1. The biggest barrier is your own mind.
Implementing this diet is pretty simple, you just don’t eat when you
wake up. Then you eat and lunch and go about your day. At least, that’s
how I do it.
But there is a mental barrier to get over. “If I don’t eat will I not
be able to think? Will I faint? Will I feel sick? What will it be
like?” These are all thoughts that went through my mind before I
started.
What ended up happening? Nothing. Life went on just fine.
Thinking you need to eat every 3 hours or six meals a day or always
have breakfast or whatever it is that you’re convinced you have to do to
survive … is all mental. You believe it because you were told it, not
because you actually tried it.
If there’s one thing I’ve noticed that separates successful people
from unsuccessful ones in life it’s not just the ability to think
differently, but the ability to act differently as well.
2. Losing weight is easy.
When you eat less frequently you tend to eat less overall. As a
result, most people who try intermittent fasting end up cutting weight.
You might plan big meals, but consistently eating them is difficult in
practice.
For this reason, I think intermittent fasting is a great option for
people who are looking to lose weight because it offers a simple way to
cut down on the total number of calories you eat without changing your
diet. Even if you tell people that they can eat two large meals at lunch
and dinner, they typically end up eating fewer calories than they would
at 3 or 4 normal meals.
Most people lose weight while intermittent fasting because when they
cut out meals, they don’t make up for it with bigger meal sizes.
3. Building muscle is quite possible (if that’s what you want).
I have managed to gain weight while intermittent fasting (I’ve added
about 12 pounds of lean body mass and cut 5 pounds of fat over the last
year), but only because I have focused on eating a lot during my feeding
period.
As I mentioned above, the natural tendency is to lose weight on
intermittent fasting because it’s easy to eat less when you cut a meal
out of your day. However, at the end of the day eating 2,000 calories is
eating 2,000 calories whether it comes during a 16–hour span or an
8–hour span. It just takes more effort to make sure you eat it all
within 8 hours.
It’s totally reasonable to build muscle as long as you eat enough.
4. My best work is usually done when I’m deep into my fast.
I’m most productive during the first 3 hours of my morning, which is
about 12 to 15 hours into my daily fast. This is the exact opposite of
what I expected when I started out. I assumed that if I didn’t eat for
hours, then I wouldn’t have any energy to think. The reality is just the
opposite.
I have a lot of mental clarity in the morning when I fast. I can’t
say for certain if this is due to the fasting or the fact that I’m just
refreshed when I wake up, but one thing is clear: fasting is not
hindering my ability to get things done in the morning. In fact, I’m
almost always more productive in the morning when I’m fasted than in the
afternoon when I’m fed.
5. For best results, cycle what you eat.
Intermittent fasting works, but I didn’t start cutting fat at a
significant rate until I added in calorie cycling and carb cycling to my
diet. Here’s how it works…
I cycle calories by eating a lot on the days that I workout and less
on the days that I rest. This means I have a calorie surplus on the days
I train and a calorie deficit on the days that I rest. The idea behind
this is that you can build muscle on the days you train and burn fat on
the days you rest. And by the end of the week, you should have done
both.
Additionally, I cycle carbs by eating a lot of carbohydrates on the
days that I train and few carbohydrates on the days that I rest. This is
done to stimulate fat loss. I eat high protein all the time and
moderate to low fat on most days. Cycling carbohydrates has also led to
additional fat loss.
For me, this is when the intermittent fasting seemed to pay off the
most — when I coupled it with calorie cycling and carb cycling.
6. Like most things, you should take a long–term view of eating.
Too often we think about our diet in super short timeframes.
It’s better to think about what we eat over the course of a week than
over the course of a day (or worse, a few hours). For example, whether
or not you have a protein shake within 30 minutes of working out, is
largely a non–issue if you’re getting a meal of quality protein within
24 hours of working out.
One reason intermittent fasting works is because the super short
timeframes that we are pitched by food companies and supplement
companies are largely a myth. Let’s say you eat 3 quality meals per day.
That’s 21 meals per week. Over the course of a week, do you think your
body cares if the meals are eaten from 8am to 8pm (the normal eating
schedule) or 1pm to 8pm (an intermittent fasting schedule)?
How about if we stretch it out over the course of a month? Wouldn’t
it make sense that if you ate 80 quality meals every month (about 3 per
day) that your body would make the most of those meals whether you ate
them in an 8–hour block or a 12–hour block on each individual day?
