Our discussion of my past post, Q and A: Starvation Mode, Andrew of Go Healthy, Go Fit asked what I thought of fasting. I repsonded as any recovered EDer would with a resounding “WHY?!” and “NO!” Sometimes my past effects my visceral reaction to things, and so I asked Andrew to elaborate on exactly what intermittent fasting is. Read his take, and let me know what you guys think. Healthy? Unnecessary? Harmful?
Intermittent Fasting: A Healthier Approach To Weight LossI will preface this article by saying that in my opinion, a healthy approach to weight loss requires a focus on eating a balanced diet consisting of whole foods, all while being on a caloric deficit. This meal plan must be designed by your doctor and/or nutritionist. However, the topic of meal frequency seems to be a “heated” debate these days.
If you ask the typical person on the street about weight loss and “What’s the best way to go about your meal frequency?”, almost 99% of the time you’ll hear something to the effect of “You should eat 5 to 7 meals a day to keep your metabolism up”. What if I told you that was a myth? Would your world be turned upside down?
If it would, don’t worry, you’re not alone. That’s exactly how I felt when I started looking into the research behind meal frequency and the body’s ability to burn fat. The reasoning behind eating 5 to 7 meals a day is that increasing meal frequency leads to the speeding up of your metabolism, which consequently leads to something called thermogenesis, or the heating up of the body.
However, it has been proven that this line of reasoning is unfounded ( The IF Life ):
“Thermogenesis in humans after varying meal time frequency
Wolfram G, Kirchgessner M, Müller HL, Hollomey S.
To a group of 8 healthy persons a slightly hypocaloric diet with protein (13% of energy), carbohydrates (46% of energy) and fat (41% of energy) was given as one meal or as five meals in a change-over trial…
The heat production calculated by indirect calorimetry was not significantly different with either meal frequency…
The results demonstrate that the meal frequency did not influence the energy balance.”
Truth is, heating up the body through ingestion can only be achieved through the following methods, and you must note that I am NOT recommending the use these for the purpose of weight loss ( Wiki ):
“Thermogenesis can also be achieved by artificial means. It is becoming common for people to use thermogenic substances to help control fluctuation in weight. The process works by increasing the body’s metabolism, thereby increasing its core temperature. Thermogenics are commonly made up of ephedra, bitter orange, capsicum, ginger and caffeine.”
To put it simply, eating multiple meals a day works because it leads people to eat fewer calories, that’s it. So now that we know why the whole 5-7 meals a day approach doesn’t provide added benefits in weight loss in and of itself, let’s talk about why intermittent fasting works.
Intermittent fasting’s claim to fame seems to be it’s ability to improve insulin sensitivity. The opposite of insulin sensitivity, as we all know, insulin resistance, or metabolic syndrome, is believed to be the origin of type 2 diabetes, with a sign/symptom being central obesity, or an apple shaped figure. Therefore, if we hope to prevent central obesity and possibly the onset of type 2 diabetes, we must focus on ways to increase our insulin sensitivity. Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple sums up the benefits that fasting can provide with respect to these previous mentioned issues:
““A recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gives a great overview of these benefits [from periodic fasting] which include decreases in blood pressure, reduction in oxidative damage to lipids, protein and DNA, improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake, as well as decreases in fat mass”
It’s important to note that “improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake” are the CAUSES and “decreases in fat mass” is the EFFECT. And that’s why Intermittent Fasting works, of course when done with a meal plan that focusses on eating healthy whole foods and lots of vegetables. Also, you will see more results if you incorporate exercise into your design.
There are many different ways to go about Intermittent Fasting and I strongly urge that you investigate for yourself and don’t forget to speak to your doctor about it. If you’re interested, I just published a two part post on How To Break A Fast. Big thanks to Kelly and all the reader’s of Every Gym’s Nightmare for letting me do a guest post, I’ll be fielding questions on this topic, so fire away!!
