, fasting can reduce the symptoms of both these disorders, as many studies have shown. That said, stress-induced conditions such as adrenal fatigue cannot be helped by fasting, as fasting doesn’t reduce cortisol levels.
Now that you know why fasting is so highly recommended for less anxiety and depression, you can make smarter decisions for your health. Best of luck!