. 2023 Aug 3;15(15):3444. doi: 10.3390/nu15153444

Table 3.

Metabolic and hormonal variables (M ± SD) along with the significance of differences in the studied age groups before and after 8 days of water-only fasting.

Variables	Age	Fasting			Age		Fasting		Age vs. Fasting
Variables	Age	Before	After	Together Before–After	F	p	F	p	F	p
Glucose-Rest (mmol/L)	Younger	4.68 ± 0.36	3.76 ± 0.30 ^a	4.22 ± 0.33	1.489	>0.05	35.651	<0.001	0.344	>0.05
	Elder	5.11 ± 0.58	3.99 ± 0.85 ^b	4.55 ± 0.71
	Together	4.93 ± 0.53 ^{a = 0.0295}	3.90 ± 0.66 ^{b = 0.000052}	^{before–after = 0.000052}
Glucose-Exercise (mmol/L)	Younger	5.64 ± 0.89	4.28 ± 0.45 ^a	4.96 ± 0.67	1.549	>0.05	25.823	<0.001	0.055	>0.05
	Elder	5.98 ± 0.72 ^{a = 0.0317}	4.74 ± 0.86 ^b	5.36 ± 0.79
	Together	5.84 ± 0.78 ^{a = 0.0317}	4.54 ± 0.73 ^{b = 0.02348}	^{before–after = 0.00026}
Cortisol-Rest (ng/mL)	Younger	308.68 ± 89.24	519.85 ± 164.15 ^b	414.27 ± 99.21	0.306	>0.05	22.193	<0.001	0.535	>0.05
	Elder	308.50 ± 93.24	462.89 ± 105.18 ^a	385.6 ± 126.709
	Together	308.58 ± 87.36 ^{a = 0.06}	487.30 ± 140.07 ^{b = 0.03}
Cortisol- Exercise (ng/mL)	Younger	336.18 ± 89.32	499.45 ± 202.60	417.82 ± 124.80	0.028	>0.05	14.670	<0.05	0.145	>0.05
	Elder	307.63 ± 157.27	506.83 ± 92.34 ^a	407.23 ± 145.96
	Together	319.89 ± 118.42 ^{a = 0.05}	503.66 ± 159.36
β-hydroxybutyrate-Rest (mmol/L)	Younger	0.318 ± 0.22	4.40 ± 0.55	2.36 ± 0.38	0.096	>0.05	86.357	<0.001	0.1008	>0.05
	Elder	0.315 ± 0.20	^{4.13 ± 1.98}	2.22 ± 1.1
	Together	0.317 ± 0.20	4.25 ± 1.50	2.28 ± 0.85
β-hydroxybutyrate-Exercise (mmol/L)	Younger	0.24 ± 0.15	3.96 ± 0.95	2.1 ± 0.55	0.682	>0.05	82.697	<0.001	0.57	>0.05
	Elder	0.20 ± 0.17	3.33 ± 1.68	1.76 ± 0.92
	Together	0.21 ± 0.16	3.60 ± 1.40	1.90 ± 0.78

M—arithmetic means; ^a—before 8 days of water-only fasting vs. after 8 days of water-only fasting (group elder); ^b—before 8 days of water-only fasting vs. after 8 days of water-only fasting (group younger).