Hi
I thought I would share this with you as I have spent the last hour or so writing an answer to a GREAT question from one of my clients on our MEN’s ONLY Transformation plan.
To put the question into context for you…..this chap has been working with me for a little over 3 weeks, lost 20lbs and 9cm off the waist and hasn’t been perfect all the way! This was our chat on sunday…..
He then asked me why I asked him to eat his first meal of today at lunch time…..Here
is my answer….. which you can take a lot of information from….so enjoy….
————- My Response that can help you too ———————
Hi JXXX,
Good question mate.
I actually came across the concept of intermittent fasting through my work with one of the world’s leading body transformation coaches Dax Moy. I was a little bit sceptical at first as up until then, I had always been told that the “5 small meals a day” approach was the only way to speed up the metabolism in the quest for that lean body. Since then I have gone on to study nutrition extensively in my masters and through other awarding bodies and industry leaders, and this led me to finding a better way for clients.
I have since found that intermittent fasting has helped me and my clients to reduce the stubborn bits of body fat that have been difficult to remove up until now.
Like you guys, I like eating food and to enhance body fat loss, I don’t want to be restricting total calorie intake over prolonged periods, that is not good for metabolic rate.
Also, the thought of increasing my cardiovascular conditioning or reducing my carbohydrate consumption any further really doesn’t appeal to me as this would be a lot of work (and I love resistance training) and only be a very short term fix.
I am sure you all have heard the concept of performing cardiovascular training first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, as this leans towards accelerated fat burning more than any other part of the day.
I have been asking you all to do this already on this programme and was only talking to Clive about doing this before his LIVE sessions with me.
This is where intermittent fasting really starts to spark things up!
There are infinite view points about what is “best” and, in this case, the optimal length of time to fast for. I have found that most manageable time being from an evening meal to the next lunch time. But everyone is different.
Now I love my science and I love to understand the Why’s behind things and you did ask why right?!
So, why is Intermittent Fasting (IF) going to help accelerate your fat loss better than the low carbohydrate or traditional 5 meals per day, that may have got you a great body initially but then things started to slow down?
You see what is vital to IF is how the hormones within the body react to the fasted state.
Brad Pilon (Eat Stop Eat) explains this beautifully. So I will endeavour to summarise his detailed explanation.
- Insulin & Glucagon
Insulin is a hormone that is released whenever we eat. Its major role is to signal the storage of the energy from our food in the form of glycogen or fat. This is booming when we eat sugary foods! Stay away from them unless you have just finished exercise.
Nutritional ketosis is another topic…..
On top of this, when insulin levels are elevated, your body is unable to release fat from the cells to use as energy. In other words, when insulin is elevated, you can store fat and you CAN’T burn fat.
So if you are looking to rev up your fat burning potential from your session then perhaps consider reducing your sugar content pre-training. I personally found this hard to start with…but once you get your body used to using proteins and fats for this kind of short interval type training, you are on to a winner.
It is almost goes without saying that whilst your body is in a fasted state, insulin levels are extremely low, and your body is in a better place to release body fat for energy.
The body loves things that work in pairs whether it be muscles, hormones or limbs!
The “opposite” hormone to insulin is glucagon. As I mentioned, insulin is fat storing, so we need a fat burning hormone. This is glucagon!
2. Fight Or Flight!
Adrenaline and Nor-adrenaline are often referred to as the “fight or flight hormones” and are part of the sympathetic nervous system.
When released they allow your body to use energy from stored glucose and fat more efficiently.
Fasting triggers both these hormones.
When the body has plenty of food within it, the para-sympathetic nervous system kicks in! This controls functions that do not require immediate action, and is slower and has a “sleep inducing” effect.
You know when you have had a ridiculously big meal (Christmas), this system kicks in!
3. Human Growth Hormone (HgH)
Now, you may have have seen an article I wrote on the importance of sleep on the levels of this hormone and how it affects that storage of fat if it is low.
8 hours sleep is critical to fat loss and getting to sleep by 10 pm helps elevate HgH production.
Some people, athletes and the rich and famous actually pay stupid amounts of money for HgH injections to help with looking younger and staying lean into older age.
But they are ignoring something they can get for free!
Like you and I, they too can experience HgH level increases of up to 6 times while in a fasted state. Fasting triggers a “growth hormone response”, which prevents muscle loss during the fast.
There is also a protein that your body only creates whilst in a fasted state, which is known as UCP3 protein, which is highly powerful in the oxidation of fat.
Because of this your metabolism increases, mainly down to the fact that muscle is largely responsible for metabolism.
That is why it is crucial to use resistance training for fat loss, remember this can be bodyweight, dumbbells, free weights, kettle bells or medicine balls, just like we have been during your programme thus far.
It is only after 36 hours of fasting that the metabolism will start to drop off and I am only asking you to fast for 16-20 hours max!
There is no need to restrict calorific intake for the rest of the day…..thats why I like it, you can still consume the same types, quantities etc of food….but just after giving your nervous and digestive system a break.
On top of this increase in metabolic rate, HgH also enables the process of releasing fat stores for energy. All said and done it seems that HgH, not glucagon (opposite to insulin the fat storage hormone), is the dominant hormone during a fasted state.
As I am kind of famous for saying now…….many times, if it was a simple as reduced calories and increased movement everyone would lose fat regardless of what quality of nutrition they put in their mouths, amount of sleep, hydration levels, stress levels or recovery they had.
Although eating less quantity/volume is very important to losing body fat, it’s not always necessarily about eating less more often. The 5 meals per day approach may reduce calories for some but, but insulin may be higher due to increased food intake, the parasympathetic nervous system is therefore more dominant, and HgH is lowered.
Therefore, for the best part of a 24 hour period your body actually favours fat storage, not fat burning.
ADVANTAGES OF INTERMITTENT FASTING
Intermittent fasting comes with a heap of benefits.
The first one that springs to mind for me is that on your fasting day you don’t have to think about what you are going to eat in the morning or for morning snacks as you won’t be eating until after 12 pm that day
But far more importantly than this are the real life health benefits that come with the Intermittent Fasting Formula. Here are some of the health benefits that you can expect with IF:
- Reduced blood glucose and insulin levels (This is very likely to reduce diabetic or pre-diabetics control blood sugar levels and side effect associated with elevated levels)
- Increased fatty acid oxidation. (Your ability to use fat as a fuel)
- Maintenance of lean mass (the muscle is your fat burning furnace so we do not want to lose this!)
- Reduced inflammation. This is a crucial part of any training programme as increased inflammation will lead to increased cortisol!
- Increased cellular stress resistance (of the heart and brain)
Hope this helps mate….you asked a very good question and you have clearly been getting on with the programme really well up to date.
Now I need to give my fingers a rest…..
Speak soon and keep up the good work!
Matt 🙂
Matt
Owner of Functionally Aware Fitness Personal Training
Voted The UK’s Most Innovative Fitness Entrepreneur 2012
International Best Selling Author of The Fad Free Fitness Formula
Author of The Hot to Trot Cook Book and The Equestrian Athlete Plan
Email: Info@fa-fitness.co.uk / Phone: 07841 136302
