Havent Been Able To Stick To A Diet This Diet Is The Answer Thatll Finally Get You The Body Youve Always Dreamed Of
If you want to burn fat the good news is that youll find no shortage of diet plans on the internet. The bad news is that there are so many different diets that you can get lost in the confusion.
Should you go with high protein/low carbs? Cycle carbs? Eat 6 small meals a day? The Grapefruit Diet?
Ive seen hundreds of diets over the years and they all boil down to one thing: burning more calories than you take in.
After studying many diets most of them are just complicated ways to accomplish this goal.
But if theres one dieting method that stands out from the pack with regard to burning more fat in a shorter amount of time its intermittent fasting.
Whats so different about intermittent fasting that allows you to burn fat as quickly as possible without sacrificing muscle mass?
Lets answer this question by looking at what intermittent fasting is how it differs from conventional eating if it can be used for muscle gains and the pros and cons of intermittent fasting.
Mistake #: Breaking Your Fast With A High
At the end of a 16-18-hour fast , you may be feeling pretty hungry and tempted to splurge with a high-carb meal like pizza or a burger and fries. Id suggest not doing that if you want to maximize fat loss.
IF allows you to be somewhat loose with your eating, but that doesnt change the fact that high protein intake is important along with healthy, wholesome food choices. Coming off of a fast, I recommend a high-protein meal as opposed to one loaded with carbs.
Research supports my advice. One study found that when subjects consumed a high-carbohydrate meal, levels of a critical uncoupling protein decreased within an hour after the meal subjects who consumed a low-carb meal, however, maintained elevated levels of the uncoupling protein an hour after eating.
Why is this important? Because IF is effective for fat loss in part because of uncoupling proteins. When you fast, it turns on genes that encode for certain uncoupling proteins and for enzymes that increase fat burning. The uncoupling proteins basically poke holes in the mitochondria inside muscle cells. The mitochondria are where most of your energy is derived from, especially at rest. By poking holes in the mitochondria, they produce less energy, so they have to burn far more calories to produce the same amount of energy in the form of ATP.
5 of 6
South_agency / Getty
Calorie Restriction & Cyclical Under
Since the 1930s, animal studies have been telling us that restricting calories improves health and longevity. Until recently, we believed that it was necessary to starve yourself to reap the benefits.
But you can actually trim your waistline, improve your biomarkers of health, and increase your longevity without the pain, suffering, and hunger that comes along with restriction. Fasting works, too, but since its difficult for Big Food to profit from people going without their food, most of the benefits of skipping meals dont make it into common wisdom.
Theres a monumental difference between common and normal, however. Today, more than 67% of us in the United States are overweight or obese. Being overweight is common. But its not normal.
Fasting, on the other hand, is historically quite normal but isnt common in a world abundant with drive-thrus, meal-replacement shakes, and eating 6+ times a day is healthy dogmatism.
For millions of people across the world, regular fasting is commonplace and has been part of spiritual practice for thousands of years.
But before that, fasting was simply a way of life. With no storable grains, and few other foods that stayed fresh for very long, most of our ancestors experienced both feast and famine on a regular basis. When game was scarce, seasons changed, or the pickings were slim, hunter-gatherers did without.
To reap the full rewards of the Wild lifestyle, you might consider going without occasionally, too.
Recommended Reading: When Fasting How Many Calories
Does Eating Moreoften Burn More Calories
Studies show how often you eat doesnt significantly change how many calories you spend on digestion. Eating 6 small meals is not going to stoke your metabolism because eating 2 large meals will have the same thermic effect of food.
The thermic effect offood , or how much of the food you ate gets burnt off as calories, dependson not the timing but more on the macronutrient ratios of the meal. Protein hasthe highest thermic effect.
- TEF of protein is 25-30%
- Carbs 6-8%
- Fat 2-3%
If your daily caloricintake is 2500, then youll still have a TEF of 250 no matter how many mealsyou have. 2500 calories in total.
- 6 meals of 420 calories each= 42 calories burned per meal .
- 4 meals of 625 calories each= 62 calories burned per meal .
- 2 meals of 1250 calories each= 125 calories burned per meal .
No matter what mealfrequency you choose, youll still be burning the same amount of calories fromTEF. To burn more calories during digestion, youd have to eat a higher proteindiet and less fat and carbs because protein has the highest TEF and tends to bemore satiating. So, how many calories you burn with intermittent fasting alsodepends on what kind of foods you eat during your eating window.
A Little Meal History
Many people across the world – have been brought up on the idea of three square meals a day as a normal eating pattern, but it wasn’t always that way.
We don’t know for sure, but suspect our early ancestors had only one main meal a day.
The Ancient Greeks, Persians, Romans and early Jews all ate one big meal per day – usually around noon or in the evening.
The Romans were obsessed with digestion and eating more than one meal was considered a form of gluttony. This thinking impacted on the way people ate for a very long time.
The habit of two meals a day was still the norm in the 19th century even among the upper-classes, and only changed recently.
