Seven days of fasting can trigger huge changes across the body, scientists say

Many people have taken to intermittent fasting in hopes to shed a few pounds - with the method going viral online.

Intermittent fasting is when people adopt an eating pattern in which they go for extended periods of time without eating, which is followed by a period of eating normally.

However, some may go to an extreme, fasting for extremely long periods of time. Scientists have recently researched what really happens to the body after just one week of fasting.

The study, conducted by Queen Mary University of London, published in Nature Metabolism found ‘major changes appearing only after about three days without food.’

However, with a seven day water only fasting study, after tracking thousands of protein in the blood, researchers discovered ‘widespread shifts affecting organs throughout the body,’ which included the brain.

Participants took part in a 7 day water fast (Getty Stock Images)

The study, which monitored 12 healthy individuals on a 7 day water only diet, and tracked 3,000 proteins circulating in the bloodstream. Within 2-3 days, the body began relying on fat - rather than glucose, as no food was being consumed.

The most interesting finding from the study wasn’t how much weight the participants lost. In fact it was the molecular changes in the body.

Bloods were taken from the participants before, during and after the fasting, and over the course of the seven day fasting period, a third of the proteins had changed significantly. These included those which helps provide structural support for neurons in the brain, as well as tissues and other organs. It raises questions on whether fasting could help with conditions such as inflammation.

The findings suggest that, rather than simply extending the body's early response to food deprivation, prolonged fasting may trigger a distinct physiological state.

The fast also lead to an average weight loss of 5.7 kg of the 12 volunteers.

Researchers found the changes happened after three days of fasting (Getty Stock)

"For the first time, we're able to see what's happening on a molecular level across the body when we fast," Director of Queen Mary's Precision Health University Research Institute said.

“Fasting, when done safely, is an effective weight loss intervention. Popular diets that incorporate fasting, such as intermittent fasting, claim to have health benefits beyond weight loss. Our results provide evidence for the health benefits of fasting beyond weight loss, but these were only visible after three days of total caloric restriction -- later than we previously thought,”

However, it is important to note that only 12 healthy people participated in the study, and therefore it can not be assumed it is healthy for everyone.

"While fasting may be beneficial for treating some conditions, oftentimes, fasting won't be an option to patients suffering from ill health. We hope that these findings can provide information about why fasting is beneficial in certain cases, which can then be used to develop treatments that patients are able to do,” researchers added.