---
title: 'Intermittent Fasting Boosts Growth Hormone by 1,518% (Study)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=NuVKeMnEm7k'
video_id: 'NuVKeMnEm7k'
date: 2026-08-12
duration_sec: 855
---

# Intermittent Fasting Boosts Growth Hormone by 1,518% (Study)

> Source: [Intermittent Fasting Boosts Growth Hormone by 1,518% (Study)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NuVKeMnEm7k)

## Summary

This video analyzes a clinical trial published in Nature journals that examined the effects of intermittent fasting on human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin resistance. The study, a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial, found that 24-hour water-only fasts twice per week for 26 weeks significantly increased HGH levels, particularly in individuals with low baseline HGH. The presenter also discusses practical fasting advice and answers viewer questions.

### Key Points

- **Study Overview** [00:06] — The study, titled 'Insulin Resistant Reduction Intermittent Fasting and Human Growth Hormone: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial,' was published in Nature journals (Metabolic Health and Diseases). It examined the effects of fasting on HGH and insulin.
- **Study Design** [01:19] — The study was a 26-week intermittent fasting trial where participants were randomized to do 24-hour water-only fasts twice per week for four weeks. Investigators measured HOMA-IR score, HGH, insulin levels, and body composition.
- **Baseline HGH and Health Improvements** [02:06] — Lower baseline growth hormone was linked with better health improvements associated with fasting. Individuals with lower baseline HGH released more HGH during fasting.
- **Mechanism of HGH Increase** [03:06] — In low energy states like fasting, growth hormone helps liberate stored fatty acids from fat tissue. This explains the increased pulsatile release of HGH during fasting, along with reductions in blood glucose and insulin.
- **Magnitude of HGH Increase** [06:10] — Individuals with low baseline HGH experienced a 1,500% increase in HGH during fasting. The presenter notes this is a significant increase over the 26-week period compared to the control group.
- **Fasting and Belly Fat** [07:38] — The presenter advises that fasting can help burn belly fat, but recommends resistance training for body recomposition. He suggests easing into fasting with consistent protocols like 16:8 or one meal a day rather than jumping into a 45-hour fast.
- **Fasting and Female Hormones** [08:22] — Excessive fasting or prolonged energy deficit can increase cortisol and adrenaline, which may negatively affect female hormones. Moderation is key.
- **Protein Intake and Fasting** [08:50] — For older adults, a 16:8 fasting window is generally good, but prioritizing protein (1-1.2 grams per kilogram of lean body mass) is important to prevent muscle loss.
- **How to Start Fasting** [09:19] — Beginners can start by skipping dinner or having a late breakfast (10-11 AM) to achieve an 18-hour fast easily. Consistency is more important than extreme fasts.
- **Changing Views on Prolonged Fasting** [11:41] — The presenter agrees with Ronda Patrick and others that excessive prolonged fasting can accelerate lean muscle loss. Muscle is crucial for metabolic health, glucose disposal, and preventing falls.

### Conclusion

Intermittent fasting, particularly 24-hour fasts twice a week, can significantly boost HGH, especially in those with low baseline levels, but moderation and protein intake are essential to avoid muscle loss. The study supports fasting as a tool for metabolic health, but it should be combined with resistance training and a balanced approach.

