Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss. Intermittent fasting seems to have garnered some attention lately. I’ll admit that when I hear the words “fasting” and “weight loss” in the same sentence, I usually look the other way. However, I’m open minded to new ideas, so I read up on it and implemented it into my own lifestyle. Much to my skepticism, the results have been better than expected. What is Intermittent Fasting? Intermittent fasting is when you eat and then fast for a period of time. Some people follow a 2. Some people even do a full 2. I chose to stay conservative and give the 1. So basically, I would eat for 8 hours out of the day and then fast for 1. I would still eat all my calories during those 8 hours, I just wouldn’t eat anything the other 1. This really wasn’t a difficult transition for me. I would basically wake up and take the kids to school, post an article, and then do my work out. Then I would eat around 1. For the next 8 hours I would have 3 meals (sometimes 2), until 6pm. Then I wouldn’t eat again until 1. Benefits of Intermittent Fasting. There are many benefits of intermittent fasting. Some of these include: Stop Obsessing About Food – I’m a self- proclaimed food addict. Not so much an addict of eating bad food (although I do love it), but about eating on a timed schedule, eating the right macronutrients, and beating myself up when I miss a meal. Intermittent fasting has put that obsession to rest. I now eat when I feel like eating, and I even skip meals if I’m not hungry or too busy. I just make sure that I get enough calories for the day, and I get enough protein and carbohydrates to rebuild muscle and fuel my workouts. Some essential fatty acids (EFAs) here and there, and I’m set. Increased Time in Fat Burning Mode – By eating every few hours, you are keep your insulin levels elevated. According to Hugh Jackman, the 16-8 Intermittent Fasting method of eating is . This system of eating is easy on paper Hi Chad, I have found this diet quite interesting. Being a college student this diet is really easy to follow and allows me to eat more carbs to kill my cravings. On Becoming Superhuman: Fasting for Fast Weight Loss, Better Health, and Supreme Fitness. 3 months ago, I stumbled across a fascinating article on something crazy. While fat loss can still occur with elevated insulin levels, the higher they are, the less fatty acids can be mobilized. Going 1. 6 hours without eating gives you a nice long window to burn fat in a favorable metabolic environment. Growth hormone is anabolic to muscle and catabolic to fat. In a study measuring the effects of fasting on growth hormone levels, fasting showed a marked increase in GH . Because of the diminished glycogen stores after the fast, my cells are primed and ready to absorb any glucose that enters my blood stream. It does this with less insulin, which means I’m more able to release fatty acids. A study comparing the effects of intermittent fasting (IF) with continuous energy restriction showed that IF lowered insulin resistance, as well as lowered leptin, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, IGF, and fasting insulin levels .
This has given me the added benefit of filling me up so that I’m not constantly hungry. I’ve noticed a very large reduction in hunger. There are many other studies on intermittent fasting that have shown benefits in the fields of life extension and fighting cancer. As research progresses and time passes, I suspect that there will be a number of new benefits discovered for intermittent fasting. How to Implement Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss. One of the diet rules for weight loss that we've heard more than any other: A healthy diet begins with a great breakfast. There's just one problem: A good breakfast. Have you considered using intermittent fasting for weight loss? Find out what it is and how to implement it for successful weight loss. People see intermittent fasting as a quick solution for weight loss. Find out if this diet plan is a healthy way to shed pounds or if it's all hype. Alright, so perhaps you’d like to give intermittent fasting a try. I could write a whole book about it, but I’m going to simplify it down for you. Take 1. 0 times your body weight in calories and eat them all within the fasting schedule you decide on. I’m a fan of the 1. You can eat them all in one meal, two meals, or more. Just make sure you get in all your calories and you don’t go over. If you feel really hungry, have a bigger meal. Wait a little longer and have a bigger meal later. Keep your foods coming from whole foods, stay consistent, and the weight will come off.****************I need to go ahead and put this out there because people will believe this is the best way or only way to lose weight. Intermittent fasting is just one of many different ways to lose weight. The best way is going to be the one that best fits into your lifestyle. I found intermittent fasting to be the perfect fit for my lifestyle, and I’m going to continue forward with it whether weight loss is the goal, or I just want to maintain my current physique. I’ve taken blood tests and body measurements and will periodically check on them to see how things are progressing. Have you or people you know tried intermittent fasting? What was your/their experience? Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health. It's been a good while since I last wrote about intermittent fasting. I guess largely because there's only so much to say about the topic and because I feel like I've said most of it. Unless you're going to make inferences based on animal studies, there's only so much you can extrapolate from the human experience and write about. Another part of it is that I've lost interest. Once your understanding of nutrition is complete, more or less, you reach a point of radically diminishing returns - at this point, expanding your knowledge further in this realm, won't make an iota of difference for your level of fitness. It's much more fruitful to improve your training regimen and understanding thereof. A rich body of research on the topic has been published since then. The ongoing interest in IF is not surprising, given its mystique that’s wrapped in ancient spiritual origins, all the way to its modern applications to clinical and aesthetic goals. The aim of this article is to bring the reader up- to- date on the scientific findings, with a particular focus on comparing IF regimes with conventional/linear dieting. After all, the question is not whether IF works – it obviously does, as does any mode of caloric restriction. The question is whether it works better than conventional dieting for improving body composition, and if so, to which contexts can we apply it. Article continues.. Importantly, they compared the effects of intermittent energy restriction (IER) to continuous energy restriction (CER) on bodyweight, body composition, and other clinical parameters. Their review included 4. IER with a CER condition. They found that overall, the two diet types resulted in “apparently equivalent outcomes” in terms of bodyweight reduction and body composition change. In addition, neither IER or CER was superior to the other at improving glucose control/insulin sensitivity. No different effects on thyroid, cortisol, and sex hormones were seen between IER and CER, though the authors concede that there’s insufficient research comparing neuroendocrine effects of the two diet types to draw definitive conclusions in this area. Interestingly, IER was superior at suppressing hunger. The authors speculated that this might be attributable to ketone production in the fasting phases. However, this effect was somewhat immaterial since it failed to translate into superior improvements in body composition or greater weight loss. MB: Well, that's not quite true. These studies didn't have a suitable control group, as the participants served as their own controls. Thus, you can't say that it didn't translate into . That's the problem with these systematic reviews Like it says in the paper. Only 1. 2 of the 4. IER with CER: the lack of direct comparison makes it difficult to determine whether IER is superior to CER, or for whom. Limitations of the review included the standard ones – relatively small sample sizes, relatively short trial durations, and heterogeneous study designs making comparisons outside of the same study difficult. An acknowledged limitation worth highlighting was that 1. Varady et al, University of Illinois at Chicago). Ideally, a more diversified and less concentrated set of labs is less likely to repeat the same errors or preserve the same biases. Speaking of the potential for bias, Varady has published a lay- directed book titled, The Every- Other- Day Diet (1. I’m not claiming that Varady is destined to make sure her ADF study results will always square up with her book, but it’s one of the potential caveats nevertheless. I would add to these limitations that there’s a severe lack of IER (and IER vs CER) studies that include a structured training component. MB: I agree wholeheartedly. I'm glad Alan brought this up. The opportunities for fuckery in the scientific literature are endless. Usually, industry is the culprit - you know, studies praising the benefits of snacks or breakfast (sponsored by Kellogg's or General Mills) or studies on the tremendous muscle- building effects of protein powders (sponsored by supplement companies) and the like. These studies can't fully be trusted and needs to be scrutinised more than the rest. They're suspect, because their funding comes from a source that would benefit from a positive result, and the results should always be taken with a grain of salt. And very often, almost always in fact, these studies arrive at a positive result. They seemed more like marketing than science. That's more than 9. Here's how to stop them. If you want to read more about this topic as it pertains to nutritional science, check out Marion Nestle and her writings. She's quite brilliant. Why Calories Count by Marion Nestle. I found this book in a large box of bullshit that I ordered from Amazon two years ago. It was the only thing worth scavenging and I intend to read it after I'm done with a few horror novels. I