When you take a slightly longer view, you start to realize that the
time difference between eating from 8am to 8pm versus eating from 1pm to
8pm isn’t that large over the course of a week or a month.
7. It’s strange, but when I’m fasting I want food less.
Now that I’ve started fasting, I want food less. I’m not addicted to
it. I’m not a victim to my diet. I eat when I want because I want to,
not because my body tells me I have to.
This is a marked change from my previous eating schedule and I think
the additional power and flexibility I have over my diet now is a
benefit.
8. Losing fat and gaining muscle can both be done, just not together.
If you’re looking to lose fat and build muscle mass, then the
combination of intermittent fasting, calorie cycling, and carb cycling
that I have mentioned here is one of the best solutions you’ll find.
You see, it’s basically impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the
same time. To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take
in. You need to have a net calorie deficit.
To build muscle, you need to eat more calories than you burn. You need to have a net calorie surplus.
It should be fairly obvious that you can’t have a net surplus and a
net deficit at the same time. For example, you can either eat more than
2,000 calories or you can eat less than 2,000 calories … but you can’t
do both at the same time. This is why it’s basically impossible to lose
fat and gain muscle at the same time.
However, if we get away from the small timeframes and start thinking
about our diet over the course of a week or a month, then we start to
have more options. For example, let’s say that you workout 3 days per
week. You could organize your eating routine to have a calorie surplus
on the days you train (i.e. gain muscle) and then a calorie deficit on
the days you rest (i.e. lose fat). That way, by the end of the week,
it’s possible for you to have spent 3 days gaining muscle and 4 days
losing fat.
9. When fasting, I have made more gains by training less.
I’ve recently began testing a new hypothesis for strength training, which I call “Do The Most Important Thing First.”
It’s as simple as it sounds. I pick one goal for the workout and do
the most important exercise first. Everything else is secondary. For
example, right now I’m working out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I do
two sessions each day. Upper body in the morning. Lower body in the
evening. But I’m only doing one exercise each time (pushups in the
morning) and squat or deadlift in the evening. If I feel like it, I’ll
finish my evening workout with kettlebell work or bodyweight stuff
(handstands, front levers, and so on).
The results have been very good. I’ve seen improvement each and every
week over the last three months. It’s worked so well that I’m starting
to think that it has very little to do with fasting, but instead is just
a better way of training. I’ll write more about this in the future, but
I wanted to note it here because when I compare it to the previous way I
trained while fasting (snatch and clean and jerk three days per week,
plus squat or deadlift), I seem to be making more progress.
10. As long as you stay under 50 calories, you’ll remain in the fasted state.
A lot of people like to start their day with a cup of coffee or a
glass of orange juice. Maybe you’re one of them. I have a glass of
water. Well you don’t have to dump your morning routine if you want to
give fasting a try.
The general rule of thumb is that if you stay under 50 calories, then
you’ll remain in the fasted state. I’m not sure where this number came
from, but I’ve seen it dished around by enough reputable people that I’m
going to go with it for now. Following the opinion of the majority is
typically a lazy move, but in this case I think you’ll be alright if you
want to have a cup of coffee in the morning.
11. Prepare to drink a lot of water.
I drank a lot of water before I began intermittent fasting, but now I
drink an incredible amount. I’m usually over 8 glasses for the day by
the time I get done with lunch.
You mileage may vary, but even if you don’t drink as much water as I do, I recommend having it at the ready.
12. The best diet for you is the one that works for you.
Everyone wants to be handed the ultimate diet plan. We all want the
answers on one sheet of paper. “Here. Just do this and you’ll be set.”
This is why diet books sell so well. A lot of people are willing to
pay for a quick fix, a diet in a box, or the nutritional solution to
long life.
Here’s my problem with marketers telling everyone that their diet is
the best: it’s like telling the whole world to wear medium sized shirts
and then wondering why they don’t fit a lot of people.
In most ways, your body is the same as everyone else’s. But in some
very important ways, it’s also different than everyone else’s. To find
the diet that works best for you, you need to experiment and see what
your body responds to.
This is why I enjoy intermittent fasting. You can play with your
eating schedule very easily. Choose one that fits your lifestyle and
that your body responds to. Once you figure out when you should be
eating, then you can move on to the harder part: what you should be
eating.
As always, your mileage will vary, but the most important thing is that you’re covering ground and moving forward.