## Transcript

new clinical trial that looked at the effects of fasting on both human growth hormone as well as insulin let's dive into the let's dive into the details the title of the study is insulin resistant reduction intermittent fasting and human
growth hormone a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial uh what I think is really interesting about this study is they looked at how fasting uh can impact human growth hormone now I know a lot of people talk about well the
reason why I fast is to increase growth hormone and so forth and it turns out that fasting increases temporary pulsatile release of human growth uh that I think it's quite interesting now there are other ways to increase
growth hormone uh with exercise and things like that but uh this study did find that fasting uh increases growth hormone so I realized um my camera here is focusing on something else hopefully it's not too bad there
content as we go through friends grateful that you are here and let's grateful that you are here and let's dive into this analysis right now okay so I'm going to clear these layers so you can see this and we're going to dive
into the study uh again I think this is a really really fascinating uh study and what I want to do and this is published in nature journals uh uh met olic health and diseases so in essence this was a 20we intermittent fasting study where
individual investigators looked at home IR score looked at human growth hormone and they randomized people uh to do 24-hour water only fast twice per week for four weeks and they wanted to see what effect that had on metabolic health
and what effect runin growth hormone and running insulin levels had on a growth hormone as well as body composition which I think is quite interesting so they stratified People based upon their fasting human growth hormone and it
turns out that lower Baseline growth hormone was actually linked with Better Health improvements associated with fasting which is quite interesting um but here's what I want to focus on here and this is figure two um so you can see
here the changes uh uh here in growth hormone are on my on the screen center content hit that like button let me know where you're watching watching this from in the comment section it's a little quiet on the old comments uh again
grateful that you all are here live the figure here the caption is changes in human growth hormone for intermittent fasting and control arms and essentially what we see in figure a here is there was s more
increases hey guys appreciate you being here there were significant increases in human growth hormone um in the intermittent fasting group versus uh the quite interesting now what does that really mean um well I think that as a
mechanism uh hold on I'm me clear this layer so you can see me as a mechanism it turns out that growth hormone in a low energy states such as fasting helps
to liberate stored fatty acids from the fat tissue so it makes sense then that you would see an increase in the uh release of pulsatile growth hormone and here so I don't know I think it's just quite interesting to know that there are
a reduction in blood glucose and reduction in blood insulin and then you get increased pulsatile releases of human growth hormone as you can see here associated with intermittent fasting and so um the changes over the course uh
where actually that there was a lot of outliers here some individuals tend to during fasting compared to other individuals so there's some inter indiv individuals so there's some inter indiv ual variability uh it also turns out
that when individuals have lower Baseline growth hormone going into the fasting study they release more growth hormone during fasting and that's what you can see here again depicted in figure 4B there is a pretty significant
increase in human growth hormone um in individuals who have low growth hormone so that's kind of the take-home number two here is if you want to optimize your growth hormone levels you know by running your uh igf-1 levels for
example when you uh do your labs and you want to optimize that well it turns out that if you're levels are already low to begin with fasting tends to increase it so I think that's kind of cool um and that might be some of the some of the uh
Magic here that when people talk about fasting well my skin looks more clear my brain feels uh more focused and the cobwebs have been sort of removed and and things like that so anyway I think it's quite interesting and I would love
section below any question is fair game on these live uh shows um you know grateful that you all are here and let's uh I'm just going to
are here and let's uh I'm just going to leave the uh the study study um reference so that you can see this okay we have folks here from Oklahoma New York City Louisiana Texas California Utah New York State Flagstaff Arizona
fun fact I went to college for several years at NAU Northern Arizona University years at NAU Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff I like Flagstaff um okay we have one commenter here saying I'm already fasted for 120 hours which is
wow that's awesome that's uh more than I've ever done I've made it to about 72 hours but 120 is is pretty amazing nice work there um so again we're talking about this study published uh this was a 26 we
randomized control trial where invest investigators looked at human growth hormone they stratified individuals based upon their Baseline growth hormone levels and as we just reviewed but there's a lot more folks uh coming on
here as we just reviewed uh individuals who had lower Baseline levels of growth hormone tended to have significant increases uh this was a 2,00% increase well actually 1500% increase in human growth hormone so if your growth hormone
growth hormone so if your growth hormone is low doing a 24-hour fast might increase it and the physiologic rationale for that makes a lot of sense right when you're in a low energy State growth hormone is being released to help
to liberate fat tissue liberate stored energy from fat cells to increase glycerol as well as free fatty acids that make ketones and growth hormone also has anti-catabolic effects to help prevent the breakdown and catabolism of
