Can someone explain how autophagy works? How many hours do you need to fast before it kicks in?

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Dr. Fung says that consumption of protein stops autophagy. To my knowledge lemon juice has no protein. It does have some calories in the form of carbohydrate, about 2 carbs, so 8 calories, per ounce. I imagine eating a lot of carbs would stop autophagy also, since it would shut down fasting entirely, but what about just a little bit of lemon juice: 3 ounces over 16 hours?

Hi guys, I'll keep it simple. I have done a few fasts in the last 2 and a half years, I did four of them ranging from 5 days to 10 days, most often a week or eight days. I always used electrolytes, well I mean just Himalayan salt in water and sometimes potassium chloride.

I read a user here on reddit, I don't know if I can say his name, which seemed to have a certain reputation (he wrote many posts and also a diary with his blood tests values before and after some fasts) and he said that he reached the same value of stem cell regeneration in blood of Valter Longo's studies only when he fasted WITHOUT electrolytes.

He thought the explaination was that with electrolytes "the system doesn't need to diminish his complexity", thereby reducing autophagy.

In his opinion, levels of Acetyl-coA do not drop so much if you take electrolytes, and this diminishes your level of autophagy and subsequent stem cells production. I found scientific references about a high level of Acetyl-coA being detrimental for autophagy (he also posted it) but I did not find any reference to Acetyl-coA being linked to any electrolyte.

On a side note, he said he takes while fasting, beyond water, also a multivitamin with B vitamins and C, and nutritional yeast (which is rich in potassium), so he anyway supplements a bit potassium.

Okay, maybe not so simple. My question is, considered AMPK and MTORC seem to detect things like available energy and free proteins, do you think his thought about electrolytes is correct?

My main aim in fasting is to stimulate autophagy and immune regeneration, which shows up in temporarily lowered WBC count.

I don't fast to lose weight, so for me it's important to understand if electrolytes can diminish my autophagy.

Thank you in advance

So did anyone perform autophagy in a cold environment and will it reached the autophagy peak faster due to the cold, from what I can tell autophagy eats or recycled cells in the body when there is no input of food source. But what happens when the environment becomes stressful like extreme cold or submerged in the water for a long while. I do know when the body is exercising it speed up autophagy process.

So what I am asking is does autophagy kicks in faster during long hours of swimming lowering body temperature that also causes Browning of fat adipose tissue at the same time burning calories using ketosis.

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For those doing rolling 36 or 48 fasts did you notice a big difference between the two both for fat loss and autophagy benefits?

I'm doing my first 36 hour fast in quite some time. Been doing 20-24 hour fasts a few days a week but I'm finally getting serious with my weight-loss and have lots of extra tummy fat and skin from my last pregnancy so want to prioritize autophagy. I don't want to worry about refeeding craziness because this mama has enough stuff to worry about so not looking to do longer than 48 hours.

So I just finished my third extended fast, made it to 96 hours this time.

The "old, junkiest proteins first" idea seems to hold true, as last time my knee injury cleared up and this time my elbow injury healed, and that is the order from oldest to newest.

I stopped the fast this time because I started feeling funky and, more importantly, I had some VERY old memories come back in frightening fashion. They were almost visions, and VERY unpleasant...

However now I feel better. Is neuronal autophagy a thing? Does fasting purge the brain of old, painful memories?

Okay, apologies in advance if this is a stupid question. So I've read that to achieve autophagy, you have to do a water-only fast for at least 48 hours. My question is, is autophagy a black-and-white thing where it's either happening or not? Or is there such thing as "some" autophagy happening during a fast that includes things like broth or coffee?

The autophagy process itself helps keep typical functioning in the cell, also popular as homeostasis.

It literally supports cleaning up any harmful components inside the body cells and helps rejuvenate those cells. Autophagy is powerful enough to destroy injured molecules completely or transform them into absolutely new components that the body can use for further cellular repair.

During stressful times, when body cells run down oxygen and nutrients, autophagy may deliver an additional alternative energy source from the transformed cellular material we mentioned before to assist them in surviving. Autophagy can clean all infectious agents and toxins, and with that, it can help the immune system.