A proverb at the time proclaimed this was the healthy new recipe for long life: ‘To rise at six, dine at ten, sup at six and go to bed at ten makes a man live ten times ten.”
You May Like: How Long To Intermittent Fasting
Who Shouldnt Use Intermittent Fasting
There are certain circumstances under which intermittent fasting isnt ideal or shouldnt be used. While it is an effective tool, everyones biochemistry is different and can vary at different stages or times in your life.
You should NOT use intermittent fasting if you are:
- Suffering from adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue can occur when you are under a lot of intense stress, have suffered an infection or illness, or are severely sleep-deprived. Adrenal fatigue makes you very tired, and it affects the way you metabolize your food.
- Pregnant or nursing. To sustain the increased caloric needs of growing baby and/or milk production, you should be eating regularly.
- Have or are recovering from an eating disorder. Its important to have and maintain a healthy relationship with food. If you have an eating disorder, please seek professional help. If you are recovering from an eating disorder or have struggled with eating disorders in the past, please do not use intermittent fasting as a weight-loss tool.
- Are a child. Children are growing while they sleep and need a good quality breakfast to replenish their spent energy. An ideal should not include fruit juice or grains, but rather protein and vegetables like a Green Monster Frittata or boiled eggs, meat, and vegetables.
- Consult your healthcare professional prior to beginning a fast if you have any condition you are concerned will be negatively affected by a change in diet.
Intermittent Fasting And Keto: The Ultimate Fat Burning Combo
There are scientific reasons intermittent fasting and keto go hand-in-hand. While each of these fat burning strategies is powerful on its own, they compliment each other perfectly when combined. In this article, well cover the basics of this fat-blasting, brain-building duo and how to figure out if the two are right for you.
In this article, you will learn:
Recommended Reading: How Much Can I Lose Intermittent Fasting
Question: Can I Work Out While Intermittent Fasting
Exercise burns fat. Intermittent fasting burns fat. But is it actually safe to exercise while intermittent fasting? The answer: yes.
So long as youre taking care of your caloric and nutrition intake during the feed portions of your intermittent fasting schedule, and so long as youre timing your exercise appropriately in reference to your fast/feed schedule , exercise can actually work synergistically with intermittent fasting. This is especially the case when a fat burner supplement is involved to help minimize the downsides of intermittent fasting.
The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
The benefits of intermittent fasting apply to many bodily systemsvirtually all of them, reallyso to spend time on all of the benefits of intermittent fasting would take up an entire article in itself. Instead, here are the benefits of IF pertaining to fitness and fat loss:
- Increased fat breakdown and mobilization
- Reduced blood insulin and sugar levels
- Improved relationship to food
- Enhanced mitochondrial health and energy output
- Short-term increase on growth hormone
When eating, insulin is released to manage the increase in blood sugar levels. However, too much insulin activity can be damaging to your insulin receptors, resulting in poor metabolic performance.
You May Like: How To Lose Weight Fast Intermittent Fasting
Is Intermittent Fasting Safe
Some people try intermitting fasting for weight management, and others use the method to address chronic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, high cholesterol or arthritis. But intermittent fasting isnt for everyone.
Williams stresses that before you try intermittent fasting , you should check in with your primary care practitioner first. Some people should steer clear of trying intermittent fasting:
- Children and teens under age 18.
- Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
- People with diabetes or blood sugar problems.
- Those with a history of eating disorders.
But, Williams says, people not in these categories who can do intermittent fasting safely can continue the regimen indefinitely. It can be a lifestyle change, she says, and one with benefits.
Keep in mind that intermittent fasting may have different effects on different people. Talk to your doctor if you start experiencing unusual anxiety, headaches, nausea or other symptoms after you start intermittent fasting.
How Does An Intermittent Fast Burn Fat
Assuming youve never gone on an intermittent fast before, you may be fascinated with how this works. How does the body burn fat while fasting? Is it simply by calorie restriction alone?
Actually, no. To understand how your body torches fat, we first have to talk about the bodys energy source.
From the moment you wake up until when you go to sleep , your body needs energy. This is what allows you to get up, go about your daily routine, and enjoy your life rather than feel like youre dragging through it.
This energy comes from glycogen, a polysaccharide of glucose. Bacteria, fungi, animals, and humans alike all rely on glycogen to fuel our daily activities. When our systems receive glucose, a simple sugar, we can synthesize it to glycogen for energy through glycogenesis.
Where does glucose come from? Mostly in the foods we eat. The foods with the highest quantities of glucose are fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Thus, if you eat a diet rich with olive oil, avocados, peanut butter, cheese, meat, fish, dairy, fruits and vegetables, pasta, rice, and bread, you get plenty of glucose.
If your body has more glucose than it needs, it holds onto it for later. This can increase your insulin, meaning your body will always burn glucose, even if given the chance to burn fat instead. Should you develop an insulin resistance and this becomes chronic, your body increases insulin production when youre full.
Don’t Miss: How To Eat Intermittent Fasting Diet
Optimal Intermittent Fasting Windows
This so-called time-restricted eating is a form of intermittent fasting. Instead of fasting on alternate days or several 24-hour periods per week, time-restricted eating encourages dieters to limit their meals to certain windows of time.
