What if you could eat the exact same meals yet lose weight and become healthier? This is where intermittent fasting can transform your life.
VIDEO VERSION
ARTICLE VERSION
Estimated Reading Time: 5-6 mins
Why read this? Because making a simple shift in how you eat, not what you eat can create powerful results
FED VS FAST
First of all, what is Intermittent Fasting or I.F?
Intermittent Fasting is essentially timing your meals so that you maximize the benefits of being in the ‘fasted’ state.
Now, intermittent just means doing something in intervals, and
Fasting or the fasted state, is where your body goes into starvation mode (don’t worry it’s not as bad as it sounds). This is where your body stops using immediate food sources for energy (i.e. glucose and glycogen) and switches over to stored sources, such as body fat, typically 12 hours after your last meal.
The beauty of Intermittent Fasting is that it’s not a diet! Which means you can still eat all the normal meals you want and reap the benefits of being in the fasted state. The only thing that you need to do is to adjust the timing of your meals slightly.
BENEFITS OF INTERMITTENT FASTING
Ok, so why bother to even do this in the first place?
There are so many benefits of I.F, however I will focus on the top 3 just to show you how powerful it is.
Lose Weight Whilst Maintaining Muscle Mass
Now you might be thinking “how can I lose weight eating the exact same meals?”
The answer lies in being in starvation mode longer.
Being in the fasted state allows you to access “fat burning mode”. Since your body needs fuel to keep it functioning and your immediate glucose or glycogen is usually depleted during the previous 8-12 hours of consuming a meal, it starts using the body’s fat reserves. So you lose weight by burning fat the longer you are in starvation mode.
In addition to helping you It also increases insulin sensitivity which is very important for weight loss!
Now, how it preserves muscle mass is through the mechanism of releasing HGH or Human Growth Hormone.
HGH as the name suggests helps you grow, and in this case synthesize and preserve muscle mass. HGH is maximized approximately 13 hours after your last meal, this is where your body can reap the benefits of HGH through growth and cell regeneration.
Improved Cognitive Function
Even more counter-intuitive is gaining clarity while starving yourself. Well It’s actually quite simple if you think about it from an evolutionary stand point. Thinking back to the hunter-gather days, there would be times when food was scarce and that we needed to spend days searching for food. We didn’t have fridges or deliveroo, so our survival depended on maintaining a peak state to hunt.
During I.F epinephrine and norepinephrine (or adrenalin) increases which improves your focus and attention. This is where you get an increase in alertness, mood and focus.
In addition, due to reduced insulin levels from fasting increases, you get a surge of a chemical compound called BDNF, or Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor that helps increase neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to adapt), mood and cognitive functions.
What you are essentially doing when you fast or starve yourself is, priming yourself for food by tapping into your brain's inherent survival mechanism, and as a result you experience increased cognitive functions.
Improved Health and Regenerative Capacities
Digestion is a very taxing bodily function. If you’ve ever had a food coma from overeating you will know exactly what I mean. By fasting, you give your body ample time to digest and recover, and by doing so you free up your body to focus on other vital processes such as healing and growing.
Some Other Benefits of I.F
• Reduced Blood Pressure via mechanisms of balancing blood glucose levels
• Neural Protection via reducing oxidative stress
• And overall improved energy
• Promotes longevity – same mechanisms observed as In caloric restriction
• Reduces the side effects of cancer
How to Implement Intermittent Fasting
So how do you start intermittent fasting? It's all about timing!
There are various I.F protocols depending on your purpose, for simplicity I will give you two popular methods. You can find more information here http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
16:8 Protocol
The first method is by far the easiest and least disruptive to most people’s routine. This is essentially where you have a window of 8 hours to consume your total caloric intake, followed by a 16 hour fast.
So for example, have your first meal of the day at 12pm and your last meal at 8pm, then fast for the rest of the time. Obviously this involves skipping breakfast, however I find that this is the best way to implement a 16:8 I.F due to convenience – as your sleep schedule can help wipe out 8 hours. Find what timing works for you!
24 Hour Fast
The other method is a 24 hour fast. If you are a bit more ambitious you can opt to fast for an entire 24 hours, this way you maximize the benefits of being in starvation mode longer. As you can imagine, this is more inconvenient and requires more discipline.
Tips and Caveats
If you are new to I.F you will most likely going to experience some kind of discomfort, mainly starving for a few hours! Just note that this is completely normal and does not mean you’re going to starve to death. Your bodies’ satiety hormones (ghrelin) will need some time to adjust. Be strong, it will take about a week or two before it becomes effortless and a part of your routine.
In fact, you can fast comfortably without any adverse effect for 96+ hours, even in this case your metabolism drops a bit. I mean there are people that do fasts for weeks (think about Lent), however, I wouldn’t recommend that in the beginning.
Make sure to drink plenty of water when you fast, also, tea and coffee can be consumed.
Another tip is that you can still exercise whilst in the fasted state. In fact, you will get greater gains from I.F due to the increased HGH and other metabolic processes (i.e. fat burning). In one study, it was shown that fasting up to 20+ hours caused HGH levels to skyrocket by 2000%! (link in references).
Lastly, I’m not a doctor nor a nutritionist, however, I have tried both methods of I.F and have studied this topic intensively. As with anything that involves your health, take care or consult a medical professional.
THE POWER OF I.F
I.F teaches your body to use food it consumes more efficiently by utilizing the mechanisms of survival, after all, they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
In the end, by making a simple adjustment to when you eat you can reap significant benefits associated with the fasting state.
REFERENCES
- Fasting increases HGH secretion: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/
- Increased Epinephrine during I.F: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2405717
- Fasting and BDNF: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3915771/
- Increased longevity with I.F: http://www.medical-hypotheses.com/article/S0306-9877(06)00089-2/abstract
- Improves cancer treatment symptoms: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2815756/
- Fasting for 96+ hours effects: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3661473
- Exercising when fasting: http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/08/24/intermittent-fasting.aspx
- 2000% increase in HGH whilst fasting: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/imc-sfr033111.php
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