Intermittent fasting is rooted in the word fasting. It involves a period of not eating i.e. fasting and a period of eating i.e. feasting. It’s fasting done with a tweak, done in a pre-determined time period to maximize it’s results (leading to more loss of body fat while maintaining/gaining muscle).

I have been doing intermittent fasting every day for the last 8 months. This involves periods of losing fat (cutting) and gaining weight (bulking). During this period, I gained more muscle, definition and experienced increased strength. I also experienced increased levels of focus and energy throughout the day. (as compared to previous sprees of uncontrolled eating and “bro-sciency” periods of eating 6 times a day).

I lost around 18 pounds of weight and reached 10% body fat while still looking muscular. Of course, your results depend on your body type and goal, but more on that later.

Fasting is also a door to other healthy habits. You can cultivate other healthy habits by starting small. Ever wonder how a person who starts with a positive habit starts doing other stuff too? Well, it’s how our brain works, we learn from our small wins. It’s a positive feedback loop and we start developing more healthy habits as. Who knows next you might start cold showers or meditation and go on a self development trajectory?

Below I talk about how fasting works, how you can start, and it’s health and brain function benefits. I’ve also thrown in some of it’s links to prehistoric times and religion. In general for people starting out with fitness, IF is a good starting point. It’s easy to understand, flexible and doesn’t require a lot of change to your routine.

I’m nowhere near my best shape. I’m writing this just as someone who discovered IF early on and decided to try it out. I did my research, found out what works for me, and got good results (and I love jacked people, so…). I might go on a bit of a rant in certain parts. Feel free to jump to the later sections if you know some basics about fasting.

If this feels overwhelming, scroll to the ending disclaimer for some motivation.

Who should do it?

The benefits of fasting every day are so vast that everyone should do it. If you’re someone who is looking to lose fat, I definitely recommend trying it out and adding this to your routine (supplemented by proper workouts and healthy eating).

If you’re someone who is struggling with losing weight because

- You’re tired of following a strict diet schedule
- Have a hectic work schedule
- You’re a lifter whose gaining too much fat while trying to gain muscle
- You’re just trying to eat healthily

Intermittent Fasting is for YOU.

It’s flexible, you can alter the IF windows according to your schedule. It’s also beneficial for lean bulking. It also has other long-term and short-term benefits on the body. A person who is a bit on the fat side never loses the potential to gain weight, you can’t lose your fat cells after a certain age. Wonder why people who were overweight as kids gain weight easily? Better to keep your fat levels at check, while letting your body function as it was meant to be.

If you’re someone who thinks fasting is bad for you, jump a few sections below to read about common misconceptions, how IF works and its benefits.

Sounds good, tell me the cheat code?

The concept is super easy, you eat during the feasting window and fast during your fasting window. Fasting windows can vary from person to person, the most common cycle being the 16/8 cycle. This cycle involves 16 hours of fasting and an 8 hour feasting window where you can eat.

• Whatever fits your schedule works: You can start and end the cycle at any time as long as it fits the time cycle you’ve decided on. If you like breakfast, and would rather prefer skipping dinner than skip your pancakes, go for it. For example in a 16/8 cycle, start eating at 10 AM and eat your dinner at 6 PM. Whatever works best for you.
• Experiment with different cycles: Some other cycles are 18/6, 20/4, one meal a day, fasting for a full day twice a week and more. Try working out fasted, try pushing your fast. Experiment and figure out what timing works best for your body and fits your schedule.
• For people just starting out with fitness: Start slow by experimenting what works best for your body. You could also start with a 14/10 cycle, although I would advise you push to 16 hours of fasting. Keep in mind fasting is you pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. It is like a shell shock for your body and it’ll take around 2 weeks to get acquainted with daily fasting.

If you want to achieve something you don’t have, you have to do things you haven’t done. To get a lean body, you need to manage your health and push your current boundaries.

Interesting m8, how does it work tho?

Your body works pretty efficiently when it’s in a fasted state, it is how it was meant to function.

• Fasting promotes healthy release of hormones and controls body fat levels. On the surface level, there’s two main hormones in play here, namely HGH (human growth hormone) and insulin. To keep things simple, think of insulin as a growth suppressant hormone and HGH as a growth-inducing hormone. Both are essential for a healthy functioning body.
• When your body is in a fasted state, it starts burning energy from the food you ate. This happens after your last meal at night and takes approximately 11–12 hours.
• Fat burning start later during the fast. The period after 12 hours, that is the last 4–6 hours of fasting, is when your body burns the most amount of stored fat. It is also when your insulin levels are low and you produce more HGH.

• Does that mean insulin is bad for you?
  No. Try to think of insulin as the hormone which makes your fasted body absorb the nutrients from your food. It’s really important for regular body functioning and is released during the feasting window. There are a lot of other roles of insulin which I won’t delve into individually.

But isn’t fasting bad for me?

Our bodies were meant to remain in a fasted state for an extended period of time and then feast on nutrients for a small amount, which leads to proper hormone management yadda yadda.

Doing IF is to allow the body to function how it was meant to be.

