Most people are fat. More accurately, most people reading this article live in a country where most of the citizens are overweight or obese. Obesity has quickly become an uberproblem for the western world, where people acknowledge the issue yet eagerly accept the offer to add a doughnut to their coffee or fries to their burger. Despite the enormity of this epidemic the solution is ridiculously simple: eat less. “But James, I’ve tried every diet and only eat the 100-calorie packs of Oreos”. Shut. Up. It’s hard to argue the fact that if anyone consumed zero calories over the next week, they would lose a considerable amount of fat and weight. While I do not promote starvation as a healthy weight loss strategy, I do recognize that most people eat too much of the wrong foods. As a strategy for fat loss and a plethora of other benefits, I propose the simple solution of skipping breakfast. Enter, intermittent fasting.
You are not him. (But if you are and you’re reading my blog, this is awesome).
You are not Fight Club’s Tyler Durden. Dissimilar from Mr. Durden, you likely carry more than 6% body fat and are probably sleeping a decent amount of time each night. During these unconscious hours you are abstaining from any calorie-containing food or drink i.e. fasting. Intermittent fasting (IF), in the context I refer to it, means going an extended period without calories to reap the associated health benefits.
Specifically, I recommend an 8 hour feeding window followed by a 16 hour fast. Within this feeding window one consumes all the day’s calories in as many or as few meals as desired, complemented by the corresponding period of calorie abstinence. This schedule is suggested by Martin Berkhan, whom I credit with my introduction to this wonderful lifestyle. As an IF example, someone with a 9-5 workday may eat their first meal at 12:00 for lunch, then a snack after a post-workday workout (read: martinis to relax after work), and conclude with their remaining calories at dinner. After 20:00, no calories are to be consumed until 12:00 the next day. This strategy is simple, and akin to my previous posts, I believe simple strategies yield the best results. The best diet for body recomposition is the diet which is easiest to adhere to. Most of dieting depends on the adherence level of the participant, and as such many diet strategies fail due to overly complicated directions. Simple is better.
Specifically, I recommend an 8 hour feeding window followed by a 16 hour fast. Within this feeding window one consumes all the day’s calories in as many or as few meals as desired, complemented by the corresponding period of calorie abstinence. This schedule is suggested by Martin Berkhan, whom I credit with my introduction to this wonderful lifestyle. As an IF example, someone with a 9-5 workday may eat their first meal at 12:00 for lunch, then a snack after a post-workday workout (read: martinis to relax after work), and conclude with their remaining calories at dinner. After 20:00, no calories are to be consumed until 12:00 the next day. This strategy is simple, and akin to my previous posts, I believe simple strategies yield the best results. The best diet for body recomposition is the diet which is easiest to adhere to. Most of dieting depends on the adherence level of the participant, and as such many diet strategies fail due to overly complicated directions. Simple is better.
Intermittent fasting is badass. The general consensus about fasting is that it is hard; bullshit. In actuality I have found it to be surprisingly easy and liberating, as IF has freed me from the necessity of feeding every few hours. Exerting less effort and appearing to command more willpower than someone else while attaining equal or better results is something that both the type-A and type-B part of my personality can enjoy. On top of being badass, the fasted version of you will also look better naked as intermittent fasting improves fat loss. The same study also shows that fasting increases blood sugar control which is good news for Santa and the 200 million other diabetics around the globe. While being ripped is nice, it’s going to be even better with all the extra muscle gains IF will bring you through increasing growth hormone levels, which promotes lean muscle mass. Muscular and ripped is good, skinny-fat is not.
When trying to validate food choices, it often helps to consider whether what you eat and how you do it fits in with human evolution. Early Homo sapiens most likely ate meat and vegetables, not Curly Wurly’s and Slim Jims (or whatever the kids are eating these days). Also, it is likely that early humans often went extended periods without food, which makes sense considering the lack of prehistoric refrigerators and 24 hr McDonald’s drive-thru. Of course, not everything that the early humans did not possess is bad for you, whey protein and antiseptics come to mind, just be sure to think before you eat.
When trying to validate food choices, it often helps to consider whether what you eat and how you do it fits in with human evolution. Early Homo sapiens most likely ate meat and vegetables, not Curly Wurly’s and Slim Jims (or whatever the kids are eating these days). Also, it is likely that early humans often went extended periods without food, which makes sense considering the lack of prehistoric refrigerators and 24 hr McDonald’s drive-thru. Of course, not everything that the early humans did not possess is bad for you, whey protein and antiseptics come to mind, just be sure to think before you eat.
No Thanks!
If the internet and its memes have taught us anything, it’s that haters gonna hate. I can appreciate the skepticism surrounding intermittent fasting as it is still far from main stream, but that won’t stop me from refuting all the skeptics with a few awesome hyperlinks. One of the supposed benefits of frequent eating is a higher metabolism. This study is one of several to conclude that metabolic rate increases with short term fasting while this other gem of a read shows that meal frequency (e.g. 1 meal vs 5 meals per day) does not affect energy metabolism. Fasting is also criticized for promoting muscle catabolism (a.k.a. not what you want) while frequent eating supposedly contributes to an anabolic state (a.k.a. awesome). Not surprisingly, this again falls to the scientific method as elevated GH levels during fasting help to conserve muscle mass.
Since you are now eating in a smaller window like a 500 lb lion and not grazing like a frail and soon to be devoured antelope, it is likely that your fewer meals will be larger. The final myth to be debunked is that the body can only assimilate 30g of protein per meal. Trying to understand how some of these facts stick around can be more difficult than finding Waldo. An Italian study shows that after eating a couple slices of pizza (of all things), BCAAs and N-BCAAs are still entering the blood stream more than 5 hours later. Eating more just means that digestion will take longer, not that precious muscle-building protein disappears into some bro-hating abyss. All-you-can-eat buffets just became more popular.
Since you are now eating in a smaller window like a 500 lb lion and not grazing like a frail and soon to be devoured antelope, it is likely that your fewer meals will be larger. The final myth to be debunked is that the body can only assimilate 30g of protein per meal. Trying to understand how some of these facts stick around can be more difficult than finding Waldo. An Italian study shows that after eating a couple slices of pizza (of all things), BCAAs and N-BCAAs are still entering the blood stream more than 5 hours later. Eating more just means that digestion will take longer, not that precious muscle-building protein disappears into some bro-hating abyss. All-you-can-eat buffets just became more popular.
IF can’t make you this awesome, but it will get you as close as you’re going to get.
Intermittent fasting is so awesome and the benefits so vast for such a simple lifestyle change, it is difficult for me to end this post here. If my readers attention spans weren’t so shortened from dubstep music and Angry Birds, I would love to elaborate on the benefits that come from putting the fork down every once in a while. Martin Berkhan’s site and Dr. John Berardi’s new e-book are generous sources of ass kicking and bubblegum chewing intermittent fasting knowledge for those interested in learning more. For those of you not considering intermittent fasting, maybe you should have a coffee to wake yourselves up and know that I will come find you in your sleep. Shameless self-promotion, James Chalmers approves.
