There have been a lot of articles about intermittent fasting recently. For years we’ve had staunch instruction from some of the greatest minds in the fitness industry that to succeed in both fat loss and strength gains we should eat several small meals a day. We should aim to eat 5 meals a day, perhaps even 6, and for the best results you ought to eat something every 2 hours if you can.
Like many others I took this advice at face value. There seemed to be reasonable support for it. If nothing else there was support in the results that people had achieved. So I packaged up my meals into little pots, took 3 or 4 pots to work each day and ate a little and often throughout the day.
But over recent years there has been a revolution taking place. More and more people have been trying intermittent fasting and finding that the results are surprisingly good.
What is intermittent fasting (‘IF’)?
IF very simply requires you to go for an extended period of time without eating.
There are all sorts of ways to fast. A great list of different ways to fast can be found on Mark Sisson’s blog, though wider reading suggests that two methods seem to be most often used:
- Miss a single meal every day or every other day, such as breakfast, giving a fasted period of about 16-18 hours if the meal you choose to miss is breakfast.
- Fast for 24 hours once or twice a week (eg. eat dinner at 7pm and then don’t eat anything again until 7pm the next day).
For those who are believers in the primal lifestyle and living the way our ancient ancestors did in pre-Neolithic times, the concept of going for long periods of time without eating anything makes perfect sense. Food wasn’t always at hand, in the nearest cupboard or fridge. Yes, they could build up a store of food, but even then you keep hunting when the food is available and if you are out on a hunt could you really carry food?
How did IF become popular?
A lot of people in the fitness industry have been introduced to IF through Brad Pilon’s book Eat Stop Eat. Apparently Brad set out to do some research but first needed a base line. In an interview with Mike T Nelson he explained how he decided to use a fasted state as his base line, set out to list out all the horrid things that happen when you fast and found himself surprised by the results.
However, IF has ultimately become popular for the simple reason that it seems to work for so many people.
What does IF achieve and can it impact my performance?
Many who have tried IF have sung it its praises. They comment on feeling cleaner, leaner, healthier and happier. Others have successfully used it as part of a weight loss or weight control plan (here are some impressive before and after photos of a guy who used IF to get amazing results).
Of particular interest to me, given my life goals of living a long and active life, were the following studies:
- a study published in Nature that suggested that fasting caused mice to be more active than non-fasting mice;
- evidence that monkeys kept in captivity maintain better health when they are fed with less frequency;
- another study that suggests that fasting can improve our mobility;
- fasting may improve the immune system, since the stress on the body causes it to release antimicrobial peptides;
- a research project which suggested that the timing of meals may be key to the way we store them;
- Robb Wolf, one of the experts on paleo nutrition for active people, has also done an analysis of some key IF studies, including a comparison of the impact of three meals per day to one meal per day (results almost certainly heavily impacted by the constituents of the meal for the one meal per day group – they were consuming in one sitting more than twice the calories that I eat in a whole day and that can only be done by having a very calorie-dense diet to the three meal per day group, such as potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar etc);
- Robb has also shared the results of someone’s blood lipid levels over a year when they changed their diet to an IF and Paleo diet. Establishing how much of the changes is due to IF and how much is due to the Paleo changes is difficult to know; and finally
- several pieces of research have been done to look at the impact of Ramadan fasting on athletic performance, concluding that fasting doesn’t seem to have a negative impact on athletic performance.
Where can I learn more?
There are plenty of resources available to learn more. Hopefully the links earlier in this post will provide sufficient background.
As is inevitable, any successful way to lose weight quickly becomes a saleable commodity. The three books I’m aware of (of which two are free e-books) are:
- The IF Life Revolution – I really like this e-book. It’s well-researched, written in an easy-to-read style, comprehensive and has plenty of extracts from scientific articles. More to the point it doesn’t tell you how to do your fast. It is just giving you the framework and the information, much like I’ve tried to do with this article. So, if you’re interested in trying IF I thoroughly recommend downloading a copy of this.
- Eat Stop Eat – I haven’t read this so I can’t really comment on it but I do trust the views of those who have commented favourably about it.
- Fast-5 – this is a fasting diet which has been written up into a strict diet program. It recommends that you only eat between the hours of 5pm and 10pm but you can eat whatever you like in that period (though lower-carb foods are recommended). I disagree with a lot of what is said in this e-book. I don’t like the lack of flexibility of timings and I dislike the lack of guidance on what to eat when not fasting. Someone once wrote to Robb Wolf explaining that she had noticed a significant difference in her ability to deal with the post-fasting period depending on the food she ate to leave her fast. The key for her was to break her fast with low-glycemic vegetables, protein and fat.
