How To Do Intermittent Fasting For Rapid Weight Loss
Research shows intermittent fasting to be a powerful tool for helping you reach and maintain a healthy weight.
Fasting means you arent eating for an extended period of time. If you think about it, fasting isnt all that unnatural.
What exactly is intermittent fasting ?
Its not a diet necessarily , but, more of a style of dieting.
Although there are many approaches to IF, the underlying principle is the same:
Restrict the amount of time youre eating every day.;
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Eat More Vegetables And Fibers
That looks like a pretty obvious tip to give. Of course, Im not going to advocate getting fries with every meal if you want to lost weight.
But if you cant help snacking and you feel like cravings and appetite are the main culprit in your weight-loss plateau, add in more vegetables and fiber-rich foods.
Most vegetables are pretty low carb, low-calory and you can eat a lot of them.
Theyre full of vitamins and if you need to snack or if you feel like youre not eating enough, packing on fresh vegetables wont have too much of an impact on your weight.
Fibers are also great because theyll help you feel satiated more quickly and good fiber in your food will lessen insulin response in the body. This will lead to less appetite and a bigger effect on weight loss.
Overall, getting more vegetables and fibers will also account for a smaller overall calorie intake.
Snack on brocoli and kale, eat dinner on oeatmeal or lentiles, and you should see great results with weight loss.
What To Eat With Fasting
Ive found most people who have trouble with their weight do better eating a lower amount of carbs. Im not saying you have to cut them out completely but you should focus on lowering them to boost weight loss. People who are naturally athletic and have more trouble putting on weight do better with lower fats and higher carbs and protein.
You should calculate your BMR to give you a ballpark picture of how many calories your body burns in a day. Then you should keep your calories under that number. You dont have to count your calories for the rest of your life but you should do so for at least for a little while so you can figure out what you should be eating in a day.
Focus on eating real whole foods. Higher protein diets have also been found to be beneficial for weight loss. Avoid starchy, sugary, and carb-rich foods especially those from refined grains and flour. Lastly, make sure youre avoiding bad vegetable oils that could also promote weight gain.
Should you exercise during fasting?
When it comes to exercise youll drop more poundage by working out along with your fasting . I prefer to do cardio in the mornings when Im fasting for an extra fat burn . Then doing a strength training workout later in the day can help to tone up and burn stubborn fat from your body.
Can you lose a pound a day fasting?
Will you lose weight if you fast for 24 hours?
The Last Word
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What Can You Eat On The 1: 8 Diet
This diet isnt suggesting you cram all the food you can into 8 hours. You need to make sure youre eating a balance of fat busting and health boosting foods. Experts have suggest making sure you get a balance of lean meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables, nuts and beans each day.
Make sure to eat a balanced diet.
Tom said, Many people fail the 16:8 diet by packing in too many calories into the 8 hour period, often trying to get some in before the 8 hours ends. You should still be following a strict diet with a complete nutritional breakdown, to ensure you are consuming a targeted number of calories, not to mention macro nutrients and ensuring youre not consuming too much sugar.
Fatty Fish Nuts Seeds And Others
As you may already know, not all fat is bad for you and makes you gain weight. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are so-called healthy fats. They may help you reduce your bad cholesterol level and decrease the risk of heart disease . Consumption of fatty fish, such as trout, tuna, sardines, salmon, and mackerel can provide you with healthy fat and protein. Other great sources of unsaturated fats include avocados, olives, flax and chia seeds, nuts , and nut butter, olive oil, and others .
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Why You May Not See Results
Although there is research supporting the effectiveness of intermittent fasting, there are many reasons; you may not see results. It may sound counter-intuitive, but you may not be eating enough calories during your fasting window. If you severely restrict calories, it can backfire. Sudden under-consumption can lead to metabolic adaptation, a process where your body becomes more efficient at using energy and storing fat which means youll burn less calories. The goal is not to count calories and cut them, its to eat minimally processed, nutritious foods during your eating window until you are full.;
If you eat ultra-processed, energy-dense foods during your meals, that could be another reason why youre not getting the results you desire. Fasting can help you burn fat, but it doesnt mean that its magic! Remember to fill your plate with lean proteins, complex carbs, and healthy fats.;
Finally, make sure you drink plenty of water during your fasting window. Hydration helps you feel full and satiated, and its easy to mistake thirst for hunger. If youre not hydrated when you approach your eating window, you may be prone to choose and eat ultra-processed foods.;
Take Out The Training Wheels
Dont take anything during your fast. Have a zero tolerance policy during your fasting window.
Im talking about putting butter in your coffee or MCT oil, drinking pre workout of BCAA before a workout even though its labelled as zero calories, or drinking diet soda or anything labelled as zero calories. Lets talk about each one of those items.
Im not saying that putting butter or MCT, also known as Bulletproof Coffee is bad. In fact, it can even help people get fat adapted. This is more commonly referred to as doing a Fat Fast or Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting.
Its where youre consuming some fat during your fasting window and this is actually helpful for a lot of people. Especially if youre new because pure fat doesnt have a lot of effect on your insulin levels.
Youre also still getting most of the benefits of intermittent fasting because it still keeps you in ketosis. Its basically a training wheel for absolute beginners.
But its exactly just that. A training wheel. What I mean by that is if youve hit a weight loss plateau, and youre not losing weight intermittent fasting. Keep in mind that butter and MCT still contains calories. A standard Bulletproof Coffee recipe for example has 440 calories.
Lets do some simple math. Were just going to round up to 500 calories just to make the math easy. Lets say youre feeling generous and put a little extra butter in your coffee.
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Links To Things I Mentioned In The Video:
My Plan this page on my site goes over in detail what worked for me, a look at what my daily life is like and some FAQs about intermittent fasting.Lean Gains This is where I first learned about the idea of Intermittent Fasting. Its a blog written by Martin Berkhan who is a nutritional consultant, magazine writer and personal trainer. It hasnt been updated since December 2016, but theres a lot of good information there otherwise. Note: the F-Bomb gets thrown around a bit in hisblog, just so youre aware.
The 4 Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman; Key take away: think of weight loss/health in terms of self experimentation. If you dont lose weight one way, chalk it up as a failed experiment, and move on to the next experiment.
Crossfit a style of workout that I really enjoyed at first, but I just couldnt consistently do over a long stretch of time. I lasted 1 month doing the WOD 3 days on, 1 off.
Starting Strength The best resource I have found about powerlifting and proper technique, built by Mark Rippetoe. Id suggest getting a coach to help you out with form if you do decide to try out powerlifting. I was stubborn, tried to teach myself, and ended up with a deadlift injury that took me out of the powerlifting game, probably forever.
The Facebook photo that started it all:
A Trendline Graph of My Weightloss and Maintenance from 2015-Present
You Are Not Eating Enough Protein
If you find that your meals cannot carry you across your fasting period to your next eating window, then you might need to adjust your diet.;
Consider including more lean protein in your diet.; It does not matter the type of protein, vegan and animal protein, all are fine.;;
Proteins can help keep you full till your next meal.; Furthermore, if you are exercising during this period, proteins are important for building your muscles and protecting your bone health.;
Your meals should have healthy fats, carbs, leafy greens, and proteins.;
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Lessons Learned From 1 Year Of Intermittent Fasting
1. The biggest barrier is your own mind.
Implementing this diet is pretty simple, you just don’t eat when you wake up. Then you eat and lunch and go about your day. At least, that’s how I do it.
But there is a mental barrier to get over. If I don’t eat will I not be able to think? Will I faint? Will I feel sick? What will it be like? These are all thoughts that went through my mind before I started.
What ended up happening? Nothing. Life went on just fine.
Thinking you need to eat every 3 hours or six meals a day or always have breakfast or whatever it is that youre convinced you have to do to survive is all mental. You believe it because you were told it, not because you actually tried it.
If there’s one thing I’ve noticed that separates successful people from unsuccessful ones in life it’s not just the ability to think differently, but the ability to act differently as well.
2. Losing weight is easy.
When you eat less frequently you tend to eat less overall. As a result, most people who try intermittent fasting end up cutting weight. You might plan big meals, but consistently eating them is difficult in practice.
Most people lose weight while intermittent fasting because when they cut out meals, they don’t make up for it with bigger meal sizes.
3. Building muscle is quite possible .
I have managed to gain weight while intermittent fasting , but only because I have focused on eating a lot during my feeding period.
5. For best results, cycle what you eat.
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That being said, exercise before you eat because people get hungry about half an hour after they finish working out and may find it too hard to stick to their plan if they cant eat anything at all afterwards, Varady noted.
If youre on the 16:8 plan, exercise before or during your eating window. If youre doing alternate day fasting and are exercising on your 500-calorie day, save food for after your exercise session.
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So Whats Intermittent Fasting
Unlike keto, intermittent fasting is not a diet. Its an eating pattern fashioned around certain feeding and fasting periods.
One of the most popular forms of intermittent fasting is a 16:8 split, where people fast for 16 hours and only eat during an eight-hour window.
This usually means not eating after 8 p.m., going to sleep, then having a big lunch at noon the next day.
