What is Fasting?
Fasting has been done for thousands of years for a multitude of reasons and using a variety of different protocols, but when broken down to the most basic sense it involves not taking in any calories for an extended period of time. Every single person fast when the sleep without really thinking about it, roughly 8 hours’ worth.
Now In this context I am talking about true fasting, no food of any kind, but drinking water is highly recommended and encouraged.
Why I chose Intermittent Fasting
Only recently as fasting begun to be studied by modern medicine. Now the reactions and changes our bodies undergo while being in a “fasted” state are now becoming clearer. New research is coming out all the time and we will continue to learn more and more as the years pass.
That being said there are a plethora of health benefits that come along with fasting. The most obvious would be weight loss. For those of us who could stand to lose some extra weight fasting, especially the intermittent type can be extremely valuable.
I began to understand that food is not something that I have to have every few hours. I am sure many of you like myself had never really gone more than half a day without food, usually this also involved moping around and complaining about headaches and such. It wasn't until I completed my first full day without food that I understood…I’m not going to die if I don’t eat for a day or two. Research is beginning to show that there are actually hosts of beneficial things that go on while your body is in a fasting state.
Additional Benefits which I plan on going into in other posts:
- Increased HGH - More muscle building while you sleep
- Increased metabolism short term - Burn more body fat to show off those abs
- Increased insulin resistance - reducing the risk of developing type II diabetes
- Increased life-span - Only beginning to be understood but Rats show a 30-40% increase in lifespan
I plan on going into much deeper into all of these aspects of fasting as it is something that has really grabbed my curiosity.
Weight Loss
It stands to reasons that if you aren't bringing calories in then you will burn more extra calories, almost all of which is in stored body fat. The more body fat you burn the weight you lose…simple as that.
Now you might be thinking “Hold on Tony, everyone has told me that if you stop eating protein my body will eat muscle not fat.” I personally think this is a product of the food and supplement industries. Our bodies are amazing machines. I am positive that our ancestors did not wake up and eat a bowl of cereal, have a snack on the walk out to the farm, or eat lunch while riding their horses. If you go back thousands of year I would wager they ate when they could because nobody knew if there would be another meal in the future. If a hunter was out all day and came up with nothing would it be advantageous for our bodies to give up and start eating our muscles and make us cranky right away…We wouldn't be here to talk about this if that was the case.
Research is now showing during a short term fasted state (less than 72 hrs) our bodies actually increase our metabolism, as well as increase a host of different neurotransmitters.
Think about this…You hunted all day yesterday and came up empty handed. You wake up on day 2 without having had food for somewhere in the 36 hr range, strangely you feel a sense of focus and intensity in you. From a biological standpoint this is your body saying “Get off your butt and get some food.”
All of us have this inside of us. Of course the first time is always rough. We have all been force feeding ourselves extremely calorie dense non-nutritious foods. Our bodies our capable of some extreme adaptations but it still takes a little time.
My Intermittent Fasting Experience
Well as this blog is about my experiences, and trials and tribulations, I would love to share my experience with fasting. More specifically Intermittent Fasting and how it has really got me back on track toward my health and fitness goals. Intermittent fasting just involves more frequent less than 72hr fasts.
I had been around the 230lb mark for a few months. I had only a few pairs of pants left that fit my thunder thighs, looking in the mirror I began thinking, “I don’t look good anymore,” and “What happened to you?” I was at a turning point and I felt I need to do something before I let things go.
Getting back into the gym I felt embarrassed being out-of-shape. I say this because maybe you have never worked out and you feel this way about working out. However I am here to say “let it go” everyone at the gym feels embarrassed about something, that’s why we are all there. Everyone is trying to improve themselves and has that “something” they don’t like about their body.
Don’t sweat it, get out there and maximize YOUR potential!
OK, let me get this train back on it's tracks. I was looking for something to boost my weight loss. I wanted to get back into shape quickly, without settling for some weigh-loss miracle drug.
I researched for hours and hours about ways to lose weight quickly. Coming across the generic marketing schemes everyone sees: weight-loss pills, weird belts, and celebrity diets, but then…
I found a BBC article about fasting and a documentary called Eat, Fast and Live Longer After seeing this documentary which I highly recommend I spiraled down the endless wormhole that is the internet. Hours and Hours, days and days of reading and researching everything I could find on fasting. Scholarly articles, blogs, videos, websites, magazines, everything I could get my hands on.
I came out of this research with a new perspective on food, and eating habits, much different than what most mainstream fitness resources would tell you. I had to experiment with fasting myself
How to Implement?