As compared to prehistoric times, we have more food available. The easiest and cheapest food to find is usually some calorie dense carby food. You might notice feeling lethargic in the noon after eating a big bowl of cereal or some carb-rich breakfast in the morning. The whole concept of eating as soon as you wake up is a societal conditioning which grew onto people, but hey break some rules.

Evidence can be seen in any evolutionary history book. Older generations of humans, who would go on unplanned hunting trips. These would last for 4–5 days ending with a big catch and eating. Being in a fasted state let these individuals stay alert, focussed and perform to their potential. These prehistoric human beings were able to use the body more efficiently, by allowing it to do what it was meant to do, which is how we evolved. Breakfast literally comprises the words break fast, so to say, break your fast. Just fast more.

Let your body function efficiently according to your genetic coding, and you’ll perform better

If you still think that fasting is a scientific technique of the Illuminati, you can also source motivation from religion and religious texts. These have a lot of references about fasting and a lot of events involve fasting. Some famous Religious events which involve fasting are Ramadan or week long water fasts in Jainism. In addition to their religious significance, these are inadvertently meant to stimulate the old school fasted lifestyle; to restart the original body functions after months or days of feasting.

Tips to make fasting easy and enjoyable

• The main goal of IF is to push your first meal after starting your fasting phase. Think of it as pushing your breakfast (breaking your fast) which you do at 8–9 AM to 2–3 PM. The longer you push your first meal, the more fat you’ll burn.
• You might have headaches, feel weird or even feel weak and groggy for the first couple of days. Push through. It gets better to a point that you don’t even need to remind yourself to fast. Fasting in itself is really beneficial, but when combined with proper workouts, healthy eating, good sleep and other factors can do wonders.
• Drink a lot of water while fasting. Not only will you feel full but you’ll stay hydrated. Let’s be real, a lot of us don’t drink enough water throughout the day.
• Eating <100 cals while fasting is fine. You can drink a cup of black coffee and/or tea, have an occasional diet coke on tough days or have some carbonated water. Whatever helps you feel satiated while being low on calories.
• You can eat a fruit or a protein bar if you’re feeling adventurous at 2 PM. This will help you push your fast for a few more hours and have a meal at 6 PM instead.
• Don’t forget the concept of IF is to make fasting easier and flexible while still getting it’s benefits. Don’t beat yourself up if you cheat a bit. For example feeling tired and hungry, eat lunch at 12 PM instead of 2 PM, you still get some of the benefits. Don’t let that demotivate you. Feeling adventurous, eat a small fruit at 2 and push your fast till 5 PM. It’s flexible, build it around your schedule.

FAQ?

There’s a lot of ways in which fasting positively affects your health.

• Would I lose fat even if I eat a lot?
  The primary factor driving fat loss is staying in a calorific deficit. IF lets you eat in a smaller window of time which inadvertently causes an individual to eat less. You will notice you don’t feel like eating in the first few days, push through and eat the amount you should be eating. It certainly requires some amount of self-control but trust me you feel pretty full after eating 3000 cals in your feasting window.
  Your body first burns through glycogen resources. Then it goes through visceral fat buried deep in between your organs. Finally, it goes through subcutaneous fat, which is the visible fat near your skin. Don’t lost hope if it takes time to see visible results.

• How is Intermittent Fasting better than a regular dieting schedule?
  Simple, it is Easier and more flexible than strict “fad dieting” schedules.
  You don’t need to be on a specific diet of eating only salads or brown rice and grilled chicken, there’s just so much good food out there (burritos anyone?).
  With IF, you’re efficiently losing fat, a bit by bit, every day, simply by changing your eating habits. In addition you can cheat sometimes and you grow muscle. I mean who doesn’t like looking lean?
• Wouldn’t fasting stress my body and metabolism?
  Fasting is a “positive stress”. Just like exercise, fasting is a form of Hormetic Stress for the body. The reason why exercise is good for you is not only that it keeps your body fit, it is also induces a positive stress on it. Your body when under positive stress releases certain hormones and chemicals which make you feel and function better. Fasting is a similar positive stress. Wonder why you feel good after a workout or why runners high exists?
• Would it give me better Gains?
  Some research shows that fasting and working out while fasting is extremely beneficial. Research done in this field shows that working out while fasting increases the amount of HGH in men by around ~2000% and by ~1300% in women. It also naturally boosts your testosterone (some people take steroids for this, theres not a lot of natural ways to increase T-levels). Mm yeah, gonna ride that natty growth wave?
• Save $$$, more focus, more time to chill
  While your body is in a fasted state, you are more focused throughout the day. You will notice this increase in productivity as time passes. You also don’t have to schedule your day around meals, and you have more free time to do other stuff. You don’t need to worry about lunch or breakfast(or whichever meal you’re skipping). If you’re working, you have an uninterrupted period of focus earlier in the day and get more work done. It is also cheaper as you eat less (for you college kids out there I know the struggle).