Other fans of intermittent fasting might choose to do an 18:6 split or fast 24 hours every other day.
Intermittent fasting can take many forms and has many benefits. Like keto, people have used it to lose weight, control blood sugar levels, and achieve more clarity.
When youre fasting, the body doesnt have to release insulin to break down sugar and resorts to turning fats into ketones.
Plus, if you arent binging during your feeding window, youre naturally consuming fewer calories without having to track it.
Some people also use intermittent fasting just to give their digestive systems a chance to reset.
Take A Break From Intermittent Fasting
Following the idea of cheat days, eating normally again for a couple of weeks, and getting back to IF could also be a huge deal for your weight loss progress.
There was a study conducted on 47 obese men, divided into two groups, aged between 30 to 50, who had to follow a 16-weeks diet.
The first group would do it continuously for 16 weeks, the other group would do it intermittently. They would cut down calories for two weeks, eat normally for two weeks .
The second group would follow this pattern for 30 weeks, in order to be effectively dieting for 16 weeks total.
The intermittent dieters loss on average 31 pounds. The other group 20 pounds. Moreover, six months later, the intermittent group fat loss total was 27.1 pounds, against 9.2 pounds in the control group.
Im saying it again, intermittent fasting is not the same as counting calories, but youll be effectively reducing caloric intake by eating less often.
So you might still experience the effect of adaptive thermogenesis, reducing your bodys resting energy expenditure, which will make weight loss harder. This survival reaction could be alleviated by returning to normal eating habits.
I would certainly not advocate trying to follow this type of intermittent diet, two weeks on, two weeks off, because I think it would be hard to pull off and that wouldnt be very healthy, youre body would be crazy.
But why not give it a try if youre on a plateau?
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When Can I Eat On The 1: 8 Diet
You can pick an 8 hour window to suit your day. So, for example it could be between 10am 6pm or 11am 8pm and so on. Plus, you can still drink tea and coffee outside of those hours too, although because of the benefits of drinking water you are also encouraged to stay as hydrated as possible.
Most people choose to fast through the night, and opt to eat their first meal at about 11am or in the middle of the day.
Tom says, The most common hours adopted for the eating period is 12 till 8pm. The reason for this is because people arent normally that hungry in the morning, you dont want to be consuming too many calories during the evening and this allows us to eat our lunch and dinner as well as a healthy snack.
Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss Faqs
Now that you know what intermittent fasting is and how to get started, its time to answer your other questions.
Below are answers to the questions frequently asked about intermittent fasting. These answers should help you and make getting started a lot easier.
How Much Weight Will I Lose?
The amount of weight you lose with fasting is determined by how often and long your fasts are, what you eat afterward, and other factors.
One study published by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that average weight loss on an intermittent fasting diet was around 9lbs after 12 months, and weight loss was most successful in those who strictly adhered to their chosen diet.
Can I Work out While Fasting?
Yes, you can. In fact, doing the right type of workout while fasting will help you lose weight faster and even build muscle.
If you are a hardcore athlete who often exercises for an hour or more each day, intermittent fasting may not be the best choice for you as this amount of exercise requires fuel to keep you moving and build muscle. However, light to moderate intensity workouts 2 to 4 times a week should work with intermittent fasting.
The best workouts to do while fasting for weight loss are strength training workouts. This means anything from standard strength training to kettlebell or body weight workouts. Combine these with lighter forms of exercise like walking, jogging, or yoga.
Wont I Lose Muscle When I Fast?
Is Fasting Safe?
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What Is A Whole Food Diet
In other words, it involves a lot of cooking because whole foods do not involve anything processed. That means no premade sauces, dips, or convenience foods like chocolate bars, sweets, or ready-meals. It also includes things like tinned vegetables and white bread.
Why? Processed and convenience foods are often high in salt, saturated fat, and additives in comparison to anything homemade. Because of this, their toll on your overall health is higher.
Realistic Weight Loss Numbers
If you do intermittent fasting properly, which means that youre also fat adapted and youre metabolically flexible, its not unusual to lose an average of 1.5-2 lbs of fat every week. Some people lose more. So you want to focus on fat loss, not weight loss.
If you give it 12 weeks or three months for example, at 2 lbs of fat loss per week, thats 24 lbs of body fat gone forever. Thats life changing.
If you dont know what losing 25 lbs of fat looks like, heres one of my other students. She lost exactly 25 lbs without exercise because she did everything else right. Thats how effective intermittent fasting can be if you do it properly which means that you prioritize on getting fat adapted and youre metabolically flexible.
As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!
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