If necessary, the process is able to induce apoptosis or programmed cell death. It means that it is a key part of a cellular process that supports cell homeostasis by finding a true balance between breaking and making cellular components.

Autophagy and Fasting ⬇🚀

Autophagy can be triggered by fasting. When someone fasts, they intentionally go without eating for a certain length of time – hours, days, or even weeks. Traditional calorie restriction is not the same as fasting. When a person restricts their calorie intake, they reduce their typical meal consumption.

When glucose and insulin levels decrease significantly, autophagy is thought to commence. This process has been identified in human neutrophils after only 24 hours of fasting.

There are four phases of fasting, including the easily fed state, early fasting state, fasting state, and long-term fasting state (also known as a starvation state). Each varies according to the major source of energy used for the body and how it actually affects the whole metabolism as well as levels of some hormones. That’s why it is extremely important to track the fasting process.

The best way to choose the ideal fasting method that perfectly fits your lifestyle is to try the trendy fasting app. It is a modern 3-in-1 solution for weight loss that will also help you learn how to prepare completely healthy meals and implement simple workouts that match your fasting method.

I drink lots of tea and coffee. What should I not consume so as not to risk stopping autophagy during fasting?

Hello guys, in a few discussions I saw (Youtube) on evidence based approach to fasting, it seems like fasting to induce autophagy follows the principle of diminishing returns whereas the max effects can be gained from fasting for 5-7 days then the returns start lowering.

So, would doing a 7 day fast followed by 2 day OMAD refeed of fats and protein and then continuing the cycle would theoretically be better?

Feedback is much appreciated. Thank you.

It seems to me that all of the studies on autophagy have been done on mice. This is just my opinion, however I don’t think the timeline is anywhere near the same in humans.

To me there is something magical that happens around the 5-7 day mark and continues up until I break my fast. I am sure other fasters can attest to this.

Seriously, how does 3 days of fasting for a mouse translate to a human? I don’t think the true benefits occur until well into a fast.

Hello,

I myself love fasting, and feel the benifets...

but i notcied everyone talking about autophagy being activated.. how can we be sure of that?

the scienceon autophagy that we actually have was done on lab rats, that lost 20% of their weight (borderline dying) from a 4 day fast.

humans lose 2-4% of their weight from a 4 day fast...

so how exactly are we sure autophagy is happening? i see so many people confidently saying it happens even on normal intermettient fasting..

Hi, I’ve done a couple of extended fasts but I would like to fast for longer. I’ve read on here that sugar free drinks such as Diet Coke and flavoured water are allowed when fasting and I think that would really help. However, I’m concerned about the effects on autophagy. Do these types of drinks stop autophagy? And does anyone have good experiences with fasting whilst drinking sugar free drinks?

Here's a link to cole's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTitvqRRzr8

TL;DW the routine is this: RULES: 1. Must dry fast a minimum of 22 hrs/day.(No food or water) 2. RANGES Cucumbers: 0-2kg (2kg=320 calories) Coconut water: 0-1 L (1L=180 calories) Sodium via sodium chloride: 0-4000 mg 3. Maximum 500 calories/day

I'm dry fasting not just for weight loss but also for health reasons. There's a lot I want to heal, I also have 120 pounds of fat to lose so I think doing dry fasting will help me prevent loose skin. If I dry fast for a month but do Cole's routine of basically drinking coconut water and a cucumber every night before bed would that still give me enough autophagy to heal certain health issues and prevent loose skin, or would it just be better to do a 72 hour hard dry fast every week if I'm specifically looking for the autophagy benefit. Any answer is appreciated.

https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/11/29/scientists-discover-potential-cause-alzheimers-disease

Interesting article. The paper pdf is also online.

I’m not a scientist but when I hit the 24 hour mark my face gets tingly and turns red. Ive been fasting for 24 hours once a week for the past couple of years.

Can anyone who’s science savvy answer this? So as we know, fasting induced autophagy and cleans out old cells, (possibly tumors I’ve heard some doctors say, etc) etc but I’ve also heard it increases IGF-1/growth hormone by a lot. Wouldn’t that feed tumors? My question is.. aren’t autophagy and increased growth hormone via fasting contradictory? I’m so lost. Thanks so much to anyone who could answer this! :)