Eating and drinking during a 10-hour window allows your body to rest and restore for 14 hours while drinking water, coffee or tea. According to study co-author Satchin Panda, PhD, Your body can also anticipate when you will eat, so it can prepare the body to optimize metabolism.
Other studies on time-restricted eating have found similar results. Researchers from the University of Alabama split obese men with prediabetes into two groups: One group ate all of its meals within an 8-hour window between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. and the other spread its meals out over 12 hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The study showed both groups maintained their weight but those who restricted their eating to an 8-hour window had lower insulin levels, reduced insulin sensitivity and lower blood pressure their appetites decreased, too.
Flexible Fasting: My Preferred Intermittent Fasting Schedule
Finally, I want to show you the intermittent fasting schedule Im using currently that I believe works very well.
When I started my fitness journey I used the 16:8 schedule which is a fine protocol to use. However, I quickly realized that I wanted more freedom with my dieting.
Personally I hate restrictions and do the most I can to avoid them. So, what I wanted to improve with the 16:8 schedule was to allow for more flexibility. I did this by not setting a strict time at night where I had to stop eat, nor a strict time at midday when I had to start eat.
Instead I always make sure that I postpone my first meal of the day 4-6 hours, sometimes up to 8 hours depending on how I feel, and by doing so I stop eat when I want at night.
This further decreases how much I must depend on willpower.
Having to stop eat at say 8 or 9 PM just because the schedule says so, is incredibly hard in our culture today. The evenings is the time when most of us enjoy food with family and friends. So, allowing myself to eat as late as I want completely removes the stress of having to resist food while everyone else is eating.
For me it makes a lot more sense just skipping food for as long as I feel is possible during the morning and day instead. At this time Im usually on the move making things happen anyways and are not thinking about food.
So, heres an outline of the whole Flexible Fasting Schedule that I use and recommend:
Don’t Miss: How Does Intermittent Fasting Cause Weight Loss
Can You Eat While Intermittent Fasting
Most people wonder if they are allowed to eat something during intermittent fasting? Intermittent fasting is different from regular fasting. It refers to the eating patterns and the cycle between the periods of eating and fasting. There are several forms of intermittent fasting, most of them completely abstaining from food for 16-24 hours at a time, and some allow you to drink calorie-free or low-calorie beverages such as water or detox water, herbal tea or green tea, coffee, etc.
But consuming food in intermittent fasting is completely restricted until your dietitian wont suggest it to you. The reason behind it is that eating food during the period of fasting will increase the decreased insulin level. So if youre concerned about when does the body start burning fat during fasting, avoid eating during fasting.
So hopefully you get an answer to your query can you eat while intermittent fasting.
Mistake #: Thinking Intermittent Fasting Is Too Hard
I hear this a lot from people. The thought of eating nothing for an extended period of time can be intimidating. Ill starve if I go that long without eating, they say. Or, I wont have any energy and Ill be a cranky as hell if I fast.
First of all, your body will not starve by eating nothing for 16-18 hours not even close. But also, intermittent fasting is way easier than youd think it just sounds hard if you havent tried it yet.
IF is so easy, in fact, that youre actually doing it without even realizing it. Most people follow close to a 12/12 IF schedule meaning, 12 hours of fasting alternated with a 12-hour feeding window every day.
For example, if you end your last meal around 8:00 pm and eat your first meal at 8:00 am, thats 12/12. Even if you eat you last meal at midnight and eat your first meal at 8:00 am, thats an 8/16 IF. Research shows that as little as a 12-hour fasting window can provide benefits.
Starting IF is easy. Just make sure youre close to a 12/12 schedule. As that becomes easy, increase the fasting window while decreasing the feeding window by an hour each. Start with 12/12 and set a goal to eventually arrive at a daily 16/8 schedule. But take your time getting there. Do 12/12 for a few days, or even a few weeks, then step it up to 13/11 for the same amount of time, then 14/10, then 15/9, then 16/8. Trust me, its easier than most people think.
2 of 6
Zhanna Fashayan
Read Also: What Does Intermittent Fasting Do To Your Body
Will I Lose Weight If I Fast For Only One Day
Again, the only factor in weight loss is calories in vs calories out over time.
If fasting for one day per week means that ultimately you eat fewer calories than you burn in the week, then yes, you will lose weight that way.
However, if you fast for one day and then eat more in the following days to make up for the lost calories or eat more to satiate increased hunger during that time due to the fasting day, then you will not lose weight.
Looking at the numbers, you probably wont lose much noticeable amount of weight by fasting for only one day.
One pound of fat is 2500 kcals. If you burn 2500 kcals more than you eat then you will lose 1lb of fat.
Most people burn about 2000 kcals per day. So if you dont eat anything for 24 hours, you will burn about 2000 kcals which wouldnt even be one pound of weight.
Its much more effective and much safer to eat in a smaller calorie deficit regularly over time to lose weight .
