There's been a recent trend in the fitness space that's just been blowing up everywhere. It's a little something called intermittent fasting. It was created to mainly help those who are struggling with their weight to lose that extra little bit. But so many others have leapt on to the bandwagon. There are actual businesses created over this ONE thing. Now, even bodybuilders are doing it! And pretty soon, us functional fitness enthusiasts will too.
For those of you completely out of the loop right now, let me quickly explain what intermittent fasting is. You know how most diets built around losing weight require you to heavily restrict your calories? Well, intermittent fasting (IF) doesn't care much about how much you eat, rather it's all about when you eat & the best part is, you can still eat however many calories you were eating before.
Allow me to explain, because I know I have many of you confused by this point. Let's take a common method of IF to use as an example. I know when I was doing it, I would not eat for 16 hours but I'd eat for 8. In that time frame, there is absolutely NO snacking involved (if you eat full meals). Why? Because there's no need to do so. You can have 3 big meals in that time that should be more than enough to keep you full. These 3 meals would then add up to your calorie goal for the day. Sounds simple enough right?
And don't worry about the whole 16 hours thing. That took me some time to work up to it. If you're just starting out, your aim should be not to eat for at least 9 hours (hint: sleep counts).
Intermittent fasting may seem like a chore to deal with, but there are real benefits to it. For starters and probably the most obvious one, it helps to burn fat.
"But Sean, how does it do this?"
This is where your eight grade biology class comes in handy. Finally, the education system comes to your need when you need it to! There are 2 states in the body. One is the fasted state, where you haven't eat anything. And the other is the fed state, where you guessed it, you have eaten something.
There is also this little thing called insulin [2], which will come into play. When you eat, it takes about 3-5 hours to digest that food completely. I know, sometimes it feels like 30 min and you just can't stop eating everything in sight, but the numbers don't lie. In this fed state, your insulin levels are pretty high, which makes it harder to burn fat. Unfortunately though, this is when most people workout, me including.
But after those 5 hours are up, that's where the magic happens. Your body is now in a fasted state, which is just a fancy way of saying you're starving. Your body is not processing any food, which really drops down your insulin levels, making it that much easier to burn fat. And most of the time, you don't even have to workout if you're following IF!
Another benefit of IF is that it helps combat inflammation[1], and that's what we're all about when it comes to functional fitness. The whole motto of functional fitness is pain reduction, and intermittent fasting really helps with that by impacting the heart to lower it's cholesterol, which in turn has a direct effect on your stress levels, which leads to less inflammation.
Yes, that's all well and good but you want to know how IF can help you to reach your goals in functional fitness. And that it can help you a lot with, my friend.
Don't you remember the last time you accidentally ate too much? Do you remember how shitty you felt? Do you remember how you could feel some fat piling back on?
Hey, you're not the only one. Yours truly has gone through the same thing. That feeling usually goes away with a solid full-body workout, but let's say you didn't get the time to reach the gym, and now you're desperately searching for a workout that'll burn 5000 calories. Or you go on strict salad-only diet for a week.
I say kick that rabbit food to the curb, eat how you were doing before, but reduce the time frame when you eat. That way you're still ingesting just as much calories as you normally would, so you won't be losing muscle, and you get that added benefit of fat loss.
As previously mentioned, intermittent fasting is almost essential for creating that healthy body for life you desire, since it reduces cardiovascular diseases and fights off inflammation. This is extremely important if you want to lower your risk of diabetes. IF also has been proven to boost your cognition since by lowering your cholesterol, it clears your arteries up, allowing you to think more clearly.
After saying all this, it should make sense that intermittent fasting & functional fitness go hand in hand, right? Wrong! While intermittent fasting is great, it should be only used for the short term, especially if lifelong body maintenance is your end goal. IF, again, is mainly used for fat loss, which is why it works so well for short periods of time. You're still trying to hold onto your muscle as well, so it's in your best interest that you don't continue IF.
Intermittent fasting is also not for those who've already been diagnosed with diabetes, as this could severely lower their blood pressure leading to incredibly dangerous scenarios.
BUT if you want to shake things up in your nutrition and experience the previously mentioned benefits to it's full potential, definitely give intermittent fasting a try. I'm not joking around when I say your life will be changed forever.
Below you'll find a sample meal plan looks like with intermittent fasting.
Sample Meal Plan For Intermittent Fasting
*Fasting for 16 hours*
11 AM-First Meal: BREAKFAST
6 eggs (scrambled)
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 cup of apple slices (or choice fruit)
1 cup of almond milk
1 Protein Shake (1 scoop)
3 PM-Second Meal: LUNCH
6 oz Chicken Breast
1 cup of Brown Rice
1 cup of Steamed Vegetables
1 Avocado
2 tbsp of Almonds
6:30 PM-Third Meal: DINNER
6 oz Tip Sirloin Steak
3 oz Tuna Fish Cutlets
1 Avocado
1/2 cup of Greek Salad
1 cup of grapes or choice fruit
*FAST BEGINS AT 7 PM*
For those of who you are obsessive about calories, which you shouldn't be by the way, this entire meal plan gives you a total of 2400 calories/day. That's more than enough to maintain your body so you can keep that muscle, but still hold off the fat. And again this is just a SAMPLE meal plan of what I personally used when I went through intermittent fasting. Feel free to use this one, or you can make up your own.
7 PM is when you should start your fast, if you follow the 16-8 rule.
11 AM is when you re-start you feeding time.
Intermittent fasting is more than just a fad diet like Paleo or Keto. IF is a complete reset of the mind & body, so you eat to survive rather than survive to eat. Yes, the meals are larger than you're normally accustomed to, and yes the timing may not be the best fit for you, but IF is the quickest way to burn an extra few, and it also helps to regulate your food intake so you're not gorging out on food 24/7.
Go ahead & give IF a try, and let us know what you thought in the comments below.
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