Intermittent Fasting benefits and how it Will Change Your Life
In this post, Tom and I talk about fasting benefits and how to use fasting to effortlessly drop fat without starving yourself. You’ll discover the 10 amazing fasting benefits and reasons as to why you should incorporate fasting into your nutrition along with the surprising health benefits it supports.
Alright, let’s dive into the benefits of intermittent fasting!
1) What Fasting Actually Means
The majority of people wake up and have a breakfast. Technically, you still had a fast from not eating during the time you were sleeping.
Intermittent fasting simply pushes that first meal later into the day.
So instead of waking up and eating at 8am, you’ll push your first meal until Noon or even 1 o’clock.
Essentially, fasting is bringing more structure to your eating schedule. There is a more confined window for when to eat, and when you’re not eating (the fasted state.)
With the Kinobody fasting method, the feeding and fasting windows are not set in stone.
(…And we’ll cover that in a moment.)
2) Intermittent Fasting for fat loss While Making Nutrition Easier
Believe it or not, one of the amazing intermittent fasting benefits is that it is an effective appetite suppressant. Once you adapt to it, you rarely get hungry during the fast.
Instead, you feel a sense of mental clarity and determination.
In addition, fasting increases insulin sensitivity (Study), boosts human growth hormone (Study), and training while fasted puts you in the ultimate fat burning state (Study). Stubborn body fat no more. As well, taking in caffeine in a fasted state increases the stimulatory effects.
Fasting helps tremendously with your social life as well!
Having the flexibility to eat huge meals will allow you to eat out at restaurants because you have the calories to spare. That’s a huge reason people find my Aggressive Fat Loss Program so effortless to stick too. You should be able to enjoy your social life as well while on your diet.
3) How to Make Fasting Enjoyable
A.) Forget about the eating window, it’s restrictive and unnecessary.
Instead, simply focus on pushing your first meal 4-8 hours later after rising. You don’t need to break or end your fast at the same time each day. That’s extremely restrictive and just makes things more difficult. The only rule is to push your first meal back after rising.
B.) Don’t think about fasting.
Just go about your day, and understand this is very good for you, and this is what your body is designed to do. Your body will kick up energy through increasing fat mobilization. Going without breakfast isn’t a big deal!
C.) Use black coffee (my favorite is Fasting Fuel), strategically to blunt appetite.
One really powerful trick is to wait at-least 1-2 hours before utilizing black coffee. This will increase the appetite suppressing effects.
Also, I recommend only using caffeine during the fasted state and at no other times. This will ensure your body maintains a sensitivity to caffeine.
D.) Drink some sparkling water during the fast.
I’ve found sparkling water to increase fullness and help to dissolve any hunger, making it a great tool to use for helping push your first meal back longer.
E.) Break your fast with 1-2 pieces of fruit.
The first sign of hunger, typically, is a depletion in liver glycogen.
So if you break your fast with some fruit, you can stave off hunger for a couple more hours, with only 80-160 calories. Pushing your first meal even later, will make dieting easier!
F.) When it comes time to eat, listen to your body.
You don’t want to be hungry during the feeding window.
In the past, I was too strict on my diet with intermittent fasting, and it only backfired. Contrarily, if you’re full, it’s okay to go lower in calories if you’re satisfied. You’ll just lean up faster.
G.) Eat foods that really fill you up and satisfy you on your calorie intake.
For me, this is plenty of meat, veggies, potatoes, pop chips and really good quality milk chocolate.
H.) You don’t have to have 2-3 conventional meals.
You can have one main meal and some smaller snacks. You can be very flexible with the diet which is probably my most favorite of all intermittent fasting benefits.
4) The “Eating Window” – and Why it’s Completely Arbitrary (a.k.a “Don’t Buy Into The Hype”)
Once you push you first meal 4 to 6 hours later into the day, it only then comes down to hitting your calorie and macro goals.
Trying to maintain some strict window is going to make it less enjoyable, especially if one has a very busy schedule and doesn’t get home for dinner until much later.
As long as you push the first meal back later into the day, you’ll still reap the benefits of fasting.
Finish eating the rest of your calories in a way you most enjoy and what works for your schedule.