The problem with “modern day eating”

The modern day schedule is such that it revolves around eating. An average Joe would start eating after waking up (who doesn’t love some carby goodness). He/she would then continue eating all the way till before sleeping, get those midnight munchies in. What this leads to is always elevated levels of insulin. Your body doesn’t need to burn fat and neither are the conditions such that it could do it efficiently.

Keeping your body in a perennially feasted state leads to you to lose less fat and eat more, ultimately gaining weight and/or becoming skinny fat. When you’re fasting you cause damaged cells to clear away and you turn on genes to deal with stress. You make more antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and all other kinds of good stuff in your body. The brain doesn’t know you’re trying to fast, it’s how your body was meant to function. You’re body, and you are literally getting healthier when you fast.

Don’t get me wrong, if asked the question whether I eat to live or live to eat, I will blindly choose that I live to eat. I love food but also like staying lean which shouldn’t stop me from enjoying some good Indian food. The whole idea of IF is to make staying fit easier, enjoyable and flexible. It doesn’t have to be like strict diets where you have to eat a certain thing in a certain amount.

What I did.

At this point, I am trying to bulk and add lean muscle to my body. I used to be skinny fat, not working out that often and eating whenever I felt like. Fasting became my go-to-way to lose all the extra fat I had accumulated (damn you love handles).

I currently do a 16/8 cycle eating around 2900–3100 cals a day. I’m a 6'4 mesomorph so I can push 200 cals more to this. Not counting calories exactly, I track my macros (for people new to tracking macros, the app MyFitnessPal is great for tracking what you eat). I do this once in a while and have a good approximation of the number of calories in meals which I usually have.

• Wake up at 9 AM, workout between then and 2 PM. I usually have a good amount of water as soon as I wake up to rehydrate my body and suppress any hunger I may have. I also have a cup of black coffee/can of diet coke to get some caffeine in and wake up.
• After a good session of lifting, I make my first big meal (~1100 cals), well rounded with ample carbs, fat and protein (includes my post workout protein shake),.
• Then I eat something small in the evening at around 4:30–5PM, (~300 cals), a fruit, some yogurt, a protein bar, some pancakes whatever I feel like that day.
• Then I follow by a big well-rounded dinner at 7–8 PM. This is usually me eating out (~1200 cals), keeping in mind that I eat in control.
• I finish my day with something small around 10 PM, usually to fulfill my macros and give the body enough nutrition to recharge and heal while I sleep.

Following this for the past few months, I have been getting stronger on all my lifts. I look bigger and leaner and my weight is still pretty stagnant. So if you can add IF to your workout routine, I recommend adding it this bulking season to get a feel of lean bulking. You can also incorporate IF into your routine to break through fat loss plateaus.

Working out while fasting

This is for the people who want to push themselves even more, that is workout during IF. I’m writing from personal experience and from experiences of other people who lift while fasting.

Contrary to the general belief that you feel weak, you feel stronger, and you burn more fat. Doing intense workouts and compound exercises makes you feel good because of healthy release of tons of hormones and chemicals (norepinephrine, antioxidants and much more). You become healthier, lose fat, have a larger release of testosterone and growth hormone, all while feeling stronger and better.

IF can be taxing on the body, which is true for any kind hormetic stress.

• Eat enough food, you burn more calories. Take ample rest days, give your body refeed periods, workout while fed once in every week. Mix it up. Work your way into it and see how your body feels.
• Adjust when you workout. Do it only when you have decent form. Carrying out all that heavy weight while fasted is strenuous, you need to have proper technique. Know how much you can push your limits to avoid injury and even fainting.
• Some of the many famous bodybuilders who preach IF are Kinobody and Martin Berkhan. Also, if you’re a fitness junky, checkout this Joe Rogan — Rhonda Patrick podcast, tons of information about health.

Disclaimer, be careful but also don’t

Most of the facts are through research and personal experimentation. Take note and do what is best for your body. By no means am I a nutrition expert or a doctor. I simply started fasting as a healthy habit when I started working out seriously and focusing on my health.

A lot of people have a misconception that fasting leads to muscle loss, and is bad for the body. Well in simple terms, they’re wrong and are circulating some non researched random advice they may have read in a health magazine somewhere. The catabolic nature of fasting only starts after fasting for a couple of days, and there is no loss of muscle by doing a 16 hour fast

With that said, if you have any health issues like diabetes, or issues with any organs; anything which raises a red flag, ask your doctor before starting IF. Stay safe.
This also doesn’t mean that you put off fasting by making some random excuse. Do your research and start cultivating healthy habits. Be aware, if you know you’re potential, don’t be afraid to experiment and push your boundaries.

If you’re starting out, trust the process and give some time for your brain to get used to the habit. If you’re not used to doing things which push you out of your comfort zone, the brain subconsciously starts developing excuses to give up the habit. All these habits like meditation, fasting, cold showers etc require a certain degree of openness.Try pushing for two weeks and see how it feels. Everybody’s body is different, if it doesn’t work for you, try something else, come back to IF later. The facts will still be here, online.

Be aware, stay on the path, cheat with awareness, and good results shall be with you. GG.

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