Autophagy 101: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Impacts Weight and Health – Everyday Health

You've probably spent most of your life unaware of autophagy, even though it's a process that happens regularly in your body. The term became popular outside of biology textbooks only with the rise of fasting-type diets, which touted autophagy as a means to lose weight and create younger, healthier cells.
While there is not yet enough research to support inducing autophagy for wellness purposes, your body’s ongoing natural process of breaking down and cleaning out damaged parts of cells is essential for cellular and overall health, notes the Cleveland Clinic. Additionally, early studies suggest that autophagy may be key to improving a number of health conditions. Here’s a look at what the science says so far.
The word autophagy comes from two Greek words, “autos,” meaning "self," and “phagomai” meaning “to eat.” Autophagy, therefore, means “self eating” or “self devouring,” an apt way to describe the process by which your body cleans out and recycles damaged cell components.
“Essentially, a membrane forms around material within the cells that has been marked for disposal,” explains Roberta Gottlieb, MD, a professor of cardiology and biomedical sciences at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. “It encases that material in a membrane and then delivers it to the lysosome, which is full of digestive enzymes that can break down the cargo.”
Those broken-down products are then transported out of the lysosome and back into the cytosol (the liquid inside cells) for use and repurposing, she says.
Autophagy happens during periods of fasting. Most often it occurs when we’re sleeping, because we’re naturally going through a period of time without food while we’re asleep, Dr. Gottlieb says.
While autophagy is a process that occurs in the body naturally without our help, some scientists are researching whether strategies to induce autophagy may help with longevity, weight loss, and the prevention of certain chronic diseases. Autophagy may be induced through fasting, caloric restriction, a low-carbohydrate diet, and exercise.
Research into these benefits is still in very early stages, and more work needs to be done to better understand the impacts of autophagy on health.
The ability of cells to carry out autophagy is believed to decline as we get older, which contributes to the aging process, according to a research review published in August 2021 in Nature Aging.
“As we age, the autophagy machinery starts to decrease in abundance and functionality,” Gottlieb explains. “It's harder to turn it on, and it doesn't work as well overall. So it's been suggested that being able to restore that machinery or maintain autophagy throughout life would diminish the rate of aging or increase our health span.”
Some studies, such as one published in February 2022 in Autophagy, suggest that when the process is induced in animals, life span is extended and health is improved during aging. Whether or not this is true in humans remains to be seen.
While there is no evidence that inducing autophagy directly increases weight loss, some research, such as an article in a 2019 issue of Frontiers in Pharmacology, suggests that it may have an effect on many of the hormones that control hunger, such as ghrelin, insulin, and glucagon, notes Everyday Health's dietitian Kelly Kennedy, RDN.
“As a result, autophagy may decrease hunger and indirectly contribute to weight loss,” she says.
Methods meant to induce autophagy, such as caloric restriction, may also contribute to weight loss.
In addition to aging, research published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences in February 2019 found a link between dysregulation of autophagy and a number of chronic diseases. These include:
Scientists are researching whether the inducement of autophagy is a useful tool in preventing or treating these chronic diseases.
Autophagy occurs naturally in the body, but can also be affected by what and how we eat, Kennedy says.
“For example, evidence suggests that fasting and eating a low-carbohydrate diet may stimulate an increase in autophagy,” she notes.
Intermittent fasting has gained popularity in recent years as a method to lose weight. Research suggests it may come with a number of health benefits, including reduced blood pressure, lowered cholesterol, and reduced inflammation. Laboratory studies in flies suggest intermittent fasting may improve longevity by inducing autophagy.
The ketogenic, or keto, diet is another eating pattern that has garnered much attention in recent years. It is a medical diet focused on low carbohydrate and high fat intake that is used as a treatment to reduce the number of seizures in children with epilepsy, per Harvard Health Publishing. It is promoted as a weight loss diet, but it has been studied only in the short-term, and results have been mixed. The keto diet has been shown to induce autophagy, Kennedy notes.
“Eating a very low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet like the ketogenic diet can increase autophagy as the body switches from burning carbohydrates to burning fat for its main source of energy,” she explains.
The Cleveland Clinic notes that intermittent fasting or the keto diet may not be safe for everyone, including women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and people with certain health conditions like diabetes. There is also not enough evidence to support specific diets to induce autophagy. Drastic changes to your eating habits may negatively impact your health, so talk to your doctor if you’re curious about specific diets.
Autophagy occurs naturally, and it happens without us knowing. “You don't really experience any symptoms when autophagy is doing its thing,” Gottlieb says. “It's meant to just kind of go on in the background.”
She notes that certain laboratory blood tests can be done to assess whether or not autophagy is occurring, but these tests aren’t commercially available.
Again, research is still in its early stages, but some studies have found that too much autophagy may come with some risks. For example, research suggests excessive autophagy can cause the death of cardiac cells, which may contribute to heart troubles.
While other research has suggested autophagy may be protective against cancer, Gottlieb notes that some types of cancer cells actually benefit from using autophagy as a way to survive. For instance, a study in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences in November 2018 found that autophagy may both suppress and promote cancerous tumors. More research is needed to shed further light on the relationship between autophagy and cancer.
Autophagy is a natural bodily process responsible for cleaning out our cells. Scientists are working to better understand the process, how it affects our health, and how that knowledge can be used to improve longevity and prevent chronic diseases.
There is not yet enough evidence to support specific diets to induce autophagy for health benefits. As science continues to evolve, we will learn more about how autophagy impacts health.
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