Intermittent fasting (IF) has become a popular subject in
the nutrition world within the last few years.
In fact, some of the biggest names in the strength and physique training
fields have been trumpeting its benefits for a while. These include Martin Berkhan(website), Jason
Ferruggia (website) and John Romaniello (website). The main reason for this is not only because
of its outstanding results and ease of use but because it has challenged a lot
of long held “truths” of the fitness industry.
The biggest “truths” it has challenged have to do with meal frequency,
meal timing and total metabolism.
Intermittent
fasting is alternating periods of not eating (fasting) with periods of
eating. Most forms of intermittent
fasting have the fast range in time from 16 to 36 hours. Usually the longer the fast the less frequent
the fasting periods. For example if you
chose to fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating window you could do this
every day (which I have been doing). On
the flip side of that, if you fast for 24 hours or longer you would only do it
1-2 times every 7-10 days.
The
reasons more and more people are gravitating towards IF are both physiological
and psychological. When you chose to
fast for 24 hours twice per week you are eliminating two days’ worth of eating
and therefore eating less total calories.
If you have only a six hour window to get your daily calories in you will
often feel fuller for longer. When you
eat smaller meals throughout the day you may never get that “full” feeling
which is important for some people mental states when trying to lose weight.
When
going for longer periods of time without eating you are forcing your body to
rely on other forms of energy other than the food you take in. This means it will more rapidly break down
fat stores and damaged proteins for use as energy sources. The fat break down is what we are going for
but the protein break down? Really? You want that?
Every
day our bodies go through cellular break down and regeneration and our muscle
cells are no different. Damaged or old
proteins get broken down and new proteins are built back in their place. Think of it like a herd of water
buffalo. Through the natural order of
nature the old and weak buffalo either drop off and die when food and water get
scarce or are the first ones targeted when a lion is on the hunt. It may be sad to think about but it makes the
herd stronger as a whole since the young calves don’t have to compete with the
old and weak and can take their place in the herd. When we limit nutrient intake and force the
body to turn to these old proteins we keep our cells young and healthy since
newer and stronger proteins are built back with the nutrients you take in once
the fast is over.
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| Old, weak proteins making way for newer, stronger ones. The cycle of life. |
This
brings me to my next point: insulin sensitivity and breakfast. Without going into a long scientific
discussion, you want to be insulin sensitive.
The more insulin sensitive you are the better. Breakfast has long been heralded as the most
important meal of the day. And studies
have shown that we are insulin sensitive in the morning and should take
advantage of this by eating a big, carbohydrate-filled breakfast. They also say that you will probably pass out
and die if you don’t eat breakfast due to a being hypoglycemic. This is a bit misleading. We aren’t insulin sensitive because it’s
morning. We are insulin sensitive
because we’ve just fasted for 8-10 hours.
The time of day has nothing to do with it. There
is nothing inherently wrong with skipping breakfast as long as total calories are sufficient.
Most
proponents of IF skip breakfast every single day and most train in a fasted
state. Training in a fasted state
further increases insulin sensitivity which will make your post workout
carbohydrates that much more effective once you do eat. And since you will be more sensitive to the
insulin that the carbohydrates cause to be released you will probably need less
of them leading to fewer calories consumed overall.
This
next point is going to go against what a lot of you believe and it flew right
in the face of something that I had been doing for years. Your
metabolism is NOT dependent on how many meals you eat. That’s right; meal frequency has absolutely
no bearing on how many calories you burn in a day. The thought behind the whole “eat six small
meals through the day” theory was that your metabolism is elevated every time
you eat. Therefore the more frequent
your feeds the more elevated your metabolism.
That’s not the whole truth. The
truth is that as long as total calories stay the same your metabolism will stay
the same whether you eat one meal or ten.
I like to use this example:
You’ve
just opened a bank account that gives you ten percent interest on every deposit you make. One person deposits one dollar every day for
thirty days. Another makes one thirty
dollar deposit at the end of the month.
Each person ends up with thirty dollars deposited and three dollars
earned in interest at the end of the month.
Same thing goes with your metabolism.
The increase in your metabolism is dependent on the amount of calories
you take in. So at the end of the day if
your calories are the same so too will be the increase in metabolic rate. This was a concept that was hard for me to
let go. It was something that I believed
in and something that I had told many clients.
Don’t get me wrong, eating six meals a day isn’t wrong or bad, it just
doesn’t make a difference. For those of
you sick of planning your entire day around your eating schedule the 2-3 meals
in a short window may be the way to go.
 |
| My cupboard looks even worse. |
Those
are the some of the major talking points on IF.
There are a lot more benefits and limitations that are beyond the scope
of this article and a lot more research being done on its implications. I just wanted to pinpoint some of the reasons
why I’m giving it a shot. IF is not for
everyone. For those seeking to gain lean
mass but keep off fat it may be beneficial but will be slower moving due to the
inability to eat sufficient calories for growth. But for those looking to lose weight and/or
maintain weight lost it may be a way to go not only from the physiological
benefits but from a practicality standpoint as well.
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