All the Best,
Andrew Rubalcava
Go Healthy Go Fit
Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,
Our discussion of my past post, Q and A: Starvation Mode, Andrew of Go Healthy, Go Fit asked what I thought of fasting. I repsonded as any recovered EDer would with a resounding “WHY?!” and “NO!” Sometimes my past effects my visceral reaction to things, and so I asked Andrew to elaborate on exactly what intermittent fasting is. Read his take, and let me know what you guys think. Healthy? Unnecessary? Harmful?
I will preface this article by saying that in my opinion, a healthy approach to weight loss requires a focus on eating a balanced diet consisting of whole foods, all while being on a caloric deficit. This meal plan must be designed by your doctor and/or nutritionist. However, the topic of meal frequency seems to be a “heated” debate these days.
If you ask the typical person on the street about weight loss and “What’s the best way to go about your meal frequency?”, almost 99% of the time you’ll hear something to the effect of “You should eat 5 to 7 meals a day to keep your metabolism up”. What if I told you that was a myth? Would your world be turned upside down?
If it would, don’t worry, you’re not alone. That’s exactly how I felt when I started looking into the research behind meal frequency and the body’s ability to burn fat. The reasoning behind eating 5 to 7 meals a day is that increasing meal frequency leads to the speeding up of your metabolism, which consequently leads to something called thermogenesis, or the heating up of the body.
However, it has been proven that this line of reasoning is unfounded ( The IF Life ):
“Thermogenesis in humans after varying meal time frequency
Wolfram G, Kirchgessner M, Müller HL, Hollomey S.
To a group of 8 healthy persons a slightly hypocaloric diet with protein (13% of energy), carbohydrates (46% of energy) and fat (41% of energy) was given as one meal or as five meals in a change-over trial…
The heat production calculated by indirect calorimetry was not significantly different with either meal frequency…
The results demonstrate that the meal frequency did not influence the energy balance.”
Truth is, heating up the body through ingestion can only be achieved through the following methods, and you must note that I am NOT recommending the use these for the purpose of weight loss ( Wiki ):
“Thermogenesis can also be achieved by artificial means. It is becoming common for people to use thermogenic substances to help control fluctuation in weight. The process works by increasing the body’s metabolism, thereby increasing its core temperature. Thermogenics are commonly made up of ephedra, bitter orange, capsicum, ginger and caffeine.”
To put it simply, eating multiple meals a day works because it leads people to eat fewer calories, that’s it. So now that we know why the whole 5-7 meals a day approach doesn’t provide added benefits in weight loss in and of itself, let’s talk about why intermittent fasting works.
Intermittent fasting’s claim to fame seems to be it’s ability to improve insulin sensitivity. The opposite of insulin sensitivity, as we all know, insulin resistance, or metabolic syndrome, is believed to be the origin of type 2 diabetes, with a sign/symptom being central obesity, or an apple shaped figure. Therefore, if we hope to prevent central obesity and possibly the onset of type 2 diabetes, we must focus on ways to increase our insulin sensitivity. Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple sums up the benefits that fasting can provide with respect to these previous mentioned issues:
““A recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gives a great overview of these benefits [from periodic fasting] which include decreases in blood pressure, reduction in oxidative damage to lipids, protein and DNA, improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake, as well as decreases in fat mass”
It’s important to note that “improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake” are the CAUSES and “decreases in fat mass” is the EFFECT. And that’s why Intermittent Fasting works, of course when done with a meal plan that focusses on eating healthy whole foods and lots of vegetables. Also, you will see more results if you incorporate exercise into your design.
There are many different ways to go about Intermittent Fasting and I strongly urge that you investigate for yourself and don’t forget to speak to your doctor about it. If you’re interested, I just published a two part post on How To Break A Fast. Big thanks to Kelly and all the reader’s of Every Gym’s Nightmare for letting me do a guest post, I’ll be fielding questions on this topic, so fire away!!
All the Best,
Andrew Rubalcava
Go Healthy Go Fit
Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog,