In 2019 it's increasingly likely that you have heard the words "intermittent fasting." While the health practice has rapidly gained traction over the last few years thanks to influencers like Greg O'Gallagher (KinoBody), many questions remain.

What exactly is "Intermittent fasting"?

What are its benefits?

What tips/tricks/supplements can make it easier to perform?

Hopefully, by the end of the article, you'll have all the necessary info to get into the best shape of your life without all the fluff of the bloated "fitness" industry.

(This article is part of a huge wealth of information included in my new book "Woke/Yoke/Remote", we'll cover everything from aliens to IF to online business. If you're interested, please visit the preorder link here to check out the preview: https://gumroad.com/l/QJNtH)

What IS Intermittent Fasting (IF)?

Intermittent fasting is a practice that involves the user eating one meal a day at a minimum of 13-18 hrs after their last meal. This time length ensures that your body has time to fully benefit from the fast.

Ok, so I just don't eat and magically become fit??

Well kind of.

With the planet facing the highest rate of childhood obesity ever, with one out of three children considered obese, more people with diabetes in the last ten years than in the past fifty combined, and more depression and antipsychotic medicines on the market than ever before and by a long shot, it's obvious we have a diet problem.

Humanity evolved in circumstances very different from our plush modern day lifestyles. Back in our hunter and gatherer days, we often had to work all day in order to ensure that we had something to eat at the end of the day. The modern 3 meals a day meme was not only not practiced, but nearly impossible to achieve.

The human body evolved to accommodate this lifestyle, and therefore has a very specific chemical cocktail designed to keep us functioning while on an empty stomach.

In fact, given that the average human spends 10% of their daily energy output on digestion, we function even better without a stomach full of rotting food all day. It takes about 6-8 hours for the human body to fully digest a meal. This means if you're eating 3 meals a day, you spend the majority of the day with old food in your system.

This ties in with mood as well as recent scientific research shows that we have a "second brain" in our gut. Yes, you read that right, the bacteria content of our guts directly affect our mental abilities.

This may explain why so many religions around the world incorporate a fasting practice.

As an empty glass vibrates at a higher frequency, it goes to reason that praying while fasting would increase your body's ability to emit a clear frequency of intention.

Benefits of IF

So how does fasting compare to traditional dieting?

Well firstly, there's no calorie counting involved. When you restrict your meals to a 6-hour window, it is very hard to overeat given your stomachs capacity.

Another weight loss benefit is the fact that working out while fasted forces your body to draw energy from stored fat as opposed to newly digested food.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the body's "hunger mode" that causes the body to start holding on to fat to reduce calorie usage. This starvation mode is completely avoided as IF leaves the body completely full when you go to bed (also makes it very easy to go to bed).

What I believe to be one of the most underrated benefits of the IT practice is the fact that it teaches you to respect your food. Many people subconsciously use eating as a mode of entertainment. Unlike in the primitive world, food is plentiful and calorie dense, and many people become addicted to chemicals like sugar, salt, and high fructose corn syrup.

While performing IF every meal becomes a feast. It also allows you to have all day to plan out a nutritious, healthy meal.

The mindset of food as fuel, not merely entertainment is extremely powerful for personal health.

So how exactly does IF accomplish all of these miraculous benefits?

Mainly through hormone control.

Our bodies were designed to survive for weeks without eating. The wizard behind this feat is the pituitary gland. This gland listens closely to our bodies' needs like a conductor and unleashes a symphony of emergency and powerful hormones when the situation calls for it.

Among these:

• Human growth hormone (HGH)

• Insulin

• Norepinephrine

• Adrenaline

• Cortisol

Let's take these one by one.

HGH

Bodybuilders may recognize HGH as a steroid like supplement that massively assists in muscle growth. Well, you're right. After the 13 hr mark of a fast, your pituitary starts kicking out increasing amounts of the miracle chemical at increasing rates until you end your fast.

Up to 1000% normal levels.

What else does it do?

• Stimulates the breakdown of fatty tissue because our body needs the fat to produce energy (Lipolysis)

• Acts as a protein replacement when needed.

• Raises the synthesis of lean muscle and the storage of glycogen and fat.

• Improves strength, exercise endurance, skin, hair, mood, energy, healing, and flexibility, resistance to disease,
  libido, and memory,

• Reduces body fat, stress, cravings while balancing hormones and reversing aging.

Insulin

"Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that helps the body store and use glucose. Think of insulin as the U.S. Postal Service and glucose as the mail; insulin is responsible for delivering that glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream into muscle, fat, liver, and most other cells so that your body can use it for fuel."

• At its lowest for the day in the morning

• Breakfast in morning spikes insulin

• Stops HGH production

So for our purposes, it's important to prevent insulin production for the majority of the day. Overproduction of insulin is what leads to type 2 diabetes.

Low insulin helps trigger our next topic

Norepinephrine

This is a neural transmitter that fires when insulin is low and increases:

• Alertness

• Arousal

• Promotes vigilance

• Enhances formation

• Retrieval of memory

• Ability to focus and pay attention.

Adrenaline

A well-known substance, adrenaline is known as the "fight or flight" chemical. It has the following benefits:

• Increases alertness and energy

• Enhances blood flow to muscles, the output of the heart, pupil dilation and blood sugar

Cortisol

While insulin is anabolic (builds us up), cortisol is catabolic. This means that cortisol helps us break down fat faster and more efficiently. It is at its peak as soon as we wake up. However, eating any more than 60 calories immediately turns us anabolic again. Cortisol and HGH can be high at the same time, allowing for maximum benefits.

Conclusion

So what have we learned?

1. When you first wake up, your body is in a catabolic state, helping you break down fat as efficiently as possible.

2. Eating any more than 60 calories will trigger an anabolic state by releasing insulin to digest the food.

3. If insulin stays low, norepinephrine and adrenaline production is triggered. This increases alertness, arousal,
   increases blood flow to muscles and focus.

4. 13 hrs into your fast your pituitary gland floods your body with HGH, stimulating lean muscle growth,
   breaking down fat, promoting healthy skin and hair, reduces craving and reverses aging. This production increases until the end of the fast.

5. You become a shredded, focused, ageless superhuman.

Tips/Tricks/Supplements

So know that we know what intermittent fasting is and what it's benefits are, how do you actually do the darn thing?

Well, it's pretty simple. just don't eat.

Haha, ok, well there are some things that do help. Personally, I like to start my morning with some coffee, followed by a FASTED shake (more on that later). I then get along with my day, keeping a water bottle by my side. Not only is staying hydrated extremely helpful for all areas of health, but it also helps keep your stomach full. Often times when you feel hungry, you're actually just dehydrated.

After some focused work, I like to go hit a fasted workout. Remember this forces the body to access energy from fat. Afterward, I like to hit a sauna session followed by a cold shower. This helps my body detox and increase metabolism even further.

Post workout (around 17 hrs into the fast) I'll have my first meal. This allows my body to go anabolic immediately after the workout, supplying my muscles with the building blocks they need to grow.

And that's about it, I'll then read a little and go to bed with a full stomach.

FASTED

Ok, so what was that FASTED thing?

FASTED is one of the world's first IF focused supplements. While it may seem funny to have a supplement for a fasting practice, it ensures that your body gets all the essential nutrients it needs while helping to suppress hunger.

FASTED is 100% organic and natural, with no artificial glues.

It's formulated to be taken with your morning coffee and has all the essential components to suppress hunger and fulfill all of your daily nutritional supplement needs.

It includes:

• Chia seed omega 3’s
  - Important for brain function
  - Better than fish oil, no mercury
  - Fiber, protein

• 1g MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane)

  • Promotes collagen production for smooth skin
    • May relieve joint pain and stiffness
    • Anti-inflammatory Benefits digestive health

• 400mg Acetyl-L-Carnitine
  - Improves brain function, mood, learning, and memory.
  - Helps muscle mitochondria burn fat and increase endurance
  - Boosts circulation Lowers inflammation Reduces muscle fatigue

• 400mg L-Theanine

  • Promotes relaxation without drowsiness.
  • When paired with caffeine (coffee/tea), may increase focus

Alright, all this sounds pretty cool, how do I know it actually works?

Best way to answer that question is to look at some testimonials. Let's start with the creator of FASTED.

Dan Hensley had always struggled with weight loss. For years he experimented with every dieting trend under the sun. He would be successful for a while as most are until he grew fatigued of the restrictions and boomeranged back to square one.

This inspired him to invest thousands of hours in some serious personal research.

Thus was born FASTED (available here)

After successfully losing 100 pounds on a combination of IF and FASTED, Dan went on to mentor over 6000 people online. After accumulating these 6000 case studies he released his complete fitness guide "XFormation" available here.

He then went on to become the Quara writer of the year in the fitness/health category.

Oh, and did I mention he became a multi-millionaire last year?

May or may not be related ;)

On a personal level, my good friend Charles started using IF and FASTED last month. Even without strict adherence to IF (weekends off), he managed to lose 13 pounds.

We would start every day with FASTED, hit a fasted workout and then eat. Not even particularly healthy food and was still able to produce solid results.

Well, I think that's everything. I hope we've addressed any questions you may have had about IF, fasted workouts and supplementation.

All that's left to do is to try it yourself!

Peace, Love, Anarchy

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