muscle tissue and so what we see here are pretty significant increases over the course of 26 weeks of fasting versus the control group uh looking at versus the control group uh looking at growth hormone changes so um I don't
incredibly fascinating uh I would love section below my friends uh as always grateful that you're all here live we likes appreciate you hitting that like button uh any metabolic questions are
fair game I'm going to pop out the chat here uh okay so we're going to pop this out let's see what questions we have all right it's complex but not impossible we
have folks from Connecticut in the house my food addiction says will I get any benefits from a 45-hour fast to burn belly fat you know I it really depends on how much belly fat or you know visceral abdominal fat you have um I
think fasting is a good tool for that but I'm a bigger fan of resistance but I'm a bigger fan of resistance training uh for recomposition your body to help to increase lean muscle tissue and help to also uh support your resting
and help to also uh support your resting metabolic rate and burn fat tissue so um that's interesting uh Lucinda says why do some say fasting is bad for female hormones yeah so excessive fasting excessive being in an energy deficit for
an extended period of time can be problematic for both men and women but women for sure because it can increase cortisol adrenaline and affect um you know female hormone so uh good point there I appreciate
that okay JM says I'm healthy metabolically in my late 60s is 168 just metabolically in my late 60s is 168 just enough to avoid protein loss JM this is a good question so is having an 8h hour feeding window and a 16-hour fasting
window good for supporting metabolic Health um I think overall yeah and then prioritize your protein to have around 1 gam of protein 1.2 gram of protein per kilogram of lean body mass I think
that's a good idea Kia a says I've never fasted how do I start this is a great question well I would suggest just skipping dinner and pretty easily so if you just have a late
have breakfast till 10:00 or 11: in the morning you're getting yourself into an 18-hour fast quite easily which I think is really good um so that's a that's a good point but you know in regards to losing muscle
tissue as you get older as many of you know by now you tend to become a little bit more catabolic and lose uh muscle tissue and so we want to prioritize get older um but I want to get back to my
food addiction says will I get any benefits from a 45-hour faster burn belly fat you know diving right into a 45-hour fast if you've never done it I'm a little bit more of a fan of being consistent with fasting and not being
over the top right out of the gate so starting starting out with 186 or a one meal a day sort of protocol I think is a really good idea and not just diving right into a 45-hour
really help you feel and recognize what true satiety is but I I think it would true satiety is but I I think it would be uh beneficial to ease into it a little bit with more consistent fasting uh the way that I look at fasting is the
way that I look at exercise running a marathon is great but if you're so tired from that Marathon you can't exercise after the fact for weeks or uh whatever probably problematic it might be better to run three miles a day every day right
just maybe skip dinner or have an earlier dinner so that you elongate that earlier dinner so that you elongate that evening fast and I do want to remind you I mentioned elongate your fast a tool that can help you is the burin fasting
accelerator by myoscience what makes this formula unique is it not only helps also helps support metabolic Health burbine has been used for 3,000 years there's a lot of great reviews over at myoscience decom check that out in the
link in the description below lot of great feedback from that okay uh what thank you again for being here if you're enjoying the content hit that like button again the study that we're talking about here uh is titled
reduction intermittent fasting and human growth hormone secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial so if there's not any questions we can part ways Mike has a question for me Mike says can you comment on the recent
comments by Ronda Patrick and others who said that they've changed their views on stopping intermittent fasting yeah you know I think a lot of people have gone away from and a lot of people myself included um excessive
prolonged fasting because it can be problematic uh for you know it can accelerate loss of lean muscle tissue so I think that's uh one of the things that we want to be mindful of is losing lean muscle tissue
muscle mass right we need muscle mass for a lot of different reasons for metabolic Health to prevent trips and falls uh muscle is where most of our postmeal glucose gets deposited into it's a glucose and Insulin sponge muscle
is really important so uh excessive prolonged fasting can be problematic for prolonged fasting can be problematic for lean muscle tissue all right can fasting people's fasting insulin is between three and five you know if if they're
metabolically healthy I recently ran my labs and that's where they were at uh they consistently run into that uh in that range so cons consider that um too low now you don't want a high
fasting insulin remember insulin is a postmeal hormone it increases after a meal there's no physiologic need to have a high fasting insulin um so anyway um
Kia says I've never fasted where do I start as I mentioned you know cutting out uh have a later lunch an earlier dinner uh skipping dinner even is a fasting so uh hopefully you guys found this study helpful as I alluded
to the uh study that we're talking about here is the uh insulin resistance changes with uh and the associations with human growth hormone uh essentially little bit bigger before we part ways uh is people who have low Baseline
human growth hormone have a pretty significant increase in growth hormone when they start fasting this is a 1500% increase in human growth hormone um when they start fasting uh and this was 22 24hour fast per week
so that's what we have here my friends if you enjoyed this content hit that like button be sure to share this video with a friend I'm grateful that you tuned in and we'll catch you on a future live show next Tuesday have an awesome
live show next Tuesday have an awesome day all bye