I chose a protocol similar to the 5:2 Diet but I will lay out the exact routine I used to go from 230 lbs to 204 lbs in 6 weeks. It is really simple, but amazingly effective.
Sunday night of the first week I at a normal dinner just like any other weekend around 6 PM. I woke up and went to work at 8:30 AM. No remember at this point I haven’t done anything out of the normal but it has been 13 hours by the time I get to work since the last time I ate.
While at work I would still drink black coffee or green tea…I know I should cut the caffeine out but that is another story for another post. Around lunch time I would go for a walk just to keep myself feeling active since most of us want to eat while we are being lazy, mostly out of boredom and habit I might add. Somewhere around the 3-4 PM mark is where it was probably the most difficult for me. I would have really intense hunger pangs but I knew I could push through.
A little sidenote: I realized that hunger pangs to not progressively get stronger and stronger throughout the day. If you can push through the first couple, they only hit you as waves at random times thereafter.
Once I made it through the work day and was on my way home I had an unusual sense of accomplishment, almost like a power over food. I then realized it’s ok if I don’t eat lunch sometimes or I skip breakfasts, or even dinner for that matter. I didn’t have to plan my day around food. I could just go about my day and eat if I felt hungry.
One interesting thing happened on all my fast after that first day. Around lunch time I could feel my senses heightening; foods in the office smelled amazing, my focus on whatever task I was doing never seemed to waiver, I felt lighter on my feet and more alert. I could tell that my body was priming me for hunting or gathering. It is a great feeling that I hope some of you will experience.
Because I felt so good and I lost 3 or 4 pounds (I’m sure most of that was water) on that first day so I decided to try and do this twice per week.
By week 2 I wanted to push the envelope a little more and I decided on a plan of eating Sunday night and not eating again until Tuesday night. Later in the week usually on Thursday or Friday I would do another 24 hr period.
I did this every week without changing what I ate much and continuing with my normal gym schedule, by the end of the 6th week I was weighing in under the 205 lb mark.
Now I wouldn't exactly recommend the way that I did it because it’s more on the extreme side, I would however suggest you try doing one day per week. The awesome thing is that it’s not a diet, it’s just a way of eating (or not eating) to be exact. It is also very flexible with our modern lives. Do you have to go get your kid from daycare but don’t think you have time to grab some food, just don’t eat. Don’t want to eat that junk at the airport while you are traveling on business, then wait, you won’t shrivel up and die. Do you want to do it Monday this week but you have a big party next Monday. Perfect, fast the next day. You don’t have to worry about doing something, you are just doing nothing. It really did help to give me a power over food, which is what a lot of us lack.
Is it Safe?
I should preface this by saying I am not a doctor , nor have I played one on TV. I do not know your individual situation but I have done a lot of research on the topic. While I would absolutely recommend talking to your doctor first I would suggest you give it a try. Don’t be afraid to experiment, especially if you are unhappy with your current situation.
Women Please Read! I do want to point out that much of the research I have combed through revolves around trials on men. There is some research that suggest women would benefit from shorter fasting windows somewhere in the 16 hr range.
Fasting Myths and Truths
Myth: You have to eat small meals every few hours in order to keep your metabolism up.
Were it comes from: It is true that eating a meal boosts your metabolism. Your body must burn calories to digest food, which is why foods like celery are said to have negative calories, i.e. your body uses more energy (calories) that the stick of celery contains.
Truth: The amount of energy used in by each meal is directly proportional to the amount of calories being taken in. Let’s make this into a very simple example.
Say your body burns 10 calories when you eat 200 calories
Now it doesn't matter if you eat 10 meals 10*10 = 100 calories
Or if you eat 2000 calories at once (2000/200)*10 = 100 calories
You see, either way your metabolism will be boosted by the same amount
Myth: breakfast is the most important meal
Where it comes from: You have to prime your body with all the nutrition in needs in order for you to perform at your best.
Truth: Your body can take up to 8 hours to completely digest your last meal. Meaning if you ate right before your bed (which I don't recommend) then you would only be hitting “empty” when you wake up. You wouldn't even be hitting a true fasting state i.e. more than 12 hours.
Myth: You cannot build muscle muscle mass while on these type of diets
Truth: If you are are skeptical about the ability to put on muscles while doing a diet like this I highly recommend checking out another leansgains.com and eatstopeat.com. The more I research the more I find people who are in tremendous shape following some form of an intermittent fasting protocol.
What do you have to lose?
Other than some unwanted body fat...Nothing.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Have you experimented with Intermittent fasting in the past? Are you gonna give this a shot?
Until Next time,
Tony D.