Regular fasting can decrease your low-density lipoprotein, or "bad," cholesterol. It's also thought that fasting can improve the way your body metabolizes sugar. This can reduce your risk of gaining weight and developing diabetes, which are both risk factors for heart disease.

How much does fasting lower cholesterol?

“During actual fasting days, cholesterol went up slightly in this study, as it did in our prior study of healthy people, but we did notice that over a six-week period cholesterol levels decreased by about 12 percent in addition to the weight loss,” said Dr. Horne.

How does fasting affect cholesterol levels?

The research team concluded that a 24-hour water-only fast caused an acute increase in total serum cholesterol by raising LDL cholesterol as well as HDL cholesterol. Changes in other risk factors by fasting were found for triglycerides, weight, and glucose, as expected.