I was going to try IF before posting this article, but mid-way through a cutting cycle didn’t seem like the right time. I’ll try it once I’ve stopped cutting and let you know what happens. Do you use IF? If not, would you be interested in trying it?
Related posts:
In 2007-2008 I tried a calorie restricted diet for a year, but without much fasting. Definitely great for health but it got frustrating being hungry ALL the time.
I think for 2010 I will try the IF way and eat to satiety more often. It’s not bad though it’s creepy how obsessed the mind becomes with food during a fast.
I know what you mean about hunger on calorie restricted diets. I’m just coming to the end of a 4 week cutting period. Previously I’ve always suffered from horrendous hunger on calorie restricted diets but I tried reducing my fat calorie intake and replacing them with dense protein this time (chicken etc) and it’s made a massive difference. I’m going to write more about my cutting diet on Monday if you’re interested.
IF has really intrigued me so I’m thinking of trying it to maintain my figure once I stop cutting. Let me know how it works out for you during 2010 – perhaps we can compare notes in a few months time.
Thanks for your warning about becoming obsessed with food during a fast! I’m a food-dreamer person at the best of times…
Hi there,
It’s a useful intro article on IF, thanks.
I recently got some good guidance from the Handbook of Intermittent Fasting written by a British martial artist (Idai Makaya) who does IF. He knows some of the authors you mentioned above but his handbook revealed for me that, like you said, there are two basics of IF. However, he also explained that there are loads of variations of those two themes which give more than 8 different IF plans you can follow!
There are also a number of different tips you can use to make fasts easy and more rewarding but the main thing I’ve found is you need understanding and information. Half of the difficulties some people have with IF are due to ignorance and due to launching in too quicky without enough physiological background or understanding of why fasting does what it does. Also, many of the discomforts people experience can be down to psychological factors. Get the mindset right, understand the processes and it’s really quite easy.
Good luck with your cutting.
Thanks for the extra advice. What you say about launching in without physiological background or understanding makes sense – I’m a bit of a research person so don’t tend to go into anything without learning about it first, but I’ve seen other people go into diet changes with a very closed mind, understanding nothing and expecting it not to work. They nearly always fail to get the benefits as a result since they struggle at the first hurdle.
I’m really looking forward to trying IF. I’ve always disliked eating at fixed times of day just because society expects it of us – when we’re out hill-walking or cycling all day we tend to eat a little when hungry instead of having a “lunch-break” etc, which can sometimes mean I eat nothing for most of the day when walking since I seem to be an efficient fuel-burner as a walker.
I’m suspicious that I might find it easier than a lot of people who are new to IF because I’m fully adapted to a fat-burning mode – I eat so few carbs now and can get along quite happily for long periods of time on any body fat I have stored away. I can imagine that if you go straight into IF from a high carb diet then you could really struggle if your body isn’t used to burning fat.
Final weigh and measure session for the cutting period is in about an hour so I’m full of anticipation right now…
I have been doing IF for nearly 3 years now. Actually, I eat once or twice a day. I have a low carb/ketogenic diet and eat quite well. My meals are large and ever so enjoyable. My best accomplishment is not having that strong urgency to eat that I was once plagued with. I can be around food and if it is not time to break my fast or the food is sugar laden I can skip right over it. Afterall, not only will I eat, I will eat well and have excellent choices of what to eat. Another accomplishment is the strong support I get from my doctor. Lastly is my weightloss. I lost 37 lbs and I am 6 lbs away from my weightloss goal.
Wow! Thanks for sharing that. It’s brilliant to hear such a great success story.
I’m impressed that you get strong support from your doctor. I tend to find that doctors are often so suspicious of things that fall outside of the medical training that they get. Hopefully your doctor is not an exception to the rule but is instead a sign of changing approaches in the medical community.
Good luck with the last 6lbs.
I too, was impressed. However, I didn’t tell my doctor until 2 years after I began doing it. I don’t know if he would have recommended it or not, had I mentioned it from the beginning. He is also supportive of my low carb dietary lifestyle.
Perhaps, having seen the success that you’ve had with low-carb and IF he might be open-minded enough to recommend it to other people too.
My doctor’s health is horrible. He’s overweight and has to take a blood thinner for the rest of his life. I am hoping that he considers doing this lifestyle for himself, including adding vitamin D3
Mary – just out of interest, what sort of approach do you take to IF? I’ve done a couple of weeks of IF in the format of 24 hours fasting once a week (so nothing between two evening meals).
With the great success that you’ve had with your weight loss it would be interesting to know whether you’ve taken a structured or ad-hoc approach to IF and if it’s structured then whether you’ve done 16 hour, 24 hour or some other length period fasts (and how often).
