{"id":21236,"date":"2019-08-09T10:17:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T15:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artofmanliness.com\/?p=21236"},"modified":"2023-07-01T15:22:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T20:22:03","slug":"intermittent-fasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/health-fitness\/health\/intermittent-fasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready, Set, Fast: How Strategic Meal-Skipping Can Help You Lose Fat, Gain Muscle, and Get Healthier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vintage<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This is a guest post by John Berardi, PhD<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When we were kids, Mom was always looking out for our health. Chew your food. Eat your vegetables. And always eat breakfast because it\u2019s the most important meal of the day.<\/p>\n

As busy grown-ups, a good breakfast often falls victim to the time crunch. Who has time to cook and eat a breakfast of champions? It\u2019s so much faster and more convenient to just grab a coffee and a bran muffin.<\/p>\n

Of course, deep down we know it\u2019s not right. Not only would Mom disapprove, that pudgy physique in the mirror deserves better, too.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s a guy to do?  Get up earlier and make it happen, right?  Perhaps not.<\/p>\n

Lately, some really fit guys–men with muscles, visible veins, and abs so sharp you can grate carrots on them–are doing something a whole lot different. They\u2019re not eating breakfast.  Healthy or otherwise. In fact, they\u2019re not eating at all for extended stretches. And they\u2019re getting leaner, more muscular, even healthier.<\/p>\n

This practice is called Intermittent Fasting–IF for short–and it\u2019s challenging everything nutritionists, dieticians, and your Mom ever told you about healthy eating.<\/p>\n

Going Against the Grain<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Typical dietician dogma involves eating small meals spread two to four hours apart, starting with a nutritious breakfast. This, we\u2019re told, stimulates the metabolism, so we burn more calories throughout the day.  It\u2019s also supposed to make us less likely to binge on cookies and ice cream at night.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s sound advice that\u2019s been field-tested by thousands of fit, healthy, hard-bodied people.<\/p>\n

Proponents of IF, on the other hand, eschew the idea of small, frequent meals. They claim to have achieved quicker fat loss and better health by deliberately skipping breakfast.  Some even go entire days without eating.<\/p>\n

The experts are skeptical. They call IF extreme, impractical, even harebrained–and yet no one can dispute their results. Or that the number of IF converts is growing.<\/p>\n

I was also a skeptic. I built my reputation on recommending small, healthy, frequent meals, starting with breakfast. And that strategy has definitely worked well for most of my clients.<\/p>\n

But the track record of certain Intermittent Fasting protocols, both in scientific publications and in real-world practice, seems pretty impressive too.  That\u2019s why I decided to put some of these protocols to the test.  I wanted to answer the following questions: \u201cIs IF just another fad diet?  Or is it something health and body conscious people should consider?\u201d<\/p>\n

My Fasting Experiments<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To this end, I spent the last 9 months testing the most popular Intermittent Fasting protocols on myself. In the end, I tried 8 different fasting protocols.<\/p>\n

At times I was consuming nothing but calorie-free beverages for a full 24-36 hours.  (Mercifully that was only once per week.)  Other methods had me fasting for much shorter periods, yet more frequently.<\/p>\n

While each method was basically a spin on not eating a thing, the varying effects were fascinating. Some methods made me feel energized, strong, and focused.  Others simply left me lethargic, weak, and very, very hungry.<\/p>\n

Of the 8 different protocols I tried, there are three main variations:<\/p>\n

The trial fast<\/strong>: This is where I recommend you start if you\u2019re interested in this approach.  Just try going 24 hours without food. I did my first trial fast on a Sunday. I set it up by having a small meal on Saturday night at 10pm, and then didn\u2019t eat again until another small meal on Sunday night at 10pm. (I did drink green tea and water throughout the day.)<\/p>\n

The periodic fast<\/strong>: If you survived the trial fast without breaking down and cleaning out the refrigerator, then you can try this. Simply do the trial fast above once in a while.  It could be once per month.  It could be once per week.  (More frequently than once a week, however, is a mistake.  I tried to do it twice a week and it was a disaster. More isn\u2019t better.)<\/p>\n

The daily fast<\/strong>: This is a more advanced way of doing things. Here we cut the fast from 24 hours to 16-20 hours (say 8pm to noon to 4pm the following day) but we do it every day. Ideally, most days there\u2019s a workout at the end of the fast, followed by some pretty large meals during the 4-8 hour feeding window.  (As complicated as this system sounds, I found myself actually gaining muscle and losing fat at an alarming rate.)<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the conclusion?  What did I learn?<\/p>\n

Well, for body transformation, Intermittent Fasting works. Over the course of my experiments, I dropped twenty pounds of weight, from 190 pounds to 170 pounds, and I was pretty lean to start with. I also reduced my body fat from 10% to 4% (measured via a well-validated ultrasound protocol) while maintaining most of my lean mass. And I kept it off.  In addition, I saw some interesting improvements in my health profile.<\/p>\n

You can check out my before and after pics below for some visual evidence:<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Beyond vanity, the reported health effects<\/a> of an intelligently designed Intermittent Fasting program read like a laundry list of live longer, live better benefits including: reduced blood lipids<\/a>, blood pressure<\/a>, markers of inflammation<\/a>, oxidative stress<\/a>, and cancer<\/a>.  Increased cell turnover and repair<\/a>, fat burning<\/a>, growth hormone release<\/a>, and metabolic rate<\/a>. And improved appetite control<\/a>, blood sugar control<\/a>, cardiovascular function<\/a>, and neuronal plasticity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wow is right!  At this point, if your wheels are turning, that\u2019s a good thing.  But be careful.  This article isn\u2019t designed to persuade you to try Intermittent Fasting right away.  Rather, it\u2019s designed to simply get you thinking about your own eating plan.  And, if it needs improvement, how you can think about starting.<\/p>\n

Listen to my interview with John about IF:<\/em> <\/h3>\n