Thursday, January 16, 2025
Tens of thousands of years ago, our species woke up each morning, went
out in search of food and water and brought back what they found each
day. There was no such thing as breakfast or snacking as food quantity and
timing of meals were variable.
Did you know it takes tens of thousands of years for any significant changes
to take place within our DNA? Taking a look back at how we lived provides a
lot of answers as to why our modern-day society struggles with weight gain,
disease and lack of energy. The standard way of eating simply doesn’t line
up with how our bodies are genetically designed to function.
We’ve been hammered with the idea (it’s spoken about as fact) that
breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We’re told that if you don’t
eat breakfast, you’ll lose muscle and have no energy throughout the day.
But did you know that breakfast-as-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day
was created right around the time of the Great Depression to sell Kellogg’s
cereal and boost farm food sales? In fact, breakfast didn’t show up until the
agricultural revolution.
Remember, we know how long it takes for our
bodies to adapt to new ways of functioning and the earliest the agricultural
revolution is thought to have happened is somewhere around 10,000 BC.
When we combine the history of our species with today’s modern science
and the widespread decrease in food quality, it’s no wonder health issues
and obesity rates are at an all-time high. We eat all day, every day. We stack
energy (food) on top of energy on top of energy and don’t wait until we’ve
utilized that energy to eat again.
The breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner,
dessert, repeat model doesn’t work. The cycle goes on and on and in the
end, you can’t fight genetics.
Simply put, Intermittent Fasting (IF) is going a certain amount of time without
food or any incoming calories. Technically, even those who are eating
breakfast, lunch and dinner are intermittent fasting while they sleep.
There are many ways to approach intermittent fasting. Some approaches call for a
very low (about 500 calories) caloric day followed by a day where you eat
whatever you want. Others call for about 20 hours of fasting each day
followed by a 4-hour eating window.
Both for myself and clients, I’ve found the 16/8 method to have the highest
success rate with fat loss. 16/8 means we’re going 16 hours without eating
then consuming all calories within an 8-hour window. During the 16-hour
fasting window, the goal is to stay as close to 0 incoming calories as possible
(we’ll cover what’s OK below.) During the 8-hour eating window, the goal is to
hit your Daily Protein Minimum while still creating a calorie deficit.
With IF, you’re skipping breakfast, having your black coffee or tea (not
mandatory, only if you’re a caffeine person) and sipping on water until lunch.
For most of us, dinner is the time of the day where we want to kick back with
friends and family and unwind from the day. Lunch is typically in the middle of
the workday and it’s much easier to dial that meal knowing that you’ll have
basically whatever you’d like available to you for dinner.
Build your lunch choice on fat, fiber and protein. You can choose an array of
ingredients from the recipe guides on the site and build your own meal or you
can do like I do and make lunch the meal you build around greens.
My go to lunch is a Cobb Salad with double meat and a vinaigrette instead of a heavy
dressing. You could also do something like grilled chicken or grilled fish or tofu
and veggies with some feta cheese. The choices are endless but opt for fat,
fiber and protein for lunch. Lunch should land you somewhere between 500-
800 calories and 40-60 grams of protein.
If you need a snack in between lunch and dinner, make it protein rich.
Something like a protein smoothie with the World’s Best Protein Powder
works well here. I’ve included my favorite, high protein, hyper filling protein
recipe in the sample day below.
Ultimately, the goal is to structure lunch to
where it fills you up enough to carry you to dinner without the need for
snacking. This can take some time to figure out but it’s worth the effort.
For dinner you should have at least 1,000 calories to play with.
Build dinner around your protein of choice but here you can have your major carb hit for
the day or open a bottle of wine with your significant other. Of course, you can
do the opposite and do what you’d like for lunch, but this is the way I’ve seen it
work best with clients over the years. I’ve had clients call this set up “The Social
Diet” over the years as it lends well to those who are out and about often for
work or fun. It offers a ton of flexibility when you want it most.
INTERMITTENT FASTING BENEFITS
On top of increasing mental clarity and making losing weight effortless,
intermittent fasting offers an unbelievable, scientifically backed range of
health benefits. To name a few…
1. IF Eliminates Decision Fatigue
The fewer food decisions you need to make, the better. It’s far
easier to get 2 things right than it is 3, 4, 5 or 6. With the proper set
up, you just need to focus on getting lunch right. Plus, it’s much
less likely that you’ll exceed your Daily Caloric Limit between 2
meals versus 6. It makes creating calorie deficits so much easier.
2. Increased Insulin Sensitivity
The more insulin sensitive you are, the easier it is for your body to
regulate sugars in the bloodstream and the more conducive your
system is to fat loss. IF (Intermittent Fasting) boosts insulin
sensitivity big time. IF also decreases insulin resistance which is
huge for pre-diabetics, diabetics and those at risk for type 2
diabetes.
3. Norepinephrine jumps
Also known as noradrenaline, the jump in its levels via IF grant a
metabolic boost by as much as 14% while in a fasted state.
4. Low insulin levels (different from sensitivity)
Insulin is released when food is eaten. Higher levels of insulin in the
blood inhibit fat loss. The nature of IF keeps insulin levels low for
most of the day, nurturing a fat loss environment.
Increased levels of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and decreased
levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor1 (IGF-1) – This one is huge for
new muscle growth. Intermittent Fasting can increase the levels of
HGH produced in the body by as much as 500%-1,000+% percent
(no, that’s not a typo!) Higher levels of the hormone facilitate fat
burning and increase lean muscle tissue development along with
many additional benefits.
This is incredible for building the heroic physique you’ve always wanted.
Additionally, intermittent fasting
has been shown to reduce levels of IGF-1. When you’re young,
higher levels of IGF-1 are important for growth, but later in life
higher levels are linked to various types of cancer and other health
issues.
5. Cellular repair, gene expression, hormone production
and life extension
These benefits go far beyond the veil of vanity and truly increase
the quality of life at the cellular level. IF has been shown to aid the
waste removal process from cells and affect key hormone
production allowing genes to experience advantageous changes,
improving key functions and offering life longevity boosts. To top it
off, there are numerous studies that show IF can help in prevention
of diseases from Alzheimer’s to cancer.
6. Extreme nutritional flexibility
With traditional diets and plans, you’re allowed (how degrading) a
“cheat meal” here or there. With IF, you can literally eat foods you
love every day and make incredible progress as long as you’re
staying within your numbers. There is a ton of power in eliminating
the idea that you “can’t” eat certain foods. From here on out,
eliminate the idea of “good” and “bad” foods. Of course, you’ll want
to get nutritionally valuable foods, but hitting our goals from here
will be a matter of your caloric and protein targets regardless of
how you’re reaching those targets.
7. The Calorie Cushion
Because you’ve got an 8-hour window to work with, the chances of
you exceeding your caloric limits are slim. You’ll end up feeling
fuller and more satiated throughout your days without limitation or
energy crashes.
8. Eat Like a Queen/King
On average, you’ll be eating 2 delicious, filling meals a day. If you’ve
been grazing over the years with a breakfast/lunch/dinner set up
with snacks in between, you’ll be amazed at how much food you
can eat while fitting into your caloric window and hitting your
protein needs. No more to-go boxes at restaurants and yes, go
ahead and order those fries on the side.
9. Socially Seamless
When was the last time you had a breakfast business meeting or
met a friend for breakfast? With the occasional brunch aside, the
majority of social activities happen later in the day. You’ll be able to
fully enjoy lunch meetings, happy hours and dinners with friends
without worrying about calories or feeling guilty.
10. Sustainability
As you become adapted, this gets downright easy. You’ll think
about it less and less and become very in-tune with your body and
what it needs. The flexibility of intermittent fasting is unparalleled
and you get to eat what you want. There’s really nothing else like it
I get the question every day.
“How many calories break a fast?”
If fasting for improved gut health, zero calories is the goal. However, if fasting
for fat loss, you’ve got a little wiggle room.
A cup of black coffee has about 5 calories and certainly doesn’t slow fat loss.
There is no perfect, exact answer on what the ceiling is for a caloric load that
halts the benefits of fasting so we’ll use 20 calories as a general guideline. As
with anything in the nutritional world, some people will (violently) argue that
as high as 50 calories is fine. Others swear that anything over a single calorie
stops the benefits of fasting.
For me and those I’ve worked with, the 20-calorie marker has worked as a
solid guideline. At the end of the day intermittent fasting as a framework for
nutrition will create a number of positive shifts that simplify the process.
So what’s OK to have during your fasting window?
Black coffee, flavored black coffee, black coffee with a little cream, black coffee
with stevia/monk fruit, tea, sparkling water, 10 calorie energy drinks, 0 calorie
energy drinks, supplements like BCAA’s, creatine, vitamins, probiotics and
even diet soda are all OK.
Of course, the closer you can stick to just water, the better but we’ve got to live
our lives. I don’t personally have all of the above, but I’ve seen all work well
with clients’ preferences and subsequent results.
Whats not OK to have during your fasting window?
Food in general, bone broth, Cream/sweetener in coffee with quantity that
exceeds ~20 calories, protein shakes, protein powder, super green
supplements should all be kept until after you break your fast.
As you get started with Intermittent Fasting, pay attention to your energy levels
rather than hunger levels. Some hunger pangs and stomach rumbles are expected
as your body adjusts – this is totally OK. However, if you’re feeling lethargic, foggy,
lightheaded – eat. The next day you’ll be able to extend your fast a little longer.
Make sure you’re drinking extra water, especially at the start.
You’ll find that once you adapt, you’ll easily be able to fast longer and longer while
maintaining high levels of energy. You’ll probably come to prefer it. Personally, most
weekdays I’m fasting until somewhere between 3-5PM. The weekends tend to be a
little shorter to match up with family activities.
On occasion, especially when it lines
up with a particularly on the go, busy schedule, I’ll fast for 48-72 hours. It may sound
crazy to you at the moment but you’ll come to see it as an option you may want to
take in the near future. More on extended fasts another time.
As far as strength training fasted, is it OK? Won’t you lose all your energy and muscle
if you train fasted and continue to fast post workout? NO!
The body will adapt to just
about anything you give (or don’t give) it. It’ll take a few workouts to adjust but I
believe you’ll probably come to prefer training this way as I have. Energy levels are
so much better, my body isn’t sluggish from a big meal and I’m lifting as heavy as I
ever have.
You can fast as many days in a row as you’d like. There is no detriment to fasting
daily. On the flip side, if fasting a few days a week fits to your lifestyle, that also
works.
Fasting in this way has been around for tens of thousands of years for reasons
ranging from necessity to knowledge. This is not a fad. It’s how our bodies are
designed to operate at the highest levels. If what you’ve been doing isn’t working, it’s
time to give something new a try.
Start small and keep me posted on your progress.