Intermittent fasting has received huge publicity of late, creating plenty of questions and confusion for many who consider it to be contradictory to the traditional nutritional advice of eating smaller meals more regularly throughout the day. Intermittent fasting has featured in plenty of magazines such as the 5:2 diet protocol, which was also broadcast on the BBC. Everyone is taking about it, and so I believe its important to understand its positives and negatives, and if we are going to implement it, then how to do so in the most appropriate manner. To begin with, I would like to say that there is nothing wrong with the traditional way of eating smaller meals more regularly for optimum health, muscle gain and fat loss. In fact if your goal is hypertrophy or strength then eating meals more regularly is your best option. It has worked for countless people in the past and will continue to work as long as the human species remains the same! Intermittent fasting is just another approach you can take to achieve your health and fitness goals. There are different methods of intermittent fasting, and I have outlined some of the best below.
What is intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting is simply a way of eating, where in you would go for prolonged periods of time without consuming any foods. Its nothing new; however, recent studies have shown that when it is done properly, it can aid fat loss, muscle gain and maintenance by regulating blood glucose and controlling blood lipids.
Sound nutritional plans always have certain key factors in place to ensure great results that would last. Here’s what intermittent fasting has in common with eating smaller meals more regularly:
- Controlling calories: When calories are controlled, progress is made. Whether you control them by eating frequent small meals or infrequent larger meals is up to you.
- The quality of your food: You should be consuming whole fresh natural foods, packed with nutrients.
- An exercise programme: Resistance training should form the cornerstone of your programme.
Regardless of which eating style you adopt, these points should be taken into consideration if you seek to attain success.
The benefits of intermittent fasting.
Here are a few benefits of following certain intermittent fasting protocols when it is executed properly. You can expect to see the following results if your food choices are right, you control your calories and you workout regularly:
- Reduction of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels
- Reduction in blood pressure
- Increased fat burning (higher amounts of oxidation in fatty acids)
- Increase growth hormone release
- Enhanced metabolism
- Improved calorie control
- Better insulin sensitivity
- Improved blood sugar levels and cardiovascular health
To a certain extent, you’re probably already doing intermittent fasting. When you sleep, you usually fast for around 10-12 hours every day – unless you’re treating yourself to midnight snacks, of course! So, the chances are that you’re getting some of these benefits already. However, to feel the full effects of intermittent fasting, you should aim to maintain your fasting periods to somewhere between 20 and 24 hours if you lead a fairly sedentary life style. If you’re more active, you need the nutrients, and so you should go with fasts ranging from 16-20 hours.
Different intermittent fasting protocols.
There are different ways of practising intermittent fasting. People have many questions about intermittent fasting, such as how long you should fast for, how often you should do it and whether you should ensure zero calories when you fast or just a limited amount? The truth is that there isn’t a correct answer for these questions. Rather, there are several different approaches. Some will work better for you and some for others.
Alternate day fasting
Under this approach, you only eat once every other day. For example, on Monday, you eat for a period of 12 hours, say 9am to 9pm. After 9pm, you would then begin your fast and not eat anything until 9am Wednesday. So, that’s two nights and one whole day without eating anything; you would then repeat this through out the week. If you choose to adopt this approach, it’s important you choose good food when you can eat. This would suit someone who isn’t very active.
5:2 diet
This approach has been popularised in many magazines and on TV, of late by Michael Mosely. This involves choosing two days a week to truly cut your calories. Women should cut theirs down to around 500 calories and men to around 600 calories. Then, for the other 5 days, eat a healthy well balanced diet. Many of the watered down versions of this protocol have been floating around in the magazines, stating that you can eat what you like for the remaining 5 days! This is indeed a bold statement – eating anything you like, including fast foods, sugary drinks and everything bad I can possibly think of! Isn’t that ridiculous? Remember, the quality of the nutrients you eat is vital to not just weight loss but your health as well. The 5:2 diet, when done properly, can suit people who do a moderate amount of exercise.
Meal skipping
This reverts back to the idea of eating like our ancestors did and putting the hunter gatherer approach into action. Our ancestors had to work to get their food and would often go without a meal when they couldn’t kill or find anything. So, to replicate those leaner days of our ancestors, this protocol would have you exercise and eat only whole foods while randomly missing meals and cycling daily calorie intake. The rules are fairly flexible – for example, you may only miss one lunch and then one breakfast later in the week. This protocol can suit more active people who may want to miss a meal on their rest day from exercise.
24-hour fast
This is another flexible protocol, where you simply fast for a straight 24 hours with zero calories consumed. You can choose to do this once or twice a week, depending on your activity levels. The rest of the week, you should consume whole foods and eat a well balanced diet. The 24-hour fast suits more in active people.
Lean gains
This protocol is slightly more technical, wherein you would be able to consume a high-protein diet for 8 hours, followed by 16 hours of fasting. It also introduces other eating patterns such as carbohydrate cycling and nutrient timing around your workouts (consuming the majority of your foods post-workout). Ideally, you would do the 16-hour fast from, say, 8.30pm Monday night until 12.30pm Tuesday afternoon. You need to time your workout towards the end of your fast. So, in this case, it would be around 11.30am. Make sure that when you workout, you have 10 grams of branched-chain amino acids. Post workout, you eat 2-3 high protein meals before 8.30pm. Your biggest meal should be the first one straight after your workout. This is then repeated all through the week. This method suits active people as it gives them enough time to get enough nutrients into the body since the fasts are shorter.
Summary
Different approaches of intermittent fasting suit different people and lifestyles. Finding one that best suits your lifestyle and needs is obviously what you need to do. Again, I would like to point out that eating smaller meals more regularly does work well too. When it comes to frequency of eating, the vast majority of my clients, especially when they first visit, are advised by me to eat smaller meals more regularly throughout the day. This is because it induces increased metabolism, keeps them feeling fuller, stabilises blood sugar levels, decreases fatigue and enables them to get a good variety of whole foods with plenty of vitamins and minerals into their diet, which is ideal for someone new to this lifestyle.
When it comes to fasting protocols, it’s really about balance. On one hand, longer fasts (36 hours max) are said to offer good health benefits and help fight disease. But then, such fasts have a negative effect on muscle tissue. This is obviously a problem as muscle tissue is one of the most important aspects of fat loss, not to mention bone density, joint health, sports performance and just looking good and being fit. You also need to worry about not getting enough vitamins and minerals to ensure proper hormone and cellular function.
This is why most trainers and coaches, including me, would recommend choosing an approach which advocates shorter fast periods to ensure you look after your hard-earned muscle tissue, especially if you are active. People leading a more sedentary lifestyle ideally should increase their exercise levels or else they won’t be able to go for slightly longer fasting periods.