First off, Intermittent Fasting is a lifestyle — not a diet.
When you picture yourself in class at 10am, are you thinking about food?
If you are, chances are you are not fat-adapted, or metabolically flexible.
You see…
we’ve been told that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” for less than a century; this dates back to less than a century!
To make it short, it was just a marketing campaign to sell excess grains from overproducing food.
Before this, there was no breakfast first thing in the morning.
We are only at the height of an obesity epidemic — hence why fitness is a health & fitness has become the new trend — and now we are gathering enough evidence to support how eating 6-square meals per day is harmful to our health.
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a dietary lifestyle in which you voluntarily abstain from any calories for a certain period of time. Then, you feast.
What’s the purpose?
There are many reasons to intermittent fast, but as of recently, most people have been doing this for weight loss and muscle gains.
Intermittent fasting is not a new “diet,” so to speak, and this wouldn’t even be considered a fad.
Religions and many cultures have been practicing this all around the world for centuries for many reasons and with success (i.e. spiritual, well-being, mental clarity, etc.)
So in short, this is nothing new but rather forgotten.
Pros of Intermittent Fasting
In contrast to every fad diet out there, intermittent fasting takes full advantage of the positive effects (i.e. fat loss), but without any of the negative side effects that most diets that restrict calories comes with.
As I have already mentioned, IF is mostly being used for weight loss and muscle gains, but emerging research is showing a ton of other benefits from it.
Intermittent fasting has been shown to:
- Increase metabolism
- Burn Fat & Build Muscle
- Improve learning & memory
- Improve cognition
- Heal gut
- Reduce inflammation
- Improve skin
- Ease chronic pain in patients w/ chronic illnesses
- Protect/Improve immune system
- Increase lifespan
- Improve cardiovascular health
- Protect against infections
- Improve mood & motivation
Reverse:
There are a ton of health benefits that come along with intermittent fasting, but the key to why people are so compliant is simply because you have the freedom to enjoy your favorite foods all while building muscle and/or dropping fat.
This is fundamentally the reason intermittent fasting is taking over the fitness industry and anyone looking to improve their overall health.
Nobody enjoys dieting, and the majority of people have this stigma that losing weight requires so much time and effort.
Cons to Intermittent Fasting
Although the downsides to intermittent fasting are almost non-existent, there’s always going to be potential risks for those select few. After all, none of our genetic make-up is exactly the same across each individual.
With that said, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so here’s a list of the types of people who many professionals and I believe should not adopt the intermittent fasting lifestyle:
- People with circadian rhythm issues
- People who have neuroendocrine issues and glutamate excitotoxicity
- People who get hypoglycemic
- People who are severely underweight
- People who are trying to have a child
- People with hypercholesterolemia.
As you can see, the list of cons is robust isn’t it?
To summarize, intermittent fasting is not harmful in any way towards your health, but there are still precautions that should be taken into account such as the ones listed above.
How Do You Intermittent Fast?
Just to reiterate, intermittent fasting (IF) is a dietary lifestyle. This is because IF is an umbrella term for various protocols.
With that said, here are a few commonly used protocols:
The 16/8 Method:
Also called the Leangains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, (i.e. from 1 pm to 9 pm. Then you “fast” for 16 hours in between).
Eat-Stop-Eat:
This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.
The 5:2 Diet:
On two non-consecutive days of the week, only eat 500–600 calories. Eat normally the other 5 days.
Ok, there’s protocols focused on fasting and eating windows, but there aren’t protocols that focus on the diet that fall under these lifestyles — so, who’s to claim what the health risks and outcomes that may come packaged with these protocols?
Fat Reps Method:
Fat Reps focuses on the portion-sizing of your meals + recommended composition of your own foods…
It ties in a more modern perspective that allows practical change in both your physiology and behavior. In short…you really do get the most out of your Intermittent Fasting protocols with this online course.
So, what can we do about the basic protocols from early founders of Intermittent Fasting?
There is no one-size fits all approach to this lifestyle, which is why I recommend you trial and error with some of the above listed .
Why Intermittent Fasting Is Superior to Caloric Restriction
Above all, the reason IF distinguishes itself from other ways to lose weight and build muscle is because there are no restrictions placed on the foods that you eat, and is only focused on the time you eat.
IF does not emphasize on cutting out your favorite foods. It doesn’t require you to restrict your calories, but can instead indirectly leads to a caloric deficit (caloric restriction), depending on your current levels of fat, and the extent of your fast.
In other words, you have the freedom that no other approach to “dieting” has.
The real reason IF works is simply because of the way your body uses energy.
If your goal is to lose weight on a 6 meal a day plan, and calories are your only focus, this will hinder you from utilizing fat stores more efficiently.
Why?
Because the constant intake of food throughout the day will cause insulin to remain high all day, which can lead to a insulin resistance. This will also train your body to not use fat stores for energy and rely directly on the food you intake.
End result?
Your body will compensate by slowing your metabolic rate down if you restrict calories.
On the other hand, you have quite the opposite.
By not eating for a long period of time, your body will become insulin sensitive — reducing the risk of insulin resistance — as well as train your body to utilize fat stores for energy rather than relying only on the food you just ingested.
This will also keep your metabolic rate the same or even higher depending on your systemic approach to this lifestyle.
From a any typical diet approach, most people find it difficult to lose weight because our bodies have always implemented some form of fasting into our lives — not eating small meals throughout the day.
Whether your goal is to lose weight or maintain a healthier lifestyle, Intermittent Fasting appears to be the most innovative and promising approach when you compare it to modern dieting.
How Do I Benefit From This If I’m Busy?
TIME is your greatest asset and we begin to value it more frequently as we age because we only become busier the older we get.
Since intermittent fasting requires that you don’t eat for a period of time in your day, you are less worried about preparing and eating your meals, or even washing dishes for that matter.
So, if you begin realizing how difficult it may be to keep up with classes, work, or life’s responsibilities, think about how much more convenient it would be to eat once your day is finished AND become a healthier version of yourself.
Don’t blame your school’s dining hall for making you gain the freshman 15.
Don’t blame your job because you are the one who signed up for it.
And most importantly, don’t blame anyone else for your poor eating habits — YOU are the one that controls your own body — NOT anyone else!
I know you are capable of skipping breakfast just 1 time, and if you’ve gotten that far, then that should be enough to show what your body is really capable of.
If you want to learn how to approach this without having to go out of your way to learn from various sources, I have put together an online course that takes you through every step of the way to becoming a fasting beast! By the way it’s FREE → Body Reps — Intermittent Fasting Guide to Burning Fat
