Intermittent fasting is by far my favorite way to keep myself lean, while still gaining mass and endurance all the while eating anything wholesome I want. There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there right now regarding I.F. and in this article I hope to dispell some of those myths and guide you closer to setting up a basic plan that will work for you and your fitness goals.
I think a lot of the skepticism surrounding I.F. stems from it sounding too good to be true. Fasting raises your good cholesterol, improves insulin sensitivity, raises BDNF levels, reduces blood sugar & blood pressure, cleanses your body of toxins, gives you greater energy, improves heart health, helps you lose weight and keep it off permanently, enhances your mental performance & will make you live longer. You’ll see these improvements even if you don’t change a thing about what you eat, or you may combine it with whatever method of healthy eating you wish to really see results. After your fasting period for the day is over, go home and eat whatever you feel like, so long as you stop before your next fast begins. Ideally, you’ll want to figure out how many calories your body needs for your stated goal - fat loss, muscle gaining, or maintenance - and then keep within those guidelines. Personally, I don’t count calories at all. I simply adjust my training as necessary to acheive my goals.
The premise:
Let us first straighten one thing out: This is not a crash diet, this is a lifestyle. A diet isn’t something one comes on and off of, rather it is a way of eating which one should enjoy and remain with. The sorts of diets you hear about most often are called crash diets because one typicall goes into a massive caloric defecit for a short period of time. These diets will do nothing but set you up for failure. I.F. will provide you with a lifetime of health and vigor without the craving and stress of traditional weight loss methods.
There are several methods of I.F. but the one I espouse is a 16 to 18 hour fast, followed respectively by an 8 or 6 hour window in which you get in all of your daily caloric requirements. The 8 hour window I find is best, allowing you to get in 2 or 3 meals and still train just as hard or harder than ever before. I go from 8 PM to 12 noon with my fast, as it is easiest for my schedule. For you morning workout enthusiasts, you can simply adjust your fast/eat periods as necessary e.g. stop eating around 4 PM so you can get your proper pre-workout meal at 8 AM. I find it easier to put the bulk of my fasting hours during the time when I am asleep, giving me more time to work out. I also combine I.F. with a whole food, low to moderate carb diet to get the best health benefits possible. Whatever carbs I do eat, which are mostly fruit & veggies, get cycled around my workouts. One of the best things about this lifestyle is that I can go out a couple times a month and stuff myself with beer and pizza without feeling a single twinge of guilt, or losing a single bit of abdominal definition.
What about gaining muscle?
The best thing you should do for yourself regardless of which diet you follow is to totally forget the myth of muscle catabolism the way it is preached throughout the fitness circles. Fasting for such a short period of time will not cause you to lose muscle, nor will it inhibit you from gaining. With any type of diet you may burn a miniscule amount of muscle at times, your body regenerates it at a much faster rate. If you time your pre and post-workout meals properly during your eating phase, you will gain just as much muscle and recover just as fast as ever, unless you are carrying so much extra muscle that it simply requires un-human amounts of calories to sustain you (think of a pro-sized bodybuilder).
How about stimulants?
Well, to put it simply, stimulants such as an E/C/Y stack work the exact same way whether you do I.F. or not and may even provide you with a little more energy while you are adjusting to your fasted states. So long as you can avoid calorie containing creamers and don’t mind using artificial sweeteners or drinking black coffee/tea, there is no reason to stop consuming those beverages. I would advise caution and take less of these than you are used to simply because without food in your stomach, you wont require so much. I.F. also provides you with a lot more natural energy, thanks to certain increased brain chemical activity and less digestive activity. Most supplements for fat loss don’t contain any calories, but check just to be sure. The goal of a fast is to consume NO calories whatsoever.
It’s easy!
After you get used to eating this way, it becomes second nature. Most find that after the first few days, they do not crave food at all during their fasting phase. Most of your initial hunger will be from minor stomach irritation as your body is used to being almost constantly fed. Aside from the health benefits of fasting, it also can free up enormous amounts of time during your day which would otherwise be spent cooking, packing food for work, and eating. Combine this with a solid workout plan, and you cannot fail.
I am working on a small downloadable guide to I.F. which will include a lot more in depth information, as well as the modern history of fasting. It will be made available soon and for only a few dollars. I may also include a bound, printed edition for not much more. If you would like to see a specific topic covered, send me an e-mail and if there is enough interest I will include it. Donations are also very, very helpful to keep this site going. Some subjects included will be:
- A broadened explanation of how intermittent fasting works along with medical findings.
- Suggestions for certain athletic disciplines, such as endurance sports or bodybuilding.
- Fasting & low vs. high carb diets. Also touching on paleo and vegetarian diets.
- Info for folks with certain digestive ailments, such as IBD or Colitis.
- Resources for calculating your daily caloric requirements, and suggestions for losing weight and gaining mass.
- Workout suggestions for beginners, as well as ways to get lean & ripped with nothing but your own bodyweight.
May 15, 2008 at 21:07:23
Maybe I missed something but how many times do you fast like this? Once a week/month? Or is this continuous?
May 15, 2008 at 22:24:23
Adam, I fast like this daily. I go from 8 PM to around 12 Noon (sometimes later) eating nothing, and then eat my daily caloric requirement from noon to 8. So 16 hrs of fasting, followed by 8 hrs of eating. You can do it daily because during the eating phase, you’re getting all of the calories you need for a day, so you never run a permanent deficit per se. There’s a lot of studies out there which show that IF is comparable to calorie restriction in terms of the health benefits, yet it doesn’t restrict any calories at the end of the day (studies also feature a day of eating followed by a day of fasting, which I don’t recommend for athletes at all. 16/8hr phases are just as beneficial and don’t require the mental stress of going a full day without food.)
May 16, 2008 at 11:23:23
Thanks for the clarification Eric. I used to be on a similar schedule, not on purpose-just sort of fell into it, though more like 1PM-9PM. I’ve been on a more traditional schedule the past few months (eat breakfast early in the AM, big lunch, small dinner with snacks in between) and feel my body much prefers such a schedule. I have more energy and have lost a good amount of fat due to exercising and this traditional schedule.
I’m certainly not knocking your schedule, if it works for you then that’s great! Just the same, I’m sure there’s people who are on a traditional schedule who would be better off on an IF schedule.