Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of eating and voluntary fasting, focusing on when you eat rather than what you eat.
It can offer health benefits including improved insulin sensitivity, reduced inflammation, and potential protection against certain metabolic diseases, while also supporting weight management.
Women’s health coach Dilan, who is a 10 year cancer survivor shared why he chose to follow intermittent fasting every single day for over 15 years – and it is not in order to lose weight or internet trends. He explains that it was a way of giving his body the rest it desperately needed. In an Instagram post from July 29, the health coach revealed how not eating breakfast helped his cancer journey.
A wake-up call after cancer
Dilan rejects the common belief that constant snacking or eating every 3 hours boosts metabolism, saying: “Because I learned (the hard way) what happens when the body never gets a break.” He further explained, “When you’re constantly feeding, your body is constantly digesting.”
His journey into fasting was not by choice – a cancer diagnosis forced him to reevaluate everything about his lifestyle, including food, stress and sleep. Reassessing his lifestyle choices made him realize that the body needs time to heal, which only happens when you stop interrupting it. Constantly ingesting food gets the body stuck in digestion mode, never getting the opportunity to repair.
What happens during fasting?
Dilan explains, “When you fast, even just for part of the day, something powerful kicks in. It’s called autophagy.” Autophagy is the body’s fundamental process for self-degradation, where cells break down and recycle their own damaged or unnecessary components. Dubbing it as ‘your cells literally start cleaning house’, the fitness coach further elaborated that when damaged cells are eliminated, inflammation drops and hormonal balance is restored, and the body gets a break.
Constant eating can backfire
Most people start consuming food the moment they wake up and keep eating until they go to bed, which according to Dilan, leaves little room for cellular repair, contributing to fatigue and inflammation. “You don’t need to fear hunger,” he stresses, “You need to fear what happens when your body never gets the chance to rest.”
For him, intermittent fasting is not a quick fix or a trendy diet – it is a sustainable way of life built on respect for his body and its potential to heal. After surviving cancer, fasting became his tool for balance, resilience, and long-term health.