5) The Truth About Eating Late and How it Relates to Storing Fat
The fact of the matter is, if you’re in a proper calorie deficit, you will not gain fat if you eat right before bed.
The reason for this myth is simply because most people are already in a calorie surplus by 8pm at night from eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
See how fasting can make leaning down effortless?
Skipping breakfast pushes those calories later into the day, allowing you to have big and enjoyable dinners while still hitting your deficit for fat loss.
6) How Fasting Can Improve Cognitive Function
Typically in the morning, what can happen after eating breakfast is a sense of grogginess. A person can even feel hungrier shortly after eating breakfast.
By fasting first thing in the morning, you actually give your body a chance to tap into its own energy reserves. When your body is digesting food, that takes energy.
When you’re fasted, this triggers the body’s sympathetic nervous system which releases norepinephrine; causing a surge of adrenaline, alertness, and clarity. Similarly, fasting has also been shown to extend lifespan and can increase disease resistance (Study).
7) Fasting Benefits You in not Getting Sick as Often
Many people that have been fasting for a while see that they don’t get the common cold as often.
The reason for this is that when insulin is low, it really allows your immune system to function properly.
Think about that for a moment, what happens when you get sick, or even an animal in the wild?
Your appetite decreases, and for good reason…
It’s letting your body do what it needs to do to heal itself.
8) Intermittent Fasting Meals
My favorite of all the fasting benefits is that I get to eat HUGE meals! There is something manly about eating big meals. Ever notice that women love it when they see a fit man eat a LOT of food? I feel like this goes back to our tribal days when the Alpha Males would get the most food.
But more importantly, being able to eat huge meals while dropping body fat is something so enjoyable, which allows you to stay consistent for the long term and actually get great results.
When you strip away all the excess calories from maybe calorie dense drinks, snacking here and there, and only focus on having 2 big meals each day…
You’ll be very surprised with how much food you can eat while getting leaner. On top of that, fasting while lean bulking makes it easy to maintain low levels of body fat when adding muscle. That’s why most stay completely shredded when on my Greek God Program or Superhero Bulking Program. The trick is to have most of your calories after training when your body is primed for muscle growth.
9) Can Fasting Get Rid of Acne?
(Well, we don’t actually know… But it could quite possibly help.)
Once I started pushing my first meal later into the day my skin started to gradually improve. When I would go back to breakfast my skin would breakout again. Eventually I made the connection that daily fasting is the best cure for acne.
I have no idea why this works, all I know is that it freaking works! If I had to take a guess I would say that giving your body an extended break from digesting food allows your body to detox itself. Digesting food constantly throughout the day puts a lot of stress on your body and that stress comes out in many ways.
And best of all, if you take a look at a handful of Kinobody Success Stories, most of them have clearer skin after making their transformations!
10) The “5:2 Method” and How it Relates to Fat Loss and Muscle Growth
The last of the fasting benefits is that it allows your body to really regulate its hormones and shift from a catabolic and anabolic state. It also promotes an increase in luteinizing hormone, which is a testosterone precursor (Study).
You actually need to be in a catabolic state in different periods of time to allow your body to break down fat.
If you were constantly in an anabolic state, your body will be adding muscle and fat constantly, making it difficult to stay lean.
And along with intermittent fasting, I prefer to approach my diet with the 5:2 method…
Meaning you can have days of higher and lower calories to really enhance the fat burning and muscle building process.
Say for example someone is dieting, 5 or 6 days out of the week that person should be in a calorie deficit.
But then 1 or 2 days out of the week, then should bump up their calories to give their body a break from dieting. This is something the Warrior Shredding Program really focuses on for adding strength while still stripping away body fat.
This actually sets the stage for faster fat loss!
And same thing happens when the goal is muscle building.
5 or 6 days out of the week should be spent in a calorie surplus.
You then can incorporate 1 or 2 low calorie days.
This up regulates anabolic receptors and when you go back to higher calories, your body can use the calories more efficiently to build muscle.
Closing thoughts on fasting benefits
All of my courses are modeled around intermittent fasting, because I simply cannot ignore all the amazing intermittent fasting benefits. It is enjoyable and it makes staying lean and building rock solid muscle and strength a breeze.