figure that I'd be properly warmed up by then. A book about food politics and marketing shenanigans can get quite dark and depressing no doubt. But food companies are as unlikely to fund research on intermittent fasting, as Coca Cola is unlikely to fund research on ketogenic diets. What Alan brings up is the potential for bias on the researcher's part, Krista Varady to be specific. Aside from researching intermittent fasting, she is also involved in selling books, namely books based off of the research she is doing. While I haven't read The Every- Other- Day Diet, but I have mixed feelings about Krista Varady. She does try a bit too hard for my liking. I covered her work* before in . Note that I'm wrongfully referring to Varady as . In short, she published a pretty shitty review of the subject, but then again, there weren't that many data points around in 2. Five years later, it's gotten a little better, but there's still not enough good data around to draw any definitive conclusions - and like Alan says, a lot of that data comes from the same lab (Varady's). It's worth mentioning that Varady appeared in a laughable infomercial documentary called . In it, Michael Mosley - the show host and soon- to- be- author, interviews researchers working in the field of intermittent fasting and Varady is one of them. After rewatching the segment she appeared in, I found her to be matter of fact and professional even though she dutifully suffered through all the TV show gimmicks thrown at her - they gorged on hamburgers and fries to show that you could stuff your face and still lose weight on ADF, for example. By the way, this . Seems like there was some kind of falling out between Varady and Mosley after that. Don't waste your money. If you want a book on intermittent fasting, pick up Eat Stop Eat. Now, speaking of Varady, there's nothing wrong with pushing your agenda, but don't shove it down peoples throats by publishing bad research and doing shady shit like failing to disclose your conflicts of interest, because that makes you suspect in my eyes. That said, there's nothing fishy about her recent work, as far as I can tell. It's entirely possible that Varady and her colleagues got together one night and decided amongst themselves to doctor the results, but I find that very unlikely. It's kind of spooky, but a client just sent me this two minutes ago. I'm mentioned on the same page as Mosley and Varady, and I'm reading it just as I finish up this paragraph. I believe he was reading a book by his doctor, Robin Willcourt. I'll have to ask about the title, so I'll add it here later for those interested. Update: Name of the book is Chasing Antelopes: Why All This Caused All That. When fuckery strikes in science, it's usually a lot more subtle and sinister. I would know, because years ago, I approached Alan with this subject. See, I had uncovered some sophisticated tampering with the results of a study that received a lot of spin on social media and the mainstream news. I was slightly distressed over the fact that he had missed it - the studies appeared in the AARR, not only once, but twice - and presented my findings. I needed a second opinion, because maybe I was making a hen out of a feather. Nope. Alan agreed, it was some shady shit. In fact, it was a case study in deceit. Career- ending, if you ask me. But to this day, no one has debunked the findings, and the researcher is still active; polluting the journals with more bullshit for every new study that gets published. Who knows, maybe one day I'll put an end to it. The key point of all this, is that science can't be trusted for shit, unless you do your due diligence and read the fine print. But in this particular case, concerning Krista Varady, I'm not worried. Article continues below.. This limitation also plagues the body of research comparing various within- day meal frequencies. Readers familiar with my work know that Brad Schoenfeld, James Krieger, and I did a meta- analysis on the effect of meal frequency on body composition, and found that higher meal frequencies were associated with greater losses of fat mass and greater retention of lean mass (2. However, sensitivity analysis revealed that the removal of a single study (2. It’s worth noting that the studies in our analysis (and in this entire body of literature) lacked sufficient protein. An exception was Arciero et al (2. Furthermore, 6 meals per day increased lean mass despite hypocaloric conditions. MB: Sure thing. Something like that only happens in a study sponsored by EAS, Alan. Article continues below.. However, the question of muscle gain via IF remains unanswered since the investigative focus of IF research has been on weight/fat loss and accompanying clinical effects. No IF studies in the current literature have focused on the goal of gains in muscle size and/or strength. As such, No IF studies to- date (at least none that have passed peer review) have included a structured, progressive resistance training program. This is untreaded ground fresh for the taking by researchers with the desire to do so.
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