Ammi, great question! Firstly, I do IF on a daily basis. I consider my approach the way I would imagine a cave woman in the 21st century would do IF. However, I had to become that cave woman by working my way up to doing a 20 hour fast followed by a 4 hour eating window. So, I just began eating breakfast at a progrssively later time each day. Eventually I was able to go until 3:00 before eating my fast- breaking meal of the day. Imagine a cave woman going for a long period of time without eating then “Moogie” comes home with a big catch. She no doubt is going to eat with the idea that she does not know when she will ever eat again. Fill up and do not worry about over eating. Plus my diet consists of low carb foods. So, even if I think I am overeating for that meal, generally I am quite full and do not feel like eating for the remainder of the day. Regardless, I can eat more if I want as long as it is within that 4 hour window. I rarely eat more, I just don’t want anything. I do eat dinner which is usually a small amount in comparison to “breakfast”. Another reason I include fats during my fasting perios is the ketogenic benefits of fasting are enhanced, especially by the MCT oil.
I have made alterations over the time that I began doing this. As a cave woman, she does not fast on purpose, this is just her normal eating lifestyle so changes can occur from time to time. Therefore I began adding MCT oil and heavy whipping cream to my coffee even while fasting. Also there are at least 3 days a week where I choose to eat one meal instead of 2. For me the most important meal of the day is supper because that is family time. So, I must have supper regardless of how I eat throught the day.
Also I consider my eating window as preparation of beginning my new fast instead of breaking a fast. I want to emphasize that I eat very healthy, cave woman, meals. My bloodwork has been pretty good…doctor is pleased and is satisfied with my approach.
Thanx,
Mary
Great links for the weekend! // May 14, 2010 at 21:03
[...] educated not to skip meals. However, these are not symptoms seen by those who follow programs of intermittent fasting (when you continue to drink plenty) so you have to wonder if dehydration was causing these [...]
Thanks for the shout out to my link! Much appreciated!
I recently interviewed a trainer and athlete about his experience with intermittent fasting too
http://extremehumanperformance.com/blog/eat-stop-eat-intermittent-fasting-first-person-interview-dave-athlete-creator-sandel/
Anything I can do to help, let me know! Keep up the great work and look forward to a squat update.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
Thanks for that Mike. It’s good to see more evidence that it is perfectly possible to build muscle and continue working out hard while following an IF approach to food.
I still find so many people who say that it can’t be possible to achieve decent results when using IF (other than physique results) but there is definitely a growing body of real-life experience showing the opposite.
Look out for next weekend’s Powerlifting Progress (2010 Week 24) for some exciting squat news!
Late to the party here….but if you still have an interesting in IFing, then you need to check out THE guy for IFing — Martin Berkhan. I’ve worked with him and he knows his stuff. You can google his name for his website, as I don’t know if you want me to post it here.
Thanks for the comment. I was actually aware of Martin and featured him in my weight loss series last year, but had not remembered to come back and add him to this earlier post (which I wrote before I’d heard of him). It’s helpful to have mention of him here for anyone using this post as a reference now, so thank you.
Run op de restjes | Oergoed // Jul 16, 2011 at 19:15
[...] Vroeger had ik het makkelijk als part-time oerdiëter. Restjes, daar trokken mijn huisgenoten de neus voor op. En dat betekende dat ik elke lunch een makkie had. Ja, het Paleoleven was een breeze. In het weekend zondigen met zelfgebakken taartjes en andere hapjes, zo viel ik niet teveel af en plukte toch alle voordelen van het paleoleven. Nu er hier nog 3 andere oer-hongerigen rondlopen is het andere koek, want al aan tafel begint het gevecht tussen meteen opeten en bewaren voor de lunch van de volgende dag. Standaard werden er in huize Hoek al flinke pannen met groente bereid (die 200 gram per persoon, daar lachen wij om), maar tegenwoordig komen echt alleen nog onze 4, 5 en 6 liter pannen uit de kast. Het kleine pannetje, wat voorheen voor de rijst bestemd was staat al weken te vereenzamen. Heb ik net een ruime 1,5e kilo snijbonen (met dank aan de tuin van tante Miriam) gemaakt met een lekker tomaten/uien/Italiaanse kruiden en olijfolie sausje en daarbij wildernisburgers (www.wildernisvlees.nl), is ineens de bodem van de pan alweer in zicht. Nou ja, af en toe eens vasten is ook heel erg “oer” en goed voor het DNA herstel begrijp ik: http://www.njamworld.com/2010/01/27/intermittent-fasting-if/ [...]